Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers?

   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #61  
no i didnt forget any 0s.i was talking about 4 by 6 round bales in 1 cutting.this year we will be running a 5 by 6 baler.it was prolly closer to closer to 110acs at 2 bales to the ac.an thats in the texas drought that weve been in off an on for the last 5yrs.
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #62  
A friend of mine that I help actually tedd while the dew is still on, seems to help with leaf loss and shake some of the dew off. We also went to a rotary rake, around here it seems to work very well.
We usually wait until it has dried enough that you dont get a shower while tedding, but I guess it would be incorrect to say that we wait till its fully dry. Tried tedding when there was heavy dew once and it seemed that all of the wet leaves stuck to the tedder...
We have also played around with swath width when mowing. We have found if the ground is damp it's better to mow and drop the hay in as narrow a swath as possible, then tedd. This allows the ground to dry, then tedd. If it's not damp then we lay wider, but not as wide as we could. Only because the tedder seems to work better than if we went with the widest swath possible.
Same here.

Aaron Z
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #63  
Thank you JasG. Good advise. I seem to grow a good crop of rocks each year. I could spend weeks with my Bobcat and a rock bucket picking rocks. I heard that a rotary rake works very well but does bring in more stones ( if present) and chaff when raking. Any truth to that?
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #64  
Thank you JasG. Good advise. I seem to grow a good crop of rocks each year. I could spend weeks with my Bobcat and a rock bucket picking rocks. I heard that a rotary rake works very well but does bring in more stones ( if present) and chaff when raking. Any truth to that?

We have a lot of rocks also, stones, and other stuff plus a layer of shale that every time we plow brings up stuff. As far as being a problem we loaned ours to a guy up the road who chops 100% of his hay and he liked it so much he bought one. Choppers and stones do not get a long so I would say if set up correct it should not.

Also if the wind is blowing, we have raked material before it was ready (earlier than we would with a rollbar rake) if it's not real heavy. It the same field the stuff raked cured faster than the stuff left alone tedded out. With 2nd cutting he liked to rake 1 day early in single rows, then double them right before baling.

He has a roll bar rake, we use it once a year just to use it, the grease it and put it away. He only keeps it around in case the rotary breaks.

Bottom line is he feels in the last 10 years he has gotten a lot of hay in with the rotary that with a rollbar would not have cured before rain came. Picking up at least 1/2 a day sometimes a full day.

You could tedd again, but then you end up with leaf loss and with day hay that has some green spots here and there. We have found tedding at that point the green stays on the bottom. With the rotary it's up in the wind row which is fluffy and seems to cure faster.

I think another reason is getting back to the ground. If the ground is damp at all it slows the curing down. Raking it up allows the ground to dry, yet with the fluffy wind rows the hay still cures.
 
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   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #65  
We usually wait until it has dried enough that you dont get a shower while tedding, but I guess it would be incorrect to say that we wait till its fully dry. Tried tedding when there was heavy dew once and it seemed that all of the wet leaves stuck to the tedder...

Same here.

Aaron Z

If we figure the dew will be burned off by 10:00 AM we start about 8:30 so we usually get done by 10.
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #66  
I'm sold JasG. When my time comes to invest in the equipment, it will include a rotary rake and a tedder. Thanks.
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #67  
I'm sold JasG. When my time comes to invest in the equipment, it will include a rotary rake and a tedder. Thanks.

I've got a Kuhn rotary rake as well... (I didn't want to push too hard on everything all at once!) You know - the old horse to water parable! :)

AKfish
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #68  
I'm sold JasG. When my time comes to invest in the equipment, it will include a rotary rake and a tedder. Thanks.

Glad I was able to help.

If you are going to look at used. Make sure the center section is still sealed good. On a Kuhn there are plastic spacers/fillers between each arm where they enter the center hub. If someone repaired the rake or had to remove and arm, they may leave one or two out. This allows dirt to enter and eat up the bearings and cast cam track inside. If you ever have to repair one, the spacers are a pain to get in if only 1 arm is removed. I have trimmed the plastic that holds the spacer in and then chalked it to stay in place.

I would also recommend a 4 wheel set up vs the 2 wheel because the 2 wheel will to bounce over every little bump.
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #69  
Great advise JasG. I have added these notes to my growing binder of wants, needs and what to look out for's. Thank you. This site has been great.
 
   / Inline vs Traditional small Square Balers? #70  
One more question for all of you reading this. Can you give your thoughts to this?

Rotary or Wheeled Rake. I like what I am hearing about the Rotary Rakes but how do they compare to a Wheeled rake? I hope I am describing this correctly so as not to look any more dense than I already am.
 

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