mowing question

Super Steve · Jun 26, 2013

So I'm trying to get hay done but the weather isn't cooperating. They keep calling for thundershowers and isolated showers everyday, which isn't amounting to much so far. With my luck I'll get some cut then it will get a washing.

So my question for you more experience people, should I lay the windrow out wide and let the heat and sun try to dry it out fast, or leave it in a tighter windrow? If it matters, I'm cutting with a NH 489. Thanx.

Bruce from Can. · Jun 26, 2013

It will dry faster spread out, then in a tight winrow, that is why some folks "ted" their hay.

JD Seller · Jun 26, 2013

Lay it out as wide as you can. Then the next morning ted the hay completely out. That will gain you at least a day in drying. Even if it rains the rain will not hurt the tedded hay as bad. The hay is not matted together. The rain passed through it better.

Super Steve · Jun 26, 2013

Tedding would be ideal but I don't have a tedder and they aren't common around here so I can't even borrow or rent one and buying one isn't in the cards right now. I guess I will lay it out wide and see how it goes.

randallinMo · Jun 26, 2013

JD, do you do your alfalfa like that? Do you ted it more than once?

old · Jun 26, 2013

Know how you feel been doing the same thing here and got 20% on the other day. I always have mowers set to lay it out as wide as I can so it will dry faster. Got a bit of hay washed the other day but all my cut hay was out wide so did not get hurt much if any at all. Was thinking about cutting yesterday but NOAA is calling for 20% today and 40% Thursday

MSS3020 · Jun 26, 2013

I mow/cond with a J.D. 1209. I spread it as wide as it goes. 1209 has a plate that drops down before it goes out the windrow shoot. I let it dry spread out then rake it right before I bale it. I usually can cut like thurs evening then bale Sunday. I have in some cases with good hot days cut like fri early afternoon and by sunday can rake and bale.

todd hamilton · Jun 26, 2013

we didn't have a tedder when I was a kid. I have seen the elders raise the rake to where it just barely lifts the hay and doesn't make much of a windrow. I have also seen them "turn the windrow over" with the hay rake especially if windrowed hay had been rained on. Uncle Mike was milking Holsteins at the time so we baled a lot out clover and alfafa.

caterpillar guy · Jun 26, 2013

We mow one day and most times can bale either the next day or the day after that. We have mowed and had to let it lay for 3-4 days if it wasn't a good drying weather or the ground is really wet.

showcrop · Jun 26, 2013

It depends on where you are and soil conditions. Here in NH and most of the Northeast, if we lay it out wide we get a lot of wet bunches that don't dry down. Here is why. When you set it to spread out wide, next pass around you are driving on the fresh cut grass. If the ground is good and dry this is not a problem, but if the ground is moist, your tire ribs are going to press into the soil, pressing some green grass in with them. The tedder will pull some of this out, but some stays there until raking or baling. When raking you can stop which I often do, and pick up these bunches and lay them out on top, but it is much easier to mow it narrow, give the ground a little time to dry in the sun then ted it out, greatly reducing the number of wet bunches and improving the quality of the hay. Everyone making hay around here does it this way.

David G · Jun 26, 2013

You do not want to stir up alfalfa any more than you have to, it knocks the leaves off.

Larry NEIL · Jun 26, 2013

I always tedded my alfalfa first thing in the morning after cutting. Tedded it twice when I first bought the tedder, and that was the only time as I beat a lot of leaves off.
My hay now is about 80%-90% grass and I occasionally ted twice, like this year when drying conditions suck!

Longmeadow farm · Jun 26, 2013

I cut using a NI disk mower/conditioner and spread the grass as wide as it will go. I usually cut with the mower set for a 2.75 to 3 inch height. In wet years this is somewhat helpful as it keeps the hay off the ground. I make sure my conditioning rolls are properly adjusted for maximum conditioning effect. I don't ted, as my hay is grass/clover or grass/alfalfa mixtures, which as I have observed over the years results in leaf damage. I use a rotary rake, which gently stands the hay up on ends and adjusted for tall & wide fluffy windrows...no more rolled "rope".. I rake when the hay is somewhat green on the bottom and let the hay dry in the windrow... on the raised stubble. The salesman said I'd cut a day off my drying time and save fuel and leaves by using a rotary and not tedding. He was right.

JRSutton · Jun 26, 2013

have used the poor man's tedder approach several times in the past (raising the rake).

Not ideal, but better than wet hay.

Case e · Jun 26, 2013

it wont matter if the rain passes through or not, you will have all the leaves knocked off and only have sticks to bale when you are done....

2badlybent · Jun 26, 2013

Mow it as wide as you can. We watch the weather and try to time our cutting so that on the 3rd day it will be ready to bale. If the forcast is for a 30% rain today, 20% tomorrow and a 10% the next we cut a lot of hay. We often have dry hay on the second day almost always on the 3rd.
We recommend a spin rake because it puts the hay into nice big fluffy winrows. Of course in weather like this year it is a gamble.

If you hay gets rained on don't try to hurry the drying by tedding. Leave it until it is dry on top and then spin rake it and it will dry with most of the leaves still there.

Never mow hay on wet ground!!!!

JayinNY · Jun 26, 2013

I spread it out all the way with my 489, the tractor does drive over the edges of the cut windrows which isent good, it hinders drying, but I Ted it the next day. Im not gonna change the position of the tires on the tractor. We have the same problem here in eastern NY, thunder stormes every afternoon.

farmer boy · Jun 26, 2013

I've always layed it out when it's intended for dry hay. If the tractor and haybine tongue are right there should only be one wheel in the hay. Never seems to be dried unevenly. Lots of people seem to cut narrow, but I think it either has to do with leaf loss or being too lazy/cheap to rake.

JD Seller · Jun 26, 2013

Only IF you do not know haw to run your tedder. I ted alfalfa all of the time and do not have a leaf problem.

showcrop · Jun 27, 2013

(quoted from post at 18:18:26 06/26/13) Mow it as wide as you can. We watch the weather and try to time our cutting so that on the 3rd day it will be ready to bale. If the forcast is for a 30% rain today, 20% tomorrow and a 10% the next we cut a lot of hay. We often have dry hay on the second day almost always on the 3rd.
We recommend a spin rake because it puts the hay into nice big fluffy winrows. Of course in weather like this year it is a gamble.

If you hay gets rained on don't try to hurry the drying by tedding. Leave it until it is dry on top and then spin rake it and it will dry with most of the leaves still there.

Never mow hay on wet ground!!!!

Here in NH hay HAS TO BE mowed on wet ground or it would never get mowed. Putting it in a narrow swath means an extra pass with the tedder, but it is a short time and low fuel pass so it is worth it if you are producing for the horse market.

Bret4207 · Jun 27, 2013

(quoted from post at 09:48:12 06/26/13)
It depends on where you are and soil conditions. Here in NH and most of the Northeast, if we lay it out wide we get a lot of wet bunches that don't dry down. Here is why. When you set it to spread out wide, next pass around you are driving on the fresh cut grass. If the ground is good and dry this is not a problem, but if the ground is moist, your tire ribs are going to press into the soil, pressing some green grass in with them. [b:999ecff9e5]The tedder will pull some of this out, but some stays there until raking or baling. [/b:999ecff9e5]When raking you can stop which I often do, and pick up these bunches and lay them out on top, but it is much easier to mow it narrow, give the ground a little time to dry in the sun then ted it out, greatly reducing the number of wet bunches and improving the quality of the hay. Everyone making hay around here does it this way.

I set my tedder so it's just sweeping the ground most of the time. I don't get any clumps left behind, but I do break a few tines that way.

A tedder is the best thing ever for haying in the east.

merlynr · Jun 27, 2013

I was trying to speed up the drying time of the mowed hay and was raking and on the second pass I left some unraked so I could turn around and throw it back on the windrow. Well it came up a shower and so when it started drying out, the unraked portion was dry and the raked was wet, so long story short I unraked the windrow by raising the implement to a height that would spread the windrow out.

Case e · Jun 27, 2013

Glad I dont buy hay from you as I have put up enough hay to know you dont have a clue about what you are doing.

merlynr · Jun 28, 2013

Everyone has 20/20 hindsight plus you can't judge hay from a paragraph. We have 5 horses that like it.

Case e · Jun 28, 2013

.........from a horse guy......

showcrop · Jun 28, 2013

(quoted from post at 07:21:08 06/28/13) .........from a horse guy......

Well that is nice!!!! There is no shortage of stories about how horse people know nothing about hay.

merlynr · Jun 28, 2013

I've only been putting up hay for 43 years and had cattle too!
We have a 34 year old mare that was raised on that hay.

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