|
|
| More rain this summer then last year, so I have been turning over quite a bit of swathed hay to dry after rain, or hurry it up drying before rain.
What I have to use is an Allis Chalmers 5-bar side rake; written on the owner's manual is the purchase date in 1961. Our farm used to be 100% A/C ( except for the Oliver potato digger) in the 1950's, 60's., this is the last orange piece of equipment from that era that still gets regular use. The downside of the side rake is that to merely flip over a swath from a moco, your left hand tractor tires are driving directly over the swath all the time.
I thought the this year would be the year to modernize this operation. My uncle has a "tedder", with fingers to fluff up the hay and fling it backward, does it result in a swath of hay too wide for a 5' baler pickup, meaning I would have to side rake it anyways to gather it?
How about rotary rakes (single rotor), just for turning over a swath? Effective?
There are several of the New Holland swath flippers around, with the pickup and conveyor belt. But dad tried one years ago and found that it "bunged up" on the heaviest hay,, wouldn't move the hay to the belt.
Suggestions? Are there YouTube videos of rotary rakes in action, just flipping over (not gathering) swaths?
|
|
| |
|
West Central Iowa | I have used both a single rotary rake and double rotary rake. In general a rotary rake takes the drier hay from the top of the original windrow and places it on the bottom while leaving the wetter hay on top and somewhat "fluffy". If the hay you are raking is already dry, there may not be a difference between rotaries, basket, or wheel rakes. But if you are trying to turn damp/wet hay in hopes of speeding up the drying process, rotaries will do a better and more consistent job. Sometimes basket or wheel rakes will rope damp/wet hay or even roll that wet/damp material onto the underside of the new windrow. You will not find that with a rotary.
The downside is that the average rotary rake will be more costly than its basket or wheel counterpart. It has more moving parts and over time will need more maintenance. There is also a "sweet spot" you need to find as well in regards to PTO speed vs. ground speed. Each company typically has some general recommendations as a starting point, but do not treat those recommendations as gospel. A number of factors including type of hay, thickness of hay, moisture of hay, etc. all play a role in figuring out the correct PTO and ground speed that meets your needs.
If you type "Rotary rake" in the search box of Youtube you will find a few videos of single rotary rakes. |
|
| |
|
Mundarlo,NSW, Australia | I would buy a rotary rake ahead of rollerbar or wheel any day, do a better job and no "roping"
I own a NH Inverter, far better than a rake for inverting windrows but I must admit I also had some bunching problems last time I used it |
|
| |
|
Adelaide Hills, South Australia | We had a Lely lotus 300 tedder rake. It was only 3.0m wide and had 2 rotors and would rake to the middle. The cranked tynes could sweep the ground well and pull apart lumps. It had 2 baskets that folded down when raking or shifting a row. When the tynes were shifted to the tedding position it would spread the grass as far as you want. It was also a cheap and simple machine. We only sold it because we went to a 5.5m tedder and 6.8m twin rotor rake. I would buy one again. I found a link:
http://www.lely.com/en/forage-harvesting/tedding/lotus-combi/lotus-combi_2
|
|
| |
|
west central wisconsin | A fluffer will leave the windrow width the same before and after, but to bale, it will still need to be inverted. A fluffer works well to speed up the drying process, but the hay will need to be inverted to get nice and dry. The rotary rakes work better for not making a rope out of damp hay, but they are not built very heavy and the gearboxes won't take a lot of punishment like the old NH bar rakes. H&S does make something called a haybuddy, I think, and that is a wheel or two off from a wheel rake and a fluffer all in one machine. |
|
| |
Tell me about hay Tedders and Rotary Rakes
