Conditioning Vs. Nonconditioning Grass Hay

Conditioning

• Conditioning is the process of drying hay. Dry hay is important to farmers who need it for livestock. Moisture can destroy a hay crop because it provides an environment for mold and mildew to grow, essentially rotting the hay. Drying, therefore, decreases the potential loss of hay to these fungi, which is especially important when hay is mass-produced. One moldy batch of hay can infect other batches, costing the producers money.

Nonconditioning

• Some hay producers decide not to condition their hay crops. They bale the hay as it comes from the fields without any of the processes that are involved in conditioning. Nonconditioned hay has a shorter shelf life than its conditioned counterpart does because it is more susceptible to fungi and beetle damage. Nevertheless, there are some advantages of not conditioning hay.

Up-front Costs

• The two major methods of conditioning hay are roller techniques and cutting techniques.

  Both techniques involve using specially designed machinery to damage the stems of the plants so that moisture can escape. The roller technique uses steel or rubber rollers to squeeze or crimp the stems to break open the stems. Cutting techniques use additional blades to cut the hay at multiple points, exposing the stems to air. The machinery, spare parts, maintenance and manpower required to produce conditioned hay is the major disadvantages to conditioning. Because not conditioning the hay requires only a small fraction of equipment and manpower, nonconditioned hay is less expensive to produce. Because nonconditioned hay does not go through a drying process, it is also available sooner and may claim a higher price from buyers who use it immediately and so do not have to worry about loss due to fungal infections.

Potential Losses

• Conditioning and nonconditioning can have potential losses. Since nonconditioned hay retains more moisture, it is prone to fungal infections or mold, leading to a bad batch of hay that cannot be sold. Conditioned hay lessens the chances of this happening. However, the conditioning process potentially leads to losses in hay crops. Conditioning is mostly done in conjunction with mowing, and if the mower is running too fast, hay is dropped or significantly damaged. This also yields a smaller batch of hay.