Wet hay

grandpa Love · Jun 17, 2020

Last field of first cut hay was ready to rake and bale today. 10% chance of rain. A million square miles in the south east and I caught the 10% rain. Rained good for 10-15 minutes. Ted on Friday morning and bale that afternoon?

David G · Jun 17, 2020

You should be fine, was hay flat yet?

David G · Jun 17, 2020

If you teddered it once, I would leave it to dry, then rake up and let that dry.

grandpa Love · Jun 18, 2020

Tedded once. Was beautifully dry........

David G · Jun 18, 2020

I would not do it again, once top is dry, rake it up, then let that dry and bale.

David G · Jun 18, 2020

I like to leave the hay as is from the mowco so the ground dries, then ted let top dry, rake, dry, bale. There is no sense running the tedder when the ground you just mowed is still wet.

grandpa Love · Jun 18, 2020

We cut it Sunday. Tedded it Monday. Tried to rake on Wed but rain caught us on first lap around field.

David G · Jun 18, 2020

If it is drying down, I would rake today.

Grass hay can be raked anytime in day, clover or alfalfa should be raked when there is dew on leaves.

BarnyardEngineering · Jun 18, 2020

First thing we do when it dries out on top is run the tedder over it and get all the wet up off the ground and on top to dry also.

Dries out quicker spread out than it does all wadded up in a rope.

MARK ROBKE · Jun 18, 2020

I have found the hay will dry on top, but be wet underneath. I mow one day and ted the next. I just had some dry hay rained on Sunday(10% chance also!), and waited til Monday-when the top was dry I tedded it again. With the sun and the hay being fluffed up from tedding, it dried quickly and in a few hours I raked and baled that afternoon. It's always a judgement call-how much sunlight, breeze, how wet the hay got, what the weather forecast is for the day, and how much time do you have to get it done. Good luck, Mark.

David G · Jun 18, 2020

Wind is your friend.

Northvale PA · Jun 18, 2020

I don’t want to sound snarky, but welcome to hay farming. Beginners luck will encourage you to do more. Doing more will increase all the ‘bad event’ risks like rain, drought and breakdowns. Then, you start getting experience. You can start controlling the breakdowns by spending hours doing preventative maintenance and have spare parts or even 2x machines. You also need to start getting every weather forecast you can and learning to forecast for yourself too. Living in the SE PA area is frustrating when it comes to weather predictions. We have mountains to the west, an ocean to the east and humidity. If we get rain on our hay, often the humidity level goes way up so the drying slows way down. It either gets brown drying or gets another rain before dry. Just a disaster. No choice but to keep trying and get it off the field. Selling it is not easy and you might eventually get something to cover your actual cost. If you have the space to store and wait.

showcrop · Jun 18, 2020

I agree with those saying to let it dry on top and then ted it. I will add that I have found that it takes more aggressive tedding to bring all of the wet stuff up when hay has been hit with a substantial shower than it does behind the mower. You may want to do a little then stop and check underneath.

john in la · Jun 18, 2020

Compared to what some call good hay yours will be fine. Just gona take longer to dry.

Your rain shower is over here on the eastern side of the state today about half way between Tuscaloosa and the state line.

Wet hay

grandpa Love

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David G

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David G

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grandpa Love

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David G

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David G

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grandpa Love

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David G

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BarnyardEngineering

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MARK ROBKE

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David G

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Northvale PA

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showcrop

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john in la

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