Uncrimped hay

Does uncrimped hay that was cut with a sickle bar mower have a tougher feel when baled compared to hay run through a crimper?

I used to cut with a scickle and condition with a NH crusher. The hay didn't fall apart into short pieces. You could get a lot of it on a fork. The bales didn't shed as much when handled. FIL always said cows don't eat haybined hay as well because the short pieces hurt their mouths. Probably true but that could also have been his way to justify not spending on a haybine.

All a haybine does is bend the stems to help drying. It doesnt cut them. Once the hay is formed into a bale, crimped or non crimped is all the same.

This post was edited by MJMJ on 06/18/2022 at 02:38 pm.

I could understand small square bales having more sharp ends.

All the hay conditioner ads from the 60's claimed cows ate more conditioned hay because it was softer. Tom

Yes it does. if you try some hay that is made by someone that uses a Recon or Masticator you can't help but notice the difference.

When you are racing the weather, a MOCO and Tedder are an absolute must. Agree that crushed stems are easier to consume especially on over ripe Sorghum Sudan that was planted with less than 50# of seed per acre.....plant spacing allowed larger stems that occur with high volume hay producers...in my area anyway.......they can't get to it all in time for it to all be at its peak volume vs digestibility.

I made hat for years and cannot understand that. NO WAY does a crimper or crusher make short pieces. Either type just makes the stem more flexiable. I have had different crimpers and crushers and you can tell handling a bale if it was unconditioned or conditioned. Now if your hay is a soft stem like lawn grass it is different. We had alfalfa, red clover and tinithey. If that ctimped stem is easier on your hand when you pick up the bale it naturaly would be easirt on the cows mouth. Used 2 different type crimper rolls, and 2 sifferent crushers before got a mower-conditioner. And at times we would go back over the swath a second time with a conditioner. And we did have a tedder and used it a lot. Now if you are talking a flail type conditioner that I have never seen that could make short pieces like running the hay rhru a flail forage harvester like used for green chopping. Those flails are a knife so I can see that making short pieces but NOT a normal crimper or crusher. A crimper has like coragated steel roller runing together to break the stems at intervilles from every 1 inch up to every 2 inches while a crusher id like two smooth rollers running together and just mashing the steem breaking both sides. So neither can make short pieces. I believe if you could have a bale of each of a conditioned and one of unconditioned hay, exactly same hay the coes would take the conditioned bale first over the unconditioned bale for one reason and that is easier to get in their mouth.

Agreed..
I would suspect that crimped hay might be drier all things equal,, and therefore crunchier, stiffer, than non-crimped hay. On fine grasses probably no difference.