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Circular No. 443 



Issued August 1937 # Washington , D . C . 



Revised September 19:>0 ° 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Artificial Drying of Forage Crops l 



By E D Gordon, formerly associate agricultural engineer, Division of Farm 

 Machinery, and W. M. Hurst, senior agricultural engineer, Division of Mechan- 

 ical Processing of Farm Products, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agri- 

 cultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Administration 2 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Need for forage driers 1 



Types of driers 2 



Tests of driers 5 



Use of driers 15 



Capacity 15 



Furnace and fuels 16 



Power requirements 19 



Page 



Operation of driers 20 



Present status of dehydration 



industry 22 



Feeding value of dehydrated for- 

 age 2o 



NEED FOR FORAGE DRIERS 



Production and curing of forage crops are important farm opera- 

 tions in most parts of the United States. Not only is forage a basic 

 ingredient of livestock rations but it also has a prominent place m crop 

 rotation and in the conservation of soil fertility. Since it is desirable 

 to bring high-quality production in line with profitable operation, at- 

 tention is being given to the curing of forage artificially. This under- 

 taking was stimulated by results of feeding experiments that showed 

 high grade (U. S. grade) forage is usually superior in feeding value 

 to low-grade forage. , . 



Feeding experiments have demonstrated (p. 25) that with artificial 

 drying, forage of superior quality can be obtained from a crop that 

 otherwise, under unfavorable weather conditions, would be of inferior 

 quality. Methods and equipment employed in harvesting, curing, and 

 subsequent processing operations govern to a large degree the value 

 of the product for feed. This is especially true in the more humid 



1 This refers to quick drying, for a period of less than 1 hour, often referred to 

 as dehydration. . • . 



2 Revised bv L. G. Schoenleber, agricultural engineer, Division of Farm Meciri- 

 fication, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, L. A. 

 Moore, head, Division of Dairy Nutrition and Physiology, and R. E. Hodgson, 

 assistant chief, Bureau of Dairy Industry, Agricultural Research Administration. 



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