hay down and rained on after 2 days

[BAR_R]

Weather here in SE Iowa last week was suppose to be dry for 8 days. Cut the grass and clover Friday afternoon. Hot sunny on Saturday and raked it on Sunday. Monday morning the sky let loose and my dry week has turned into 3 days of rain. Had about 1.5 inches so far and am wondering what the next step is. I just started baling my own hay this year.

I have a NH 258 rake and no tedder. I will be putting this into small squares. Do I rake this afternoon knowing that rain is likely overnight or do I wait until tomorrow evening when most of the rain should be over? It looks like I won't bale at least until Saturday.

Thanks for the advice. My first post but have been learning off here for about 6 months.

 

[3MR]

Is the hay even dry yet?

 

[alabama]

I suspect that your hay will not dry in the windrow after 1.5 inches of rain. You will need to find a way to turn in over on to dry ground and it will help a lot to scatter it back out to dry. I suspect that this hay also has rot or mold in it having been raked when it rained on it. If you can get it up don't feed it to horses.
Have someone roll it just to get it off the field and start over.
Welcome to the hay making business.
I am sorry for your loss.

 

[buckwheat_87]

Im sorry for your bad luck but it happens to all of us.
I wouldnt rake it untill your sure that it isnt gonna get wet, wait untill it is dry on top and then rake it and let it dry somemore . And i hate to sound discouraging but that hay probley wont be fit to feed cows and i sure wouldnt feed it to horses. At least it wouldnt be in my part of the country, your climate might be better for makin hay. Around here we would use that to fill up a ditch.

 

[mitch2]

How many rows did you rake together? That may make the difference.

If you get some nice drying weather, let it dry really well. Once it's raked you have a mess...but if you can get the top and middle to dry well, then just hit the windrow with the end of your rake to get the windrow to roll just slightly to get the bottom side up.

Otherwise the rows seem to roll over with the wet side back on the bottom, and you haven't accomplished anything.

If you get rain again on the raked rows, chop it back onto the field and cut your losses.

Sorry for your worries....we have all been there.

Michele

 

[dun]

We had pretty much the same thing a couple of years ago. We bought a tedder. Eneded up putting up some decent hay, not as good as it would have been without the rain, but a lot better then it would have without the tedder

 

[VZCR]

Weather here in SE Iowa last week was suppose to be dry for 8 days. Cut the grass and clover Friday afternoon. Hot sunny on Saturday and raked it on Sunday. Monday morning the sky let loose and my dry week has turned into 3 days of rain. Had about 1.5 inches so far and am wondering what the next step is. I just started baling my own hay this year.

I have a NH 258 rake and no tedder. I will be putting this into small squares. Do I rake this afternoon knowing that rain is likely overnight or do I wait until tomorrow evening when most of the rain should be over? It looks like I won't bale at least until Saturday.

Thanks for the advice. My first post but have been learning off here for about 6 months.

Sorry for the bad luck there, I'm constantly amazed at the weather forcaster's inability to forcast anymore. They did much better 20-30 years ago before this "computer model" generation. Anyways, if you have one or can get your hands on a shredder (bush hog, mower) you can use it to scatter those windrows out so the hay will dry better. Anything you can do to scatter it out will be the ticket. You might be able to save it if you can get it drying....Good Luck!

 

[BAR_R]

I only raked one row together except for the outer row that I raked into the second.

It is not real thick because I planted it this year (was in bean stubble in 05) but the clover was coming in well. I will see what tomorrow brings. I think I will hit it with the brush hog to spread it out. But if I still have a mess I can have my neighbor put it in round bales and dump it in the ditch. Thanks for the advice and I am running cows for what that's worth.

On the bright side I only cut about a 1/3 of the field. I was experimenting with different settings on the MOCO.

 

[Jogeephus]

Get some help from a friend or neighbor that has a tedder. I wouldn't mess with it till it quit raining. Leaving it in a windrow for a short period could protect it somewhat. Once it clears, fluff, fluff, fluff.

Sorry to hear about your predicament. My weather forecaster must be moonlighing in your area. :lol:

 

[msscamp]

Weather here in SE Iowa last week was suppose to be dry for 8 days. Cut the grass and clover Friday afternoon. Hot sunny on Saturday and raked it on Sunday. Monday morning the sky let loose and my dry week has turned into 3 days of rain. Had about 1.5 inches so far and am wondering what the next step is. I just started baling my own hay this year.

Leave it alone until it stops raining, let the top dry out and then rake it. The rain will cause the hay to be discolored(and if the sun comes out hot and bright, that will cause more discoloration in the form of bleaching), you may have mold issues (but you might not, too). It will not be horse quality hay, but it will still be grinding quality hay so it's not a total loss.

 

[celestina farm]

Its funny how they can't get thiere forcast right for 8 days but they say 20 years from now where I live it will be 6 feet under water becase of the north pole melting. I have a 258 rake and this has happened to me before. I let it dry in the windrow for one day. Then lowered just the gearbox end of the rake so it just drags the top of the windrow off it does a good job.

 

[AngusLimoX]

I have had hay rained on three times over four days this year and lots of times in years past - it may surprise you how nice it will bale up if you get it dry.

Leave it until it stops raining. Then get it dry. It won't mold if it is dry when you bale it. It may be a bit dusty though.

Got a tedder 3 years ago - no doubt it has already paid for itself in saved hay.

Chin up - like others said it is part of the business. Imagine if you had to rely on when someone else could come to bale it, it would be almost impossible to put up good hay around here.

ALX

 

[CUZ]

Since it's going to have to be turned to help it dry, and it's going to suffer some loss of quality, won't it suffer less loss being tedded versus being bush hogged?

Cuz

 

[Bez>]

Leave it alone - wait for the sun to come out - dry it - rake it and bale it - low quality - but someday down the road you may be glad you have it.

Use it for bedding - saves buying straw. Heck they will eat it anyways.

All the rest is nothing more than stress over something you have no control over - stop wasting your time and relax - enjoy life - it beats the alternative.

Oh, this will happen to you again - and again and quite likely - again.

Bez>

 

[Jogeephus]

Its funny how they can't get thiere forcast right for 8 days but they say 20 years from now where I live it will be 6 feet under water becase of the north pole melting.

I've never thought of it that way but you got a darn good point. Excellent. :clap:

 

[msscamp]

Oh, this will happen to you again - and again and quite likely - again.

Bez>

Yeah it will - the only time it rains around here is if there is hay on the ground. Even then we don't get enough to do any good, just enough to screw up the hay crop. :roll: <shrug>

 

[novatech]

Its funny how they can't get thiere forcast right for 8 days but they say 20 years from now where I live it will be 6 feet under water becase of the north pole melting. I have a 258 rake and this has happened to me before. I let it dry in the windrow for one day. Then lowered just the gearbox end of the rake so it just drags the top of the windrow off it does a good job.

Just did this on some hay. It works great. I took the top off on the first pass. But needed to get the hay off the ground so I went back over the opposite direction with the rake a little lower. Just let the end of the rake do the work. I'll be doing it again today on another meadow.

 

[BAR_R]

Well it is still raining. This is the 4th day. We had about 2.2 inches in the last 16 hours. That is about 4 inches over the last 4 days. Yesterday had about 6 hours of sun but the night brought heavy rain. I know that the corn and beans love it. We have had so much rain that the grass is beginning to regrow where I cut last week.

I think I have figured out why it rains. Every time I leave my boat outside the shop it rains. When I work on my larger equipment I have to take the boat out and every time I do it rains on it. It has nothing to do with the fact July is one of our wettest months it has all to do with my boat.

The weather is suppose to break and have sun for the next week. I will believe that when I see it.

 

[dun]

The weather is suppose to break and have sun for the next week. I will believe that when I see it.

Isn;t that the situation got you into this perdicament in the first place.

 

[AngusLimoX]

The weather is suppose to break and have sun for the next week. I will believe that when I see it.

Isn;t that the situation got you into this perdicament in the first place.

Oh, it ain't funny. but you just got a big gut laugh here dun!

I am abut to commit hari kari again tommorrow according to the weather liars.

:lol: :lol: