The crushed, field cured, and baled and the crushed, field cured, 

 and Ijarn dried without heat methods were chosen to represent the two 

 basic harvest systems for the analysis of date of cut and weather pat- 

 terns on farm income. The barn drying hay-in-a-day harvest system pro- 

 duced less variability in net income when lelated to the weather pat- 

 terns during the harvest seasons from 1910 through 1961. The average 

 net income under the variable weather patterns for each of the beginning 

 dates of cut was larger with this system than the system that included 

 field curing. 



For a typical dairyman with a herd of approximately 75 cows and 

 100 acres of hay land, it would be profitable to aim toward a harvest 

 system that would mechanically cure hay in a day. 



