Ride Along: Raking Hay with Rick's Custom Baling

Neil rides with Rich of Rick's Custom Baling as he rakes a second hay cutting in East Berlin, Pennsylvania.
Rick's Custom Baling - / rickscustombalingllc
Timecode:
0:00 Intro - Subscribe for More Content Like This
1:20 The Artistry of Baling Hay
2:26 Setup of Choice
3:38 Clean Field
4:21 Raking Pattern
5:24 How to do it Wrong
5:55 Switching Directions
6:45 Conclusion
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[@elcheapo5302]

5:38 Seeing that bale fly made me laugh. 😂😂

[@fvasque1]

Like the hands on content!

[@Ghis1964s]

I remember when starting raking when I was 7 or 8. A few yrs had gone by and I really thought I was doing a good job.... til the day I started baling at 11y-o. Lets just say my raking skills when up many notches after that. LOL

[@onebigbobo]

I started rolling square bales together at 5. I had to mature a little bit before learning to rake cause the land was so hilly. OSHA would have a field day with my parents if caught doing that today! Best memories

[@mesanders1113]

Definitely experience in bailing will teach you how to rake better. Also learning how to work together efficiently if it's a team setup.

[@mesh1248]

U can say that about a merging infront of a harvester also

[@JCWren]

I'm fascinated by this kind of thing. I have no idea what's going on, but it's darn cool.

[@onebigbobo]

My Dad was a Marine, I also joke he was undiagnosed OCD. Raking hay was the only thing he complimented me on (never to me, other people only). I learned to rake hay on a ‘48 8N Ford tractor with no brakes pulling a NH bar rake when I was 10. 30 years later, I thought I something pulling a V-rake with my 3600 Ford. We still use a bar rake and V-rake. The land in our area is too hilly and rocky for one of those newfangled rotary rakes. To this day, I love raking with the same 8N and bar rake. The tractor sounds like a sewing machine and hearing the rake chatter relaxes my soul. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a tractor outside a therapist’s office. I know you don’t do old tractor videos, but you have a great ability for telling stories. It would be fun to watch your reaction!

[@MHolt-yq5vg]

8N are some of the best tractor ever produced ! That is that I learned to drive on 58 years ago!

[@jacobconfer1693]

I always enjoy videos like this

[@jeffreydutton7285]

Raking is tough for me and Rich is clearly good at it. It would have been great if you let him talk about his strategy for opening up the field and the actual pattern to do so (how he doubles back, how he exits and transitions and how he does this when raking first cut, and then the pattern that he rakes once the field gets opened up as the pattern is everything and most videos don't do a great job explaining this. All of us who have to rake really appreciate hearing the details from someone who is really good at it

[@onebigbobo]

I don’t know what you take with but this may help you with the raking…. Act like you are using a zero turn mower and mowing as if you are “striping” a lawn. Go up, then come back beside the first cut. Don’t worry about cleaning up the ends where you turn. Stay straight and when you come to an obstacle, go around it two or three times. Then continue the straight pattern. When you are finished, go around the edged, pushing the hay to the inside. Your windrows will be straight. That works the best for us when the hay is thick or thin.

[@jeffreydutton7285]

@@onebigbobo Thank you. My fields are small and funny shaped and I have found the best rake for me is an old rolabar with a dolly wheel and it's easy to double back. I have done something similar before to what you suggest. Once I get done cutting straight (sort of..) I make one pass to the outside around the field to separate the straight windrows from the headlands and then double back and do this for two windrows (4 widths of the rake) and that works pretty good. I tried a bit of a complex pattern that it would take me 20 minutes to describe and that worked pretty well also. But it's great to hear what others do to get some ideas, as I have yet to meet anyone who does it the same way.. Thanks again and be well.

[@ryanbakinowski1050]

@@jeffreydutton7285 I usually do two passes around the perimeter pulling the hay in then spiral my way into the center of the field (usually rake and Tedder at least 3 times) then Tedder then rake the same way unless the hay is super thick Ill only do one perimeter pass, leaving a lot of open spaces on the outside of the fields. Then like @onebigbobo said act like a 0 turn mower up and down the field. I might make a video when I do second cutting in September.

[@tomjackson5049]

Love this video.

[@DJC995]

Very Nice video Neil Thanks

[@usmarshall336]

Great video!!

[@garylatture8948]

That bailer really spits out a bail. Enjoyed your KZbin

[@kylerayk]

Baler, bale.

[@Nerfamus]

@@kylerayk cringe

[@wildbill23c]

It has a bale thrower on the output side. Usually the bales just come out the back of the baler and drop to the ground, but with the thrower it'll launch them quite a ways depending on how you have it adjusted.

[@danielthomason5685]

Starting at longest straight line in field then working out both ways in straight lines....then clean up headlands....this is how its dine....you never just follow the field. Straight lines...except headlands

[@rickscustombalingllc.841]

Absolutely correct. Start on the longest and straightest line possible.

[@danielthomason5685]

Sorry wasnt trying to be rude....making the highest quality hay is my passion..i do every step myself mostly for 5 years...so i have become very efficient at getting hay made well....love your guys set up...a good rotary rake..or kubota moco is next on my list...retired union laborer just living my best life...only wish id relized at a much younger age..how much passion and enjoyment i get from driving circles in a field making quality hay..always trying to make it thicker and better...get more efficient...lol sorry for the rant...love your stuff..God bless and farm on

[@BG-vq9fd]

Enjoyable to see. Brings back memories of stacking bales on wagon and then in the loft. Not fond memories.

[@danielthomason5685]

Did great...but headlands done last unless baler right behind you....makes for much cleaner field. And no driving over windrows

[@rickscustombalingllc.841]

Correct. Baler was baling headlands after he finished raking them. 🤙

[@melhumphrey6131]

We rake our hay the same exact way using our Krone single rotary rake

[@davidkettell6236]

entertaining and educational to a non farmer

[@DonegalTDI]

Hay/silage crops are waaaay heavier in Ireland.

[@MessicksEquip]

This was 2nd cut

[@rickscustombalingllc.841]

Should’ve seen this 1st cut mate.

[@samsears9588]

I think you need a bigger tractor maybe one with tracks

[@long30t]

Still haven’t figured out why anyone would want a hay rake like this. A V rake with the wheels is way faster less moving parts way less money and does a good job.my H and S is super old does the job with no maintenance other than replacing a wheel if to many teeth brake off over the last 20 years? since it was new. Goes over the hills and ruff feilds I would think better as well.

[@MessicksEquip]

Because you pickup more ash content in your hay which your animals then digest. In dairy it's lower milk yields, costs you money not to run a rotary rake.

[@rickscustombalingllc.841]

Long30t, we used V rakes before, not impressed with the hay quality for customers we are selling our products to. Poorer drying since it ropes the hay, wheelrake wheels drag on the corners, and ash content is much to high for us. Too each, his own though. Respectfully

[@long30t]

@@MessicksEquip must be a northern thing don’t see them in Oklahoma even on the dairies

[@Anteater6788]

@@long30t you also don't have the humidity and higher rainfall that we have further east, a rotary rake cut half a day off our drying time and that's often the difference between getting hay baled before it rains or not.

[@shock1584]

Y’all need to do something about the Liberty Mutual ads, I can’t stand their bullshit and every Messicks video I watch makes me watch their bullshit. Ready to block Messicks.

[@MessicksEquip]

We don't pick them, put there by KZbin.