Hay Tedder waste of money?

[woodland]

I've never used a tedder but its gotta be pretty hard on alfalfa leaves. The guys with double crimpers seem to take at least a day off the drying, most seem to lay it about 8ft wide and then rake up. I have a pull type so leave it as wide as I can without driving on it and depending on conditions v rake 2 togeather or rotary rake individually.

I'm sure you know more about your machine than I do but have you adjusted/checked the roller clearance? 5 to 6 days seems excessive drying time for your machine unless its 100% alfalfa. It also helps drying time to cut a bit higher.

We’ve had a tedder for a few years and it’s not leaving the place anytime soon. You back your rpm down as it gets drier and you may lose some leaves but what’s it worth getting rolled up a day or two earlier?

Cheap and easy to operate. Sometimes our ground is like mud so you let it sit in swathes a day to dry the ground a little before spreading them out. If you follow the discbine then it doesn’t leave the hay fluffy since it’s so limp and heavy. You can always go at night or with the dew on to save leaves too.

It’s another tool in the toolbox. Ours paid for itself the first season. A perfect world wouldn’t require a tedder, bale wrapper, preservative, silage chopper, duals on the baler tractor, floaters on trucks, etc..... if the dang sun would shine for more than a couple hours a day and not be followed by the liquid version. Then you’d just need a baler. 😉



I was skeptical before we got it but wouldn’t be without it. This pic is from last year and I don’t think we’ll even attempt dry bales unless the sprinklers quit. Raining again tonight.

Any questions just ask.

[woodland]

Put the widest pick-up you have on an old swather and off set it, but make sure it still covers the throat so you can feed the swath straight through. Straight through will pick the swath up and drop it down . Move to the side and the canvas will flip the swath over very jently. Saved my ass few times . One night late at work my wife and co-workers Googled my name and discovered I was an inventor,been on TV and print all over North America a few times.

Hmmm a self propelled inverter. Very interesting. Great idea👍

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I modified the discbine. Sc****d all the damaged rubber off the rollers. Welded 1" square tubing end to end( but in segments). 1 1/4" spacing all around each roller, intermeshed. Run them really tight. Ends up squishing, almost breaking the stems almost every inch, and hay dries fast. Neighbors drive by really slow when I am baling heavy hay in 1 or 2 days with no additive. I'm sure they come back later with the tester.

It takes more HP, and makes a lot of noise empty, since the drives have too much backlash to run that tight.

I haven't quite figured out the purpose of a rotary rake. They don't turn the swath, they stand it up tall and narrow, and the wet from the bottom is mixed throughout. I want a rake to fully flip the entire swath upside down, wet side up in one operation. Have NH bar rakes (V or parallel by switching 1 rake), and Home made wheel V rake( which can also convert to parallel operation).

I borrowed a tedder once for wet lumpy swaths that had been raked already. All I accomplished was making the piles and lumps even bigger. must work better on a virgin swath.

[Hamloc]

I've never used a tedder but its gotta be pretty hard on alfalfa leaves. The guys with double crimpers seem to take at least a day off the drying, most seem to lay it about 8ft wide and then rake up. I have a pull type so leave it as wide as I can without driving on it and depending on conditions v rake 2 togeather or rotary rake individually.

I'm sure you know more about your machine than I do but have you adjusted/checked the roller clearance? 5 to 6 days seems excessive drying time for your machine unless its 100% alfalfa. It also helps drying time to cut a bit higher.

My discbine has 4 instead of 2 steel crimper rollers with adjustable hydraulic pressure. I purchased it new and this is its 4th season I believe. I have always thought it should flatten the stems more than it does as I run the hydraulic pressure up at the high end of the range according to the gauge. I will have to have a better look at the crimper.

[Hamloc]

Put the widest pick-up you have on an old swather and off set it, but make sure it still covers the throat so you can feed the swath straight through. Straight through will pick the swath up and drop it down . Move to the side and the canvas will flip the swath over very jently. Saved my ass few times . One night late at work my wife and co-workers Googled my name and discovered I was an inventor,been on TV and print all over North America a few times.

I can remember my Dad mounting an old combine pick up on our versatile 400 swather back in the mid 80s to turn sprouted barley swathes one wet fall. It worked very well.

[Hamloc]

Woodland a couple quick questions. I see you use a six basket tedder. How wide is your haybine? Do you think if I set my deflectors on my 13 foot discbine to offset the windrow to one side and go back and forth that a 4 basket tedder would do 2 swathes? I have gps on the swather and was thinking of cutting a bit less than 13.

[woodland]

My discbine has 4 instead of 2 steel crimper rollers with adjustable hydraulic pressure. I purchased it new and this is its 4th season I believe. I have always thought it should flatten the stems more than it does as I run the hydraulic pressure up at the high end of the range according to the gauge. I will have to have a better look at the crimper.

Is it possible that your rollers have too much gap? We changed out our NH rubber rolls to steel from a machine shop in Weyburn and had to do some grinding after installing them to run them real close without touching. Much better job than the factory but takes way more power. Maybe some crud has built up between the stoppers for the rolls?

[woodland]

I modified the discbine. Sc****d all the damaged rubber off the rollers. Welded 1" square tubing end to end( but in segments). 1 1/4" spacing all around each roller, intermeshed. Run them really tight. Ends up squishing, almost breaking the stems almost every inch, and hay dries fast. Neighbors drive by really slow when I am baling heavy hay in 1 or 2 days with no additive. I'm sure they come back later with the tester.

It takes more HP, and makes a lot of noise empty, since the drives have too much backlash to run that tight.

I haven't quite figured out the purpose of a rotary rake. They don't turn the swath, they stand it up tall and narrow, and the wet from the bottom is mixed throughout. I want a rake to fully flip the entire swath upside down, wet side up in one operation. Have NH bar rakes (V or parallel by switching 1 rake), and Home made wheel V rake( which can also convert to parallel operation).

I borrowed a tedder once for wet lumpy swaths that had been raked already. All I accomplished was making the piles and lumps even bigger. must work better on a virgin swath.

Are your rolls actually touching when they’re empty? I’ve thought about doing that but I’m not sure how the bearings would like it? Just curious

[Ab7]

Do you have any pictures of this crimper

I modified the discbine. Sc****d all the damaged rubber off the rollers. Welded 1" square tubing end to end( but in segments). 1 1/4" spacing all around each roller, intermeshed. Run them really tight. Ends up squishing, almost breaking the stems almost every inch, and hay dries fast. Neighbors drive by really slow when I am baling heavy hay in 1 or 2 days with no additive. I'm sure they come back later with the tester.

It takes more HP, and makes a lot of noise empty, since the drives have too much backlash to run that tight.

I haven't quite figured out the purpose of a rotary rake. They don't turn the swath, they stand it up tall and narrow, and the wet from the bottom is mixed throughout. I want a rake to fully flip the entire swath upside down, wet side up in one operation. Have NH bar rakes (V or parallel by switching 1 rake), and Home made wheel V rake( which can also convert to parallel operation).

I borrowed a tedder once for wet lumpy swaths that had been raked already. All I accomplished was making the piles and lumps even bigger. must work better on a virgin swath.

Do you have any pictures of this

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Are your rolls actually touching when they’re empty? I’ve thought about doing that but I’m not sure how the bearings would like it? Just curious

The rolls don't touch up and down, but when you rotate the slack out of the driveline and gearbox, the tubing on one contacts the tubing on the other. It gives a very effective crimp this way, and is quiet while full, but very loud empty.

[Hamloc]

A quick update, ended up buying a 4 basket Kubota tedder with the tandem wheel option. Started cutting Thursday afternoon and after getting 20 acres done was promptly rained out. I reduced my cutting width down to under 11 feet(13 foot disc head) and offset it to one side. It is a self propelled so we are cutting back and forth. We resumed cutting last night and I took the tedder out to try it. I was actually impressed, it spreads out 2 swathes at a time quite effectively. Now the question is can we get 4-5 days of sunshine and will teddering the hay speed up the drying process. Only time will tell lol.

[woodland]

A quick update, ended up buying a 4 basket Kubota tedder with the tandem wheel option. Started cutting Thursday afternoon and after getting 20 acres done was promptly rained out. I reduced my cutting width down to under 11 feet(13 foot disc head) and offset it to one side. It is a self propelled so we are cutting back and forth. We resumed cutting last night and I took the tedder out to try it. I was actually impressed, it spreads out 2 swathes at a time quite effectively. Now the question is can we get 4-5 days of sunshine and will teddering the hay speed up the drying process. Only time will tell lol.

Oh the Tedder will definitely speed it up at least a day. If in doubt leave a couple swathes as a test strip and let us know. Just started cutting some hay today and the ground is mud so we’ll leave the swathes for a day to let the ground dry some as well as the crop before tedding. We’re going to gamble a couple fields for dry bales with the forecast looking positive.

It’s almost August.............. shouldn’t sunshine and summer be here already?