What kind of rake - bar vs. wheel

[redman135]

Hello, bsrfarms97, That paddock I would call easy rolling, and is common in western waikato new zealand. Steep is when you drop a bale across the hill and it takes off end - over - end.Hunting for a flat spot to drop your bale can be a pain in some paddocks.

 

[Bison]

I have not found a rake i like in my 40 yrs of haying, they all seem to make a mess and cause losses. Besides once hay is raked and it rains on it you are screwed cause the next time you go over it to turn it the swath becomes like a thick rope and gives trouble with baling.

I like to just cut and leave it lay undisturbed in the swath and bale once its dry.
If need be to speed up drying after rain i use a 10' wide hydr driven combine pickup ( i mounted on wheels and pull with the tractor) to fluff the swaths up.
And i can do that more than once cause it leaves the swaths basicly in the same shape as when they were cut and they dry just as fast as with raking but without leaving a mess.

my 2c

 

[rtimgray]

I've never used a rake in association with drying hay - only raking after it is dry to form windrows for the baler to pick up. You are absolutely correct that if the hay gets wet in a windrow, it's a mess anyway (although I know we've turned it over with the rake to get the bottom to dry, it's still far from optimal). However, without raking, I'd have to make 2, 3, or 4 times as many "laps" around a field to get all the hay picked up, at a much slower speed than what I can rake, and I'm sure my baler pickups would still leave some hay behind.

To clarify, I cut with a disc mower, so I don't know if a practice of note raking is associated with a different type of cutting apparatus or not.

Good luck and take care.