School me on tedders

[Southtowns27]

Hey guys. I have a small haying operation, about 25 acres that I put up in square bales for horse hay. I've been doing this for about 15 years. Currently, I use an old NH Super 55 rake to flip the hay, but obviously, it windrows it at the same time, so I always have to rake the hay twice to get it dry on both sides. I'm looking to get a tedder, but I really don't know much about them. What I do know is that they'll take the row of hay from the haybine and kind of just scatter it all over to help it dry. Do you just ted once or does it need to be done multiple times to get all the hay dry? Can the tedder re-windrow the hay or do I still need the super 55? What size should I be looking for? Any makes/models to stay away from? If anyone has any further input that'd be great. Thanks!

 

[bg/mo]

Sounds like to me you should be letting your hay dry longer before you mess with it, but if you tedder right after you cut, let dry then rake. Should only have to rake once

 

[Anonymous-0]

We had a Kuhn tedder when I was growing up in WV. Lots of dew and humidity, so drying hay was always a challange. We used a Hesston PT-7 to cut and condition, leaving the windrows as wide as possibile. We ran the tedder over it immediately after to scatter the hay. The tedder contributed more to the drying than the conditioner, because it got the hay up off the ground and scattered it a lot. Occasionally we might have to run the tedder twice, and it saved a lot of hay that got rained on. The tedder is no substitute for a hay rake.
The Kuhn tedder had two rotors and looked kind of flimsey and light weight. However, we never had any problems with it

 

[LAA]

A reel type tedder does not scatter the hay everywhere and does not knock the leaves off as bad. Pequea and Grimm are two makes that are available either 7 foot or 9 foot width, H&S makes one also. I built mine out of an old hay conditioner. Just right for flipping windrowed hay.

 

[James Howell]

We bought a Deutz-Fahr KH40 tedder to use just in case the hay got wet.

The only purpose for our tedder is to scatter the hay all over to help it dry faster.

Take a look at our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIC6pkBkGwQ">first "dry" run</a> with the tedder.



We rake the hay into windrows with our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlcFC8Di37s">JD 640 hay rake</a>.

 

[RodinNS]

I use a rotary redder. We have a NH 254 tedder/rake combo that does a decent job of tedding if it stays together. Haybob's are also good reliable machines that do a VERY good job of tedding but they're narrow... so slow if you have a lot of acres.
Kuhn and Claas also make good machines. I'd go with the better deal of those two if I needed a new, larger machine.
For a small operation the Haybob is hard to beat tho. Lots of them around used in this area as nearly everyone had one at some point in time. Parts are reasonable.... and the machine can often be bought pretty cheap at auction. Think 200-500 bucks for a pretty good one that will suit you for some time.

We get going with the tedder fairly early in the morning the day after the hay is cut unless we've got a real big pile down, then we probably start right after the mower just to cover the ground in time. We'll try to only do it once but if there's rain coming or the hay juse won't dry then we keep going until it's dry. 2, 3, 4, 5 times if necessary. It's got to be black and rotting away before we quit and leave it there...

Rod

 

[NEBeef]

We use a Kuhn rotary tedder. When we tedd relative to cutting depends on the ground conditions. If the ground is fairly dry we'll follow the haybine with the tedder, kicking it out as soon as possible. If the ground is damp, we'll sometimes leave the cut hay in a windrow for some period of time to let the ground dry out. WE usually tedd twice - first pass fairly high implement speed to spread the hay out, then as the hay becomes somewhat dryer, we'll do the second pass slower to stand the hay up a little more.

We're using a Kuhn rotary rake now too, and that does such a nice job of creating a tall, stable windrow that catches the breeze that we're skipping the second tedder pass often with first cutting hay. A significant improvement over the old side-delivery we used before..

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

I see you have a basket removed too. They work a lot better when all the baskets are on.

 

[James Howell]

Had to order a small pin for the drive shaft on the right basket.

<a href="http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa5/jameslloydhowell/Deutz%20Fahr%20Tedder/?action=view¤t=IMG_1318.jpg" target="_blank">

</a>



We were making a short "test" run in the video.

You are exactly right; tedder worked really good once all four baskets were in operation.

The tedder is now waiting for additional repairs to right gearbox;

 

[backwoodsfarm]

I use a Kuhn GF 440T and it is virtually bulletproof. Can"t live without a tedder here in the upper Northeast. I cut in the afternoon, ted the windrows out the next day after the dews off. If the hay is really heavy, maybe ted again in the afternoon. Next day, I ted as soon as the dew is off, let it sit for an hour than my dad starts raking and I"m following with the baler. When I first started reading this forum, I was absolutely amazed that there were people that made hay without a tedder. I guess it"s the we way we have to do it here.

 

[495man]

Kuhn or derivatives.....For 25 acres a 2 basket unit is ample...and less gear boxes, parts, folding connection etc to worry about.

A pto draw bar two basket can run on 15 PTO HP, get one of those and just about any tractor with a PTO can handle it.

I can't think of anyone "here" that even attempts to make hay with out a tedder.

 

[MIKE W (NY)]

...we put up same mount of hay here south of buffalo a tedder a must... yes kuhn and krone are best but i had some forein model that i bought cheap and used for 10 years and it did good job just traded for u 2yr old hesston and that is way better was gonna get a 4 star but for waht i do 25-30 acres 2 star id fine so if you find a good 2 star dosent have to be a higher end model at first that will work for you.. maybe down the road trade it off