It should be noted that the silage harvest was at a period in late 

 June when other field work was not pressing on this farm. The avail- 

 able regular help were able to do the work with available equipment. 



With the use of silage and mow drying facilities, in addition to 

 the regular mow storage, this operator harvested hay early and stored 

 it under conditions that should insure high quality. 



Hay Harvest Management on Farm No. 6 



THIS FARM has 131^:; acres in hay and in the 1951 season 29^^ 

 acres were cut twice. The total yield, including 21^/2 acres of first 

 crop harvested as grass silage and 6 acres harvested as oat silage, 

 was approximately 268 tons dry hay equivalent. 



The first crop yielded 220 tons and the second crop 48 tons, in- 

 cluding 16 tons dr>' hay equivalent oat silage. Fifty-seven tons of 

 the first crop and 16 tons of the second crop were barn-cured, and 

 114 tons of first crop and 16 tons of second crop were field cured. 



The 147 tons of grass silage (49 tons dry hay equivalent) were 

 harvested in the period of June 12 to June 30. Thus the operator har- 

 vested 22 percent of his first crop roughage as grass silage before July 

 1 (Figure 1.) He put 171 tons of first cutting hay in the barn between 

 July 3 and August 4. 



For the curing of first cutting hay, the mow drier was used most 

 extensively in the early part of the harvesting season. During the 

 last half of July the weather was favorable for field curing. 



HOURS 



180 



160 Wy 

 140 



120 

 100 





//^y/ 



-■ 





FARM NO. 6 FIRST CROP HAY 

 PREGURING OR FIELD CURING TIME 



h 



57 Tons- 



BARN CURED FIELD CURED 



Figure 3. On this farm also, type of storage made little difference in hours of field curing. 



8 



