Making hay without a bailer

[rankrank1]

John Deere 594
aka side delivery rake

Yep a John Deere 594 is indeed a side delivery rake. They work great for cheap money $100-$200 or so usually gets you one that can be made to work (as long as not in Amish Country where they will likely sell for more).

On rehash, I forgot that the OP mentioned he already had a rake that had been converted to 3pt. Hence the OP may not actually need a rake. Hard to tell though since we do not know what type of rake he has. If that rake is something like one of those little Furgeson 3 point rakes or those Dearborn 3 point rakes (or other manufacturer equivalent) then that would likely be more than sufficient and he would not need another rake. I hear those little Dearborns and Furgeson 3 point rakes are just the ticket for small odd shaped fields - although I have never used one.

 

[3v0]

Another handy implement if you can get one for cheap is a dump rake. You pull them around the field collecting up the dribbles and bits you left behind while stacking. When the rake gets full you trip the dump leaving behind a neat pile. Then you can pick it up with the loader and add it to the stack. They generally have two steel wheels and a seat. Most were made to be pulled by a horse which explains the seat. Many have been converted to a trip rope that can be pulled to dump from the tractor. I have never seen on that was too worn out to use.

This picture is cute because the guy is pulling it with a 'remote control tractor'.!



Thinking about it with only a few acres to do you could easily do it all with a dump rake.

 

[rankrank1]

Another handy implement if you can get one for cheap is a dump rake. You pull them around the field collecting up the dribbles and bits you left behind while stacking. When the rake gets full you trip the dump leaving behind a neat pile. Then you can pick it up with the loader and add it to the stack. They generally have two steel wheels and a seat. Most were made to be pulled by a horse which explains the seat. Many have been converted to a trip rope that can be pulled to dump from the tractor. I have never seen on that was too worn out to use.

This picture is cute because the guy is pulling it with a 'remote control tractor'.!

View attachment 314013

Thinking about it with only a few acres to do you could easily do it all with a dump rake.

Those dump rakes are pretty much totally obsolete as a hay raking unit. While I agree that they will make hay windrows, albeit a slow way to make them, they are totally useless as a hay drying tool since there is no way to flip the windrows for better drying like a side delivery rake can do. Hay gets rained on and you can actually fix the damp mess and save the crop with a side delivery rake - no way of saving the crop with that thing as it is totally a 1-trick pony. Need to tedder the crop for better drying on humid days? An old side delivery can serve as an improvised tedder in a pinch and excels at flipping already existing windrows to dry the other side? Really, any of the old side delivery rakes are vast improvement over that style of dump rake in every way imaginable. A side delivery rake can simply serve more functions, while still doing the only function that the dump rake can manage much faster to boot.

Actually, that rake might be most useful as an improvised hay sweep for making large piles for shocking the hay but even that is a unlikely use that might prove more frustrating than rewarding. I think a homemade sweep on a tractor loader would be much preferable to that dump rake for gathering and piling hay.

Worse news though is those dump rakes usually sell for much more money than scrap iron price as people like them for yard art and pay ridiculous sums for them to use as decorations (at least in my area). So you pay more for one of those dump rakes over a side delivery rake and its capability is much less in regards to usefulness.

 

[vtsnowedin]

A dump rake isn't as bad as that. I've used one quite a bit with horses. You can flip a winrow by coming into it and dumping it again a few feet from where it was. The problem with using them with a tractor is that you need to hook up a rope to trip the dump mechanism that is a foot pedal to the left of the seat. If you use one try to always rake towards the heads of the grass as they fell from the mower as they pick up much better that way. A side delivery rake is of course much better if you can get one.

 

[mikehaugen]

Someone, maybe Bushog, called the removable side a 'hay door'. The theory is, that being knocked around under the deck crushes the crop giving a result similar to a conditioner, and makes it dry faster. In my experience the mower threw the hay out the side before chopping it up too fine.
I've used a 5' Woods Cadet with a hay door to cut hay and was well satisfied with the job it did in springy, pasture grasses. I wasn't satisfied with the way it cut long stemmed crops like Sudan Grass or Millet because the tractor tires bent and broke the stems and the mower would't pick them back up, or cut them, causing me to lose hay.

I have a woods 72-3 and one side is removable, I always wondered why... I guess you really do learn something new everyday. Thanks.

 

[AndyL52]

The bush hog type cutter had double blades. One blade was sharp to cut, the other was for slinging the hay out. It had like a round bar where it would other wise be sharp. The two blades ran together with the cutter blade under the sling blade. It would cut the hay one time and sling it out the side.

 

[3v0]

A little harsh on the dump rake rankrank. If you read my post I suggested it for cleanup and only as a sole rake if he only had a few acres. Now I was thinking like 5 or less. Maybe you were thinking a few is 50.

I takes a while for this stuff to perk to the surface in that I have not made hay in some decades but it does come back in time. Tradition side delivery rakes with rotating bars were replaced by wheel rakes which have a lot fewer moving parts and wear surfaces. They have been out long enough that older, smaller versions of them may be affordable. May be hard to find one small enough.



Was just thinking you may be able to find a pull type windrower you can afford. It saves one trip over the field as it combines a sickle mower with some method to collect the hay into windrows. Older ones uses canvas with slats. While you are out equipment hunting you may find one. It is a step up from the bushhog or sickle mower/rake. You still need a side delivery rake if you need to turn the row over to dry. If you need to do that depends a lot on where you live. For us it was normally dry enough that it was not an issue unless it rained. It was far more common to have to put up the hay in the early AM when it was still damp.

 

[Bladehauler]

I mow about 6 acres a year just to have a place for my grandsons to ride, play ect. I was thinking of haying it for my goats to eat during winter months. I don't have a bailer, just a bush hog with the back open and a old rake converted to 3pt, I do have a front end loader and was thinking of cutting it, letting it dry, raking it and using a loader to pile it up around a pole like old timers would do. Tarps
are cheap so my plans were to cover it and use it during winter months. Does this sound like something that would work or should I just let the grass lay in the field and buy a few round bales when needed.

this might be a good way to involve the kids and bale hay for your goats!

Baling Hay by Hand May 2012 - YouTube

 

[rankrank1]

A little harsh on the dump rake rankrank. If you read my post I suggested it for cleanup and only as a sole rake if he only had a few acres. Now I was thinking like 5 or less. Maybe you were thinking a few is 50....

I takes a while for this stuff to perk to the surface in that I have not made hay in some decades but it does come back in time. Tradition side delivery rakes with rotating bars were replaced by wheel rakes which have a lot fewer moving parts and wear surfaces. They have been out long enough that older, smaller versions of them may be affordable. May be hard to find one small enough.

View attachment 314080

Was just thinking you may be able to find a pull type windrower you can afford. It saves one trip over the field as it combines a sickle mower with some method to collect the hay into windrows. Older ones uses canvas with slats. While you are out equipment hunting you may find one. It is a step up from the bushhog or sickle mower/rake. You still need a side delivery rake if you need to turn the row over to dry. If you need to do that depends a lot on where you live. For us it was normally dry enough that it was not an issue unless it rained. It was far more common to have to put up the hay in the early AM when it was still damp.

No the OP has 6 acres so I was not thinking anything like 50 acres at all. All my recommendations would change dramatically on a 50 acre parcel. I stand by everything I wrote regarding a dump rake. I have yet to see anyone use one as a hay making tool anymore and there is no chance in Hades that I ever will use one (and all I use is junk for my haymaking hobby). Only use I have seen anyone get out of dump rake is as a thatcher for collecting yard trash and sticks. Around me dump rakes sell high as decorations only so they would not be a good value anyway. The JD 594 rake I mentioned is also obsolete, but at least it is still useful in multiple aspects and can be picked up cheap. There is enough tough metal in them to keep them going for another hundred years.

I agree a sickle mower is a step up for a true haymaker over a bush hog . However, There is a maintenance cost to using that sickle mower. Guards break and wear and they are pricey. Sickle sections need sharpened frequently and or will need replaced if the unsharpenable kind. Again this all takes time, money, and effort. Sickles are prone to plugging so you get frustrated backing up all the time. On top of that you get zero conditioning benefit out of a plain ole sickle like you will with the bush hog. As I pointed out in my previous posts: it is easy for a haymaker in high dollar hay to justify a better hay cutter. It will not be so easy for the OP to justify it though as he is simply going to make a few piles for his goats. The bush hog offers zero maintenance (grind sharpen the blades every now and then), sorta conditions the hay, and will never plug up (and the OP already owns an EXTRA rough bush hog to use for the cause). Only downside is the 30 % yield loss which I pointed out in another post - again not likely to be an issue here.

Lastly, climate and region of the country do make a difference in haymaking methods. Texas and the plains of Oklahoma can certainly eek by with drying methods that simply will not work in the humid regions of the Midwest or Northeastern parts of the country. Even then hay still gets rained on there too. I can easily save that crop with a side delvery rake regardless of geographical location. No way could it be done easily with a 1-trick pony dump rake.

FWIW Those wheel rakes can be good or bad like you have now pictured. The old ones ain't worth spit and they do not work well. The newer ones work well and are fast. Only downside to them is that every piece of trash, stick, limb in your field ends up in your hay. More dirt ends up in your hay too as the tines rubbing on the ground powers them and that dirt has to end up somewhere. Regardless you ain't going to find a useable one of them for $100.

I have read the OP's original post (as well as the OP's follow up posts) maybe others should read them too. There is nothing wrong with several of the posts in this thread - they just do not belong in this particular thread since they do not pertain to the OP.

 

[3v0]

Obviously you have strong views and think you know better so this thread is all yours. I have no desire to debate.