 
- 10 or 15 years ago,
you'd be hard pressed
to find a tedder in a hayfield.
Today, they're becoming more commonplace.
We're gonna talk with Tim Schnakenberg,
Regional Agronomy Specialist
with University of Missouri.
Tim, first explain tedding.
- Well, tedding is really a way to
speed up the hay making process.
In fact, some of the research shows that
it can increase the
drying time by 20 to 30%,
which can be pretty significant,
and so, it's a great tool.
It's been used more and more as we go.
- Do some crops benefit more
from tedding than others?
- Well, I would advise that you absolutely
keep them out of a alfalfa field.
Any kind of a legume crop
is best to keep it out
of that field unless
it's a salvage situation,
and so we want to avoid
tedding in leafy crops.
But for grass crops like
Bermuda grass, Crab grass,
Tall Fescue, Orchard grass,
it's really weather dependent.
There are times that you
don't need to be in there,
but there are other times
that it really pays.
Every time you run a piece of
equipment through a hayfield,
you can lose some dry matter tonnage,
and so you really want to keep
it as minimal as possible.
It's just another great tool you can use,
but use it at your discretion.
- Thank you, Tim.
With a Makin' Hay
Minute, I'm Bryan Setzer.
 
Hope you enjoyed this
episode of Makin' Hay Minute.
Please check out some
of these other videos,
or find us at makinhay.com.
 
