Hay Rake Brands Compared: H&S, Case IH, Twinstar & Alternatives

The hay rake market includes established North American and European brands, regional manufacturers, and direct-import equipment from Asian manufacturing facilities. Brand selection affects parts availability, dealer service, warranty terms, and landed cost — but does not guarantee that a brand’s machine is the best technical fit for your application. The most well-known name in your region is not always the most cost-effective or most technically appropriate rake for your specific crop, tractor, and paddock conditions.

This article provides an objective overview of the major hay rake brands and manufacturer categories available in the English-speaking export market — their design heritage, product range positioning, typical working width coverage, and the market context in which each brand makes sense. It is intended to inform equipment selection decisions by providing factual context on each brand’s product range, not to function as an endorsement or ranking.

H&S Manufacturing — North American Wheel Rake Specialist

H&S Manufacturing (based in Marshfield, Wisconsin) is one of the most widely recognised hay rake brands in North America, with a product range focused almost exclusively on wheel rakes for the hay market. H&S rakes are sold through a dealer network in the United States and Canada, with limited international distribution in other English-speaking markets.

The H&S wheel rake range covers working widths from approximately 4.5 m (15 ft) through to 9.0 m (30 ft) in the commercial product line. Most models are ground-driven finger wheel configurations; H&S also produces twin-rake parallel models designed to form two simultaneous windrows. The brand’s strong point is parts availability within North America — dealer coverage is extensive, and tines and hub assemblies are stocked through a network of farm equipment dealers and farm supply retailers across the US Midwest and Great Plains.

Outside North America, H&S rakes are less commonly specified because the dealer parts supply chain does not extend effectively to Australia, New Zealand, or South America. An H&S rake purchased in North America and shipped to Australia carries full North American dealer pricing plus international freight, with no local parts supply for ongoing maintenance. This makes H&S a strong choice for North American operators but a logistically complex choice for buyers in other regions.

H&S hay rake for sale listings are common in the North American used equipment market — online classified platforms and regional farm auctions regularly carry used H&S machines at 40–65% of new price in serviceable condition. For buyers within North American parts supply range, used H&S equipment offers good value where frame condition checks out.

Case IH Hay Rakes

Case IH (part of CNH Industrial) produces hay rakes under the Case IH brand, sold through its international dealer network. Case IH hay rakes are predominantly rotary and wheel rake designs in the commercial farm segment, typically sourced from OEM manufacturers and badged under the Case IH label for distribution through the Case IH dealer system. The Case IH brand provides access to comprehensive global dealer service and parts supply, which is the primary reason operators in multiple markets specify Case IH equipment despite the premium pricing that comes with full-service dealer distribution.

Case IH hay rake models in current production (as of mid-2020s) cover wheel rake widths from approximately 6.0 m through to 10.0 m for finger wheel types, and rotary rake designs for silage and heavy grass applications. In Australia and New Zealand, Case IH maintains a dealer network in major agricultural regions, making parts and service access realistic for remote farming operations where equipment downtime during harvest is a significant operational risk.

The Case IH premium is real: a Case IH-branded wheel rake at equivalent specification to a direct-supply model will carry a 50–80% price premium at Australian or New Zealand dealer pricing. For farming operations where dealer proximity and warranty support have clear operational value — remote properties where a breakdown requires a service call rather than self-service repair — the premium can be justified on a cost-per-downtime-risk basis. For operations with mechanical self-sufficiency and access to general agricultural machine repair skills, the premium is harder to justify on economics alone.

Twinstar Hay Rakes

Twinstar is a hay rake brand associated with the North American market, producing wheel rake equipment with a product range that includes single-pass and twin-windrow configurations. The Twinstar design philosophy — producing two windrows in a single pass using a split-wheel configuration — is intended to increase the density of each windrow ahead of the baler by combining material from a wider swath into two parallel windrows rather than a single central windrow.

Twinstar hay rakes are discussed in online agricultural forums primarily in the context of North American hay operations, where the twin-windrow configuration has a following among operators who feel single-pass windrows are insufficiently dense for their baler in lighter-yielding crops. The practical value of the twin-windrow approach versus single-windrow plus a second merger pass depends on crop yield and baler pickup efficiency — it is not universally superior to conventional single-windrow raking and requires evaluation against your specific baler’s performance data.

Twinstar equipment is not commonly available through international export channels and is not a standard specification in Australian, New Zealand, or South American hay markets. Buyers in these regions asking about Twinstar hay rakes are typically encountering the brand through North American online content and should evaluate whether the design approach offers a genuine advantage over conventional wheel rakes in their specific operational context.

European Hay Rake Brands: Krone, Pöttinger, Kverneland

European brands represent the global high end of the hay rake market in terms of design sophistication, build quality, and price. Krone (Germany), Pöttinger (Austria), and Kverneland (Norway/CNH) produce rotary rakes, twin-rotor rakes, and finger wheel rakes covering working widths from 5.0 m through to 15.0 m for the most advanced twin-rotor designs. These machines are widely used in European high-intensity grassland systems where silage production dominates and multi-rotor designs with centre-windrow collection are optimised for high-output operation in conjunction with large forage harvesters.

The European brand premium in Australian and New Zealand markets is significant. Krone twin-rotor rakes at 10–12 m working width sell through Australian dealers at prices that reflect the cost of European manufacturing, ocean freight, import duties, and dealer margin compounded. For farms producing under 400 ha per season, the economics of European brand rotary rakes are difficult to justify against equivalent-specification equipment at lower landed cost. For 1000+ ha commercial operations where maximum output per machine hour has a direct revenue impact, the premium is proportionally less significant.

Bush Hog (part of the AGCO group) and Rhino (part of Alamo Group) are North American brands producing heavy-duty hay rakes positioned for farm use in larger tractor HP ranges. Bush Hog hay rakes are commonly discussed in the context of heavy straw and large hay operations — the brand is associated with robust construction suited to high-load applications. Rhino produces hay rakes through its agricultural equipment division, again targeted at the North American dealer market.

Brand Comparison: Key Specifications at a Glance

What Brand Selection Actually Determines

Brand selection in hay rakes primarily determines three things: parts supply chain, warranty and service support structure, and initial capital cost. It does not determine fundamental raking performance — a well-specified, correctly-operated ground-driven finger wheel rake from any competent manufacturer will produce equivalent windrow quality and throughput to a branded equivalent at the same working width and specification level. The mechanical principle is identical across brands.

Parts supply chain is the most practically significant differentiator for buyers outside Europe and North America. A machine whose tines, hubs, and bearings can be sourced locally within 24–48 hours is worth more in a running operation than a machine that requires 6–8 weeks for parts import. For Australian and New Zealand buyers, this means evaluating the specific supply chain for any brand they consider — not assuming that a well-known North American brand has equivalent local support.

Warranty terms vary significantly between full-dealer brands and direct-supply manufacturers. Dealer brands typically offer 12–24 month parts and labour warranty through the dealer network. Direct-supply manufacturers typically offer 12 months parts warranty with freight-return terms for warranty claims — adequate for most failure modes (design defects, manufacturing faults) but requiring more self-sufficiency in diagnosis and minor repairs than a dealer warranty arrangement.

The Case for Direct-Supply Agricultural Hay Rakes in Australia and New Zealand

Agricultural equipment buyers in Australia and New Zealand have long sourced equipment directly from manufacturing facilities — tractors, headers, seeders, and implement lines — through a combination of direct-import networks and local agricultural equipment importers. Hay rakes sit within the same procurement logic.

A ground-driven 9.0 m finger wheel rake sourced directly from a competent manufacturer with documented commercial export experience, proper export packaging, and confirmed spare parts availability to Australia represents a technically equivalent product at a substantially lower landed cost than the same specification rake purchased through a European or North American dealer network with full brand overhead. The decision variable is service risk tolerance — not technical quality.

Our hay rake range — including the 9LZY-9.0, 9LZD-9.0, 9LZ-6.0, and the mower-windrower series — is supplied with full commercial export documentation, container loading from the manufacturing facility, and parts available for international supply from our New South Wales address at 01 Harley Crescent, Condell Park NSW 2200. Prior customers in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia can be provided as references on request.

Used Hay Rake Brands: Which Hold Value Best

In the North American used equipment market, H&S and Case IH branded hay rakes hold resale value better than non-branded or imported equipment, primarily because the dealer parts network makes servicing a used branded machine straightforward for buyers who may not have technical information about the specific machine they are purchasing. In the Australian used market, name recognition is less concentrated in a small number of brands, and machine condition and specification drive resale value more than brand origin.

Internationally, the most important consideration for used hay rake purchase is not brand but physical machine condition — frame geometry integrity, tine condition, and bearing state — combined with parts availability for that specific machine model. A used machine from any brand with damaged frame geometry is worth significantly less than its nominal second-hand price, regardless of the brand. The inspection protocol in our hay rake for sale article applies equally to all brands — there are no brands where the frame geometry check can be skipped.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best hay rake brand?

There is no single answer that applies across all markets and operations. For North American buyers with access to dealer parts networks: H&S and Case IH are well-supported and widely used. For buyers in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Southeast Asia: European and North American brands carry a significant cost premium and limited local parts supply; direct-import equipment from Asian manufacturers with documented export track records is the standard procurement model for cost-sensitive agricultural operations in these regions.

Is H&S the best hay rake for North American farms?

H&S is among the most widely used and well-regarded wheel rake brands in the US Midwest and Great Plains. Their product range covers most commercial farm working width requirements, parts are readily available through a large dealer network, and machine quality is consistently above average for the category. Whether a specific H&S model is the best choice for a specific operation depends on the same technical criteria as any other brand — working width, tractor compatibility, and drive type suitability for the crop.

Are Twinstar hay rakes available outside North America?

Twinstar rakes are primarily distributed through the North American dealer network. They are not commonly available through standard agricultural equipment export channels in Australia, New Zealand, or South America. Buyers in these regions who have identified the Twinstar twin-windrow approach as potentially beneficial should evaluate whether the operational advantage justifies the import complexity versus conventional single-windrow wheel rake alternatives available through more accessible supply chains.

What is the difference between branded and unbranded hay rakes?

The mechanical components — wheels, tines, hubs, bearings, frame — are the same category of parts regardless of brand label. Major branded equipment often uses OEM supply from the same manufacturing facilities that produce direct-supply equipment, with the brand’s quality control standards applied at the manufacturing level and the brand’s dealer network providing the after-sales service layer. The functional difference between a well-specified direct-supply rake and a branded equivalent at the same specification level is primarily the service and parts supply chain, not the mechanical performance of the machine in the field.

Which hay rake manufacturers supply to Australia directly?

Multiple agricultural machinery manufacturers supply hay rakes to Australia through direct commercial channels. We supply the hay rake range listed at balerhay.com/hay-rake/ to Australia and the broader Asia-Pacific region with full export documentation and commercial freight arrangements from our New South Wales operations base. Contact [email protected] for a quotation including landed cost to your port or farm address.