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| I've been looking for a 6 basket tedder. With our Vermeer 1030 a 4 basket doesn't do me a whole lot of good over a 2 basket, with the exception of having heavier clutches. I found a couple of used Vicon hydraulic rearfolds. They are 2005 models and don't look to bad. The same dealer also has some new clearance M&W(made by Sitrex) 6 basket horizontal folds with a carrying frame. They are about $2,000 higher than the used Vicons. Any opinions on these? Should I be looking at something else? It seems we are doing more and more tedding and I'd sure like to speed it up without breaking the bank. I priced a new Vermeer TE 250, also, and they are nice, but I'm glad I was sitting down when he priced it to me. Double the price of the used Vicon's, and seven grand over the Sitrex. |
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| What kind of acres per hour do you get with a 4 basket? |
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Little River, TX | Everything has their strong and weak points. Regardless you will find the weak points.
A 6 basket system is nice to have with large acreage. You can run a 4 basket tedder with a 40 hp tractor, I used a 20 hp tractor for a while and it managed.
Just make sure what you buy has a way of throwing the hay away from a fence row.
I have probably said this before but a big reason for a tedder is to keep the stoma open and get through the first drying phase ASAP or before dark if possible. The closer to 48% moisture the hay is at dark the less respiration there is, & over night the less nutrient and weight loss that will occure. (The folks in the high Desert Country get cold enough at night to stop respiration. ) It is direct sunshine on the hay that keeps the stomata open and heats up the moisture inside the stems. Cloudy weather and not much curing is done that first day. Raining and you are going backwards.
If I had some help I would have the tedder running as soon as the swather was half through the field.
Edited by Hay Wilson in TX 7/6/2008 09:22
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Little River, TX | Can go without using a tedder for several reasons.
First their customer is not going to pay them for the extra expense to produce the added nonstructural carbohydrates (sugar).
An even better reason is they have so little humidity the leaves will be gunpowder dry when they try to rake.
Edited by Hay Wilson in TX 7/6/2008 09:20
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| I don't neccessarily consider us "large acreage" but I don't have a whole lotta labor and a 17' tedder doesn't do much good over a 9' with a 15' conditioner. |
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Chilliwack BC | I'd say maximum 6-8. People who claim to go much faster must have good fire insurance. |
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Little River, TX | To me these 40 to 100 acreage hay fields are large acreage. Really there are a number of hay growers in the west who cut 3 or so circles of hay each day for several weeks running.
A good measure of a large acreage is the amount of ground that must be baled with more than one small square baler. Some of the real hay growers bale using 3 large square balers.
The first tedder I owned was a 4 basket machine. It did well working up the hay from a 9 ft NH Haybine, mower conditioner. I would ted two swaths at a time. That Haybine mostly built a 4 maybe 5 ft swath, but I usually dropped the hay into a narrow windrow, then. Plum ignorant of me I know but that is the way it was.
With selecting better alfalfa varieties and doing a better job of fertility management I now cut with a 9 ft 411 Diskbine. I both ted and rake using a NH 254 combination rake tedder, carried on a Ford 30 hp tractor.
My limitation here is I only have two sometimes three hours between the time the hay is too tough to bale and when the hay is shattering leaves excessively. ( I have became too old to bale at night and work all day 20 years ago)
Now on a good cutting I will ted the hay the day of cutting. Then the third morning at first light, rake a loose windrow with the rake set out full width, 13 ft. The fourth morning the hay is raked into a narrow windrow to bale out of.
If it is a reasonably good cutting I will set the rake for 7 or 8 ft coverage, have one basket raking and the other basket as a tedder again. Then the third morning I will rake this together with the rake set out full width. Sometimes I will bale this windrow but many times it will be raked into a baling windrow the fourth morning. Counting the day of cutting as day one.
On a light cutting I will adjust the swath to have enough to rake. Usually 3 to 4 feet wide. I will rake the hay the second morning with a roll bar rake combining enough swaths to make a good baling windrow.
My third cutting is usually in June. For this one I will cut with a simple disk mower to reduce the potential of blister beetle contamination. During June the sun is right overhead and there is 0.40" of evaporation each day.
The last cutting will be in late September early October and this is again cut with the Diskbine. |
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SCPA | KUHN, 8 rotor, flex-fold, and yes you really need to be sitting down, and perhaps slightly "numbed", but if you are serious about making high yielding hay, in here there is just simply NO WAY to get heavy first cuts dry without the tedder. Mine tends to go visiting frequently during first cutting.
Wilson is also 100% correct in get the tedder running no more than 1.5-2 hours behind the mower. This past week I dropped a small piece of brome(baled up at 8,018#/acre) on Tuesday AM, flipped it with tedder in early afternoon, flipped it again around noon Wed, had it in shed at 14% moisture by Tuesday evening. Neighbor mowed same time, other side of township road, did NOT ted until Wed around noon(mine went visiting), his yield was similar, but could not bale until later Thursday afternoon. He came very close to getting his "washed". A properly set and operated tedder is worth at least 12 hours drying time.
I had a Vicon, now have a KUHN. |
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Tedder opinions.
