(quoted from post at 13:12:55 09/18/17)
My family did 30,000 to 40,000 small squares a year. When I was ten, I wasn't old enough to use the haybine; but I was old enough to rake.
We used a single rake until I was about 13.... so I have hours and hours....and hours with NH 256 Rollabar in a single hitch.
When we got two of them, I practically kissed the ground. I was getting mighty sick of spending my entire summer raking.
Anyway. We raked with a John Deere 1520 and sometimes a Farmall 706.
On good flat fields, we would rake in 2nd gear of high range with either tractor.
As far as the tightness of the windrow goes, speed isn't the ONLY factor.
I can rake you a fluffy windrow at low speed. I can rake you a tight windrow at high speed (within reason).
One of the biggest factors determining fluffy vs tight is how you position the rake on the swath. If you position the rake far to the right (as you look forward from the tractor seat); then the rake won't turn over the entire swath. It will take most of the swath and roll it tightly onto the left side of the swath.
In contrast, if you position the rake as far to the left as you can...so that it is just barely catching the right side of the swath; it will turn over the whole swath and when it spits out the delivery side of the rake, the windrow will sort of flop open all nice and fluffy.
But...beware...the fluffy windrow might not get you the best drying.
When you rake hay that hasn't been tedded, you can look back at the windrow and see where the "bottom hay" that needs drying is, by looking for green.
Generally, in that situation, positioning the rake far to the right makes a tight windrow, but the windrow ends up with the green stuff on top, ready to air out and dry.
In that situation, positioning the hay far to the left "over-rakes" the swath. So you get a fluffy windrow, but the green stuff gets flopped back over to the bottom where it won't dry out.
If you tedd your hay first, that doesn't matter.
In reality...if you tedd your hay, you aren't drying it in the windrow anyway. All the windrow does is pile it up nice and neat for the baler.
So...for years and years when I was raking, we tedded the hay to dry and then tried to rake nice tight windrows to feed the baler easily.
...This is my doctoral raking thesis from somebody that has spent WAY too much time on the rake.
Next time, we'll discuss the pros and cons of raking double windrows by raking over twice vs. raking one windrow against the other...