"Tedder"... A Mans Best Friend

Almost no one in my neck of the woods uses a tedder, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Hardly anyone grows much alfalfa (we don't have the right soil for it), and they all stress over getting their hay to dry. I've been using a tedder as a primary piece of machinery for about 5 years now, and last week was good reassurance for me as to why a tedder is truly a grass hay producers best friend.

 

A week ago Friday (June 23) I cut 12 acres into wide swaths, at the exact same time I saw my neighbor cutting one of his fields into narrow windrows. The next day (Saturday) I tedded it while I watched my neighbor turn his with his side rake, and then that night I cut another 12 acre field. On Sunday I raked and baled the first field at about 12% moisture and made almost 3 ton to the acre while I watch my neighbor, with no success, try to bale his hay and obviously stop due to high moisture readings. The next day (Monday) I tedded the second 12 acre field and by early evening we were able to start baling it due to good hot weather while I watched my neighbor finally start to be able to bale his first field. 

 

Now this is where it gets interesting. The forecast for Monday was 20% chance of T-storms for Monday night, but by mid day Monday that chance had increased to almost 100% (sometimes I want to strangle the computer that creates these forecasts). Needles to say that we baled and picked up with the bale wagon faster than the Duke boys could drive the general Lee. Well, the T-storm that wasn't supposed to hit until after 8pm actually hit at about 7pm, and it hit with a vengeance like I've not seen here in a long time putting down about an inch of rain in no time. Thankfully when the rain went from nothing to torrential downpour I had already unloaded the wagon in the barn and was on my way back out empty. otherwise my whole load would have gotten drenched. 

 

My wife was baling when the storm hit, and when she came out of the field the poor baler looked like a drowned cat. But all said and done, we only had about 5 ton in the field, and about half of it was in bales (small squares). At this time, I look over at my neighbor, and he's got about half of his field baled and still all in the field.

 

The next day (Tuesday), the sun came out and the wind blew. So as soon as the stubble was dry we cut the bales open and spread everything out with the tedder, including the fully drenched windrows. In the late afternoon, I hit it all again with the tedder, and by evening we were able to bale it up and put in the barn dry. In reality, you couldn't hardly tell the difference between this hay and the non-rained on hay. It looked and smelled great.

 

My neighbor on the other hand was unable to do anything with his hay, so there it sat in the field. And Wednesday... It rained again . So, to be a good neighbor, I lent him my tedder and he was finally able to get his hay baled and out of the field. Needless to say... he ran out and ordered himself a tedder.

 

I thought it was interesting to be able to really see the difference between using a tedder and not. So, the moral of this story is that if you grow grass hay and have ever struggled with getting it to dry, then figure out how to get yourself a tedder. You won't regret it.

 

Sorry for the long read. It just seamed like a story worth telling .

 

Happy haying.

 

-Kyle

"Tedder"... A Mans Best Friend