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south central IOWA | Every time you move alfalfa you're losing leaves and you want to be as gentle with it as possible. The best hay I ever made was mowed with an old Hesston self propelled mower that put the windrow about as wide as the baler. Didn't bother to rake it, just baled the mower swaths.
Here, I mow and put it in the narrowest windrow possible. Air dries it just as much as the sun. Leave enough stubble so it lays up off the ground. It's just stems down low anyway. My thoughts of putting it narrow are, you don't drive on any that smashes it down slowing the drying, it keeps the bottom half a green color and not sun bleached, and when you rake it it's already in tighter bunch so it helps cushion the fact you're dragging it across the ground.
I never do anything when there is dew. Mowing or raking. I don't want that extra moisture on the bottom that has to dry somehow. So I only mow in the afternoon and rake around lunch time. I never rake the day before because for one, if you get a dew the next day you're still waiting for it to dry on the bottom of the windrow and can't bale any sooner plus you're bleaching the hay you could of had green. Plus you take the chance of getting a rain. We all know that a rained on windrow is no fun to deal with.
Good luck and experiment. Lots of different ways to make hay.
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Need input on making alfalfa hay!
