Tedders

How do they compare for getting mixed hay to dry? Is one more effective than the other?

Just curious.

A tedder simply scatters the hay and allows the air to get around it and aid the curing.

If your grass has a lot of stem a mower/conditioner would be the way to go. Other wise a tedder would be more bennificial. Also after hay has been rained on the tedder is what you need to get it dried out without it molding.

Hope this helps.

We usually use our trusty model 31. However you bring up a good point about the stems getting cracked which both promotes drying and makes wet hay more difficult to turn around. That is, with conditioning rather than tedding.

I had thought tedders were obsolete until I saw some new pto driven ones in the last few years. They were European.

I've not used a tedder but for mixed hay would think they'd be almost as effective as a conditioner in terms of reducing drying time and getting more consistent drying. They would seem to use less power as well.

This is how we do it around here in timothy and other grass hay: 1. cut with mower/conditioner 2. ted 3. rake 4. bale
During good hot late June New Jersey days, you can cut Monday morning around 8:00, ted around 8:00 on Tuesday morning, rake around 10:00 on Wednesday and bale around 12:00 on Wednesday.

and when it's REALLY hot, you can cut Monday at 7:00, ted Monday at 3:00, rake Tuesday at 11:00 and bale Tuesday at 4:00, but that doesn't happen very often.

Comes up nice and green this way, because it dries fast. Around here, the greener your hay is, the greener your wallet will be in the winter.

Later, when I started in with a mower and conditioner I was astounded to see how quickly mixed hay (no alfalfa or thick stems) would dry. Even outside Duluth hay would generally be ready in 24 hours or less, although not always.

But I've since wondered how much of that was due to the stems getting cracked every few inches and how much was due to just getting the hay fluffed a little so that the sun and wind could dry it better.

I've had a couple JD 31 conditioners off and on for the last 15 years. You're right, they're cheap for a reason, but they've seemed to be worth what they cost and then some. So far I never really had any big repair bills. The biggest thing I have against them is the extra time it takes to go back and condition after mowing. JD did have a pto drive option for some of their trailing mowers once but not on the 9W.

One other advantage of the 31 is that it's not too attractive to equipment thieves.