Whats the Best Type of Rake

[rattler]

I cant say what type is best cause all we have ever used is a NH rollbar 57 it does a good job.

rattler

 

[alabama]

Windrows rolled up like ropes bale better than fluffy, lumpy windrows. Hay should be dry before raking and raked only once. Weather sometimes has a way of making you do things differently.

Have no experience with alflafa which might be the exception because of leaf shatter.

That is one of the biggest misconceptions about making hay out there... "Hay should be dry before raking" WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!

Hay should be at 50% moisture when raked for the highest quality and to minimize sunbleaching and weathering. 50% moisture is basically when it's wilted flat. I'm near Houston and with our 95-100 degree days during most of the hay season here, with average conditions and average grass hay, if you cut in the early afternoon one day, it will be ready to rake 24 hours later. If the hay is light, the temps are pushing 100 or the grass is dry from drought, you can rake the next morning and be fine. I've had some unusual conditions of high heat and dry conditions where I cut at 8-11 am and raked at 6 pm the same day. Basically, if any of the stems are still sticking up from the windrow, or leaves sticking up, it's still above 50% moisture and should dry more before raking. If the leaves and tops of the stems are laying flat on the swath or ground, it's time to rake. The hay should still be a bright green color, but not glossy like fresh grass; you want that flat green wilted look. Raking at this moisture level preserves the most leaves and minimizes shattering, and moves the hay into the windrow where it will continue to dry down. It also puts the hay on top of the swath, which has had the most sun and drying exposure, into the middle of the windrow and exposes the underside of the swath and stems which have been shaded underneath to the outside of the windrow for more even drying, and prevents over exposing the tender leaves and upper part of the cut forage to excessive sun bleaching which destroys carotene and reduces the nutritional quality of the hay. The harder to dry stems are exposed on the outside of the windrow and get more sun and wind to speed drying. (At least this is true with a rolabar rake; wheel rakes tend to sweep the hay together in a more random manner). The purpose of raking is really to get the hay up into a windrow so it can continue to dry with the minimum amount of sun exposure possible. Wind drying the hay does no harm, but sun bleaching from UV rays breaks down carotene, many nutrients, and reduces quality. The best hay should have a good solid green color when it's baled; it should not look like gold wheat straw that has baked flat under the Great Plains sun for a couple months! Yet time and again, I see guys growing beautiful fertilized bermuda hay, or spotlessly clean bahia or other grass hay, who then cut it and let it burn to a crispy golden brown on the field for 4-5 days before they'll run the rake right ahead of the baler, by which time the damage is done! In our conditions, it takes about another 24 hours after raking before it's down around 12-14 percent moisture and ready for baling. We generally cut the first day, rake the second day, and bale the third day, and lemme tell you, once you see the result you'll never let it set and burn again. I can unroll a bale in January, reach down and pick up a handful of beautiful green grass hay, twist it and smell it, and it's as fresh as the day it was cut, beautiful and sweet smelling like cured tobacco. The cows just love it!

Hay is the highest quality it will ever be the moment you cut it... it's all downhill from there. The real trick, the art and the science, is minimizing that downhill part from the time it's cut until it's in the bale and the bale is in the barn or storage. (Quote from a book I have on haying) I would add also minimizing the loss from the time it's cut until it's in the cow's gut... OL JR

You never know what you might learn on here. Will this racking at 50% moisture work in Alabama. Gosh we have a hard time getting it dry as it is, much less in a raked pile. Some times I have to run the tender in thick hay just to scattered it out and turn it over.
Now I do run the tedder while the hay is moist. If I cut in the morning on a good hot day I can run the tedder that evening and might even bail the next evening but often it takes 3 full days of sun to get my hay dry.

 

[Stocker Steve]

You can roll hay into a rope and leave the wet stuff on top with a rol-a-bar rake.

Will a wheel rake flip hay as well as a rol-a bar rake, or do folks usually use wheel rakes just because they can drive faster?

 

[bigbull338]

the reason wheel rakes are easier to use is because you can rake swathes 20 to 45ft wide.an cut the tripps an time a baler has to run in the field.thus cutting your baling time by 1/3.

 

[dyates]

the reason wheel rakes are easier to use is because you can rake swathes 20 to 45ft wide.an cut the tripps an time a baler has to run in the field.thus cutting your baling time by 1/3.

I guess a wheel rake would be useless to me this year. A double windrow from an 8' bar rake drags the bottom of the 6640 and wads up.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Windrows rolled up like ropes bale better than fluffy, lumpy windrows. Hay should be dry before raking and raked only once. Weather sometimes has a way of making you do things differently.

Have no experience with alflafa which might be the exception because of leaf shatter.

That is one of the biggest misconceptions about making hay out there... "Hay should be dry before raking" WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!

Hay should be at 50% moisture when raked for the highest quality and to minimize sunbleaching and weathering. 50% moisture is basically when it's wilted flat. I'm near Houston and with our 95-100 degree days during most of the hay season here, with average conditions and average grass hay, if you cut in the early afternoon one day, it will be ready to rake 24 hours later. If the hay is light, the temps are pushing 100 or the grass is dry from drought, you can rake the next morning and be fine. I've had some unusual conditions of high heat and dry conditions where I cut at 8-11 am and raked at 6 pm the same day. Basically, if any of the stems are still sticking up from the windrow, or leaves sticking up, it's still above 50% moisture and should dry more before raking. If the leaves and tops of the stems are laying flat on the swath or ground, it's time to rake. The hay should still be a bright green color, but not glossy like fresh grass; you want that flat green wilted look. Raking at this moisture level preserves the most leaves and minimizes shattering, and moves the hay into the windrow where it will continue to dry down. It also puts the hay on top of the swath, which has had the most sun and drying exposure, into the middle of the windrow and exposes the underside of the swath and stems which have been shaded underneath to the outside of the windrow for more even drying, and prevents over exposing the tender leaves and upper part of the cut forage to excessive sun bleaching which destroys carotene and reduces the nutritional quality of the hay. The harder to dry stems are exposed on the outside of the windrow and get more sun and wind to speed drying. (At least this is true with a rolabar rake; wheel rakes tend to sweep the hay together in a more random manner). The purpose of raking is really to get the hay up into a windrow so it can continue to dry with the minimum amount of sun exposure possible. Wind drying the hay does no harm, but sun bleaching from UV rays breaks down carotene, many nutrients, and reduces quality. The best hay should have a good solid green color when it's baled; it should not look like gold wheat straw that has baked flat under the Great Plains sun for a couple months! Yet time and again, I see guys growing beautiful fertilized bermuda hay, or spotlessly clean bahia or other grass hay, who then cut it and let it burn to a crispy golden brown on the field for 4-5 days before they'll run the rake right ahead of the baler, by which time the damage is done! In our conditions, it takes about another 24 hours after raking before it's down around 12-14 percent moisture and ready for baling. We generally cut the first day, rake the second day, and bale the third day, and lemme tell you, once you see the result you'll never let it set and burn again. I can unroll a bale in January, reach down and pick up a handful of beautiful green grass hay, twist it and smell it, and it's as fresh as the day it was cut, beautiful and sweet smelling like cured tobacco. The cows just love it!

Hay is the highest quality it will ever be the moment you cut it... it's all downhill from there. The real trick, the art and the science, is minimizing that downhill part from the time it's cut until it's in the bale and the bale is in the barn or storage. (Quote from a book I have on haying) I would add also minimizing the loss from the time it's cut until it's in the cow's gut... OL JR

You never know what you might learn on here. Will this racking at 50% moisture work in Alabama. Gosh we have a hard time getting it dry as it is, much less in a raked pile. Some times I have to run the tender in thick hay just to scattered it out and turn it over.
Now I do run the tedder while the hay is moist. If I cut in the morning on a good hot day I can run the tedder that evening and might even bail the next evening but often it takes 3 full days of sun to get my hay dry.

Well, I'm just west of Houston on the Coastal plains, we're usually in the high 90's and humidity in the 80%+ range so I'd be pretty tempted to say if it works here it'll work darn near anywhere, at least in the Deep South where our sun is so fierce. Farther north where the sun is weaker (doesn't scorch you like it does here) you might want to wait a little longer. Actually everything I just said before is quoted from a New Holland haymaking book that was given to my grandfather back in the 60's. After I found it in the attic and started trying out the things it suggested, I'd say my hay quality improved at least 100%, probably more.

Now, as someone from Fayette county pointed out, if we get a strong wind or dust devils it can make a bit of a mess, but shoot that can happen anyway, whether you rake a day ahead or an hour ahead of the baler. I always set the rake basket tilt adjustment (up at the front of the frame where the shift cable lever is) all the way down to roll the tightest windrow, unless I'm in something REALLY dense and watery like clover or sudax, then I'll raise it up to the 'fluffy' position. Most of the time, especially in grass hay, it's in the lower or 'tightly rolled' position. Even if a shower or windgusts tear up the windrows, it doesn't take long to make a single pass around the windrow to tighten it up and clean them up right before baling, if necessary. I rarely find it to be necessary. If someone's baling really thin or short hay in stiff wind areas, maybe. That's what the gathering wheels on the baler are for. The worst blowing hay I ever had was short bahia. I don't bale much bahia anymore though.

Good luck! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

You can roll hay into a rope and leave the wet stuff on top with a rol-a-bar rake.

Will a wheel rake flip hay as well as a rol-a bar rake, or do folks usually use wheel rakes just because they can drive faster?

From my experience, the wheel rakes tend to just slide the hay to the center; there is nowhere near the amount of rolling action that there is on a rolabar rake. Not that the hay doesn't roll AT ALL with a wheel rake, far from it, but the rolabar rake does a better job of rolling it over and mixing the windrow together.

Wheel rakes are faster, and the faster you go usually the better they roll the hay, but it's harder on your equipment too, unless your hayfield is VERY smooth. BUT I wouldn't want to try to use a wheel rake in sudax or johnsongrass, I've seen them plug VERY BADLY trying to rake such tall stemmy type grasses. One guy I know regularly leaves piles of hay behind on the field you could hide a four wheeler under because tall grass when through the wheel, wrapped the axle, stopped the wheel, and plugged the rake. He just folds the rake on the go and lets the plug roll out the back, and then lowers the rake on the go and leaves a big unraked spot about 40 feet long or so... :shock: :roll: Anyway, I'm preferential to the rolabars myself, unless I had some 100 acre+ hayfields...

Good luck! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Wheel rake on Bermuda. Rake at 40% moisture (as measured by microwave method), bale at 12-15% moisture.
Wharton, Texas (that's about 30 minutes West of Needville)

If L.S. is cutting one day, raking the next and then baling on the 3rd day I hope he's leaving out in the field at least a day as it's probably hot to the touch.

I'm baling grass hay and no it doesn't heat up... I unroll all my hay when I feed at Shiner and it's as fresh and green colored and sweet inside as the day it was baled and smells like sweet flue cured tobacco. No heat, no mold, nothing but the good stuff...

Now, with heavy fertilized bermuda yeah you probably have to wait a while longer to get the stems dry enough to store without heating. You've definitely got the right idea about raking it, though if you haven't tried it at 50% you aught to do a little test and see how it works for you. I think you'll save more of your green color (and the carotene and other stuff with it) and then bale at 12-15 percent moisture.

That's about the same moisture I bale at with grassy hay. I've done some winter ryegrass a little wetter to keep from losing it to rain but it gets awful heavy and heats up if you take it too wet, and I don't like baling wet hay. My old baler can't take it anyway.

Good luck! OL JR

 

[alabama]

Bermuda hay is very easy to dry. I have cut it one morning and fluffed the next morning and bailed that afternoon.
If you have any crabgrass in it you better fluff it and wait an extra day.