tedder

[jd2210]

I'm getting sick and tired of watching my hay get ruined while I wait for it to dry. My cousin does custom baling and swears by a tedder. Does anyone out there use a tedder on heavy alfalfa or red clover? what is your typical drying time? Do you like the one you have, and how much do they cost?
I've looked at Krone and some Italian pile of junk and man are there differences in quality. I guess that's why one was $8500 and one was $1500

 

[cowboydoc]

They may help a little but I really think they are over rated. For the cost of a tedder I would put a preservative system on your baler. You aren't going to cut your hay much more than a half a day sooner. With preservative you can get a good day and even up to two days. Plus with alfalfa it is really hard on the leaves to ted it even when the hay is still wet.

 

[slowzuki]

I don't know how you can make hay without one, its hardly possible in our area. (Atlantic Canada)

The usual proceedure is cut in morning with a mower conditioner, let the ground dry out, ted the next morning, if an exceptionally hot dry spell you can bale that night, otherwise it stays to be raked the next morning and baled that afternoon.

Things to speed up the process, Cowboydoc has a good suggestion with the acid sprayer. I read there are now custom operators with macerators in Canada but those are very $$$ and lose some leaves. Not much else you can do from my understanding of alfa-alfa being sensitive. Balage or silage is common here.

For grass crops the non rubber roller mower conditioners are supposed to knock a day off but they would knock the alfa-alfa to pieces from what I read.

If you want to try tedding on a small scale to see what it can do for ya, see if a dealer will loan you a used tedder to try on a small area. Most dealers here will do that for people.

Ken

 

[Bird]

Ken, I guess it depends on the climate, type of hay, etc., but anyway, I've never used a tedder and never even seen one in use. The neighbor I had whose full time business was hay had one (I had to ask him what it was the first time I saw it), but said he very rarely used it; only when he had to, and that it knocked a lot of the good leaves off the hay so you wound up with poorer quality hay when you had to use it.

 

[HayDR]

jd2210,
It is just like in auto's, there are many different models that provide the same operation. The Italians have lighter and heavier duty units. The Germans and French usually purchase their medium and lighter duty tedders from the Italians and MFG the heavy duty units for their upscale markets. We sell tedders priced from $500-$10,000.

 

[jwcinpk]

I wouldn't be without one here in the south where the hay is usually so thick by the time we get the first cutting it won't dry without one. Mine is a Sitrex. I bought it new 4 years ago and have used it for about 30,000 sqaures and a few hundred rolls. No problems at all. I agree it is hard on leafy hay like alfalfa, but for fescue, orchard grass, etc theycan't be beat.

 

[sweettractors]

We cant do hay very well without a tedder. In recent years, the weather gives us a couple days of sun and then we have rain in the forecast. Alfalfa is a bit of a problem, if you ted the hay when it is too dry. Our nice First Choice 2 rotor model starts at $1099--Ken Sweet

Sweet Farm Equipment LLC *New 20 Ft hydraulic fold tedders $3300*

 

[jd2210]

thanks guys. I have a very unpredictable climate so this may be the answer for me. I don't like feeding black bales very much.

 

[cowboydoc]

James,

Before you spend alot and are disappointed most of the guys that posted on the positive side for a tedder were talking about grass hay. On grass hay it does help but on clover and alfalfa it has ruined as much quality in our hay as it has saved us. It's like night and day doing hay that is alfalfa compared to grass. Besides 5030 on this board anyway I don't know anyone else that does much alfalfa.

 

[jd2210]

thanks for the warning. It actually was the main reason for my post in the first place. We do mostly alfalfa and clover so I may need to rethink. Maybe I'll just break down and wrap some bales. But that is such a pain, and we make 2000, 1800lb bales a year so that would cost $6000 in plastic alone. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

Yea I know I'm in the same boat. The preservative system has been the biggest saver for us. You can bale hay as high as 30% but it takes alot of preservative. Whatever you do in hay it's a gamble for sure, especially when you do alfalfa and clover. Tough to get good hay. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[HayDR]

jd2210,
If you would wrap hay for haylage 4x4 or 4x5 bales will be all the wrappers will handle. A 4x5 haylage bale will weight up to 3000 LBS. If you bale 5x5 bale you will not be able to handle them unless have a tube style wrapper and a tractor with a front end loader capable of lifting 4000+ LBS.
The best thing about haylage is you almost double your feed value. So the extra cost for the plastic is not wasted.

 

[jwcinpk]

If you are careful and don't thrash your alfalfa or tedder it after it's too dry you won't hurt it so bad. Yeah it's gonna knock loose some leaves and seed on better grasses too, but I always looked at that as reseeding every year. Here I could not do without one. If the hay is that good it outta be in sqaures anyway.

 

[Ledgemere Farm]

My brother has a Lely (Spelling)PTO drive, a New Holland rotary, and a Grimm ground drive. Tedding has always ben an integral step in haymaking with us. With the Lely, you can adjust the sweep and keep the windrow after you rake.

 

[5030]

Richard:

I am glad the plus 30 worked out for you. I read the thread and I can see you are sold on it. One thing I did was switch the nozzles for smaller T-jet orfices and run the static pressure at about 25psi. It seems to atomize better that way. You have to watch your application rate, I'm sure you know that now. I over applied a couple of rounds and they have a definite citrus smell to them. I'm going to set up the square bailer too.

On the tedder thing, I have a Agco tedder in the barn. It's collecting dust. It's way to hard on alfalfa. I like the rotary rake though. This year, the side delivery rake is collecting dust too. I have 600 second cut squares in the barn and another 1000 coming in. Come January, they will go for big money. I have a field that I late cut this week that will go in rounds, though I'll probably feed the square bailer with in the barn this winter especially if forage goes as high as I think it's going to. They will have plus 30 on them too. Anymore, the tank is always full just in case. Lots of nice second cut forage around here went to crap. Nothing like brown mulch windrowed in fields. Turned so many times that all that is left is stems. We have skirted the rains every time. I am very lucky.

I have to do chemistry on the square bailed hay thats up now. From the looks of it, I think the protein will be high.

I agree wholeheartedly. I much prefer the plus 30 over tedding. Leaf loss is really high especially the more you flog it around. I always had the tedder for that "emergency". The first thing any knowledgable buyer is going to look for after dust is leaf conntent and then stem thickness and whether it was properly crimped.

Richard:

For the tip, if I ride the bike out there next year, are you buying dinner?? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

Daryl,

I'll either take you out to dinner or grill you a nice big purebred angus at the house. We have plenty of room if you want to stay the night or weekend too.