Conditioner (farming)

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A hay conditioner is a machine that crimps and crushes newly cut hay to promote faster and more even drying. Drying the hay efficiently is most important for first crop hay, which consists of coarse stalks that take a longer period of time to draw out moisture than finer textured hays, such as second crop cuttings.

A conditioner is made up of two grooves rollers which the hay is forced through causing the stalks to split, thus giving more surface area for moisture to escape. The stand-alone conditioner is now an obsolete piece of machinery since it has been incorporated into both haybines and mower-conditioners.

[edit] Mower-conditioners

Mower-conditioners, MoCo's in casual conversation, are a staple of large-scale haying. Mower-conditioners are defined by the mechanisms that accomplish mowing and conditioning. There are two types of mowers, swathers and disc mowers. Swathers use sickles mounted to a series of rotating bars to cut. Disc mowers have a number of hubs across the cutting width, each hub has two small knives that spin at high speeds. Disc mowers can cut at much higher ground speeds than swathers. Swathers main advantage over disc mower is the reduced horsepower requirements. Only very large swathers, from 14'-25' cutting width, are still produced and can be very efficient in high acreage fields. Conditioners come in three main types; rubber-roller conditioners, steel-roller, and flail. The roller conditioners consist of two opposing rolls that have a raised, interlocking chevron pattern. The rollers either have a rubber or steel chevron pattern and a steel main shaft. The crop is crimped between the rollers, decreasing the drying time. The flail conditioner is an arrangement of steel V's on a main shaft that beat the crop against the top of the mower-conditioner. The flail conditioner reduces drying time by removing the waxy coating on the crop.

Haybine is the brand name of the first mower-conditioner. It combined the sickle bar mower and the hay conditioner to promote faster drying hay all in one process. The current versions produced by New Holland are branded the Discbine, since they now feature faster disc mowers.


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