the basics of raking & tedding hay 

If one were to give an example of the right way to make someone stick around until the end of a RU-vid video, you would be that example! You explain things with just the right amount of detail at just the right speed. I've learned more from just a few of your videos than I have from anyone else's videos in the last month. Another thing you do is move your camera shot a lot. I feel like that is a very overlooked video trick that I wish more people would try. This is definitely one of my new favorite channels! These kinds of hay equipment videos are right up my alley too considering I've gotten into making my own hay within the last year. The neighbors used to do it before I started doing it myself. Thanks for all of the helpful advice! I've been around old hay equipment my whole life but you still managed to cram a lot of new knowledge into my head. Keep up the great work and have a great rest of the day - Everett

I really like how well you explain each part and how every step works thanks for your videos

I have never seen an easier explanation for haying. Thank you for the videos and keep them coming.

I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about haymaking--mowing, tedding, raking, baling, or storing. I'm watching RU-vid videos both out of curiosity (my dad was an Illinois farmer LONG ago) and in doing some backstory research for a film script I'm writing. Thank you SO MUCH for the informative videos. You cover a lot of detail, but in a way that is actually entertaining to someone like me with zero experience. I really appreciate the way your videos have a beginning, middle, and end like a compelling story. Who knew windrows and baling twine could be so interesting!

I last put up some hay with a sickle mower and a dump rake helping my Dad on our childhood hobby farm 40 years ago. I most probably won't ever be in the hay business again. But I can't stop watching and learning from your videos! You have a gift of communication and teaching, my friend. Keep up the excellent work that you're doing. I'd watch your teaching video of advanced jet propulsion if you posted one!

It's obvious that that you take pride in your hay work and that you truly enjoy it. While I was watching, I was thinking about Grandma telling how she makes biscuits. It's like a pinch of this and a bit of that and add buttermilk until they're just right. You then put them on your favorite biscuit sheet and when the stove is just about right, you put them in. After you let them cook awhile, you pull them out when they look done.

I am new to haying, although I did it as a young person, mainly lifting the small bales to the top of the barn and walking the fields. It is amazing how far haying equipment has advanced with the large round bales and the tedders. After watching your video it has inspired me to tackle my 200 plus acres of hay rather than lease the property out again. You sir, are very articulate and are truly amazing the way you explain everything. With much appreciation from South Alabama.

With you being a architect I think you would know the best way to rake your field . I have watched a lot of hay making video and you are by far have been the best at explaining things . I can't say this enough about how I love watching the Farmall tractors .

I came to this video with the idea of showing my husband what a hay rake looks like. He grew up on a farm, and they had a tractor with a spike and a brush hog, but I guess they never had a hay rake. I grew up on a farm, too, with a tractor, a hay rake, a sickle mower, a brush hog, a spike, a square baler, a round baler... but I was today years old before I knew that there was a such thing as a tedder! We were talking about this tonight because I just found out that my Dad and my brother experienced a hayfield fire and their tractor, two rakes, a mower, and a over hundred round bales burned.

Have had horses all my life and wondered how to do hay. Thank you 😊

I grew up on a dairy-farm in CT, everything was horse drawn, did a lot of tedding by hand. Great videos, brings back a flood of wonderful memories.

You really explain things well. Very informative and easy to understand!

I've done a lot of raking on the seat of a 656. Used to use my great grandpa's International steel wheeled side delivery rake. I now use Kuhn v-rake to rake with. Awesome video!

Thank you for making this video, the rancher I help out is having me rake his fields tomorrow and I want to get a good idea of what I’ll be doing. Very informative thanks again.

Just found this channel. What a great video! Articulate and to the point. Great camera work! 13 mins of knowledge that applies to my small farm THANKS!

We are about to close on 34 acres in central Texas that was used to grow hay. We escaped the Atlantic northeast to leave the city life. Your videos have been extremely helpful in getting our little operation going!

Wow! It’s about time! My dad had a fluff Tedder on the farm back in the 60’s. You’re the first person I’ve heard talk about a tedder or even know what it is. Thank you. 😊

My father has a New Holland 256 hay Rake and a new Holland 133 hay inverter

Thank you for an excellent series on how to cut,tedder and rake a field to make the bailing process easier and affective. This is my first year at haying and thanks to you lm off to a great start. Thank you great series.

Thank you for making this series, it is very interesting! We just cut our own hay for the first time and have a lot to learn still. I look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future!

Spot on again Pete!! I really do enjoy your videos they are so detailed and informative. Great work!!

Always wondered how to use tedders. We don't have many up here in northern Canada but have seen them at heritage demonstrations further south. Good to know they are used with hay that is not too dry, makes them useful in my mind now:)

I started with your first haying video. I started playing MS Farming Simulator a couple months ago. It's getting me interested in all this yard work, windrowing, baling and harvesting and stuff like that. Thank you for showing us the real world of these processes!

Love the straight talking knowledge you put out. Cheers to you and your family and farm.

Hi Pete, Watched you video before heading out to rake a 6 acre piece of a neighbors field. I have a small sheep farm and had trouble getting someone to bale, so we decided to purchase some equipment and using a 25 HP & a 38 HP Mahindra we started learning. Today was my best day preparing the field to bale tomorrow. Thank You! BTW I am using a mini baler by Yanmar and produce 55 pound round bales. Having a love hate relationship because I love the size but cannot use a hat elevator to get it in the loft. I'll be following you more often now.

Once again I loved this video. My brother that I partner with bought what I consider for us an expensive buy, a 4000 dollar V wheel rake. It was a change from our old side delivery take, but I love this rake ..

Thanks for all your awesome vids. I love your style of teaching. I've learned a lot about Dexters. Makes me less nervous about getting them soon.

Nice job!

I never knew about tedding. I only saw side rakes rolling rows over to dry the bottom. Very informative. Thanks for all the great vids

Great Video Presentation. knowledgable and not pretentious, offering both sides of the coin, but sticking with what works - Availibility and Realiability are the BEST abilities to have. i trust what you say. good too meet you Old Timmer.

Yes , another very informative video. Looking good

:-) you are correct. each farmer has their way when it comes to raking. I always say in some fields the guy raking also needs to be a bit of an artist as well, or engineer maybe. I like splitting the field in half so you aren't traveling the entire width of the field ends doing nothing just to get to the other side of the field. I just found your site but love it. you have all the same concerns and solutions I have as a small acreage farmer.

I like how your raking is like a football play and you break it. Down step by step

Thank you for the very informative videos, you do a great job!

Parabéns!! Estou gostando muito dos seus vídeos. Seus tratores antigos são muito bem conservados.

Ya know,,,when we were farming, I raked and baled when grandpa said so. NOW,,,I know why he kused restraint on me. Thanks,Pete.

Found you yesterday and these are wonderful videos so I've been binge watching. I'm surprised how brown the sun makes the hay. In my cold and wet climate of Norway the traditional (and labour intensive) way was to dry the hay on temporary wire fences (called hesje), which left the majority of it untouched by the sun and beautifully green and nutritious. Now it's almost all baleage with all the plastic that involves.

When I was a kid that was our first tractor job ranking hay if you was strong enough to hold the clutch down you were big enough to drive a tractor and rake hay . It's loved taking hay I thought I was grown up. Didn't love handling square bales as much.good videos. God speed

I'm not a farmer, just interested. I've learnt a lot. Thanks for your clear explanation of hay making.

Nice job explaining the tedding & raking process. My raking method isn't like yours but, both methods work. Stay safe.

Great videos man. Keep them coming. I'm learning a lot.

Hey Pete! I remember watching this video when you made it but would love to see you doing the raking pattern from your new drone to getting an overhead view. Your explanations are always the best with the seemingly small but critical details.

Yes Sir! Hay in the barn is worth more than "money in the bank!"

Great video. Well put together. Thanks 👍

Very interesting video. Making hay is a lot more complicated than I thought.

Once again great video, your going to be the next big RU-vid homesteading channel with the way your going.

would you believe I come to your vids because of the game farmSim 22 :) it lead me to real farm vids on youtube , I am now fascinated by farming , who know :)

Great video,. Thank you for making this.

Absolutely beautiful mate for someone new like myself 🙏

Great series!

Thanks Peter for sharing your thoughts and knowledge I have learned a lot from you and today I proudly cut my first hay !!!

Thanks Pete!!

Really good video. Very informative and excellent video quality.

Great Sharing especially on the costing (Maths) in previous video.

Thank you Pete! Great information!

Hi Pete.Greetings from the Emerald Isle! Congratulations on your very engaging vlogs.Thank you! Stay safe!

Thanks for sharing!

What a beautiful area you live in!

I am enjoying your videos.

Funny to see you haying compared to us hay in Germany. At our place, every little farmer with a few acres has a mower with 6-8 meter working width and a 6-10 star tedder. But i love seeing you work with these old small machines 😉

When I was a kid, I raked hay with a sulky rake. It took some practice to get straight windrows but I got pretty good at it.

Your explanation sounds like a architect explaining how the rake hay. 😂 Thanks for the knowledge. I really appreciate it.

Interesting rake pattern and great looking windrows. I’d lose my mind waiting 4 days to bale hay. Pretty rare for us to get 4 weather days in a row during first cutting timeframe. I cut 10 acres yesterday and 10 more today after tedding the first 10. Will bale the first 10 tomorrow and if the forecast holds will cut another field tomorrow before I bale in the afternoon and then ted todays cutting. Usually 48 hours after cutting I’ll have it baled unless it turns off cloudy or worse, it gets washed. Since we’ve gone away from bar raking in favor of V raking, we don’t flip windrows anymore, very hard to do accurately with a v rake like you can with a bar rake. If I have help available, I have them rake 3 rounds around the outside (bigger fwa tractor takes some turning radius) and I roll those up and then they will rake straight rows as you demonstrate and I’ll fall in behind. If it’s just me I rake the 3 rounds, bale those and then rake the rest and go back to baling. Typically by myself, that’s the reason for cutting no more than 10-12 acres at a time, easy to get caught with your pants down by a bad forecast.

Great job! God Bless!

Yes, it's up too each farmer on what works for him how to rake. I have two rakes a New Holland 56 roller rake very similar to yours with the front dolly wheels. And I have a 10 wheel V- speed rake that has the 11th wheel to turn the center. The V-rake is 3 times faster then the NH roller rake. The V rake you can travel at a faster speed and I takes only once pass , as with the roller rake it takes two or three passes for one win roll at a slower speed. I like using the roller rake in a small field and for turning the winrolls over to dry the bottom when needed.

Just found your videos and I really like them

When I was growing up we had a Grimm Tedder that worked just like the Pequea. You showed another great video Pete. Oh and I tedded a lot of hay using our Oliver 70 in 5th gear if I remember correctly. And our farm was up in Pulaski, NY.

You have been a big great help for myself and family. We all have learned so much infact we are still working on it. Except I have couple of questions, you mind if I ask?

Great video!

Excellent video Sir!

Great video.

love this

Great info sir. Thank you

Thanks again!

the way we rake hay is way better for us, im not all about how you rake hay but great explaining video

Thanks Pete 😇

Nice work, always have to keep in mind when raking not to let the winrows rope up, or you get a stuffed bale chamber. .

It's the dream, right there.

Nice job enjoyed watching

Great channel.

We always called it fluffing reguardless

Hey Pete! Love your channel :-)

I love that tractor as I spent many summers swathing wheat from a 756. I also suffered hearing damage from the same tractor,, please wear hearing protection.

Best thing to do to help your hay dry is make sure your mowing it with a mower that has conditioner rollers

I have equipment similar in size to yours, except this will be my first year using a tedder. I like to cut four "end rows" around the perimeter of the field (just going in circles) before I cut straight rows. When I rake it, I prefer to double up everything, but I save the inner two perimeter end rows for last so I can clean up any curling tails on the straight rows.

👍👌🇨🇦❤, new sub, gr8 stuff, well done, weather forecast, if I am haying, it rains

How much time do you take to prepare for your videos? You always seem like you know what to say and have great explanations and data. Very well done

Good job

Good channel great content!

Cool video

We always try to rake just as the dew is coming off in the morning or just before it comes on in the evening. Baling the same, saves much of the leaves.

All this brings back serious memories. Back in the late 60’s one of my uncles had a 7 or 8’ sickle bar on I think a 560 and pulled a conditioner directly behind. My cousin would cut in the morning while we unloaded the baled hay from the previous day. When that was done, someone would rake the hay cut the day before with a Farmall 200 while empty wagons were hauled to the field. Break for lunch and bale from about 1:00 until supper at 5:00 and then onto the barn for milking. Sometimes if we got behind and the hay was nice, my aunt would leave the dishes on the table and we’d head back out and twist up a couple more loads. Square bales, hooked off the chute and hand stacked, usually 6-7 layers high just so we’d fit under the overhead in the center bay. Bale throwers were a luxury! Another thing about sickle bars and separate conditioners; it seemed there were a darned sight more rabbit and pheasant around come hunting season! The mower might destroy the nest but the hen would often survive to nest again. I saw more than one hen missing her lower leg scooting through a cut hay or grain field, often with a flock of chicks about her, seemingly none the worse for wear. Good times but maybe we didn’t know that then.

Pete: I just discovered your videos. Have several more to review. 1. Do you have 2 bulls instead of one because of a compressed time frame? 2. Do you retain your same hay fields or do you rotate them into pasture? 3. Do you self-video your videos or do you have a photographer.? 4. When my father farmed in the 40's in Dryden, N.Y. (I was born in Cortland) --I think they had silos and silage. I believe it is your opinion that that is a "no-no." 5. Have you considered selling mail order (with dry ice) for some of your products or do you believe that it would put too much of a market demand on your current production levels? excellent agriculture program. Does it offer you online courses when you want to drill down on a focused subject issue?

Been wanting to start growing hay for my own livestock.. but I don't have the acreage for the haha I'll have to stick with buying hay more then likely.. great video though keep it up!

what a nice guy

We need ours right after we cut it and it saves us a day of drying.

Flip Tedder is mainly to prevent leaf loss on alfalfa. It also throws the stems up so it allows air to circulate better. Why I avoid a rotary Tedder on alfalfa.

One thing I've never seen here in Missouri is farmers ever bothering to use tedders. Not sure how true but grandpa claimed field conditioners, tedders, anything with a reel knocks out seed that's a good source of protein, and red clover is one of our main hay makers. We just mow it down, let it sit for a couple of days and when we rake it usually does the job of flipping the hay over to dry out anything not cured. A couple of hours in Missouri summer heat usually does the job-you can literally see the heat waves coming off the windrows as they dry out-making that pungent but pleasant smell of freshly cured hay that I'll always identify with summer. (Along with getting covered in itchy chaff that sticks as you sweat.) Getting ready to do some big round baling today actually.

I live on a dairy farm in Cooperstown and I also sell about 15000 small square bales maybe if I am in Ithaca I will see you working in the feilds.

Thanks