>> Most beef producers rely on harvested forages as a primary feed
resource during at least part of the winter feeding period and when dry
weather during the growing season reduces pasture growth. In this edition
of Beef Tips, we're going to focus our discussion on the process of making dry
hay. In this case, we'll be discussing the process of taking a standing forage crop
that is somewhere of 75 to 80 percent moisture down to less than 20 percent
moisture when we put it in the bale. Hi I'm Dr. Ron Lemenager, Purdue Beef Extension
Specialist in the Department of Animal Science. >> And I'm Keith Johnson, Department
of Agronomy, Forage Crop Extension Specialist. >> There are several steps to
the hay making process: mowing, heading, raking and baling. So let's start with
mowing the hay crop. And when I was a kid, Keith, we used to cut it with a sickle
bar mower and rake it with a bar rake alright.
Technology's changed some since then. Let's talk about that.
>> We must be about the same age because I did the same thing. But what's happened is more
conditioners have been brought in, and they've been here for several decades.
But they really do speed the rate of drying hay as compared to that sickle
bar mower. And there are two type of mower conditioners. The first is a disc mower
with a flail or an impeller type of conditioner which is better in grasses
than legumes as they cause more leaf shatter with legumes. The other type is a
sickle bar or disc mower with crimping rollers that are either metal or rubber,
and they can be used on legumes and grasses. These mowers do operator at a faster
speed and work better when the forage is not standing straight up or as we say
the crop is lodged. Considerations regarding mowing and conditioning
include: making sure that we set the gap between the rollers so that crimping of
the stem occurs about every third to fourth inch and that leaves are not
being bruised by those rollers. The setting is dependent upon the yield of
the crop, so it's really critical to check that gap between cuttings because
yield does change over the course of the season. Mowing height is very very
important too as we don't want to scalp plants like orchard grass that have an
elevated crown where regrowth originates.
And swath width should be set wide by setting the deflector shields. This
improves rate of moisture loss. >> So Keith, many of our producers have a
tedder to spread wind rows and swaths into a thinner more fluffy layer to help
speed down the drying process. How should this equipment be used and
maybe when should it be used during the dry down process?
>> Well, I wouldn't get into the habit of using that tedder every time. I'd keep it parked in the
equipment shed if you are convinced that the hay can be get to safe baling
moisture because a number of days predicted without rain are more than four.
The purpose of the tedder is to speed the dry down process more than what the
mower conditioner can do alone. It should be used when the hay crop is greater
than 50% moisture to minimize leaf loss. And greatest use of the tedder will
likely be in the first cutting when the rain events are more frequent and the
temperature is a bit cooler as compared to summer. Another use of the tedder is
when hay is in a wind row almost ready for baling, and it gets rained upon
unfortunately. And in this case, the Tedder scatters the windrow so drying
back to a safe harvest moisture occurs more rapidly.
>> So our next process is really raking the hay in to an appropriate sized windrow for the
baler to efficiently operate. Again today we've got a lot better equipment for
raking hay than we did when I was a kid growing up. Like the tedder
we just talked about, we probably need to use the rake appropriately as well.
>> Absolutely and there are two basic kinds of rakes. The rake style likely used
several decades ago was that bar or that parallel rake. These rakes do a really
good job of tipping wind rows over to allow the bottom to dry and really did a
nice job of creating a windrow, but they can be pretty aggressive on the forage
with leaf shatter if several swaths need to be merged together to form a
windrow for baling. The newer rakes are less aggressive on forages. They reduce
the amount of leaf loss, and they do create a fluffier windrow to facilitate
continued moisture loss. The most common type you
use today is called a wheel rake that has eight, ten or more rotating wheels to
gently move the forage into that windrow. Regardless of rake type, however,
the recommendation is to use the rake when the forage crop contains more than
40 percent moisture. And in many cases, this can be done the day of anticipated
hay baling: in the morning when there is still some dew left on the drying hay crop.
>> The last step then in the hay making process is baling. The most
common balers that we think about is a small square baler that produces maybe a
50 to 70 pound bale. Then we've got the large packages: the big round baler, the
large square balers that'll take these bales up to maybe 1400-1500
pounds. So the big round balers become pretty popular among a lot of our
producers, and the big square baler is become popular among buyers and
sellers particularly if we think about transporting hay long distances down the
road. So let's talk about different types of balers. >> Okay well, the advantage of
the small square balers, they are typically stored inside. And as a result,
this minimizes weathering that might occur with a large round bale outside.
And it's pretty easy to tell when you've got more moisture than 20% in these
small bales because if you're handling them, you understand that
there's a lot of weight there, more than probably what should be recommended.
So you're apt to check that moisture and verify whether it is above that
so-called safe moisture of 20% or not. Now the big disadvantage of small square
bales historically has been the physical labor that is associated with moving
bales from the field and the storage and then back into the feed trough,
but much of the physical wear of people can be reduced today with the use of
bale accumulators and bale grabbers on a tractor or skid steer. The large round
baler has become very popular the last few decades among beef producers across
the country because it does make the labor more efficient and it also makes
the feeding of the hay an easier task as well. There are many
sizes of balers that can be selected to fit the size of the beef operation and the
tractors available that one has for baling and and moving the bales.
>> You're talking about big round bales; you know there are those bales
that are hardcore, very tight in the middle versus it's kind of
that soft core. Talk a little bit about what what your thoughts are on that.
>> Well certainly you're going to find that
the moisture loss is probably going to be a bit greater in terms of soft core,
in terms of moving that moisture out as compared to the hard core sort of bale
in terms of where there's apt to be more moisture retained. >> The hard core bales
are probably way more. I mean you got more hay packed into that middle,
probably may shed moisture in storage maybe just a little bit better.
>> They can and while we're on that, we could also then talk about probably in
terms of finalizing the wrap around these bales that in a storage
environment what we're going to find is that the net wrapping that's available
is probably going to be more retaining of dry matter as that crop might weather
as compared to being wrapped in twine. >> I've seen data that says maybe five
percent reduction and dry matter lost stored outside with a net wrap
versus a twine is. That right? >> That's right on and probably right where
it's about. Yes correct. >> So I think from this session the
takeaway points that Keith and I'd like to make that are that making hay
properly takes the right harvest equipment used at the right time to
minimize both field losses and storage losses and then to create a hay product
that's high enough quality that can meet the animals requirements.
you