what's a tedder?

Anonymous-0 · Mar 21, 2011

Been wondering for a while, what's a tedder? I see it in posts here from time to time. What does it do. I was born and raised on a farm and am a full time farmer and rancher that puts up 2000-3000 big round bales evey year and never used, or even seen a tedder. It sounds like some places can't put up hay without one. We take the swather, with a conditioner, out one day and cut and it is usually baled by sundown the next day just using a wheel rake to throw a couple windrows together. Just wondering what a tedder does.

Fawteen · Mar 21, 2011

It's either a little cloth bear, or a piece of lady's uh..."recreational" apparel.

Sorry, couldn't resist. "8^)

Actually, it's a rake-like device, often rotary, that lifts and fluffs a windrow of hay to promote drying. As I understand it, the idea is that the action of a tedder is less likely to damage the hay by knocking leaves off than turning the whole windrow over with a rake like we did when I was a kid.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 21, 2011

If you live in an arid climate you will not have much need for one .In the midwest,alfalfa can lay for days in high humidity conditions and never get dry if the ground is damp.There are several styles,but all lift and fluff the cut hay allowing it to dry .

Russ from MN · Mar 21, 2011

The people that farm near our cabin use a machine they call an inverter, turns the windrow over without twisting it, is that like a tedder?

Anonymous-0 · Mar 21, 2011

(quoted from post at 04:17:46 03/21/11) If you live in an arid climate you will not have much need for one .In the midwest,alfalfa can lay for days in high humidity conditions and never get dry if the ground is damp.There are several styles,but all lift and fluff the cut hay allowing it to dry .

Not really what you call an arid climate here, but last summer hay window was perfect. Ground was hot and dry and air the same. Mowed in the morning, tedded just after noon and again the folowing morning, raked and baled that afternoon. So impressed that I bought one of my own.

Dave

JayinNY · Mar 21, 2011

Here is a pic of a hay tedder. J

Fawteen · Mar 21, 2011

Dunno. Be interesting to see how that works.

Ken Macfarlane · Mar 21, 2011

No an invertor is not a tedded. In our wet climate you can't really make hay without one. I tried once when my tedder broke down.

I raked 9 ft windrows at least 6 times over 3 days of hot windy weather, still way to wet. It get soaked each night, and the water comes up out of the ground so fast is soaks the bottom of the windrow.

Greyhorse · Mar 21, 2011

An inverter doesn"t work the same from my understanding, it just flips a windrow over, I think some have a pickup and a conveyor belt. A tedder actually throws the hay up in the air a foot or two and spreads it out evenly across the ground, totally different machines.

Eldon (WA) · Mar 21, 2011

We use inverters here in "dry" eastern WA on irrigated hay. Since it is irrigated, sometimes the soil stays wet under the windrow, so the bottom doesn't dry out. An inverter puts the wet side up and saves time...so you can get the hay off and the water back on!

rustyfarmall · Mar 21, 2011

(quoted from post at 04:17:46 03/21/11) If you live in an arid climate you will not have much need for one .In the midwest,alfalfa can lay for days in high humidity conditions and never get dry if the ground is damp.There are several styles,but all lift and fluff the cut hay allowing it to dry .

I live in the mid-west. I've put up a lot of hay, and even though I do know what a tedder is and does, we never owned or used one, and neither did any of the neighbors. We never raked the hay into a windrow until the baler could follow about one to two hours later, and if we did get an unexpected rain and the windrow got wet, we just waited 'till the sun was shining again and then turned the windrow over with the rake.

Shetland Sheepdog · Mar 21, 2011

c-man,
Here's another picture of a 4 star tedder. The outside stars will fold up to vertical for transport. This tedder is 3 point hitch, as opposed to trailing. Note the hay laid out to the rear of the tedder, that is 2 swaths from my 2 meter discbine. The tedder spreads and fluffs the swaths for better sun exposure and air movement. The 2 stars on the left counter-rotate towards each other, and are tipped slightly forward to pick up the hay and throw it up and to the rear! the 2 stars on the right do the same.
HTH, Dave

Edit: This is the same tedder in transport position, (it stores hydraulicly)

KFD68 · Mar 21, 2011

Tedders are used in damper parts of the World, run through the grass swaths the day after mowing. The swaths are spread over the full width and grass left "fluffy" to allow the sun & wind to speed up drying before its rowed up for baling or chopping

Anonymous-0 · Mar 21, 2011

I have a tedder like Shet's that I use a couple hours after mowing or the next AM depending on when I mow. That evening I rake it with my pinwheel rake. The next AM I use that same rake with two of the wheels chained up to "invert" the windrow. I used to then run my ground-drive Grimm tedder/fluffer over it to toss and fluff the windrow. Several years ago I put a hitch on the rake to pull the Grimm. I now flip and toss in one trip. On a poor drying day I may do it again before I rake and bale. I'm working on gathering wheel(s) for my small square baler to eliminate the last raking. Couldn't get 'em perfected last year.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 21, 2011

Thanks for the replies guys. I guess we are "lucky" that we can usually get the hay dry just with a wheel rake and usually get it baled the day after cutting it. If we flat mowed it in the morning, we would probably be able to bale it the same day most of the time, using just a wheel rake and a little sun and breeze. We have used an inverter to get some proso millet dried that had been swathed and then rained on. It was basically a pickup with a conveyor that moved the windrow off the muddy ground. And the windrow was mostly tipped over so the wet bottom became the top. Worked quite well. Didn't shell as much grain as a wheel rake would have.

DanR · Mar 22, 2011

Years ago the side delivery hay rake was the forerunner of the tedder.

IA Leo · Mar 22, 2011

If a windrow got rain soaked, I "tedded" it with the horse drawn New Idea side delivery rake (tractor drawn). I had to throw the gear engagement lever the opposite way and the bar/tines ran in reverse quite fast, stirring the windrow. I think there was an "angle of tine" tilt control also and used to adjust that too. I think it knocked a lot of leaves off, but about anything that touched rained on hay knocked off a lot of leaves, even the baler pickup. The wooden Dain loose hayloader was about as gentle as it was lifting the windrow pretty slow.Leo

what's a tedder?

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