HAYMAKING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 December 1928, Page 16

HAYMAKING.

THE ART OF STACK BUILDING. Farmers all over the country are busy getting in their crops of hay, and, though many of them are experienced in the art of mailing the stack, an expert’s description of the procedure necessary to secure efficiency may be of value to some. It is taken from the Agricultural Journal. When mowing permanent pastures it is generally desirable —weather permitting —to cut early, aiming at a light cut of good quality hay rather than a heavier cut later in the season. Early cutting conserves a closer turf on the pasture than later cutting, which leaves the cocksfoot plants very tufted, the white clover stunted, and consequently a good deal of bare ground. The green plants when cut for haymaking contain from 70 to 75 per cent, of water. Before they can be conserved as hay, this water-content must be reduced to 1 between 15 and 20 per cent. The wind and sun are relied on toi dry the green material, and of the two the wind is most satisfactory. Leaving the cut grass too long in the upturned swathes is to be avoided, as this temis to excessive bleaching.

The use of the swathe-turner is extending, and this machine has much to commend it. If lifts and turns the swathe without breaking it, and the quickness with which it works allows of frequent turning, and thus full advantage can be taken of the drying effect of the wind. Undue sun-blcacing is thus avoided and the colour retained 1 in the hay. There is always a space between the swatches where the ground is drying so that when the swathes are turned they go on to this bare dry ground and this helps the drying process.

When hay is stacked, a slight fermentation takes place, which gives rise to heat, and a certain amount of water is evaporated from the warm stack. The aim of the skilled haymaker is to have his hay at just such a state of dryness that only the initial stages of heating are reached.

Frequently when rather green or moist material is stacked excessive fermentation and heating take place, and an inflammable gas is produced which is responsible for the spontaneous combustion of haystacks. Stacks having so great a diameter and height that the heat produced by fermentation cannot escape as quickly as it is liberated are liable to fire, if the material has not been stacked in the best condition. The centre of the stack rises in temperature till firing or smouldering occurs. The danger-point is the middle of the stack at about 6ft from the ground, ‘■below this point the weight of hay

above squeezes out the air and prevents fermentation, while above and around this the heat can escape to the outside. The heat will escape more rqadily from a long, narrow stack than from one which, although containing the same amount of material, is shorter and wider.

Stacks 1 placed in sheltered corners near plantations are more apt to heat than stacks well out in the paddock and exposed to the wind. The- direct baling of hay from the field has recently been undertaken in some dairying districts, but this method requires settled weather at haymaking for its successful adoption. Under suitable- conditions the method has several advantages over stacking. Less labour is required to harvest the crop. The bales cau be more easily housed ana covered than a stack, and consequently there is less loss from the weather. There is less waste in feeding out, and the hay rations can be more easily measured and carted out to the stock. The baling plants in l use can usually put through about an acre an hour, and the charge is about £2 per 100 -bales weighing 701 bto 801 b each. The cost of baling, is roughly, 10s per ton. Corrugated roofing iron makes a very efficient cover for a stack, and the -losp in a well-built stack roofed in this way is less than 5 per cent., whereas t-lio loss in uncovered stacks is l often over 25 per cent. When the iron is placed so that the corrugations run parallel to the slope of the roof, some timbering is usually required to keep the iron in place. Probably as -good a method as any is to join the sheets of iron together lengthwise in sections with ordinary spouting bolts 1 , so- that each section is long enough to cover from one side of the stack to the other—the corrugations running parallel with the length of the stack. The iron should be weighted | down by kerosene tins filled with earth.