After a barn the next best place for storing hay is a shed with an adjustable or lifting roof. The ground dimensions should be ample to allow the first cutting to cover its floor and not be over five or possibly six feet deep when first put in. The bottom of the mow should be raised at least one foot from the ground, and the floor should have at least a twelve-inch air space about every three feet. Poles or joists covered with dry straw or old hay make a good floor. Spread the hay over the entire floor surface, on a layer of straw or other dry material. Use barrels or boxes as recommended for ventilation in the barn, and lower the roof until the second cutting. For such a roof the covering should be of some such material as ruberoid, and the rafters need not be heavy, except about every sixteen feet. Strong iron clamps can be easily adjusted to the supports. When the second cutting is ready, raise the roof, which should be in sections, and put the second crop on top of the first. Follow this plan for all other cuttings. If a shed with a stationary roof is used, dry straw, or hay, or corn stover should be put on top of each cutting to protect the alfalfa from rain. Almost any kind of a shed or covered structure is preferable to a stack.
CONDITIONS FOR STACKING
If the hay is to be stacked, there are also special conditions that the experienced insist should be observed. This is not to say that alfalfa hay stacked under conditions quite different may not give fair results, and much depends on the locality and the climate. However, the result desired is palatable and nutritious hay and not such as is moldy, stack-burned or dusty. Stacking the hay directly on the ground is sure to mean a loss of some portion of it. Elevate the bottom of the stack with poles, timbers or other like material; put straw at the bottom and, preferably, build a rick rather than a round stack. Start the bottom sixteen or eighteen feet wide and build straight up instead of tapering or slanting the sides, as alfalfa hay will not shed rain or snow water. If there is much moisture and it is convenient to do so, use a layer of straw or dry hay of some kind every five or six feet. Keep the stack full in the middle, or a little higher than the sides, and well tramped all the time. When the stack has reached the desired height, top it out with slough grass, or dry timothy or prairie hay, or very green alfalfa, or protect with tarpaulins or boards; the boards may be nailed and chained together, lapped and weighted at the corners, making a very satisfactory roof. If these directions are followed, the losses will be kept at a minimum. The Kansas experiment station authorities say that in an experiment made there an application of salt to the hay when being stored seemed to decrease, if anything, rather than increase its feeding value. Lime applied in stacking is claimed to have a beneficial effect in preventing mold.
The raised bottom and layers of straw are useful accessories for the stack, shed or mow, while the barrel or other ventilating contrivances should not be overlooked in either sheds or mows.
STORING AS SILAGE
As land values increase and farmers and dairymen come to more fully appreciate the worth of green feed in winter, the silo grows in estimation. Eastern farmers who keep cows or young stock of any kind use the silo more or less, to conserve for winter the value of both green grass and corn. Alfalfa makes an excellent silage, but its peculiar quality of retaining its green food value, as hay, when properly cured, makes its ensiling much less a necessity. Alfalfa hay taken from the mow in February, green, appetizing and nutritious, falls little, if any, short of serving the purposes of silage.
OFTEN PROFITABLE TO ENSILE THE FIRST CUTTING
However, it is not infrequently found that the first cutting of alfalfa may be ensiled directly from the field at a season when rains would prevent its proper curing for hay. If this is done, it is important that the rakes and wagons follow very closely after the mower, as even two hours of sun exposure in the swath lessens its value for silage. Men who have cut alfalfa during a light rain and raked and hauled it directly to the silo have reported satisfactory results. Others report having cut it in the late afternoon and, the next morning, after a heavy rain, raked and hauled it to the silo while dripping wet. Therefore the farmer in the eastern and southern states, in the Pacific Northwest, or even in the central states may, on occasion, plan for the ensiling of his first cutting, in the faith that it will come out in fine condition if his silo is properly constructed.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SILOING
The Kansas and Colorado experiment stations recommend that alfalfa for silage should be cut into lengths of, say, two inches. Long alfalfa does not pack sufficiently close in the silo, and when so stored the loss is much more than if in short lengths. It should always be heavily weighted and great care taken to pack it well at the outer edges. Round silos are most approved because their contents are more readily compacted. The points urged by Professor Ten Eyck, of the Kansas experiment station, are, (a) getting the alfalfa to the silo quickly after mowing, allowing little, if any, curing; (b) cutting the alfalfa into short lengths rather than storing it whole; (c) packing it tightly, and weighting heavily when all in. He says, however, that if the weather will permit proper curing of the alfalfa, it will make more valuable winter feed as hay than as silage.