hay rake landscape rake question

   / hay rake landscape rake question #1  

mmccallum

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Mar 18, 2008
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I have a small 3 A area of land that I would like to cut and harvest for hay. I am wondering if a landscape rake would work to gather up the hay if putting it into windrows. Frankly, the cost of custom baling is out of my price range so I intend to simply cut the hay let it dry and then rake it up throw it in my pickup and shove it into the barn! So, having never used a landscape rake or seen one used, I would not know. However, it is clearly similar to the old skulky dumping hayrake that was used back in the 40's minus the dumping mechanism.

thanks for the feedback! :)

Texarkana, Texas
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question #2  
How are you going to bale the hay? If your going to pitch the hay into the baler with pitch forks then you can use a landscape rake.

But otherwise no, a side delivery rake is designed to turn the hay over and allow air in and around the windrow. The windrow is then uniform for the most part so that the baler can make decent bales without any problems of plugging or inconsistent windrows.

Just read your post again and I missed the part where you said you are going to haul it loose. In which case the landscape rake would work fine as long as the hay is dry before you bunch it together.
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question #3  
Well I suppose it would work if used like that. Just rake across on the stubble and don't get it into the ground. I hope you have a good pitchfork and are ready for a lot of work though. I know that they used to use the sulky rakes to pull the hay in rows so it could be gathered to haul to the baler. I have an old sulky rake in a fence row, but I've never seen one used.
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question
  • Thread Starter
#4  
thanks!
loose it will be@ :)
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question #5  
A dump rake and landscape rake are pretty diff...I dont think a landscape rake is at all suited to the task of being a dump rake. First, the the dump rake has very tall deep tines that accumulate a goodly amt of hay, the landscape rake doesnt and wont. Second, dumping the accumulated hay is going to be MUCH easier w/ the dump rake as the tines lift up and really dump the hay. Not sure how that wold work w/ the landscape rake. Third dump rake tines are thin and springy and are curves in such a way as to not dig in. Dont think a bump between ground and landscape rake would be as happy. Best situation is to find a used dump rake...theyre still around...and fit it to your tractor w/ a rope actuated dumper. Before jumping into this Id look for the dump rake. That said, Ive used a dump rake for gleaning hay that rake/baler left behind and they do clean up a field.

Like your idea of putting hay up loose. Also have done that (after the baler knotter stopped working) and w/ another person or two isnt that much work. In fact it was pretty fun...or at least a change of pace from tossing bales. :) We had a hay wagon and I think if you could come by a small one would find that better than the truck. Loose hay takes up a LOT of room.
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question
  • Thread Starter
#6  
My first choice, of course, is to find a dump rake. There was one on ebay, but the darn thing was sitting up in MI!!! Supposedly, they are pretty cheap if you can find one because no one uses them much anymore. traditionally, they are used with one person sitting on the rake and horses pulling. Later, they were adapted for attachment to a tractor, however one person still had to be on the rake. If I find one, I'll adapt it to the tractor and then do some tinkering to get the dump lever workable from the tractor seat.

Still watching for one. I have about a month before I will need to cut the hay so about a month to find one! :p
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question
  • Thread Starter
#7  
where in OK are you and would you be interested in getting rid of it?
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question #8  
something I notice while tryin' to pile weeds. Make a sharp turn and lift your 3pt at the same time. The weeds kinda roll out of the rake. I then turn the rake 180 degress and push every thing into a pile for burning. bjr
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question #9  
mmccallum said:
I have a small 3 A area of land that I would like to cut and harvest for hay. I am wondering if a landscape rake would work to gather up the hay if putting it into windrows. Frankly, the cost of custom baling is out of my price range so I intend to simply cut the hay let it dry and then rake it up throw it in my pickup and shove it into the barn! So, having never used a landscape rake or seen one used, I would not know. However, it is clearly similar to the old skulky dumping hayrake that was used back in the 40's minus the dumping mechanism.

thanks for the feedback! :)

Texarkana, Texas

How do you plan to mow your hayfield?
I have 10 acres of pasture land with 7 acres available for haying.
I bought a nice Allis Chalmers 80T tow-type sicklebar mower (6-ft bar) for $150 from a guy south of town.

DSCF0063Small.jpg


These old sicklebars had a windrower attachment

Windrower-JD11trailtypesicklebar-1.jpg


Not the most desirable type of windrower since it tends to rope the hay pretty good. That may or may not be a problem depending on how wet the hay is at cutting time. But something like this might be of interest to you since it does two jobs with one pass over the field. And it can be a fairly cheap solution to your problem if you can find an inexpensive sicklebar mower in your area.
 
   / hay rake landscape rake question #10  
Flushers post reminded me...at some point youre going to need to turn whats been cut so itll dry evenly. How are you going to do that...hand or machine? If the later I bet you could find a Pequea ground driven fluffer tedder (or similar) for short-ish $$. You could tow that behind your truck or tractor easily.
 
 
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