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Windrow Tester Takes Guesswork Out Of Baling
Most farmers think they can pull a handful of hay out of a windrow and tell if it's ready for baling. Often they're right but Missouri farmer Howard Dickey says he and many other farmers are probably just as often wrong.
"We usually want to get going as soon as we can so we tell ourselves the hay is ready when it
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Windrow Tester Takes Guesswork Out Of Baling HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 18-5-24 Most farmers think they can pull a handful of hay out of a windrow and tell if it's ready for baling. Often they're right but Missouri farmer Howard Dickey says he and many other farmers are probably just as often wrong.
"We usually want to get going as soon as we can so we tell ourselves the hay is ready when it really isn't, resulting in wet bales that spoil or don't contain optimum quality hay," says Dickey, who's come up with a new "Windrow Tester" that he says takes the guesswork out of when to bale.
It consists of a 6-in. dia. humidity sensor encased inside a 10-in. tall cone-shaped housing with slots all down the side. You slip the tester into the windrow and, in 6 min., you get a reading. In Dickey's case, if the reading is 35 percent or under, he starts baling. If you're making round bales that will sit outside, he says you can probably bale when the tester reads between 40 and 45?. The optimum reading will vary depending on location and on what type of bales you're making and where they'll be stored.
The reading is not the moisture content of the hay but rather humidity within the windrow. Using a temperature reading, that you also get off the tester, you can calculate the actual moisture content of the hay, if desired.
A tall metal flag on a wire is set at the critical point on the tester. In Dickey's case, he sets the flag at 35 percent and the flag lets him see at a glance if the needle is at 35 or below. The flag also makes it easy to find the tester in the windrow.
"Guys will place it in a windrow in one field and start in another field that's ready to bale. Then when they get to the field with the tester in it, they can look and see if it's ready," he notes.
"Making hay is an inexact science. I'm trying to come up with some scientific measures that make the whole process more precise. After last year, when we had more than double the usual rainfall, many farmers in this area had a lot of hay spoilage because we had so few days when we could bale," says Dickey.
He's been selling his windrow tester for $125. Most of the cost is for the industrial grade hygrometer he uses.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Howard Dickey, Dickey Farms, Rt. 1, Box 120A, Lathrop, Mo. 64465 (ph 816 740-3641).
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