what picks hay up better

[donais]

I need a rake and am looking for ideas. I've got a side discharge now looking at either a wheel or rotary. Never seen either working(in person). The oat hay especially this year will be real short and light if I have enough to cut. Gotta love half inch of rain then nothing for atleast 30 days..the side discharge last year left about half on the ground it kinda combed it so all the stems were facing the same direction... Any suggestions?

 

[R W]

I need a rake and am looking for ideas. I've got a side discharge

What are you referring to. (type, make etc)

 

[bigbull338]

weve used wheel rakes for 30yrs or more an they do a great job of picking up hay.

 

[zionview]

Rotaries seem to make a fluffier windrow that dries a little quicker. Parallel bar rakes tend to "rope" the hay into a tighter windrow, which is nice to bale, but it seems to take longer to dry. Wheel rakes are gentler on the hay, you can travel faster in the field, but they tend to pick up more rocks than the other two if you don't watch how they're set up. I've used all three. If I need one today, I'd go with the rotary, but we need a lot of air through the windrows here in the East.

 

[DT86]

For light hay like you mention the wheel rake is the way to go, IMHO. As mentioned previously, you can travel faster and they are generally wider meaning less time raking.

In really thick hay ours never did very well but its about 20 years old and the new ones are obviously improved.

 

[sweettractors]

Wheel rakes would probably be the best. Ken Sweet

 

[bmaverick]

Depending on the rotray, some are dual purpose. They serve as tedders and rakes by swapping out the hardware. Thus, the tedder can fluff up and dry better (works wonders for alfalfa), then switch the tedder fingers to rakes before the bailing needs to be done.

Not so sure about wheel rakes myself. The area farmers around me tend to be replacing wheels or fingers often enough. That's money always going to the equipment. For the rotary, I have not seen needed repairs after a few uses like the wheel rakes. The rotary tends to be more up time. I'm debating now what rotary to go with. A dual or single since my use is around 10 acres per cutting.

If I had to do a rake, two or four wheels would be plenty. The six and eight plus wheels is expensive to own and operate. I often see many posted on CL. Some at cheap prices, but you need to by new wheels or wheel fingers.

 

[Tx Jim]

Not so sure about wheel rakes myself. The area farmers around me tend to be replacing wheels or fingers often enough. That's money always going to the equipment. For the rotary, I have not seen needed repairs after a few uses like the wheel rakes. The rotary tends to be more up time. I'm debating now what rotary to go with. A dual or single since my use is around 10 acres per cutting.

A rotary rake may not need much maintenance for 10 acres but I'll bet if one pulled a rotary over 1000's of acres similar to my H&S rake the rotary would require significant maintenance. My 14 wheel rake will rake 3 nine ft cuts into one windrow. Teeth on a wheel rake do break from metal fatigue but excessive tooth ground pressure will speed up the necessity for tooth replacement.

 

[aczlan]

Teeth on a wheel rake do break from metal fatigue but excessive tooth ground pressure will speed up the necessity for tooth replacement.

However, the same can be said for improperly configured rotary or bar rakes...

Aaron Z

 

[donais]

What are you referring to. (type, make etc)

Type not so mch who makes it (yet) I have to pick up real thin and short oat hay, dry farming in a drought really sucks! Hoping to get something from some fields that I had to just disc under last year. I mowed last year and it wasn't tall enough for the rake to rake it. It kinda just combed it