Been thinken about your book. Somethin I have noticed is hay growers tend to confuse basic rules for local application.
The local application effect is why I would like to see our western hay growing friends become a part of the American Forage & Grassland Council. Many to most of the authorities hay producers of AFGC are in the Humid East and tend to consider local application to be the basic rules.

Most of the time our Irrigated Western Grower has no need to lay out a full width swath. The portion of hay curing that takes up the 25%, i.e. everything but direct sun shine, is so great they have no need for a wide swath. A 15 mph breeze that is 15% relative humidity will dry hay in short time. With a 25 mph breeze and they do not want to rake hay into a nice fluffy windrow as the hay will then blow for miles and miles. Usually their challenge is to find enough humidity to keep the leaves from shattering. Just as there are some mountain valleys in from Pa to Ga where the sun is hidden by real estate for hours on end, and the humidity may not go below 70% for days on end.

Both places the basic rules are the same, but the local methods are so different.

Something I have wondered is why do the hay farmers of the real humid east not put up hay silage, in snow balls, long tubes, or blown up in one of those big blue silos?

In addition I have often wondered why, with all the hay growers in Ohio who contribute here, why the Ohio Forage & Grassland Council, an AFGC affiliate, has not hosted am AFGC annual conference.

Possibly at the 2008 AFGC conference, in Louisville, the last few days of January & first few days of February most of the Ohio growers will have special breakfast to meet and greet each other and see how many, of you, there really are.