Hay Making Sequence

I know that you cut, rake and bale hay, but do you rake it after cutting the same day or wait a day? How long do you let it dry before you bale? I assume it's not much more than a day or less, depending on conditions. I just brush hogged my timothy and clover. I'd like to put some up, even if loose, to feed my tame rabbits this winter. Most will go for much in the garden. Second cutting for dog bedding.

Larry

Knowing when to rake really depends on location, temperature, crop conditions, humidity, threat of rain, and personal preference. I've raked anywhere from the same day to 4 days out.

For me, in a humid climate with frequent rainfall the consideration is allowing maximum drying of hay and minimizing risk of rain in the windrow. My preferred system before hay gets as over ripe as it is now is to cut into a 6 foot swath on an 11 foot discbine, day 1. This protects color and lets half the ground dry out some. Tedder late on day 2. Rake on day 3 and bale on day 4. This time of year, with dry ground. I can cut on day 1, rake on day 2, bale on day 3 or rake and bale on day 3.

The way I do it and have been doing it for years is. I cut it. Let it sit that day and then the next day. I then go out and rake it around noon the 3rd day and bale it in the late afternoon.
Wish I could cut my hay but the weather guessers keep calling for rain. Today they said 60% chance and it is raining right now but we do need rain if it will ever do more then a 1/10 of and inch

depends entirely upon your climate - varies greatly across the country.

here in the northeast we typically wait for a 3 day window of good weather. Cut early on day 1 - ted, ted the next day, rake and bale later on the 3rd day.

Adjustments are made to that basic formula depending on particular conditions - weather - thickness of hay - etc etc.

Sometimes ted twice a day - sometimes bale on day 2 - etc.

Have never used hay for bedding - if not wood shavings, would use straw.

Hay is not a good choice for dog bedding. It breaks down into too small pieces that dogs can inhale into lungs. Plus barbs from foxtail can be ingested and cause massive lung infections.
Use straw or nothing. My dogs lie on the bare tile in the house and don't even choose to sleep on the rugs. They really don't need bedding. It's just a place for bugs and stuff. Go to Goodwill and buy a $2 used blanket.

I agree with Gordy about the dog bedding. Bad Idea. If youj put some up loose (in piles you can stand a little wetter stuff....but not much. Probably prett thick and it should be fairly dry or you will rake it into tight rolls that will even take longer to dry. Best would be to borrow or rent a tedder and ted it a time or two to assist the curing process.
By the way, everyone has good suggestions

Another option for the rabbit (and/or chicken) feed if you track down some large-head plastic barrels (or buckets, depending on how many rabbits you keep) with good seals is to pack it into a tight barrel, seal it, and make small-scale haylage - less drying, more feed value, and probably easier to do with brush-hogged rather than mown hay - some folks succeed with lawn clippings (so long as the lawn is not poisoned, of course.)

Essentially a small-scale version of high moisture wrapped bales, as I understand it.

If you can bale your brush-hogged hay, I suppose you could wrap those, but if you have a small-square baler it might need some creativity to pull off, or just be too difficult/expensive, and be far more than your rabbits will eat once you open a bale before it stales.

This is my sequence, go through all of my equipment from top to bottom, check everything over real good as I am greasing. Lay awake half the night thinking, do I have enough time between rain drops to get this put up or not and then dream about it all night. Wake up the next morning and drink a pot of coffee trying to get your act together, because of the restless night you have had. Go to the coffee shop and have a biscuit and gravy because the dew is so heavy its running off the windshield of your car. You don't dare stay home cause you know in your heart you will be out there in that wet hay in minutes if you don't leave. Once you get to the coffee shop their will be at least a dozen different opinions on whether you should cut hay or not, but being bull headed it won't phase me a bit because I know that I am right and so is my equipment. 9;45 and I drop the head into the hay, the hay is just a little tough, but not bad, tractor is singing and the haybine is talking to me in its old familiar voice everything is chicken but the gravy, until I no longer here the bine singing, it just pulling hard and not cutting. I climb off the tractor and go the the bine and laying there on the ground is the main drive belt that I just replaced last week. Then its a forty mile journey to get another belt and on the way to the belt place, your mind gets to thinking, the belt I took off of this was at least 25 years old and this new one did not make it a day. And so goes the sequence of my haying, but one thing I must add and I can not stress this enough, never and I mean never start thinking of what you are going to do when you finish haying, sure as he11 if you plan on trying to get anything else done you will break down or plug up a baler and it will take you the entire day to finish.

In my area I have found that doing it the way "old" does it makes the safest and best hay IF you are cutting it with a sickle mower. If you have a mower conditioner you can usually cut a day off the drying but advise caution. I do it both ways. I like to leave it the extra day and bale it heavy. If the heavy bales show any weepage from the stems...stop and wait a day. This is grass hay only. I don't have any legume hay.

All depends on weather.. I usually cut lets say Monday evening.. let dry over tues and wed. rake and bale thurs. I have cut on monday and raked and baled tues before in dry conditions with 100 degree heat with wind.. Usually I walk out in the field on the third day and grab a few hand fulls and twist and bend to see if it crackles.. good to go...if not wait. I usually cut after work so the day I cut doesnt dry down much