The Use and Management of 



Mow Driers and Grass 



Silage Facilities on a Few Farms * 



By JOHN C. HOLMES 

 Research Assistant in Agricultural Economics 



A LIMITED NUMBER of New Hampshire dairymen have car- 

 ried out aggressive land-management programs for a period of 

 years. They have made heavy appHcations of lime and fertihzer and 

 have made frequent reseedings with legume grass mixtures. The 

 result has been not only a large increase in production of roughage 

 on all acres of the farm, but this large total tonnage of hay is of 

 higher quality, matures much earlier, and is more difficult to cure 

 than the ordinary hay of a decade ago. 



To obtain the highest feeding value from this roughage, . the 

 operators must complete the harvest of the first crop at an early 

 date. Unfortunately the weather previous to July 1 is usually un- 

 favorable for field drying hay. Thus, as dairymen bring a larger 

 proportion of their crop acres under crop-improvement practices, 

 they become increasingly concerned with this problem of harvesting 

 a large crop of heavy, slow-drying, early-maturing hay. Many have 

 installed additional silo capacity and are harvesting the heaviest 

 hay as grass silage. A few have installed mow hay driers. The oper- 

 ators who have these new facilities are faced with management de- 

 cisions as to their most economic use. 



This project was initiated to study the management problems 

 associated with harvesting hay where the operator had facilities for 

 grass silage, mow cured hay, and field cured hay. 



The study was confined to detailed observations of haying oper- 

 ations on a limited number of farms. These case studies in the 1949 

 and 1950 seasons indicated a wide variation in the use and manage- 

 ment of roughage storage facilities. Two operators, for instance, were 

 especially aggressive in using their available silo capacity to harvest 

 the earliest heaviest grass in June before the usual season begins. 

 When the silos were full, these operators continued their harvest 

 operations, storing the hay in mows equipped with driers or in mows 

 not so equipped. A few, even though equipped with silos and mow 

 driers, did not begin their harvest until July. 



*Two research mimeographs were published as progress reports: Agri- 

 cultural Economics Research Mimeograph No. 5, A Description of Mow Hay 

 Driers on 23 New Hampshire Farms in 1948; and Agricultural Economics Re- 

 search Mimeograph No. 7, Management Problems Associated with Mow Dry- 

 ing Hay on Five Farms. 



