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Hay Raking

F

Farmall 504

Member
What causes roping when you're raking hay? Too high of ground speed or an adjustment to the rake itself? Using an IH-35 rake.

Help appreciated.
 
In my experience it's a lot to do with rake design. Some rakes are more inclined than others. Speed, kind of hay and dryness probably influence.
 
I too have a IH 35 rake, I find the roping comes if I try to move a windrow sideways. I rake my swath then revers directions and rake another swath into the same windrow to get a size windrow the baler likes. If I misjudge and end up with a space between my windrows and need to move one closer to the other I am inclined to get roping. gobble
 
Look for an adjustment to tip the top back or bottom forward. Don't know if yours has it, but the new Holland's and my case rakes do. Tipping forward tightens the row back fluffs it.
 
Easy way to solve the problem of your rake making hay ropes , is sell the old roller bar rake to someone who thinks they are great. Then take your money, put some more with it, and buy a modern pto rake. Or a Vee style wheel rake. Your problem then becomes somebody else?s problem.
 
If using a PTO rake, and the roping continues, stopping the PTO where the ropes get bad for a second. this will make a break in the rope. you could also rake sideways through the windrows at 40 foot intervals. Bale up those knock out rows then make normal rounds. We had timothy hay that pulled in 50 feet of heavy rope until the shear pin failed. We ended up using 3 tine hay forks to make breaks in it. There was only 10 acres, but aggravation is a powerful tool. Jim
 
A rotary rake is the way to go.Makes a nice fluffy windrow which allows air to move through it.
cvphoto2618.jpg

These windows were raked with a rotary rake a couple hours before I baled it so they settled some since first raked.
Paul
 
I travel slow to rake hay use a new Holland 256 rake. don't want all the leaves flying off the alfalfa. then if I have to tip the hay before baling it I catch the windrow 1/2 way or less in the rake or where ever it will just flip it over and not keep rolling it. but yes if your traveling fast it will just start rolling.
 
In my humble opinion the best HAY you will ever make will not be touched by any sort of rake period. I believe a lot of people lose track of the leaf loss I guess just to have a nice heavy row of hay to bale? Someone please educate me on why so many rake perfectly good hay?? I guess it makes a better looking bale but the good lookers are not always the best. ( Hay that is)


cvphoto2620.jpg
 
I agree , I totally try to avoid the rake. but if you see clouds coming sometime it needs a speed up.
 
no way you would get hay dry here without it. Hard enough with it. 3 days without rain in the last three years was a real stretch. And here the dew is what most call a rain. Takes til noon for the dew to dry and by dusk baling is all done because the dew is back. Of course we take right at the end of the dew in the morning so the hay is tough and less likely to loose leaves.
 
Well, for me here in SW Michigan it's because this is one of the cloudiest places on earth, with low low night temps during summer. And my field is surrounded by trees, and I'm growing grass hay without alfalfa so it seems to lay flatter.

So, it can be a real challenge.

Our family farm back in Kansas is quite different.
 
Ah I see what you mean. If that is the case then if just trying to flip over to dry, and you have to use the bar rake I would take the teeth off of about half the width of the rake so you don't catch the next windrow, and just catch the windrow with the end of the rake enough to flip it once. Takes a bit of practice to get in the right spot and get speed just right but it is quite doable. With the right tread width on tractor you should be able to adjust the draw bar so you don't have to run on the hay. My favorite hay tool for drying is a tedder that straddles the row and lifts/fluffs hay so it opens it up to dry. It even helps to pull apart the hay you rope up! I have often turned hay over with the rake and immediately followed with the tedder. With a bit of a breeze blowing it makes a huge difference in dry time. Also with the tedder the faster you drive the better it works. This pic is hay that got rained on and flattened right down and I flipped then tedded.
cvphoto2630.jpg
 
Thanks Jim, Mine is just ground drive. I'm thinking it's just kind of the nature of the beast, as others have said. It's not a big problem, just noticed last year if I had to rake more than once.

Factoid: Paw Paw Michigan is just about the cloudiest place on earth. 163 days of sunshine. Permacloud from Lake Michigan is what we call it. So that with trees around the field, very low night temps and lots of dew make drying difficult. Nothing like my boyhood days in Kansas where we often didn't rake at all.

Appreciate your help as always.
 
I was a Lake Michigan born youngster. Just 8 miles west of Michigan city. Lake effect sure does that. we had a timothy crop that had to be raked using 1/3 of a seven foot swath to allow the baler to run. Jim
 
I've never been accused of being the brighter penny in the jar but this is an issue. Farming, correct me as I am limited, is to a degree kind of like sailing. You are very much dependent on the weather. How you rake, high or low, speed and can you set up to ted your hay is an art. This is an antidote for an addict. A healthy one I think. What are you feeding? What is your product? Horse hay or something in front of the feeder for cows? I love the whole process, it is , I like to believe, pondering the meaning of such a word, a positive experience. Breaking into a bale of hay and seeing what you've got giving the conditions of last year or the year before and the exercise, is an antidote for life and the practices we can fall into. I count my blessings and not often enough.
 
is your top of the basket leading if it is it will rope more from what we used to see,yours looks just like our oliver rake probably same unit in different color anyway make the bottom of the basket stand up more in position it will force the hay forward instead of roll under effect. should have two bars up toward the front hitch. make the bottom of basket have more lead and try that. thats what we use to do.
 
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