Tedder Timing ?

[Stocker Steve]

Have seen some that recommend tedding hay within a couple hours of cutting, rather than waiting for a rain...

Is this to correct driving on the swath, or slumping in the windrow, or?

 

[Rydero]

Prevent leaf loss. Speed up drying. The faster the plant gets dry enough to stop respiration = less nutrients lost.

I'm against it unless it becomes necessary. Why do something that costs you time and money when you can do nothing? Maybe to try and make bales in a window that won't work otherwise...

 

[Dsth]

depends on what type of tedder you are talking about. My neighbor has one that spreads the windrow out over the field. those are referred to around here as rotary tedders. they are designed to be used shortly after cutting the hay down. I use a tedder that fluffs the hay up so the wind blows through the windrow and does not spead the hay back out over the ground. They are referred to here as hay fluffers. I find it works best if the hay dries for a day and then go over it with the tedder. When the top is a little bit dry, it seems to fluff up really nice. both are designed to speed up the drying time so it hopefully does not get rained on. If you were told that a tedder is designed to be used after a rain, that is not correct in my opinion. I have used my fluffer after the windrow got rained on and it seemed to do a good job of lifting the hay up without losing a lot of leaves. The rotary teddered hay seems to get damaged more after it gets rained on, but that is just based on what my neighbor has said. Either style works well if the weather cooperates. I have noticed that I have more hay get rained on when the weather person says 0% chance of rain for the next few days vs when he/she says 100% chance of rain.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I gave up on baling dry first crop a while back. I do not have a silage special baler so I can not handle the really wet or long stemmed stuff, and I have to rent a wrapper to make 30% moisture balage for weaned calves.

Used fluffers here are only U$S 2000 to 2500 here but its too late to buy the wife one for Christmas...

 

[Rydero]

I gave up on baling dry first crop a while back. I do not have a silage special baler so I can not handle the really wet or long stemmed stuff, and I have to rent a wrapper to make 30% moisture balage for weaned calves.

Used fluffers here are only U$S 2000 to 2500 here but its too late to buy the wife one for Christmas...

To avoid the one haying operation I dislike more than raking/tedding (wrapping) the $2000-$2500 may be worth it.

Why not get silage chopped if first cut drying isn't possible? My employer rountinely gets alfalfa cut, chopped and hauled for $8-$9/ton. The chopping outfits are usually not as busy outside of corn season so easy to get too.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I'm against it unless it becomes necessary.

Right.

We usually only get 2 to 3 day windows in summer.

Most neighbors don't use one, but they also have thin stands and will bale hay too wet to avoid rain. Buyers can not see the mildew till they handle it...

 

[Rydero]

Right.

We usually only get 2 to 3 day windows in summer.

Most neighbors don't use one, but they also have thin stands and will bale hay too wet to avoid rain. Buyers can not see the mildew till they handle it...

Sounds long enough. How are you cutting? I guess for weaned calves you may be cutting pre bloom or have way better crops. If so chopping may be even more viable.

 

[Stocker Steve]

No custom hay chopping here. Baleage rules.

There is some custom corn chopping.

 

[Silver]

I like the idea of custom chopping. Neighbour has it done in a big way every year. I don't like the idea of the new line of equipment I'd need to get it fed.

 

[Rydero]

No custom hay chopping here. Baleage rules.

There is some custom corn chopping.

There's way more baleage here too. From a cost perspective it's not even close. Can you cut, bale, haul and put plastic on a bale for $8? Same guy doing corn can do it just need a swather w/ a wide header.

 

[Rydero]

I like the idea of custom chopping. Neighbour has it done in a big way every year. I don't like the idea of the new line of equipment I'd need to get it fed.

It's a numbers game. The money you save in feed has to pay for that equipment. Somewhere around 200 head it seems to take over in this area. Right at that line where it starts getting ridiculous to cover the amount of ground you need to for hay. My employer does it. I still do hay but I can feed cows there if I like. Thinking since I like feeding on my land I may get my own wagon one day and just buy the silage as I'm going back and forth every weekday anyway. It's too bad people can't be a little bit more cooperative - a few neighbors could easily work together on something like that but it never seems to happen..

 

[Silver]

I'm pretty sure the outfit that does it for my neighbour is in the $10 to $12 range, and the neighbour does the packing. They seem to clean off a few hundred acres a day not sure how much exactly but I always start wondering why I'm spending my summer putting up hay when they could do it in no time flat. But I'd still want to be able to put up my dry hay for various times and reasons so that would mean still having a line of haying equipment. I think I need a few hundred more cows. I don't live where it makes sense to buy hay, trucking would kill me.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Two to four small dairies used to "chop together" back in the day. Alfalfa and corn into upright silos all summer long, except for a few dry bales in late summer.

Now there may be one dairy of the group left. They do their own baling but have no chopping equipment. A custom operator puts their silage into a pile in a day or two so they can TMR steins 365. The dairy TMR break point used to be a bit over 100 cows. Sure it is higher now. So they have some expensive hay equipment and a TMR, but no chopping equipment and no silos.

I think in the fescue country, it is much cheaper to have your beef cows trample the "hay" rather than owning equipment to bale it. Some call it "tipping" before they start to stockpile.

 

[VaCowman]

2 mowers, immediately followed by a 4 basket tedder makes the difference of us getting hay put up dry and in the barn with no rain in a 3 day window. Without it, we'd have to wrap. We do not have a silage baler, nor wrapper, but the neighbor does. He makes hay same time we do so first cutting has to be put up dry. We can wrap second if the stars align, but that is typically when we are getting a week or two of hot dry weather to cure hay anyway and I see no use in adding expense to the hay just to wrap it. We start mid-May, regardless of whether it is waist high or knee high. Got to start before you can finish! The tedding immediately behind the mowing machine has made a big difference in getting hay made right, especially in May/early June. We took samples on one field we mowed and only ran tedder through half of it. The outside half that had been tedded behind mower was at 50% moisture in 6 hours. The hay that was not tedded wasn't at 50% until noon the next day. This was in MAY. We baled the tedded portion the evening after it was mowed and it tested at 16% moisture. The other half we baled a day later and it was at 18% moisture. That time of year, 24 hours could mean the difference of wet hay or not. Yes, it's another trip across the field, but I am a firm believer that the quicker you get that hay fluffed and spread out, the quicker you get to 50% moisture and stop respiration and nutrient degradation. We pull the tedder with an old David Brown 885 that only has to be refueled every 2-3 days as opposed to mowers and balers that require constant refueling. I'm a big fan of tedding first cutting. Only stir second cutting if it's really thick. We do set our machines to mow at 4-5" height, depending on hay type and who we plan to feed it to. This does help get air flow below the windrow. Rotary rakes that make a fluffier windrow are timesavers too! We can windrow the hay up before it gets too dry, but too damp to bale (the same day as baling) and by the time we get the baler started, it's ready to go. That big, fluffy windrow allows a lot of airflow too, which helps dry out any pockets of green hay that maybe got ran over or bunched up during previous passes. It doesn't always work, but when mother nature cooperates and the weather man gives a window of hope, we get along pretty good! To each their own!

 

[Silver]

We've never had a "silage baler" but put up over 1000 silage bales every year.

 

[WFfarm]

Ted hay the next morning when there is still some dew on to keep from knocking all the leaves off. RPMs low and ground spread fast enough to spread the hay out, and not rattle your teeth out.

 

[RDFF]

I think if you come in TOO quick behind the mower, the hay is still too "soft" to benefit enough from the tedder. Let it wilt a bit, and it'll remain standing "up" a little better and you'll get better air movement through it, for MORE BENEFIT from the tedding trip. They'll do a better job of clearing out any wet lumps this way too. If you come right behind the mower, the "lumps" will be too wet for the tedder to do as good a job on spreading/fluffing. Mine was a "reel type"... maybe the rotary units do a better job on this??? Never ran one of those.

I used to have the whole farm in hay, retailing it primarily to the horse market in small squares, and I was guaranteeing "no rained on hay". In SE Minnesota, that's a TALL order (we get pretty regular rains... and even MORE regular anytime you have hay down! ). I had 3 "fluffers" that I then hooked together behind 1 tractor, so I could do 30' in a pass. I would start cutting alot of times in the rain, just to get a jump on the weatherman. If he gave you a 4 day window, you KNEW you were gonna lose that last one, and I would try to pick up one on the front end this way. Cut today, by evening it's sunny and the hay is wilting good, tedd tomorrow morning when it's still slightly damp with dew, then rake and bale the next day. Always figured the tedders could take a day out of the drying time, and they would pretty much eliminate any wet lumps. If I was confident in the weather holding though, I'd try to avoid the trip with the tedders, unless I had a couple of really big days in the works. Had two NH balers and 15 kicker racks (18 footers) when we were going strong... we were putting up 30 - 40,000 bales a year, and delivering it all. MAN, am I ever glad I'm not doing that anymore!!! Talk about nerve wracking!

I still have the tedders, but haven't used them now for at least 10 years. Finally figured out that when you're selling hay, you're selling you're farm down the road one bale at a time. Now I try to avoid making hay if I can. Think I'm ahead to graze off everything as much as possible, and buy in hay if I need to, and then TRY to get the summer grazing/winter stockpile balance right. I've only been grazing winter stockpile now for 2 years so I'm a newbie on that front, and still have alot of learning room there, but I made it to the middle of December last year, and I'm not feeding any hay yet this year and the critters are happy and full, so I don't think I'm doing TOO bad at it. I've got plenty of hay on reserve for this winter, so I've got it covered either way.

 

[ClinchValley86]

Of i can get in right after cutting, I spread it out and run rpms around 400. If its the following day or has dried much at all. I run a low time and quick ground speed. Can sometimes stand thr grass back up.

Traders are great of used at the right time and in the right speed. People here tend to ted their crop to death. End up with stems only. Its dry though. Lol.

Tis an art no matter what.