Harvesting Silage. The 147 tons of grass silage were hauled in 

 43 loads in 14 days in June and the 48 tons of oat silage were hauled 

 in 15 loads in three days in August. The usual crew consisted of three 

 men. Crew management in the field provided one man to drive the 

 truck, one man to pitch on, and one man on load. At the silo, two 

 men were on load, and one was at the silage cutter. 



A total of 224 man hours was spent in loading, hauling, and un- 

 loading. This is about 3.4 man hours per ton of dry hay equivalent. 



Grass silage was picked up from the windrow and run in without 

 much wilting. 



Harvesting Hay. The harvesting of 104^4 acres of first-crop 

 hay yielding 171 tons took a total of 335 man hours. This is about 

 2.0 man hours per ton and about 3.2 man hours per acre. The opera- 

 tor usually cut from 2 to 8 acres at a time. However, on July 9, he 

 cut 12 acres and on July 10, 10 acres. This was all harvested with the 

 usual three-man crew. 



Labor spent in loading, hauling, and unloading silage and ha}- 

 on this farm was 3.4 and 1.5 man hours per ton, respectively (dry hay 

 equivalent). So here again, as in the case of Farm No. 1, about twice 

 as much labor was used for silage in loading, hauling, and unloading 

 as for hay. 



Mow Drier vs. Field Curing. Since the mow drier was limited 

 to one side of the barn, the operator followed the practice of field 

 curing hay whenever conditions were favorable. With the exception 

 of hay which was rained on, a substantial part of the field cured first 

 crop, totaling 114 tons, was cured in the field a shorter time than 

 most of the barn cured hay. (Figure 3.) 



It should be noted, however, that the majority of field curing 

 took place in the last half of July when weather was favorable, while 

 the major part of the barn curing was done in the first half of July. 



Thus the operator was able to use the mow drier to advantage 

 in the early stages of the haying season when the weather was less 

 favorable for field curing. Undoubtedly this speeded up his over-all 

 harvest. 



Second Crop. This farm cut 29J/2 acres of second crop hay yield- 

 ing 32 tons, of which 16 tons were barn cured and 16 tons field cured. 

 The barn cured hay was put in August 11 to 13. Tt was cut in the 

 morning and placed on the drier in the afternoon. The field-cured hay 

 (unless rained on) had to be cured at least 72 hours in the field. 



A total of 84 man hours was required to harvest this 32 tons of 

 second crop hay or about 2.6 man hours per ton. This compares with 

 2.0 man hours per ton for the first crop, and the additional time is no 

 doubt due to the lower yields per acre. 



Summary. This operator harvested 268 tons of hay (dry hay 

 equivalent) with 643 man hours total time, including mowing, rak- 

 ing, baling, loading, hauling, and unloading. 



Harvesting silage on this farm took 70 percent more man hours 

 per ton than first crop hay, as no special field equipment for grass 



9 



