With today's cool temperatures and near calm winds I don't think the alfalfa I cut yesterday would be ready to bale tomorrow without tedding.  Checked it today and it will be ready to rake and bale in the morning. I am just across the Mississippi river from 17821x and see the same results from tedding.

Tedding is one of those things that you don't know if you needed to do it until it's too late. Sometimes you can get by without it but in SC MN I would say it is going to save you some time most of the time.

I think one of the benefits of tedding in the very heavy black soils of SC MN is that it will let you mow a heavy crop into a very narrow windrow to let the soil alongside the windrow get some sun and dry out. Then you come back a few hours later and ted the windrow back out wide and thin over the now much dryer soil and many times that will be even better than leaving a wide windrow behind the mower.

I do think tedding is really a "here" vs "there" thing. Also some years they will probably save you a lot of hay, some years you may not need one at all.

BTW I bought mine from a dealer in NE Iowa who sells a fair number of them. jmho.

Jim

If you buy one for alfalfa run it at low rpm. There is a sweet spot for alfalfa in rpm vs forward speed. You do not want to throw it as aggressively as you can in grass.