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Home » Farm Equipment Fridays: Raking hay

Farm Equipment Fridays: Raking hay

By Marybeth Feutz 2 Comments

After the hay has been tedded and dried, it needs to be raked into big piles.

Once hay is dry enough to be baled, it is raked into large piles called windrows.

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Raking Hay

The rake does exactly what it sounds like it should do.  It gets pulled behind the tractor…

Once hay is dry enough to be baled, it is raked into large piles called windrows.

It has these tines that spin around and grab the hay…

Once hay is dry enough to be baled, it is raked into large piles called windrows.

And the tines pull the hay into a pile just to the left of the tractor/rake combination.

A hay rake sweeps hay into long piles called windrows.

So after the rake passes by, there’s a long line of a pile of hay left behind.  This long pile is called a windrow.  Depending on the thickness of hay in the field, sometimes one windrow gets raked again with more flat hay to form an even bigger windrow.

A hay rake sweeps hay into long piles called windrows.

Once the windrow of hay is thick enough, another windrow is started.

Once a windrow is large enough, another windrow is started next to it.

And on and on, around the field it goes.

Hay is raked into windrows around and around the hayfield so the baler can scoop the hay up in the next step.

Here’s a close-up of the rake coming…

Hay is raked into windrows around and around the hayfield so the baler can scoop the hay up in the next step.

Here it is!!

A hay rake sweeps loose hay up into large piles called windrows.

And there it goes…

A hay rake sweeps loose hay up into large piles called windrows.

Here is our lower field, partly raked into windrows.  I think this looks pretty neat from the birds-eye view.

A partially raked hayfield, seen from above.

I would have loved to give you a shot of the whole lower field raked and ready to bale.  But, before the raking was finished…

A hay baler, baling hay in a partially raked field, seen from above.

The baling had started!

More on the round baler next week…  That is by far the coolest part!

Step 1 – Mower/conditioner
Step 2 – Tedder
Step 3 – Rake
Step 4 – Baler
Step 5 – Bale Spear

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Filed Under: Where is My Food From? Tagged With: farm, farm equipment, hay, rake, tractor

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Comments

  1. Lana says

    08/02/2010 at 8:48 pm

    I’m impressed you were able to find that elusive window to get hay cut, dried, and baled! We have yet to mow the first waterway to bale. YIKES! Can’t catch three days without a rain or low enough humidity! Maybe an interesting winter for the mooies!

Trackbacks

  1. Freezer-Friendly Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes - My Fearless Kitchen says:
    05/22/2018 at 3:45 pm

    […] for momma cows giving birth. Summer brings grass growing, which means that hay needs to be cut, raked, baled, and stored for the winter. There’s a reason for the saying “make hay while the […]

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