haying

[Donn Hewes]

No, the tedder is a Grimm. Pequa makes a similiar reel type tedder. They work well to just lift the hay. Not that grea for rained on hay, and certainly not the thing for a rained on windrow. this fall my big goal is a rotary tedder with a ground drive cart. I think I will make / have made a cart from a #7 mower like the one Mitch in Maine made. The big field we work in is leased, and is really great for horse farming, long, almost flat, hill top. Highs in the 90’s this week. I don’t need a tedder at all.

[jac]

We had weather like that over here this year too.. I realy need something more than the turner that I have..it does a great job of turning but doesnt ted as such.. in a recent SFJ there was a foto of a European tedder converted to ground drive along the lines of the I&J rotary rake. he had usd the wheels that it normaly ran on up front and the small tractor type wheels suported the machine and the gears to turn it. He had a seat mounted on top…. Keep us posted with the hitch cart idea. I have an old mower but when I looked at converting it to Mitch’s idea it was going to turn the pto the wrong way ???..
John

[mitchmaine]

hi donn,
wish i had a picture of that mower/ forecart in operation. not cause its such a great thing, which i think it is, but because of the potential risk involved.
all of the old horse drawn equipment put the operator behind the work. mowers, plows, cultivators, etc. in case of a runaway you could fall off over the back and be somewhat safe. but now we have to pull some kind of tractor run implement behind us and a forecart. we all do it. but that tedder can be scary sometimes. my horses are kind to me most of the time. i broke a mower pole the other day and they froze and wouldn’t move till i freed them. but that won’t happen every time, and maybe i worry too much about everyone, so stay safe out there. god bless you all.

mitch

[Donn Hewes]

That is an interest question Mitch, because I can worry some times too. Just a few weeks ago I was complaining I don’t like the old style rake that you sit right above the teeth. A rattley old thing. For some reason, which I can’t fully explain, all the horses and mules I have worked with on that cart have taken to it very well. Give the noises and commotion involved it all ways suprises me a little. I know you can have a bad run away or wreck with four or six horses, but there is something to the safety in numbers. When one horse in my team thinks something is going wrong they have to convince three more before they can do anything about it. Mean while I have that much more time to interject myself as the leader. The three wheeled cart is tall but surprisingly stable.

We have been working with a group that is making a series of begining farmer training videos. Soon I think I will be able to post some clips.

In my first weeks with that cart I had a wooden evener, Then as they turned an uphill corner with a heavy hay wagon on the back the evener broke. The animals were awesome as I jumped off and tried to hold the cart from rolling back with my shoulder, (lines in hand), calling for some one to get me a wheel chock. A close run thing. For the last four or five years, knock on wood, I have not had a problem with it.

[Silvio Simard]

i want to built a horse draw loose haying wagon whith an old silage wagon the hay was filled whith a small honda engine on the apron wagon i have only to hook my hay loader and dryve my team of belgians horses for haying alone i think its a good idea . silvio simard sagenay québec

[mitchmaine]

hi silvio, good idea. the best hay i ever made was cut on a horse mower, raked once and put up with a hay loader. i have a baler now and do alot of work quick, but there is always a trade-off.

mitch

[Donn Hewes]

how is everyone / horses handling the heat today?

[Livewater Farm]

made some beautiful 2nd cut dry hay square baled killed myself doing it those big round bales spoil you worse than the heat on the horses were the flies even with nets on they would not stand and were always stomping and shaking gave it up and put them in the barn where it was cool and fly free taking the day off tomorrow and going to the lake finish up 2nd cut later in the week praying for rain bone dry dusty and water levels going way down
Bill

[Does’ Leap]

I’d love to hear a schedule of events from you northeast people who do this regularly. We just put in about 250 bales from this weeks cut, I’m so glad it in. Things are much easier than last year, but I still think we have a lot to figure out. Our team was great, but they are hot,tired, and bug bitten and I don’t think they could have managed any more, and we are baling with the tractor. I’m interested in your schedules because I think we are going over our field too many times. Let’s see, we cut friday, tedded (with a Grimm) twice saturday, raked it sunday, flipped it over with the rake yesterday and baled yesterday afternoon. One field was nice and dry, but the other still has some wet bales I think we will break open….then I read that Donn isn’t tedding in all in this great weather..how can that be?! And we have one horse that really seems to suffer in the heat, he did great mowing, but tedding and raking in the heat was tough, we tried to sponge down regularly but it didn’t seem to do much.

Kristan

[mitchmaine]

hi kristan, maybe its northern new england, but my day sounds just like yours. we have to ted twice, and the flies are man killers here this summer. we had two wagon loads yesterday to bring in and it was 91 out and you could wring water out of the air. i just couldn’t do it, and left the horses in and raked and baled with the tractor. when the wind comes dry and cool out of canada, life is sweet. southwest brings heat and moisture off the ocean, but yesterday, the wind was coming straight out of hell, my hay crew quit, and we had to make it through alive. all is well now.

mitch

[Livewater Farm]

I Got Away Without Tedding My Last Field Of Hay Leavey 2nd Cut 7 Acres Mowed Let Lay For A Day Raked Windrows Next Day Doubled Up Windrows 3rd Day Baled In Afternoon Made Great Hay Without This Heat I Would Have Tedded At Least Once
Bill

[Tim Harrigan]

Does’ Leap;19563 wrote:

…I’m interested in your schedules because I think we are going over our field too many times. Let’s see, we cut friday, tedded (with a Grimm) twice saturday, raked it sunday, flipped it over with the rake yesterday and baled yesterday afternoon…

Not from the northeast but the upper Great Lakes is not too much different this time of year. The greatest benefit of tedding is in the first cutting when the yields are high and the windrows are heavy. The benefit in drying time will typically be 1/2 to 1 day reduction in time from cutting to baling. The only benefit of tedding is to reduce drying time. Other than that it just knocks leaves off the stem and reduces the quality of the hay. In second cutting the yields are lower and drying conditions are better so the benefit of tedding is really questionable. If rain is forecast tedding could help get it in a few hours faster, but our weather here looks hot and dry for several days. So I see no need for a tedder. Cut and lay it in a wide swath, if the weather looks good dry it in place, rake into windrows when it get down to 30-40% moisture and bale when it drops below 18% or so.

The tedder would have some value early in the morning to shake off the dew, but if it was hot with no rain on the horizon I would leave it in the shed.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi kristan, Here are a few random thoughts from a hay chafe covered, sweat steaked guy that is glad to be at the off farm job today.

Hay making is one part science, one part art, and one part black magic. Ask anyone who has come in from mowing only to find the forecast has completely changed from when you went out. I have found that some of the good old boys who make a lot of hay in my nieghborhood, can tell me alot about when to mow, and so forth. I do have to modify what they tell me to acomodate the horse power.

If I remember correctly you have some very lush meadow pastures. At this time of year a first cutting from them will be great gobs of hay. If possible I would try to pick the worst of these offenders to graze, clip, or mow earlier in the summer. I know that is easier said than done. How many bales per acre where in the worst areas? I was working in very good first cutting for my farm and I made 1030 bales on twelve acres. I think over 100 bales to the acre will definitely test the mowing machine, the rake, and the horses.

I tedded the first day, after I mowed about four acres, half way through I realized I was wasting my time – the hay was drying as fast as I was tedding. These fields are over mature at this point (yours may not be – that would make it harder to dry). the over mature hay has a portion that is dry when mowed and this actually speeds and assists in the drying of the rest of the windrow.

Here are some of my personal preferences. I don’t like to ted in the afternoon, especially late afternoon. I don’t feel I am getting much bang for my buck. I really don’t like to ted more than once a day and pretty much would not do it. Given the rakes that I use, I don’t really like to rake before the hay is dry. Others may talk about drying in the windrow, but my rakes leave too tight of a windrow and nothing ever drys after that. What if you had Tedded on Sat AM and again on Sun am. then raked on Mon. Slightly easier right? I also don’t like to rake twice. There are a few times when I will do it, but I much perfer to rake only once.

Tractor farmers can ted and rake as many times as they want. Many will say that any hay raked yesterday must be turn over with a rake today before you can bale it. I just haven’t found that to be true for me. Maybe becuase the hay was already dry when I raked it.

I baled my last 160 bales last night with the tractor, slight disapointment for me, but certainly not the end of the world. Final score for the horses and mules. Mules were awsome this week, and could have kept going. One horse is obese and was breathing >greater than 120 for extended periods after an hour of work. She is going to try out a grazing muzzle this week. I don’t plan to keep fat horses in the future – not eactly sure how I will acomplish that. The other horse is may be a little over weight and had some issues with swelling under her collar at the top of her neck. It seemed some what better yesterday, and I never stopped working her, but I did limit how much, for the last couple days.

I have a few little spots left that I can make into first cutting. I will try and work one or two hours each evening until the heat breaks a little. I also am going to try some deer hair sweat pads this week. My other ones are getting old and a little tettered, so I thought I would try something else. I have made 1600 bales so far this year, all mowed, raked and baled with horses, (except last night!)

It is hard hot work, but I enjoy it. I will be looking to make my horses and mules more comfortable and more successful each time I go out. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Tim, I am guessing the only difference form Michigan to NE is your temps migth be a little higher and your humidity is slightly lower on average. I think Kristans temps in the early morning and late after noon might be lower than mine. That can make a difference. Remember shading from hedge rows can make a difference too. I try to bale the west side of a field a little early and the east side a little late, In June the east side of a field can be hard to dry along with the rest of the field. I might bale it the next day. I think your raking to finish the drying is something I was talking about. My hay won’t dry like that. Might be the weather, might be the rake, might just be me.

I hate to come out the next day after raking last night and find the hay isn’t dry.

[Tim Harrigan]

Donn,
You are right, there are a lot of field specific things to consider. In this spell of weather I do not think the temps are much different and Michigan is usually pretty humid from the lakes, same as NY. The biggest challenge in MI when making hay is getting it up without rain. Laying hay on wet ground can really delay drying as well. And Kristen has hills and north slopes that will be pretty slow drying. My point was you have to be flexible in the timing and what tools you use and why you use them. My sense is the tedder is, for the most part, used too much. Sometimes you can make the most $ with a tedder by leaving it in the shed. And as you also mentioned the regret for tedding in this weather with animals can be high if it is not really needed.

I have found that I get a much more open windrow with a bar rake if I tilt it back so it kicks the hay up a bit. If I tilt it forward it rolls a tight windrow that does not dry very well. Not bad if the hay is already dry, but not good if I want to rake when the hay is a little tough to hold on to the leaves.

The sun and air are the best tools you have for drying hay. A tedder can help or hurt depending on when it is used. The power issue reminds me of the interesting discussion from last winter regarding the Keyline plow where there was a big power demand and the benefits were not well defined. Working with draft animals helps focus your attention on the task at hand and how the available power is used and what is the real benefit of what you are doing. That is one of the things that makes it interesting and enjoyable.

It is interesting when you get to know a piece of ground so well that you know the swales and places that yield well and dry slow or lay in the shade most of the day. I have some of those areas where I can get wet shoes from dew most of the day. Not the easiest place to make hay.

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