Drying Rates, Losses and Fuel Requirements for Mowing and Conditioning Alfalfa

FIELD tests were conducted to compare drying rates, losses and fuel requirements for mowing and conditioning alfalfa with machines which utilized cutterbar, flail, rotary disk and rotary drum mowing devices and roll and flail type conditioning devices. Drying rates averaged over all tests did not show large, consistent differences between machine treatments. Shatter losses were substantially higher for the flail mower-conditioner. Fuel and power requirements were significantly higher for the rotary drum mower, flail mower and rotary disk mower with flail conditioning than for the cutterbar and rotary disk mowers with roll conditioning.