Blown Away!!!

[Red Flyer]

It's not windy until you have to peal the hay off the fence.

[db1486]

18 hours ago, MT Matt said:

I’ve seen several square balers out west with a round baler gathering wheel mounted to them. Freeman balers are big in Washington and I think they all come with one. I’ve seen a video of a self propelled Freeman with a wheel rake on front too.  That thing flew around the field.

The cost of the typical gathering wheel is what gets me. It alone is about half of that whole mini rake.  Plus the wheel size seems right for what I want it to do.  It wouldn’t be needed very often but it would save me a lot of extra time. I spent the better part of the afternoon cleaning up the field for two crappy, soft bales. 

I hear ya on the cost. They are pricey little assemblies for what they are. That's one nice thing about the wide pickups on the newer round balers. Don't need those gathering wheels any more.

The set with metal teeth that we have would be very simple to make. A dozen pickup or reel teeth, some bolts, weld a spindle to a disc or cut a round plate. I would put a spring on chain to hold it for the height so it wouldn't have as much shock from bouncing over mounds or through holes. Basically the way a wheel rake is set up just a mini version. I think it would be pretty simple to fab something up from the mini rake for that too. If the price is decent I'd go for it!

We've had winds blow swaths around after raking quite a few times. Sometimes it just rolls them so not a big deal other than having to run around picking up pieces. Have had it scatter swaths all over before too and about the only way to get it was to just re rake it. Usually I rake opposit to how it was the first time. Seems to make a nicer swath instead of making a bunch of piles

[MT Matt]

3 hours ago, sandhiller said:

I do know there is a difference efficacy in the poision you have to have your pesticide applicators license to purchase vs the kind anyone can buy from the farm store. 

It's worth it to get your license, think it might even be online now. 

 

We have trouble with wind and dust devils here too. 

Sometimes it is so bad we have to rerake

I have a 12 wheel where most have 14 and covers a good area. 

Recently replaced the 656 with a 560D and it is the cats pajamas on this rake. 

Wish I would have bought the 560 years ago.

Hate to go over ground again but sometimes you have to do what you have to do

 

I have my applicator license so I buy the millet from the county office.  Hope it is more effective this time around. You never learn what works until you pay for the first few failures. lol.

If it would have been just grass I would have raked it again but didn’t want to beat the alfalfa around.  Just a tough week at the office. And will built a better mousetrap because of it!

Nice 560.  My 560 was Dad’s and it’s been the big horse on the farm since I was 7. Needs some attention to some leaks but she handled the round baler just fine this summer. I use my SMTA most for haying. 

[MT Matt]

3 hours ago, sandhiller said:

I do know there is a difference efficacy in the poision you have to have your pesticide applicators license to purchase vs the kind anyone can buy from the farm store. 

It's worth it to get your license, think it might even be online now. 

 

We have trouble with wind and dust devils here too. 

Sometimes it is so bad we have to rerake

I have a 12 wheel where most have 14 and covers a good area. 

Recently replaced the 656 with a 560D and it is the cats pajamas on this rake. 

Wish I would have bought the 560 years ago.

Hate to go over ground again but sometimes you have to do what you have to do

 

I have my applicator license so I buy the millet from the county office.  Hope it is more effective this time around. You never learn what works until you pay for the first few failures. lol.

If it would have been just grass I would have raked it again but didn’t want to beat the alfalfa around.  Just a tough week at the office. And will built a better mousetrap because of it!

Nice 560.  My 560 was Dad’s and it’s been the big horse on the farm since I was 7. Needs some attention to some leaks but she handled the round baler just fine this summer. I use my SMTA most for haying. 

[MT Matt]

Sorry for the double tap. 

[ray54]

The poison works best with perfect ground moisture 😵‍💫 but who knows what it is. Wet enough you leave a nice tunnel with the poison in it, but not so wet the poison is picking up moisture leaching the poison from the grain.

[Lars (midessa)]

Worked for a neighbor decades ago, he set his haybine to windrow the hay just a tad narrower than the width of his JD 336 small square baler for acres we intended to bale. He did have an IH rollbar rake, that iirc was used once, maybe twice the couple years I worked there. It was amazing the amount of leaves on baled alfalfa that is baled, if not raked.

At the time they bought that baler, they didn’t necessarily want a JD baler due to the cost, but back in those days JD offered the widest pickup head on small square balers.

[ny bill o]

21 hours ago, Tad Wicks said:

There is a rake called a "Darf" rake, very, very gentle on crops, you are probably familiar with it, they made lefts and rights and then the two together. The older ones were a bit slower and easier on crops  than a basket rake and not geared for crazy production, there used to be a bunch of old ones parked around here, now, not so much.

double post

 

Edited August 17, 2025 by ny bill o

[ny bill o]

21 hours ago, Tad Wicks said:

There is a rake called a "Darf" rake, very, very gentle on crops, you are probably familiar with it, they made lefts and rights and then the two together. The older ones were a bit slower and easier on crops  than a basket rake and not geared for crazy production, there used to be a bunch of old ones parked around here, now, not so much.

What a mess!

This is my Darf rake that Dad bought in 1962 to turn windrows made by his new New Holland 900 Speedrower. I had it on Rusty again earlier this month to turn some nice alfalfa second cutting that was raked the day before but needed another day to cure the green spots. Handles the hay very gently.

[Tad Wicks]

15 hours ago, ray54 said:

The poison works best with perfect ground moisture 😵‍💫 but who knows what it is. Wet enough you leave a nice tunnel with the poison in it, but not so wet the poison is picking up moisture leaching the poison from the grain.

Ray is exactly right, the trick to the tunnel poisoner is the right moisture at the right depth at the right speed to make a burrow that the gopher will use as a run and find the bait. You have to go back and dig up the burrow after you have gone a ways to check that it is doing what it is supposed to do. We used strychnine on milo as bait, the county poison might be Clorophacinone a much less effective poison but much safer.

[MT Matt]

3 hours ago, Tad Wicks said:

Ray is exactly right, the trick to the tunnel poisoner is the right moisture at the right depth at the right speed to make a burrow that the gopher will use as a run and find the bait. You have to go back and dig up the burrow after you have gone a ways to check that it is doing what it is supposed to do. We used strychnine on milo as bait, the county poison might be Clorophacinone a much less effective poison but much safer.

Strychnine is what I’m using. I know they use the burrow I build because there is a line of new diggings this spring along the lines I made last fall. Still trying to figure out the best results. I’m following my irrigation across the field so there is moisture to get into the ground with the machine. Two days behind the wheel line seems moist but not wet. 

[Tad Wicks]

Strychnine and Clorophacinone are pretty easy to tell apart,

the taste is totally different              😀😀😀

[MT Matt]

8 hours ago, Tad Wicks said:

Strychnine and Clorophacinone are pretty easy to tell apart,

the taste is totally different              😀😀😀

Is it like PB Blaster tastes nothing like peanut butter???

[ZG6E]

On 8/17/2025 at 10:20 AM, ny bill o said:

What a mess!

This is my Darf rake that Dad bought in 1962 to turn windrows made by his new New Holland 900 Speedrower. I had it on Rusty again earlier this month to turn some nice alfalfa second cutting that was raked the day before but needed another day to cure the green spots. Handles the hay very gently.

Darf rakes changed a bit over the course of time. IIRC this is a 2019.