Tedder

This year has been the exception. 6/10ths of rain since May 9. I've used my tedder once. Mostly my problem is the hay is too dry, wants to follow the belts out of the baler when I start a roll. Cant even do any good at night, no dew for the last week.

Both tedding right after mowing and waiting until the next morning are both acceptable. The ground moisture has allot to do with which one is best. You have to have dry ground to dry hay. If the ground is soggy wet under the hay you will have to dry the ground out first before the hay will totally cure.

You might want to look at the new Sitrex 5200H tedder.

I was always taught to do the mimimum "turning" on alfalfa to keep maximum leaf content. Is a tedder really really that much more gentle than a side delivery rake for example?

It just sounds like an awful lot of turning before you bale it. My background is midwest and west and it used to be that many hay farmers just let it dry in the windrow without turning (if the weather is good) or at the most just turn the windrow once.

I'm currently in the south and I see Tedders are very popular on the Bermuda grass hay most people put up around here.

Basically just curious since I've never personally used a Tedder.