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It's hard to spread after you row it with a big Rake
You'd think so but surely you've noticed it's easier to see where you're going whilst tedding after a night's drying than after 1/2 a day's sun?It’s the sun that causes bleaching surely. It’s not normally out at night.
A lot of large tedder manufacturers often offer as an extra a night row gearbox ,this reduces the rotor speed hugely so that your 10m tedder now makes 5 small rows..It's hard to spread after you row it with a big Rake
It is in scotlandIt’s the sun that causes bleaching surely. It’s not normally out at night.
It's the proper way to make it.
If you get out of the cab and actually feel the ground/rows you'd realise that.
When we used the haybob I'd always move rows across and spread in morning. Row up in the evening. Haybobs aren't that good at moving it across though.
Now with the Stabilo, spread when the dews up, row up in evening. It's as much about drying the ground underneath as drying the hay.
Often I have arrived to bale hay for customers and it's crisp on top but wet underneath. They have just gone through the motions, not thought about what they are trying to achieve.
Modern tedding machinery doesn't really help. The old wuffler and turner was ideal for inverting the swath and moving the row across then the wuffler got some air in it.
The right technique can double the speed of drying easily dried grasses but ryegrass just needs a lot of time anyway as its slow to release the moisture.
With wrapping, the art of tedding has been lost. It doesn't matter if you are an any good at it or not other than being able to produce the correct sort of windrow for the baler. Many can't even do that, being unaware of how to set the tines and doors to give the baler man a chance of producing an even bale.
Is yours a standard lotus or a lotus combi? I can only move the tines on one rotor of my lotus but I might modify it if it would make night/wet day rowsWith my lely Tedder on the second pass I put the tines in to pull it in to rows and then spread it back out on the 3rd pass
Slightly off topic.....I got into the habit of tedding 2, or even 3 times a day when the weather was right. But is it better to let the top layer dry thoroughly and just ted once per day ?
Used to have the combi now just standard 6m lotus tines can move on all 4 rotors is that the same on the bigger onesIs yours a standard lotus or a lotus combi? I can only move the tines on one rotor of my lotus but I might modify it if it would make night/wet day rows
When I went to college, they told us turning and tedding were bad as you lost leaf..No. You’ve got two choices, you can slash it down, turn it once a day and bale it in a week or so or you can turn it straight behind the mower then turn it another three times a day and bale it in 48 hrs. Both take the same number of times to turn but the latter is a) less risky and b) results in a better product.
When I went to college, they told us turning and tedding were bad as you lost leaf..
When I got home , I brought a forage harvester, s*d handling all those damn bales!
Why would you shut it up in April to cut in Aug?I don’t get the British fascination with hay, fair enough if you had a fantastic hot climate but you don’t most years. Seems a waste of ground too. How many tons of DM per hectare would an average run hay paddock produce per year?
If it’s shut up in April but not cut until August, it’s not been very productive has it?
Do you have a roof on your fields thenWhy would you shut it up in April to cut in Aug?
I shut up in May to cut mid june/ early july