hay rakes

Well, there are a few ” it depends” in my answer to your question. Who is the hay for? How much do you want to make? How much time do you have? How much money do you have relative to other needs? What horses and harnesses do you have? Do you already have a simple fore cart? This is something you will want. Do you have a tedder?

In most circumstances a side deliver rake will work great. I tend to only rake “dry” hay. by that I mean, the hay is ready to bale and needs no further drying. I realize that a rotary rake can be used in a slightly different manor. But back to my other questions. To what benefit? Other tools play a bigger role in good hay making, in my opinion.

A side delivery rake is fun and easy to use with horses. Hook it to a separate fore cart and you don’t have to unhook it. I have two rakes hooked up all the time. I have a Tedder hooked to a ground drive PTO cart, and I have a baler hooked to a gas powered PTO cart. I still need one more home made forecart to move hay wagons with out unhooking anything. But that is me, and the time constraints I have, the number of animals and help I have, and the number of bales and quality I want.

A rotary rake might improve my hay making slightly, but a new barn would do a lot more! Sorry for the long winded answer. Posting before coffee.

I agree with Donn and George: amortize the cost of the rotary. I use old New Idea 3 and 4 bar rake tedders as well as an IH 5 bar rubber tired ground drive might have had a dolly wheel but is on a forecart all haying season. I also use a Grimm tedder. The NIs throw the hay to the side slightly and sometimes that is useful and some times not so I can use the Grimm. The NI 3 bar rakes are ok for most 1st cut – for 2nd cut I use the IH exclusively – less loss. I also put the 1st cut up loose, but I bale the 2nd – again- less loss of hay. I have slowly acquired these over the years- I certainly didn’t go out and buy them at once. Jay

This could be a whole other discussion:

The costs of equipment and the need for it on a farm. It can certainly make or break an operation.

I was talking to an older farmer in our town, now mostly retired he still trucks cattle and makes hay. I asked him where he got a group of heifers he had outside his barn. He said they came from an organic dairy that just shut down, 4 years after starting.
When I asked why they closed he said “Too many minuses, not enough pluses.”
“New truck, tractor and barn, too many minuses and not enough pluses.”

Pretty basic (and effective) version of accounting.

I use a 4 bar JD side delivery rake with a dolly wheel and a 5 wheel Farmhand wheel rake, both hocked to my forecart. In the alfalfa I like the wheel rake, with the slow ground speed of my horses there is very little leaf loss. In heavy canary meadow hay I find the J.D. rake less prone to plugging. As most every one else is saying I try to rake only hay dry enough for baling.