Losing my hay harvest seems to be a tradition for me

[CaptGoodvibes]

I'm not good at predicting rain or wind or cold or...

from preventing my total hay harvest loss on Stappenbach. Drat!

Mowing the floodplain on this map could not be more serene... but I sure would like to get a return...

[CaptGoodvibes]

Thought I'd try to save some face and use a loading wagon. But I was too underwhelmed to even load a second wagon so apparently, it's the baling and managing of bales I enjoy. Silage bales don't satisfy the need to use the bale spike. /rant

[Eische]

I guess you are playing with seasons?
Try changing to a higher number of days per seasons. If you are only using 3 day season now, weather is going mad as there is just not enough time. 6 day seasons or even 9 day seasons works much better in terms of weather.

You also need to make sure to collect your hay/straw before a transition (mid spring to late spring for example). If there are still windrows on the field they would be deleted. I'm not sure of this also counts for bales.

[Mwal]

Yeah I play twelve day seasons and have lost half of one crop in 6 in game years so it’s considerably better. I also shouldn’t have cut that hay but thought I could beat the rain.

[FarmCatJenkins]

I also shouldn’t have cut that hay but thought I could beat the rain.

That's a race I lose every time lol

[CaptGoodvibes]

I guess you are playing with seasons?
Try changing to a higher number of days per seasons. If you are only using 3 day season now, weather is going mad as there is just not enough time. 6 day seasons or even 9 day seasons works much better in terms of weather.

You also need to make sure to collect your hay/straw before a transition (mid spring to late spring for example). If there are still windrows on the field they would be deleted. I'm not sure of this also counts for bales.

I'm playing the console default of 9-day seasons. I didn't know that about the transition. I think that's getting me. But also, I mowed and waited three days for the color to change and it never did. The next morning the windrows were anemic(and still dark green) and the grass was growing again.

[juf.de]

Did you make sure tocheck the weather tab in seasons menu? At the bottom you can see how well the grass will dry, you should choose a day with "++", no rain and mow as early as possible in the morning, so you will have a full day to let the grass dry.

[Illinois Farmer]

Also you can ted the grass to help it dry.

[Eische]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong:
If you mow the grass and it is dark green, you have to ted it to get hay in the end, right? Tedding will turn it to semidry grass (light green), further drying will turn it to hay (more yellowish).
I usually mow the grass when it is below 20% moisture (checked with the handtool) to directly get semidry grass. I just let it dry and get hay.

[Mwal]

Tedding will only make wet grass(dark green) to damp grass(green) then it will dry down on its own if the weather is favorable to dry grass (light green/yellowish) it will dry on its own if you wait long enough and have favorable drying weather though.

[CaptGoodvibes]

Did you make sure tocheck the weather tab in seasons menu? At the bottom you can see how well the grass will dry, you should choose a day with "++", no rain and mow as early as possible in the morning, so you will have a full day to let the grass dry.

I hadn't figured out the drying potential icon yet. Thanks for that!

[CaptGoodvibes]

Also you can ted the grass to help it dry.

Shoot. I thought that was turned off in Seasons. Dangit. I don't mind tedding...

[CaptGoodvibes]

Tedding will only make wet grass(dark green) to damp grass(green) then it will dry down on its own if the weather is favorable to dry grass (light green/yellowish) it will dry on its own if you wait long enough and have favorable drying weather though.

I had great success on Lone Oak Farm without tedding so I assumed it would work on other maps. Lesson learned...

[FarmCatJenkins]

I only cut my grass when the ground moisture is below 20%, as mentioned checked with the MT-9 tool. That way all I have to do is leave it sit as already semi dry grass. No need to use a tedder on it. I usually never have a problem with it this way on 3-day seasons, it usually is dried to hay by the end of the day on a ++ drying day.

[cwattyeso]

I've found from playing with Seasons the only way for me to ever get Hay was to use a placeable Hay Dryer on my farms. It didn't matter what day lengths I used, whether I had crop moisture on or off in the seasons menu, what Geo I used, how many times I tedded, I could never get Grass to dry down to Hay on the field. So to save me tearing any more of my hair out, I now just mow, collect, put it in the dryer and hey presto I have hay.