MoCo question

[T Dew]

Until recently I have been either borrowing equipment or having the neighbor make my hay in trade for him keeping what he needed. For the last several years I did not have my own cows, so this was a good arrangement. Now that I have my own cows I need to keep my hay for myself, and that means buying my own equipment. A lot of people are telling me that I should really go the way of the mower conditioner, but I have gotten mixed information on them. If I am using the MoCo can I skip the tedder and go straight to raking the hay and then baling? We have been using a NH Discbine and not using a tedder, but I recently told that was wrong and we should still use a tedder despite the conditioner in the discbine.

If I still have to buy a tedder, a rake, and a baler, I am not sure it is cost effective to go with the mower conditioner vs just a disk mower plus the others. I'm using a 115hp tractor for the work, so I have the power to pull any of them (I think). It is just a matter of what is the best course of action for the long run. I've made enough mistakes in the past buying something for right now. This time I am trying to plan ahead.

We are currently only running hay on about 40 acres, but I am looking to increase that in the coming years.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Tom

 

[DJ54]

The MoCo will make the hay more palatable, and the tedder sure helps turn up the green spots that may be in the hay if it is heavy. Tedders are also great for hay that has been settled down with a heavy dew, or fluff it up to dry if you get a shower on it. Around here, I've lost complete faith is the weather people, and most times a 3 day window is all we have.

I make a lot less hay than you will be, and store it inside, so I want it dry. The tedder will be your least expensive piece of equipment, but well worth the money in my opinion. Wouldn't be without one now.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

You almost can't go without a tedder. Like the previous poster mentioned, we usually only get a 3 day shot and even with a conditioner on our mower we tedder almost as soon as we are done mowing to help fluff things up and we usually tedder again the 2nd day so we can rake and bale the 3rd.

 

[aczlan]

I agree with the others. We have a mo-co (NH479 IIRC), a tedder and a side delivery rake and we use them all. The tedder will help get things turned and help get the bottom stuff to dry before you put it into a windrow.

Aaron Z

 

[T Dew]

It sounds as if everyone is in agreement that the tedder should be part of the deal. Is the moco worth the additional expense over just a regular disk mower? I don't want to spend more money than necessary, but I am also interested in just a one time expense. Cry about it and eventually forget it. Versus realizing later that the moco would have been a much wiser investment. In the grand scheme of things it is not a whole lot more money, but it is still a few thousand more.

I'm also torn on storage. DJ stores his inside. We have pretty much always left the hay outside, but I am really over that. People that store inside: can I get away with some sort of three sided building? When I was a kid we stacked the square bales in the loft, and that was easier and harder. It was a lot more work, but it was more manageable than the big, round bales. I don't want them in the elements, but I do not know if they should be fully enclosed somewhere.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[aczlan]

Around here, it is worth it to get a mo-co as it will take a day off of your drying time (based off of the time when the overrunning clutch on ours died halfway through the field and I had to finish with a sicklebar mower. The conditioned hay could be baled on the afternoon of the 3rd day after it was cut, the other hay took another day to dry).
If anything, I would get a mo-co first and wait a year for the tedder... A 3rd option would be to get one of the rakes where the arms can either tedd or windrow. A little more, but it might be cheaper than both a tedder and a side delivery rake.

On storage, if you can site the building right (open end away from the prevailing winds) and you can get a tarp to cover the 4th side in case there is an odd wind, a 3 sided building could be doable.

Aaron Z

 

[T Dew]

It sounds as if I should go ahead with a fully enclosed building, since it never really works quite right when trying to put the open end away from the winds. I would hate to go to the expense of another building and still get the hay soaked in a driving rain.

As for the mo-co, it seems that is the way to go. I'm in the market for the equipment, so I may as well just bite the bullet and do it right. Otherwise, I'll always be thinking I should have spent the money.

Thanks for the input guys! I really do appreciate it.

 

[D7E]

Back in the uk on small farms everyone had a tedder but but here i dont know anyone that has one and cutting 400 acres of hay ourselves i see no use for one ..a decent mower and rake will do . Personally i am glad i switched from disc mowers to haybines with rubber rollers for running cost and reliability reasons .

 

[T Dew]

That's really interesting that you say that, since no one in my immediate area uses a tedder. We are on smaller farms for the most part in the 100-200 acre size, but still not super small. Up the road about 30 minutes from us it seems most everyone uses a tedder. I just wonder if that is more a product of good sales pitches than anything else. With good weather the hay usually dries in a couple of days or so in the field without a tedder (using a haybine to cut). Either way, it seems the best thing to do is buy some sort of moco to cut and seeing if I need a tedder.

 

[Turbys_1700]

We've made hay here in NC for over 70 years without a tedder...
Started out with a sickle mower, roller bar rake, and square baler...
Currently use a haybine, roller bar rake, and baler...
With that said, a tedder is a great tool and is of great value...
If I was getting in the hay business it would be discbine, tedder, round baler...
For horses it would be a square baler...
Your budget will determine what you get...