Now that haying season is upon us, some of you may be interested in ways to improve your hay making process and minimize losses.  We hope the following tips will be useful to you. Numbers in parentheses are the sources from which the information was taken.    
 
--Cut hay earlier in the season to get better hay quality.  Hay quality and quantity are inversely proportional.  In other words, as hay quantity goes up, hay quality goes down.  Immature plants have greater leaf to stem ratios.  Because the leaf is the ‘meat’ of the plant, more leaf equals higher nutrition (higher crude protein and sugar content), higher palatability, and higher digestibility.  (1, 4)
 
--If putting up a mix of immature and mature or overly mature hay, stack it in separate stacks according to high or low quality.  When it comes time to start feeding, feed the highly nutritious, immature hay to your younger or late gestational and lactating cattle. These cattle have higher nutritional needs and require better feed quality.  Feed the less nutritious, mature hay to your early gestational and dry cows  (4) Table below from source #4. 
 
--Only bale hay with a moisture content of 20% or less for small bales and 18% or less for large bales.  If baled at moisture content of 20% or more, hay may start to caramelize and mold.  Heat will be produced and may cause spontaneous combustion to occur and a fire to start.  On the other hand, hay with less than 12% moisture is too dry and will likely shatter during tedding, raking, or baling.  In that case, you will just be baling stems.  If you have not already invested in a good hay moisture tester, it is a must-have for all hay producers.  (1, 3)
  
--Cut hay later in the day to maximize sugar content.  Plants photosynthesize during the day to produce sugars and oxygen.  At night, they respire and use some of those sugars produced during the day to grow and set seed.  Thus, plants are at their lowest energy level early in the morning.  The only catch to this tip is that hay cut later in the day will not dry much on the initial cutting day; check the weather forecast and be sure there is no threat of rain showers overnight or in the near future. (1, 2, 3)
 
--Decrease your drying time by setting your mower width to the widest possible setting.  Grass sits on top of the stub better and more evenly allowing for more air to flow through and around the grass.  Mowers with conditioners will also improve your drying time because they crack the stems to release trapped moisture. (1,2,3)
 
--Every haying process causes dry matter and leaf loss, minimize this loss by working your hay as little as possible.  If you must ted your hay, do so the morning after mowing and once the dew is off but while the hay is still tough.  Also rake the hay when it is slightly tough.  This will minimize leaf loss from both tedding and raking.  This is a balancing act because even if your grass is tough when you put it in a row, remember to check the final moisture content before baling it to make sure it is below 18-20%. (1, 2, 3) Table below from source #3. 
 

References

1.  Bummer, J., M. Volt, and A. W. Cooley. Chapter 9: Irrigated Hay Production. Intermountain Grass & Legume Forage Production Manual. <http://wci.colostate.edu/shtml/ForageManual.shtml>
2.  Proper Handling & Curing of Hay <http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/pubnwsltr/TRIM/5811.pdf>
3.  High Quality Hay Management <http://mbfc.s3.amazonaws.com/2008_fact_sheets/21_2008_high_quality_hay_management.pdf>
4. Harvest and Storage Management Affect Hay Quality <http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forglvst/hayquality.pdf?