Hay, thank you for the info. Sounds like we're in a similar situation.  If I was to wait for a clear sunny 3 or 4 day forecast it might be a week or 10 days before I mowed hay, if then. Throws everything off.

Dan Undersander at UW Madison has said the same thing about making a narrow windrow to allow the ground to dry then tedding it out. Except after 3 to 4" of rain last week my heavy clay ground is saturated and going to take some time to dry significantly.

I really like the JD 630 Moco, especially the driveline. I am trying to cut high (4") as Dan also suggests, and put the optional skid spacers on. But to get to 4" I still need to run the cutterbar fairly flat and find it pushes if I start going too fast. I've settled at about 5 mph.

On the tedding, I have found with grass I can ted more than once. With good alfalfa as pictured above, it seems like tedding it once shortly after mowed minimizes the loss of alfalfa leaves.  Trying to put up dry hay this time of year in our climates though, you do what you need to do.

Hay is certainly an art as much as a science. Lots of decisions to make.

Thanks again.

Jim