Sickle mower dry time?

What are you using for a rake? I like to have hay laying flat, spread out about(with a Tedder). There are a few times through the year that I can get hay dry without tedding. I NEVER rake grass hay until dry enough to bale the same day. If you have a rotary rake, it can buy a few hours max of drying. Just my opinion as many have their own process.

Will that Ted?

We used to let it dry 2-3 days. Then rake and bale. That was in July tho. Different deal in Oct. hard to dry anything this time of year. 

Cutting it with a sickle bar means it lays more even on the ground not piled up like a haybind or disc mower.I'm still cutting hay with a NH 456 trailer mower and baling it the 2nd or 3 day no problem.Good thing is this time of year hay can be given an extra day or two to dry and it doesn't burn up like when its in the Summer when its in the mid 90's.Baled some fescue clover mix one year after Thanksgiving for a guy that was in a bind about his land use.

roll bar rake that I saw reversed the direction of the bars so that instead of rolling opposite of the direction of travel to make a windrow it flipped the hay straight back. baled lots of hay in NE OHIO And humidity is more important than temp. Often helped by later in year grass is trying to go dormant and not as lush.

There is a lever. I'll have to read up on them. I've read quite a bit on the dangers of bailing hay when too wet but all those are in reference to alfalfa hay which from what I read is a bit different than orchard grass. I understand mold is mold, but at this point I don't want to completely give up on it since it's going to rain Friday Saturday and Sunday here. They will probably only be about 5 4 ft by 5 ft round bales and if I have to I will unroll all of them before they can grow any mold on our fenced in pasture just so it doesn't go to waste and the cows get to eat it.
It's not perfect by any means but I have been working on replacing the gearbox in this sickle mower and many other components and this looks like the last opportunity to get it cut and share with my cows even if I have to unroll it immediately I will so it's not a complete waste of time and money!

Edited by Hunt4Allis - 13 Oct 2021 at 8:50pm

I can understand bloat if released onto a new field of alfalfa or clover if they've never grazed before and it shocking their system but my cows are always grazing on pasture throughout the year. I will be looking at that lever more... Thanks

I tried mine in the other position but it seems like it's either lost the ability to run in reverse or never did begin with. When I moved the lever to the other position other than neutral it feels really tight and it seems just the same as in neutral...

I did get it dry enough and in round bales before the storm comes!
Thanks fellas for the info

Edited by Hunt4Allis - 14 Oct 2021 at 8:39pm

Worked for a neighbor years, and years ago, who cut with a haybine, and had a jd 336 baler. He special ordered that baler with the extra wide pickup, and set the haybine windrow ‘in’ just a little bit so he never needed to rake. If the hay got rained on too much, it was chopped for haylage.

What is haylage? How do you make it and what do you do with it?

Hunt4Allis wrote: What is haylage? How do you make it and what do you do with it?

Ray, yeah, different areas are surely different.  Here in the MItten, you either cut oats before they head out, our tube wrap them or chop them, because they would take FOREVER to dry.  And probably be rained on many times.  I remember reading about a machine that put steam or mist or something on hay to INCREASE the moisture for baling.  I'm like, WTF?!

dr p wrote: There was a study published in hoard's dairyman a couple years ago that grass hay mowed with just a sickle mower (no conditioner) dries faster than grass hay that gets conditioned. Sounds counter intuitive to me but the breaking of the stem slows respiration. Not true for legumes

Ok,now I have a few min. These are facts for this week making hay in Gettysburg pa.
My neighbor cut fields of orchard grass sometime Monday with a Moco discbine with the flails off, Tedded 1 time late Thursday afternoon with a Basket Tedder, raked today with a basket rake and attempted to small square bale today using high moisture applicator.
After stopping around 3:30, he came over and asked how I could be baling with no preserver? He saw me using a roll bar rake and noted that in the conversation. I then stuck several bales on my wagon checking moisture, range was 14.5-16.0. He then thought my tester was not reading correctly so I stuck several bales they had made— readings were over 21% and several checks were over my checker at 24%.
I mowed the field of orchard grass Monday night using an old 492 haybine w/circle C crimping rolls set at full pressure, tedded the field each day (4 times) with a basket Tedder, raked today using a NH 256 roll bar rake at 2:00, started baling at 3:00.
Weather conditions were the same, high humidity for 3 days, went up to the upper 70’s and might have made 80 today. I believe my field was a little thicker because of fertilizer and he cut last about a week behind me. His basket rake should have allowed a little more drying than the roll bar( I didn’t feel like using mine because I hate hooking the 3pt hitch up and I was short on time). I also mowed a little higher than the discbine. We both have NH balers except his was hooked to a 4020 JD and I was using a 185 AC. They still have 1/3 of the field on the ground . These are the results for today. We have talked back and forth several times about the best methods. I don’t buy into cutting and let lay to dry as best method because the grass laying under does not breath at the most critical time(within the first 12 hours).

Edited by allisbred - 16 Oct 2021 at 7:15am

Fed one to our cows and there hammering it

Now I'm confused 🙄