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Little River, TX | I looked at one day's relative humidity & pan evaporation for representative locations. Locations in the Humid East and the Arid West
For the Humid East I chose Delaware 0.20" pan evaporation & 53% RH; Kentucky 0.26" & 40%RH; Michigan 0.21"& 51%RH; + Alabama 0.39" & 34% RH.
For The Arid West California Desert, 0.60" & 22% RH with <0.10" rain; the San Joaquin Valley 0.47" & 18%RH; New Mexico Pecos Valley, 0.51" & 19% RH; TX Pan Handle 0.53" & 20% RH.
Then I looked at the amount of pan evaporation to dry conditioned alfalfa down to 20% Moisture.
A medium yield of 1.5 T/A cutting Full width swath 0.39", 50% swath 0.59", & 25% windrow 0.89" pan evaporation.
A higher yield at 2.7 T/A cutting Full width swath 0.59", 50% swath 0.92", & 25% windrow 1.38" pan evaporation.
edit by full width swath means 100% of the ground covered by hay, 50% swath meaning 50% of the ground is covered by hay, 25% windrow means the hay is allowed to cure in the windrow that the hay will be baled out of.
This data was put out by Dan Undersander in Wisconsin. I suggest that in the arid west there will be less required pan evaporation required because with their low humidity and more persistent winds their hay will also continue to cure during the hours of darkness.
Conclusion,
In the Humid East with a medium alfalfa hay cutting a simple wide swath works well, but for a heavy yield of alfalfa tedding is very desirable for timely curing. The exception being Alabama where the more intense sunshine gives them a slight advantage.
In the Arid West there is little Need fir a wide swath to speed curing. In fact with their persistent winds a fluffed up & dry windrow might not stay where it belongs.
It is my contention that we are all working with the same universal truths, but local micro climates have a big effect on how we each manage our hay production.
Disclaimer: Thanks to BSchroeder
This is the opinion of an anonymous Internet poster with no stake in your success or failure
Edited by Hay Wilson in TX 8/24/2010 09:45
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an opinion on hay production
