West Central Alberta Coldest, wettest edge | "here" a rained on double swath is almost a write off. Best success I've had is to fluff them up first to get air into the swath. We built a fluffer out of an old combine pickup. Baler usually just makes piles or plugs while trying to run very wet hay through while fluffing. Once they are drier, I attempt to separate them with a wheel rake, which usually creates big piles and a big mess, if that won't work, then I'll try turning them over together, but 6 feet of swath will not roll over without turning some wet side down again. I have added a batter board to the back of the rake to throw the windrow against so that it doesn't curl under again, if that makes any sense. Even if they roll over nicely, The edges of the swaths are inevitably still wet side down.
I expect you get somewhat warmer drier haying weather in Montana though. |