Drying Lucerne Hay Bales

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 6

Drying Lucerne Hay Bales

Farmers in Mid-Can-terbury have been experimenting with artificial drying of lucerne hay this season. The brothers, E. J. and R. B. Coppard, of Cloverlea, about two and a half miles above Methven, live in a 42-inch rainfall area and normally find it very difficult to make their first cut of hay in November and their final cut in March.

This season they mowed their lucerne for the first cut on November 10. It was side raked twice on November 12 and baled that evening. The baling was actually done too soon, for when the bales started to dry out the next day they began to buckle and the ties to loosen up. The brothers feel that they might have avoided this difficulty if they had left the baling over for another day. This compression of the bales militated against even drying when they were subsequently dried artificially The bales were carted in on November 13 and drying started that day. An open hay barn was the scene of the drying experiment. The Coppards were using an English type drier or moisture extraction unit as it is called. A 44 horse-power air-cooled motor drives a fan which picks up the heat from the motor. In the hay barn the Coppardj rigged up a tunnel around which the hay was stacked.. The. tunnel,, into which the warm air was blown, was built out of three wooden trestles about 4ft Bin high and 3ft square These were placed about 12ft apart and connected by pieces of 4in by 2in. The tunnel was surrounded by about 600 bales of hay These were stacked about 4ft 6in high and 6ft back from the tunnel on either side and at one end and another four Layers oi bales then went on top.

making the stack about eight layers high altogether. At the start of the drying process the bales were probably somewhere about 651 b to 701 b in weight and they were subsequently dried down to about 40 to 451 b.

Drying began at 7.15 pm on the day that the bales were brought in and continued for five days. The following morning drying was resumed again for another seven hours.

After the drying there were still a few warm patches in the heap, particularly ait the bottom where bales had become excessively compressed due to premature baling, but when the heap was dismantled the Coppards found that some of the hay was of really excellent quality. The machine that was in use was a demonstration model but the Coppards plan to purchase one and they propose to have a permanent tunnel system in a hay barn using weld mesh on bearers on concrete piles. They will dry the first cut of about 600 bales when it comes into the shed and will go on drying as more hay comes in. While this may result in some of the lower bales being dried excessively, they may wet these again when they use them to bring them back to a normal moisture content. The Coppards also dried Italian ryegrass this season. The ryegrass was mowed on January 14 and 15. Heading started at 10.30 a.m. on January 17 with the moisture content at 19 per cent Moisture content went down slowly until it wts 13 per cent, at 3 pm. filling of a 30-ton plywood silo went on until the 7ft 3in level was reached at 8 p.m. with about 975 bushels to store Drying began at 3 pm. and continued until 10 p.m. After drying had ceased the seed remained at a temperature of about 78 degrees and after three days the average moisture content was 15 per cent. In the bottom of the silo four trestles about 2ft high were fitted to with 3in by 2in timber laid loose on top and the seed resting on scrim over weld mesh with the warm air introduced from an eight foot square opening to the side of the base of the silo. The cost of drying allowing tor all charges is put at about a halfpenny a bushel The Coppards are using three 30 ton and two 90 top silos on their farm. The silos on sledges are bufit on the place ,at the cost of about £4 a ton of storage for materials and ace either pulled into the paddock to be harvested or into one next door if the harvest peddock is due for early cultivation. The two header harvesters used on the farm are driven to the silos for unloading by gravity toto a hopper need with a fita auger.