Phil 19

Member
Looking for Ideas on how to dry Red Clover. We use A New Holland 479 HayBine, also use Reel type tedder. Just can t seem to get it dry enough for Small Squares. We cut 1 field on Thursday tedded it Saturday was able to bale Sunday Afternoon. Thought about using some Gas and A match.
 
reel tedders aren't the best a rotary would help out some. clover is hard to get to dry down though. I would ted it 1 more time and see if it helps any. climate plays a big role too. also did your haybine condition it well enough? that could be an area to look into.
 
The best bet is silage but can cause health problems. To get red clover to dry is like waiting for Christmas. Baled hay for a guy that had rained on clover nothing more miserable then mowing that. I like clover but mix it with grass. Do you have preservatives or salt? Salt will work stack each layer on its side that is the best and spread over top.
 
That seems like a normal dry time to me. I'm in Michigan, not sure where you are. I bale one clover field for a neighbor and it typically takes a day longer than alfalfa. Seems like it's a 3-5 day process here, depending on the time of year, to dry hay no matter what it is. Have to be careful with a rotary type Tedder in clover. Will really beat the leaves off if it's started to dry at all.
 
A separate conditioner may help. We would usually mow with a moco then condition again with a separate unit then Ted every 24 hours until it was ready to bale. We bought a Hesston 1120 which replaced a borrowed 489 NH moco and a separate conditioner, this was used on hairy vetch and the Hesston was a lot better with one pass. Remember good sun and wind helps a lot.
 
I mow with a j.d. swather 1209, 9 foot. I took off my "windrow wings" so when I mow the crop comes out flying as wide as possible. I usually mow on a monday and rake and bale by weds. If clover stays hidden in shade it takes longer to dry..
 
We had some red clover in small section of one of our fields and got some dusting from the clover in it. We are now free of it after herbicide applications for broadleaf weeds in general, but if I had to do clover again, I'd be applying buffered propionic acid to prevent dust and mold.

Good luck,
Bill
 
I mow clover with a JD rotary mower with the back plate off, it does a lot better job than a conditioner and batters the stems up enough that they dry out before the leaves all get so dry that they shatter. I used to have a moco with a finger type conditioner and it worked good for clover also.
 
I am in Michigan and mow with a New Holland 1409 discbine with rollers and have no problem getting it dry in 2 days if good drying weather. Like others posted, takes a day longer then alfalfa because the stems are so thick but you do need to make sure you have your rollers adjusted correctly. Years ago I had a John Deere 1360 disc mower with impeller conditioners and I had a very hard time getting clover dry in 3 days. I do not ted any of it.
 
IH made a Model 404 back in the 60's which I bought to crimp my sorghum-sudan hay after I went to a drum cutter from a JD 1209. It's a drag type and I converted it to a 3 pt. Works much better being able to lift it when you get a clog or want to drive over a WW.
 

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