UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- In an ironic twist of technology that has Penn State farm operations manager Glen Cauffman feeling like a bit player in the hit movie "Back to The Future," the College of Agricultural Sciences is evaluating a new European spin on a 50-year-old hay-drying process that has major implications for Pennsylvania farmers.

That the evaluation is coming in the midst of this mother-of-all-wet-summers is another quirk of fate. "In the 1950s and '60s, it was common for Pennsylvania farmers to use haydryers," Cauffman explained recently, while watching a demonstration of the haydryer made by Feribale Manufacturing, an Italian forage equipment maker, at Penn State's Ag Progress Days. "But they disappeared in the United States.

"Haydryers made economic sense when diesel fuel was selling for 2 cents a gallon," Cauffman added, "but not when it rose to 80 cents a gallon. The last one I remember was a New Holland model that went out of production in the 1960s."

Cauffman estimates that 100 or so haydryers are in use in Europe. Penn State is doing the only evaluation of a haydryer in this country, an arrangement resulting from a representative of the Italian forage equipment maker approaching Cauffman about giving the machine a try. "I was skeptical at first," he admits. "But it looks like advances in energy efficiency make the haydryer a possibility for Pennsylvania farmers. We have been evaluating the machine since May, and the results are not yet in, but it looks like it offers some distinct advantages."

The theory behind a haydryer, which can be fueled by fuel oil, natural gas or propane, is that after farmers cut hay and allow it to partially dry in the field, and before it reaches a moisture level safe to store in a barn, the hay is put into a haydryer for six or seven hours. The resulting forage, because it was dried relatively quickly and soon after it was cut, retains a higher nutritional value for livestock.

"I think this machine will interest a lot of Pennsylvania farmers," Cauffman says. "A big advantage is that the more hay dries in the field, the more leaves it loses. So the advantage of baling it at a higher moisture level is that it retains more leaves and more nutritional value. And in theory, that higher nutritional value will pay for the drying costs. The jury is still out on that, however, and that is what we are evaluating here at Penn State."

According to Cauffman, having a haydryer has been a particular blessing during this rainy summer, which has been one of Pennsylvania's wettest ever. "We haven't had many three-consecutive-dry-day periods that we need to dry hay in the field before bringing it in," he says. "We were able to partially dry hay in the field and finish it in the haydryer. Without it, we'd have lost a lot of hay. And last fall, we were able to make hay clear into November with it, and we never could do that before."

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EDITORS: Contact Glen Cauffman at 814-865-4433 or by e-mail at http://aginfo.psu.edu.

Writer/Editor: Jeff Mulhollem Office 814-863-2719 FAX 814-863-9877