Just a note:
40 mph wind is Beaufort force 8 (fresh gale) - twigs and small branches get snapped off of trees
60 mph wind is Beaufort force 10 (whole gale) - trees are broken, structural damage to buildings occurs
80 mph wind is Beaufort force 12 (hurricane) - widespread violence and destruction
If you've got this much wind blowing I suggest that hay-making will be impossible, as the grass will be blown downwind the instant it's cut, certainly before it can dry.
If you have several acres of grass to cut, I'd say the you should forget the scythe. It's romantic, it's good exercise, but it's maddeningly slow and rather exhausting. At 50 years of age I could handle it, barely. Now that I'm closing down on 60 at speed, forget it. I bought a BCS walk-behind unit a few years ago and have never looked back. Sickle-bar mower for cutting the grass, hand rakes for raking and turning, and a good hay fork for picking it up and we're good to go.
As far as the idea that a scythe is somehow more efficient than a sickle-bar mower because the scythe dumps the grass in a windrow - I disagree. The sickle-bar is more efficient because it *doesn't* put the cut grass into a window - instead, it leaves it spread out so it will dry faster.
My procedure for hay production by hand is:
Day 1:
1. Mow the grass with the BCS and sickle-bar mower. Try to do this on a sunny day with a gentle breeze blowing, after the sun has had a chance to dry the dew that's on the grass - so we're looking at somewhere between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM to do the mowing. Let's say we'll mow it at 1:00 PM, just for the sake of argument.
2. Let the grass sit loose on the ground for the rest of the afternoon to dry - until about 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon.
3. Rake the grass into windrows. To do this, reach out with your hay rake, set the tines on the ground, hold the handle low, and pull the cut grass back to you in a smooth pull without flipping it over. This should leave the dry grass on top. Continue doing this the entire length of the windrow.
4. Walk back to the beginning of the windrow and flip the windrow over so the dry grass is on the bottom and the wet grass is on the top. To do this, slip the tines of the hay rake under the windrow and pull it upwards and slightly back to you so that the windrow "rolls over". Continue along the windrow until the entire row is flipped over.
5. Repeat the process of raking the cut grass into windrows and flipping the row over until all the grass is in windrows.
6. Leave it alone until tomorrow morning.
........
Day 2:
7. The next morning - at this point you've got grass in windrows with a lot of dew on it. Leave it alone until maybe 10:00 AM, when most of the dew will be off it and the ground surrounding the windows should be pretty much dry.
8. Flip all the windrows over and spread them out a bit to dry. To spread (or "ted") the rows, take your hay rake in hand, stand over the windrow, and use the tines of the rake in a side-to-side motion to knock the windrow apart. Walk backwards down the windrow, tedding it to open it up so it will dry. The purpose here is to open up the windrow so that any wet grass that's buried in the windrow will be exposed to sun and wind.
9. 4:00 or 5:00 PM - go out, rake the hay into windrows again, roll the windrow over, and let it sit for the night.
........
Day 3:
10. Guess what you get to do today? Yep, you're going to wait until the ground is dry, ted the rows out and let the hay dry a bit more.
11. At about 5:00 PM, just when it's nice and hot and sweaty, go rake the hay into windrows again. Now, check the hay. If the grass in the windrow feels dry all the way through it's time to bring the hay in. If it *doesn't* feel dry all the way through, go back to step 9 and wait until tomorrow, where you'll start at step 10 again. If the hay *does* feel dry (and the right feeling is "crunchy-dry") it's time to bring the hay in! You need to get this done before the dew starts to fall, so don't think this is easy and/or you've got plenty of time. Work quickly but safely!
12. Because you'll be picking the hay up today it's a good idea to rake two or three drying rows into a single pickup row.
13. Take your hay fork (three tines, and lighter than a manure fork), put it under the end of a windrow, hold the handle low to the ground, and PUUUSH lengthwise down the windrow to make a big pile of hay. Go as far as you reasonably can along the row, then walk around the pile of hay you just made, gather up the hay in the row and PUUUSH that hay into another pile! Sweat. Drink plenty of fluids. Repeat.
14. Go get whatever it is you're going to use to transport the hay from where it is in the field to your hay storage location. Let's say, for sake of argument, you're using a pickup truck to haul your nice fresh hay to your barn. Drive the truck into the field (the ground should be pretty dry - after all, you're making hay in the summer, not in the spring or fall!), drive up to a pile of hay, pick the pile of hay up using your hay fork, and dump it into the back of the truck. Sweat. Drink plenty of fluids. Repeat until the truck is full.
15. Drive the truck to your hay storage location. Use your hay fork to get the hay out of the truck. Sweat. Etc.
16. Repeat 14-15 until there is no hay left in the field. Remember, you need to get this done before the dew starts to form on the grass or else you'll be putting wet grass into your barn, which is not a good thing.
17. Put all your tools and equipment away.
18. Go get something cold to drink. Enjoy watching the grass grow. You deserve it.
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