raking hay

[JDJACK]

Can hay be raked the opposite way it was cut?
I have always been told that it must be raked the same direction it was cut.

 

[wally b]

With a wheel rake I can't say I have noticed much difference.

wally b

 

[thurlow]

Had never heard that hay needed to be raked in the direction it was cut 'til I started hanging out on YT; raked (and baled) hay for the better part of 50 years using........at one time or another......all the different 'types' of rakes. Never paid the slightest attention to the way it was cut.

 

[Charlie M]

The old style rakes had a hard time making a nice corner if you raked counter clockwise - maybe that's where the idea came from.

 

[jcrane]

I have a 9 wheel rake and I rake every and all directions with absolutely no problems. I have also never paid attention to which way the hay was cut.

you could drive yourself crazy with this idea!

my advice would be to forget about it and rake your hay (however you wish)

j crane

 

[Nebraska Cowman]

I have noticed in certain conditions it would pick up the hay better one way than the other. but most of the time you can't tell the difference.

 

[willie in mn]

Don't know if it was right or wrong, but this is the way almost everyone in the neighborhood did it many years ago.
Drive in a counterclockwise pattern, always turn left. If raking 2 swaths into 1 windrow, kick the first windrow again on the second pass.
Turning left swung the rake away from the windrow, leaving a small area not raked. When finished with the main body of field, clean up the corners making a big X. Bale the X first. This leaves a gap at the corners making it easier to make the turn.
A few people raked straight across, end to end. Maybe it was easier raking, but turning the baler with rack behind made it necessary to skip a few windrows, come back & get them later. Also a lot of deadheading across the headlands.
WJ

 

[Chuck Daniels]

rake into the heads,disc mowers throw heads forwad sickle mowers throw heads back so rake same way you sickle mow and oppisit the way with disc mower,same with baler

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 22:26:36 07/06/11) rake into the heads,disc mowers throw heads forwad sickle mowers throw heads back so rake same way you sickle mow and oppisit the way with disc mower,same with baler

Just exactly what will cause a disc mower to lay the heads the opposite direction of a sickle mower??? That's something I never noticed while cutting hay. I thought that both type cutters laid the heads the same direction.

 

[yallardeere]

I feel this came from SQ baling since a sq baler turns right better than left

 

[Allan in NE]

Not one nickel's worth of difference.

Allan

 

[Jim in Ma.]

It don't matter. I'm old school and All work is done turning to the right. The exception would be the outside edge.

 

[Kelly MT]

I cut with a self propelled machine and start at one side of a field and cut across back and forth. I rake with a V rake the same way doubling the windrows. So one is raked with the cut and the other against the cut. You can't see any difference.

 

[dansuper27]

All turns with the old standard hay rake is to the left unless you have one of the few right throw hay rakes. Of course with a hydraulic double doesn't matter which way you turn.

 

[Brian in MA]

Once I've spun the hay out with a tedder two or three times the heads are in every direction and you can't even tell which way it was mowed. I say it doesn't matter.

 

[Leroy]

That is just exactly backwards. You raked clockwise and that rake gave a perfect corner to follow with the baler. Only if multi passes to one row ever turning left and that was first pass for that row and one or two rows raked to the right turn to finnish the row. And you would still have that perfect corner.

 

[NEBeef]

Never paid any attention to that, I tedd and rake in whatever direction makes sense at the time. I could lay out two bales of hay, one raked and baled one way and one the other and I'd like to see someone tell the difference, LOL. And even if they could tell the difference I'd then like them to tel me why one was any better than the other, still LOL...

 

[SadFarmall]

It makes no difference at all. I have double and triple raked light crops with a 1919 side delivery rake, so I had to rake in both directions and it made no difference at all. Consider also the outside row which is mown in the opposite direction to the rest of a field. Consider that the outside row must be raked in from the fence and that the next round with the rake must be raked back out… could be a job for myth busters.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

I've seen this addressed in the Ford 532 operator's manual. They said to rake in the same direction to throw the heads inside the windrow. However, this book was written in 1966, when the 515 mounted mower was popular. As someone else stated, with a gyro-tedder, all of that technology is out the window. Fritz