SWATHING VS WINDROWING

[Anonymous-0]

Darned hard headed old timers! Got into a argument with the father in law, hes 77 Im 34, so I have to respect him, but dont agree with him, told him I open up the swather almost all the way when I mow hay. He said narrow it up your running the tractor on the cut hay. Well I say the hay is green so it cant hurt it that much, but as always Im wrong. Then he tells me sometimes to dry his hay he will ted it 3 times, So Im thinking the hay is a little dryer and more brittle, so he must be having all kind of leaf loss? What do you hay making guys think? I was gonna widen the front axle on my tractor, but the rear tires will still run over it, dunno j

 

[JoshuaGA]

If he's tedding hay 3 times, he is running all over his not to mention wasting fuel and time. You have it right. Swathing is best, windrow only in wet ground. Lay a wide swath to dry it, and then rake it to cure it. Only real way to prove who is right is to send a sample of each to a lab.

JoshuaGA

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thats what I tried telling him, the sun and air, wind can dry it better when the hay is spread out wider. j

 

[Paul from MI]

I always spread it out as wide as possible when cut, let cure almost entirely before raking. Idea being that you can rake just before noon and bale in the late afternoon, minimizing chances of getting rain on hay raked in to a windrow. Only crop of hay I ever totally lost was because I raked it too soon and it couldn't dry in the windrow. Not the best way, just how I did it.
Paul

 

[phillip d]

Who is paying for the fuel in this case?If he is,do it his way,if you are,do it your way.Simple as that.His way was probabbly the most advanced when he learned to do it that way and sees no need to change,afterall hi is 77.If it was me,I would do it the way you are suggesting,and laugh it off and say"if it doesn't work,I will hang my head and let you say you told me so".Just a thought,pd.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I pay for the fuel on my farm he pays for his fuel on his farm. But he is always trying to get the best mileage out of his car and truck, I mean hes really tight with a buck, so Im glad you brought that up. I had never given that any thought, but now I will ask him how much fuel you think your wasting for that.lol Thanks

 

[Don L C]

We raised Alfalfa....cut it...day 1....raked it, just before noon...day3...bailed in that after noon.....

You don't want to rake it ,but once.....

I lived on the farm back in the late 40s and the 50s......I am 72 years old......

 

[jd-tom]

Here's what I do with my NH 499 Haybine. I set the machine to lay a windrow out as wide as I can still just straddle with the tractor (I am still on wide rows). I end up with a wide windrow or narrow swath (however you want to look at it) about 5 to 5-1/2 feet wide. The balers I use can pick up that wide of a windrow so if the weather is decent I can bale right out of that narrow swath. It dries out faster than the windrow will but doesn't bleach out as fast as a swath does. Then I don't have the problem of the 2 tire tracks in the swath, either. If I have to tip it, its easy enough to do. Kind of the best of both worlds for me.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Laying it as wide as possible from the Mower/conditioner saved me a day of drying time. Especially for a first cutting around June 1 in central Iowa that let me bale it without rain more often. The extra day let me bale it a week later after it got rained on a few days.

Gerald J.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Jay,
What I found out was that the hay that I run over with the tractor wheel (rear) never cured out as fast as the hay that was not run over. Other than that I could not tell any difference in hay quality.
Bus

 

[Anonymous-0]

Depends a lot on your location and largely on what your cutting. Grass doesn't much care what you do to it so I'll presume your talking about alfalfa.
In our area, you don't want to run over both sides of your swath with the tractor tires.
Once you push both sides of your swath down into the stubble, you no longer get any air circulation under the swath and will stay wet underneath a long time. We always drop the outside duals during haying season and spread the inside tires out to the far ends of the axle so we're not running over any of the swath. The front tires stay spread all year round. If the top half dries and the weather holds, we'll go ahead and rake it into a windrow to dry the bottom half and its ready to bale.
We swath the 1st cutting but only take 2/3 of a cut (10-12ft vs 16) because its so thick or the swath never dries out before the next rain. Raking optional just to turn it over if it doesn't fully dry.
Full cut on 2nd cutting and depending on the year, we will swath and rake if its a wet summer, but its normally dry and we can usually windrow it with the haybine and bale it without raking.
3rd cutting and well into the dry season, we have to rake three windrows together to make a windrow big enough to chase with a baler.

 

[Cliff Neubauer]

I do both depending on a few conditions. If the ground is wet when I mow (not uncommon here during first cutting) I'll lay down a narrow windrow so the hay can be raked onto dry ground the next day (its almost impossible to dry hay on top of wet ground). The other time I'll leave a narrow windrow is if it's going to be cloudy and windy after mowing. With our 13' conditioner I can lay down a 10' wide swath so I can keep most of the ground covered with hay.

 

[Texasmark]

I don't do alfalfa but understand that it can get too dry and you have considerable leaf loss which is unacceptable.

I have learned in other types of hay that I need a windrow to keep the cut grass out of the next round cutter.....not as much a problem on a swather as it is with just a sickle mower.

I used to do the rake thing to flip the hay over to dry ground but found out that I was not getting anywhere and the more I raked it the more it rolled up in a roll which was slow to cure.

So, Now I have the cut windrow just inside the tractor's wide tire setting and on grass, I come back immediately with a tedder and scatter the hay which seems to dry best even though it covers the ground beneath it, which normally contains moisture. Then, if it's springtime when moisture is a problem, I may go back and tedder again, timing depends upon incoming weather and rate of drying.

Then only one raking and subsequent bailing.

On suday-sorghum, I just leave it where it falls till ready to rake and bale. When it is properly cured, I rake in the late morning and bale that afternoon, stopping before very late in the afternoon when the moisture starts rising.

Not an expert by any means but this seems to work for me.

Mark

 

[Lee in Iowa]

I still mow with a sickle mower so I always drive on the hay. I can't see that the hay I drive on takes any longer to dry than the rest of it I would think it would the same with haybine in a wide swath. I saw where one guy laid it out wide with a haybine and had a small divider in the center to leave a space so he straddle half the windrow. Lee

 

[Randy-IA]

I agree with both you and him . I'd also say it depends on how high you cut . I cut at about 4-5 inches . I'd open it as wide as possible but only as wide as the tire tracks . I've only been doing hay three years so I'm no pro but I agree that driving over it - at least around here in north central Iowa - will slow drying time in alfalfa , doesn't seem that it effects grass very much unless the ground is damp . I don't have a tedder ( wish I did ) but three times ?! Sounds like a waste of fuel to me . But if he likes doing hay so what ? I like to rake after I bale because I like being out there in the seat . But for six acres that's not that much fuel anyway . ...Randy

 

[Texasmark]

On the comment about over the hay 3 times with a tedder and the fuel cost......you can run in high range, as fast as you can stay in the seat when tedding. Additionally, the tedder is essentially a no load for a diesel engine. Time spent would be more of a concern than fuel.

Having learned the hard way that hay must be cured before baling and storage, I will do whatever it takes to help it cure.

As I said before, in spring, fronts come through about once a week here. I can't cut wet hay, nor do I really want to. It takes time for the soil to dry from a rain. So, to get it baled between storms, tedding is probably the best way to get sun exposure to all the hay and get it cured.

Just my comments.

Mark