Practice of Hay-Drying under Cold Weather Condition
1962 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 143-148,133
Details
1962 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 143-148,133
The climatic conditions in Hokkaido is not so suitable for haymaking, so artificial hay drying is one of the effective means to produce a better hay. Especially' if a baler is used, baled hay must be completely dried with haydrier. Though haydrier is not so popular in Hokkaido, forced-air mow haydrier with slatted floor system was designed and constructed inthe farm of Hokkaido University, standing on above mentioned reason.
The performance tests of the haydrier were carried out in Autum, 1961.
The results can be broken down as follows:
1) The static pressure on the bottom of the piled bales was about 12-14mm at the middle part of the floor, when the bales were piled as high as 2m. However the pressure at the oppositeside of the main duct was about 7-10mm. The air losses could be found at the portion of 1 meter from outside of the piled bales.
It is one of the most important problems to get maximum efficiency that the bales of the outside must be piled as compact as possible to keep from air losses from around the piles.
2) The drier was driven from Nov. 1st. to Dec. 1st. The mean temperature and humidity of outdoor were 4.5°C and 71-72%, respectively. The fan was driven in the daylight, except when the humidity was higher than 80%. The differences in the temperature and humidity between in the mow and outdoor were 1.8°C and 7.9% while the fan is running, and they were 3.0°C and 4.5% when the fan is stopped.
3) Even though under like this low temperature, the temperature of the bales with more than 25% of water contents raised, when the fan was continuously stopped. The fan should be run, in this case.
4) Since the air flow from the bottom of the pile, the drying speed of the bales on the bottom layer was higher than that on the top layer. Therefore, they can recognize that drying of all bales will be completed when the bales on the 2nd layer from top will be dried.
5) The fan should not be run when humidity is hig her than 80%, except when the temperature of hay raised.
