That's the reason they pay a nice premium for dust and mold-free alfalfa packaged in convenient sized bales that can be handled by one person. If the weather is perfect, Fritz allows his hay to cure in the windrow. But when the weather doesn't cooperate, or in the evening when the crop is toughened by dew, it goes on the dryer. For artificial drying, the hay is baled before leaves are dry enough to shatter. Since more leaves are saved, feed quality is high.
Bales are firm and uniform for handling and stacking with an automatic bale wagon.
That's 1,600 bales placed neatly in a dryer with absolutely no hand labor required. The air is sucked, not blown, through the hay. Heated air enters from the top of the stack and is drawn down through the moist hay and exhausted from below. The stacks are sealed on the sides and ends with plastic tarps. The tarps are pulled into tight contact with the stack sides by the suction of fans that pull the air out the bottom.