[Tim Harrigan]

Ed, I looked at your video and I am not so sure the problem is blight. There are a lot of problems with potatoes from aphids, leafhoppers and other insects that are vectors of various diseases. Here is a MI bulletin, there are a lot on the web so you should be able to track it down.

http://www.potatodiseases.org/foliardiseases.html

[Tim Harrigan]

I got this email last week. There is a website that may be helpful, I have not looked it over yet. Does not sound good.

The discovery of active late blight (Phytophthora infestans) in some Michigan potatoes in southwestern Michigan has potato specialists worried. This is the same blight that started the Irish Potato Famine in the mid 1800s. Here are some resources describing the problem:

ANR Comm. news release: http://anrcom.msu.edu/press/060110/063010_lateblight.htm

The MSU Plant Diagnostic Lab says that the lab will do late blight tests for homeowners & growers for free because of the current issue (homeowners should bring in the correct types of samples). There is a pdf by Jan Byrne discussing potato/tomato late blight at http://www.pestid.msu.edu on the home page.

[Tim Harrigan]

Countymouse;19690 wrote:

I think I’ll try the A frame first, it sounds cheap to make…
Would you think a wooden one would last long enough to do the job?

I think so if the soil is loosened with the disk. If you put a platform on it you can stand on it to drive and add more weight as needed.

[Tim Harrigan]

You could try loosening the soil with the disk and then build an A frame shaped drag to pull over the top to pull the loose soil into the dead furrow (drag over and parallel to the dead furrow).

[Tim Harrigan]

Alright, that will be cool. Time to get going on that 4 inch yoke.

[Tim Harrigan]

The only time I have tilted the bar down is to try to get under hay or straw that was lodged and laying down. Smooth knife sections are reported to be better in fine-stemmed hay than the serrated knives but I have not used them. I think the most important thing is the overall adjustment of the cutterbar just as Donn described.

[Tim Harrigan]

Donn,
yes, first cutting is usually where the tedder really shines. I was thinking George and Kristan were on second cutting now, that is why I focused on tedding as a place to cut back. I know the rotary tedders are taking over now and I think they need to be managed much differently from the older style kicker tedders that were designed mostly to fluff the hay and open it up for better air movement. Those were pretty easy on the hay and pulled fairly easy as well. I raked and tedded several acres with my yearling working steers with one of those and they did fine.

The rotary tedders do not have a lot in common with those other than the name. They are very aggressive with the hay and can really damage the hay if it is at all dry. In first cutting I would ted with one of those within a couple of hours of mowing, then perhaps again the next morning if there was a heavy dew and I the weather required pushing the hay as fast as possible. Even on the second day I would think hard, dew is free water and will dry up fast in good weather, and what you are really after is the water bound in and between the plant cells that is a little harder to get at. We really find that leaving a full width swath of mown hay and then using as little mechanical manipulation as possible is the best plan A. Plans B and C ramp up the hay handling as needed. Plan A requires full cooperation of the weather.

Not all haybines will throw a full width swath, that is where tedding soon after mowing can really help. That is one advantage of cutterbars.

The other issue with rotary rakes is power use. Sounds like you have a powered forecart so maybe not a big deal, but the rotary rake can take a lot of power in heavy, first cutting, wet hay. I do not know exactly how much, that is just my observation after using one on a 30 hp tractor. So if someone had one on a ground driven forcart the application of power in these hot, humid days where one operation follows another would be something to think about. Not so much on second cut because the yields less and easier to handle, but then less reason to ted as well.

[Tim Harrigan]

Donn,
You are right, there are a lot of field specific things to consider. In this spell of weather I do not think the temps are much different and Michigan is usually pretty humid from the lakes, same as NY. The biggest challenge in MI when making hay is getting it up without rain. Laying hay on wet ground can really delay drying as well. And Kristen has hills and north slopes that will be pretty slow drying. My point was you have to be flexible in the timing and what tools you use and why you use them. My sense is the tedder is, for the most part, used too much. Sometimes you can make the most $ with a tedder by leaving it in the shed. And as you also mentioned the regret for tedding in this weather with animals can be high if it is not really needed.

I have found that I get a much more open windrow with a bar rake if I tilt it back so it kicks the hay up a bit. If I tilt it forward it rolls a tight windrow that does not dry very well. Not bad if the hay is already dry, but not good if I want to rake when the hay is a little tough to hold on to the leaves.

The sun and air are the best tools you have for drying hay. A tedder can help or hurt depending on when it is used. The power issue reminds me of the interesting discussion from last winter regarding the Keyline plow where there was a big power demand and the benefits were not well defined. Working with draft animals helps focus your attention on the task at hand and how the available power is used and what is the real benefit of what you are doing. That is one of the things that makes it interesting and enjoyable.

It is interesting when you get to know a piece of ground so well that you know the swales and places that yield well and dry slow or lay in the shade most of the day. I have some of those areas where I can get wet shoes from dew most of the day. Not the easiest place to make hay.

[Tim Harrigan]

Does’ Leap;19563 wrote:

…I’m interested in your schedules because I think we are going over our field too many times. Let’s see, we cut friday, tedded (with a Grimm) twice saturday, raked it sunday, flipped it over with the rake yesterday and baled yesterday afternoon…

Not from the northeast but the upper Great Lakes is not too much different this time of year. The greatest benefit of tedding is in the first cutting when the yields are high and the windrows are heavy. The benefit in drying time will typically be 1/2 to 1 day reduction in time from cutting to baling. The only benefit of tedding is to reduce drying time. Other than that it just knocks leaves off the stem and reduces the quality of the hay. In second cutting the yields are lower and drying conditions are better so the benefit of tedding is really questionable. If rain is forecast tedding could help get it in a few hours faster, but our weather here looks hot and dry for several days. So I see no need for a tedder. Cut and lay it in a wide swath, if the weather looks good dry it in place, rake into windrows when it get down to 30-40% moisture and bale when it drops below 18% or so.

The tedder would have some value early in the morning to shake off the dew, but if it was hot with no rain on the horizon I would leave it in the shed.

[Tim Harrigan]

I am not sure if there is an optimum speed, a reliable speed seems to be about 2.5 mph. The pitman speed is timed to load up the knives about 2/3 of the length for each cutting stroke. That lets the knife start to accerate before it starts to cut. The gears cause quite a bit of resistance and the resistance increases as the speed increases. So if you get going too fast that resistance probably starts to cause some wheel slip and overloading of the knives.

[Tim Harrigan]

Andy: I described the disk we used in this thread http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=2716

The disk was a single gang, 10-18 inch diameter notched disk blades, 18 degree gang angle, 7.5 inches between blades. The disk with rider was about 109 lb/foot width at the light setting, 136 lb/ft with the additional weight. The draft in the chain was about 2/3 of the weight of the disk, or about 72 to 92 lbf per foot of width. We overlapped 1/2 of the disk width so we would make a pass and then come back over 1/2 of it on the way back. It did a nice job.

[Tim Harrigan]

If your main goal is weed control you do not need the springtooth right now. A spiketooth would probably work better if you lay the teeth down on an angle. But if you are only seeding a cover crop you do not need a smooth, level surface like you would want in a hay field or pasture. So consider seeding directly into the disked seedbed or find a good size branch to drag around for a little more fine-tuning.

[Tim Harrigan]

With the 12 inch blades and relatively light frame the disk is not really made for corn stalks. They will become more brittle over time and break up more easily. Some residue on the surface is usually a good thing unless you think it will interfere with the seeding of the cover crop. Do you have a lead on a disk with notched blades? I liked the KOTA single gang with notched blades that we used for seedbed tillage and I reported on earlier in a previous post, I think I included a picture.

[Tim Harrigan]

The notched blades will be better for pinning residue and penetrating hard ground. A little more weight on the disk might help with burying the residue a little better. Are you getting ready to plant something now? What type of disk do you have as far as blade spacing, diameter, single gang etc. It might be a finishing disk and not really made for corn residue.

[Tim Harrigan]

It is hard to tell in the picture but it does not look like a fracture that goes all the way through the shell of the horn and into the soft tissue. I doubt if it is related to nutrition, probably from rubbing it on something. The horn material is layered and if you crack a surface layer it can tend to delaminate a little bit. It will not re-attach or grow back together but you can try filing it down a little with a file so it is not as noticable. You did not say where you are or what they were eating over the winter but I would tend to feed a steer that age a diet with 12% to 14% crude protein so if you had average grass hay a little grain with soybean meal would bump up the protein, and a mineral supplement would be good. If they are on good pasture now there should be no need for a protein supplement.

I tried to look at it a gain by expanding the picture and it looks like more chips and mechanical damage on the top of the horn. I think he is rubbing it on something, maybe the fence or something metal. Sometimes they will scratch their horns and poll if they have fleas or lice so make sure that is not the case. I would just start working over the horns lightly with a file once a week or so to smooth them off. Some animals just rub them a lot harder than others.

[Author]

Posts