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Lacombe, Alberta | I heard a presentation last year by Dan Undersander from Wisconsin about forage. He said that mowing without a conditioner dries faster at first then with a conditioner. To make balage unconditioned was better because conditioning breaks the stem and doesn't allow moisture from the stem to come out the leaves. For dry hay conditioning was better because it allowed all the moisture to leave but took longer. Basically he said if you're making balage don't spend money on a conditioner because it takes more fuel and horsepower and dries slower for the first day but if you're making dry hay the conditioner allows the plant to dry the last bit to become hay. Make the swaths as wide as possible so it dries quickly.
Wide swaths: https://hayandforage.com/article-25-Wide-swaths-work-for-both-hay-an...
Didn't find comparisons of conditioning and not but his presentation had some.
Here's the sort of things I heard about from Dan: This is the recipe for making high quality hay with high yield. Undersander said to cut hay when the quality is high, keep respiratory losses low and keep leaf losses low.
http://www.hpj.com/alfalfau/recipe-for-making-quality-hay/article_2...
Edited by Eric B 5/27/2018 20:38
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Do I need a conditioner when cutting hay for baleage?
