Because it was cold and cloudy on the day it was mowed, I only had one day to get some extremely heavy dry before baling day since rain was in the forecast.
You guys already know this but, Josh is super awesome guy. I have watched all his videos and watched others. While his videos are top notch in my opinion, I had an issue with my 273 today and I posted about it. Josh not only stayed up late helping me prep my mind for the dreaded day ahead (I got hardly any sleep at all), but he also stayed with me practically most of the morning going over knotter timing and several other issues with me. Josh practically got my baler going with a blind fold on from the other side the country! In the end it was his thought to check the knotter brake that got me going. I got the last bit baled thankfully. But I’ll be replacing brakes before second cut. Thanks Josh.
Great job! I just got the first cutting baled and away a few hours ago. Was planning on bailing the next day but forecast changed. You are right the sun and especially a nice breeze works wonders. Really like that Tedder you have too!
Phew, glad you got this up! I’m here for the “ode to tedder” - it’s all about how you use it, and sometimes it’s just so thick that you have to hit it every 2-3 hours. When the top is crispy and the bottom is still wet/green, and rain is coming, i agree that waiting won’t do much good. Anyhow, glad you got it! Hope the tedder breakdown isn’t too bad! (If it doesn’t have a name yet, I vote Chewy 😂).
The Tedder just had a roll pin that broke in one of the wheel legs which causes the rotor to drop down and fall out of time. It’s about a 10 minute fix but requires 4 hands.
I am in Pennsylvania and I have been wanting to get into harvesting hay. I have been looking for a self propelled hyaline that I can restore and upgrade with some decent light bars and air conditioning. I grew up working on a dairy farm and my earliest memories were getting up at 4am and going out and running the tetter on the back of the diesel Ford tractor and then going out later in the day after the hay dries and rake it up and then bale the Timothy. I was always one of the team that would bale and stay the Alfalfa and afterwards blow huge black snots out of our collective noses with the dust...I am a PhD chemical engineer now and I miss those days .
I have noticed when we first Ted the field the Hay fluffs up in clumps, as it drys it lies down... We have quite large amount of Hay we have 4 tedders.. 2 4 basket, 1 6 basket and 1 8 basket,,,,
Same boat here. Cut yesterday, there was a 58% chance of rain, This morning is now 89%, but hoping its the light misting type and not downpours. I have 5 fields cut that I will need to ted tomorrow and hope for the best. I have a two basket so takes twice as long. The bad part is we have had so much rain that the ground moisture is high which causes the hay to absorb it from underneath. I thought my last cutting was dry enough to bale, raked it into rows and by the time I got it all baled it went from 12% to up to 40%. I have a few bales in the barn that have left wet spots on the floor. They aren't cooking so thats a good thing.
Great video as always and very timely for me! Never used a tedder on the farm. With your 4-basket one about how many acres can you do in an hour in normal hay?
NOOOOO. The tines are set several inches from the ground. You do this to avoid broken tines and dirt in the hay. I set mine to they just just touch the top of my foot.
@@TheScientistHayFarmer That's what I figured. I had mine set so it just missed the ground. I did notice that in some spots it missed picking up some here and there. The sickle bar lays the hay back flat and I think that might contribute to it. With a moco everything is jumbled more.
My dad set them so that they scraped the ground and I thought that is how it is supposed to be. I'll make sure to set them higher next cutting. Also what kind of grass is this that you are cutting. We made 400 square bales on 3 hectares and you made the same on half the area. But we don't sow the grass, it grows by itself.
New to hay. Had same situation our first cut. No tedder, and we decided not to rake a day earlier. It was a bad experience. We chose not to rake the extra time for fear of leaf loss. How does tedding 3 times in one day work and avoid losing too much leaf? Obviously wet will lose less, but by 3rd tedding, is the dryer stuff losing lots of matter?
Do not rake until right before you bale. Raking doesn’t help drying, unless you’re trying to rake before the leaves get too dry.. Tedding three times in a day will be bad for leaf loss but I’m doing straight grass so it’s not an issue for me.
This is the reason why I don't like Heston tedder instead of New Holland 163 Tedder, this tedder is better for Heavy hay and wet spot and did better job instead of heston tedder
I used to have a Kuhn tedder which was the same as 163 and got rid of it. It doesn’t Ted near as well as this Agco Tedder I have, which I think is the same thing as a Hesston.
