WEATHER- 



nAy 



JOHN G. ARCHIBALD * 



THREE years of hay curing 

 studies have brought out the in- 

 teresting fact that weather dur- 

 ing the growing season before the 

 crop is cut has httle influence on the 

 chemical composition of the crop. 



The picture changes when we 

 consider weather during the curing 

 process, that is, between cutting 

 time and storage. A moderate 

 amount of rainfall (one inch or less) 

 apparently has little, if any, adverse 

 effect on the nutrients in hay, es- 

 pecially if it rains before the hay has 

 dried out to any extent. Too much 

 rainfall, however, will cause great 

 losses of sugar, and overexposure to 

 bright sunlight will destroy the 

 carotene. Protein content is not 

 greatly affected by weather. 



The losses taking place after the 

 hay has been stored are possibly of 

 greater significance than the changes 

 and losses during curing. In stor- 

 age, carotene losses are greatest and 

 most marked during the first week, 

 continuing at a somewhat slower 

 rate until the hay is fed out several 

 months later. Losses of sugar are 

 also high, taking place entirely dur- 

 ing the first month of storage. Here 

 again protein content of the hay is 

 not materially aflected. 



Studies were made to compare 

 barn-dried hay (dried over a forced 

 draft of air) with field -dried hay. 

 Although barn-dried hay was slight- 



■k Research Professor, Animal Husbandry. 



AND STORAGE 



ly higher in protein, sugar, and 

 carotene at the time of storage, by 

 the time the hay was fed out, these 

 differences had disappeared almost 

 completely. Eight cows fed both 

 barn-dried and field-dried hay from 

 the same field for four months dur- 

 ing two winter seasons produced the 

 same amount of milk. 



Critical Stage in Barn-drying 



Although barn-drying does have 

 certain definite advantages, farmers 

 are warned against expecting too 

 much of it. It is very easy to ruin 

 good hay by storing it too damp or 

 by faulty operation of an air blower. 

 For example, a lot of alfalfa was 

 baled for barn-drying but left on a 

 wagon for a week before putting it 

 over the drier. A second lot from 

 the same field was baled and put 

 over the drier at once. A few weeks 

 later the sugar content of the first 

 lot was 2.1 percent, whereas that 

 of the second was 7.1; the carotene 

 content was 6 and G5 parts per mil- 

 lion, respectively. In another in- 

 stance some excellent quality leg- 

 ume hay was baled and placed over 

 a drier, and it was later discovered 

 that only a fraction of the amount 

 of air was being delivered by the 

 blower because of belt slippage. 

 Meanwhile sugar content dropped 

 6.5 to 2.(5, and carotene dropped 

 from 75 to 13 parts per million. 



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