silage was available. Here again the grass silage was harvested in 

 June when other field work was not pressing, and the small amount 

 of oat silage was put in between first and second cropping. 



Table 2. Summary of Harvest on Farm No. 6 



Harvest Management on Other Farms 



THREE LARGE FARMS were selected from the list of farms 

 studied in the 1950 season to illustrate diflferences in adjustment of 

 individuals to a need for early harvest of roughage grown under a 

 crop improvement program. There is very general agreement among 

 research workers that the heavy, early-maturing legume crops should 

 be harvested early to obtain the maximum feed value for dairy cattle. 



Operator No. 2 harvested 114 tons of first crop hay, either as 

 mow cured or field cured (Figure 4). He was equipped with a field 

 chopper and two tractors. He took advantage of an early season and 

 had 60 percent of the crop on the mow drier by the first of July ; 

 82 percent of the crop was harvested before July 15. He might have 

 moved the harvest forward a few days if he had put up grass silage 

 in early June. 



The operator of Farm No. 3 was also equipped with a field 

 chopper and two tractors. He had facilities for storage as grass si- 

 lage or as barn cured hay. However, he did not get under way until 

 after July 1 and about 27 percent of the first crop was harvested after 

 August 1. Well equipped wnth special machinery and with facilities, 

 this operator had made little adjustment to an early harvest. 



The operator of Farm No. 5 field cured all his hay. He had 

 neither a baler nor a field chopper and depended on the hay loader 

 and trucks to haul and load. With only a modest investment in special 

 haying equipment and with a small crew, he harvested nearly a third 

 of his first crop before July 1. He harvested three fourths of the crop 

 by July 15 and completed the task before August 1. 



Broad conclusions should not be drawn from these few individ- 

 ual cases. It should be noted, however, that the availability of equip- 

 ment and facilities is not a significant inducement to all operators to 

 carry out all the essential adjustments in an improved cropping pro- 

 gram. A program to harvest the heavy, early-maturing legume hay 

 at the best time must often begin in the previous fall. By proper plan- 

 ning to have the essential spring tasks accomplished by mid-June, 

 the operator is then free to begin harvest operations at the proper 

 time. 



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