20 



CIRCULAR 443, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



In addition to the cost of operating a drier, the cost of harvesting 

 and hauling the material to the machine must be considered, and the 

 overhead charges. With suitable equipment, the cost of harvesting 

 and loading should _ approximate that for field-cured hay except for 

 the larger tonnage in hauling wet forage instead of dry hay. Over- 

 head charges per 1,000 pounds of water evaporated depend in large 

 measure upon the initial cost of the drier and the tonnage of hay 

 handled each year. 



Table 4. 



— Hay crops dried at the 



Levcisbui\ 



7, Tenn., i 



tation during the 1935 season 





Hay 



Moisture content 



Rate of 

 drying 



Quantity 

 dried 



Fuel oil 





Before 

 drying 



After 

 drying 



per ton 

 of hay 



Alfalfa.— - 



Percent 

 62.9 

 37.1 

 67.5 

 60.7 



Percent 



11.6 



5.5 



4.6 



10.4 



Pounds 

 per hour 

 1,674 

 2,352 

 1,201 

 1,632 



Tons 



65 

 21 

 13 

 71 



Gallons 

 32 7 





13 3 





46 





31.6 







i Korean, common, and L. sericea. 



The initial cost of a drum drier installed approximates $2,000 per 

 1,000 pounds-per-hour evaporating capacity. On this basis and as- 

 suming 6 percent interest on the average investment (one-half the 

 initial cost), 10 percent annual depreciation, and 5 percent for taxes, 

 insurance, and repairs, the overhead cost would approximate $360 

 per 1,000 pounds-per-hour evaporating capacity, or $1,080 per year for 

 a drier capable of evaporating 3,000 pounds of water per hour. 



The overhead cost of a drier is, for all practical purposes, a fixed 

 annual cost, but when computed on a per-ton basis decreases as the 

 total volume of hay dried per season increases. With a $6,000 invest- 

 ment in a drier and only 100 tons of hay dried annually, the overhead 

 cost would approximate $10.80 per ton. If the drier handled 1,000 

 tons per year the overhead would approximate $1.08 per ton. From 

 this it can be seen that the cost of drying may be excessive unless a 

 large quantity of hay is dried annually. 



FEEDING VALUE OF ARTIFICIALLY DRIED HAY 4 



The progress of the feeding tests in which the dehydrated forage 

 was fed to beef cattle and dairy animals at the Iberia Livestock 

 Experiment Station, has shown that, as compared with the sun-cured 

 product, it will produce slightly greater gains in weight; that the cost 

 of producing the dehydrated product is somewhat greater, thus mak- 

 ing the cost of animal gain a trifle higher; that the market grade of 

 the dehydrated product is generally higher; that results of chemical 

 anaylses of comparable grade of hay show but slight variations in 

 favor of the artificially dried product. 5 However, the carotene con- 

 tent of the artificially dried hay was considerably higher than that of 



4 This section was prepared in collaboration with R. R. Graves, Chief, Division of Dairy Cattle Breed- 

 ing, Feeding, and Management, Bureau of Dairy Industry. 



5 If the average field-cured hay at the Jeanerette station were used in making the comparative chemical 

 analyses, the results would undoubtedly be considerably in favor of the artificially dried product for the 

 reason that much of the field-cured hay is badly damaged by unfavorable weather conditions during curing. 

 If this loss in quality were taken into consideration, the cost of the good field-cured hay would be greatly 

 increased. 



