# Hay Dryers.... Anyone have one??



## Tamswr (Jan 18, 2015)

After a terrible season for making hay and still only being half done, I'm starting to look into purchasing a hay dryer. They seem to be very costly but the amount of hay we have had rained on this year if could pay for itself in a year or two. Does anyone on here use one or have any experience with one? If so, what kind? The Veda Farming Hay Dryer looks to be very well designed but potentially quite costly. I have also seen videos of dryers that use a sealed building with grating in the floor that could be used as a storage shed the rest of the year but i'm not sure if they would work as well. Any info would be appreciated, thanks.


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## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

Tamswr said:


> After a terrible season for making hay and still only being half done, I'm starting to look into purchasing a hay dryer. They seem to be very costly but the amount of hay we have had rained on this year if could pay for itself in a year or two. Does anyone on here use one or have any experience with one? If so, what kind? The Veda Farming Hay Dryer looks to be very well designed but potentially quite costly. I have also seen videos of dryers that use a sealed building with grating in the floor that could be used as a storage shed the rest of the year but i'm not sure if they would work as well. Any info would be appreciated, thanks.


I don't think that any of these systems can be used to dry a whole field of wet hay all at once. Even in the Veda video I can't see the upper bale getting the whole flow of hot air. You have to place the bale with the cut side down to allow air go through, cannot bale tight or else it defeats the purpose. These systems were designed to handle small batches of baled-wet hay for a few hours each batch. If you build a dedicated barn for it you can make the system more efficient. Wind fields Farms (Thoroughbred) had such a barn, works best with small bales or loose hay. Having said that I don't have a system and all this is simple observation on my part. There is a member here from Denmark who has a system and is thinking of getting another improved one his name is Knud http://www.straamanden.dk maybe you can contact him and exchange ideas.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I have a 7.5 hp hay dryer fan and three tunnel dryer sections I've been trying to arrange into our old barn. I don't have heat or dehumidification yet. I got a stainless steel heat exchanger and wood furnace to go with it to help out. I have to make a decision soon about how it gets installed. My fan is a low pressure high volume fan intended for unheated drying but I'd like to setup for heated drying for about 8 tons (@15% water content) over two days with max harvest % about 25%.


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## AgriCompact haydryers (Sep 3, 2016)

Trillium Farm said:


> I don't think that any of these systems can be used to dry a whole field of wet hay all at once. Even in the Veda video I can't see the upper bale getting the whole flow of hot air. You have to place the bale with the cut side down to allow air go through, cannot bale tight or else it defeats the purpose. These systems were designed to handle small batches of baled-wet hay for a few hours each batch. If you build a dedicated barn for it you can make the system more efficient. Wind fields Farms (Thoroughbred) had such a barn, works best with small bales or loose hay. Having said that I don't have a system and all this is simple observation on my part. There is a member here from Denmark who has a system and is thinking of getting another improved one his name is Knud http://www.straamanden.dk maybe you can contact him and exchange ideas.





haydryers said:


> Tamswr said:
> 
> 
> > After a terrible season for making hay and still only being half done, I'm starting to look into purchasing a hay dryer. They seem to be very costly but the amount of hay we have had rained on this year if could pay for itself in a year or two. Does anyone on here use one or have any experience with one? If so, what kind? The Veda Farming Hay Dryer looks to be very well designed but potentially quite costly. I have also seen videos of dryers that use a sealed building with grating in the floor that could be used as a storage shed the rest of the year but i'm not sure if they would work as well. Any info would be appreciated, thanks.





Tamswr said:


> After a terrible season for making hay and still only being half done, I'm starting to look into purchasing a hay dryer. They seem to be very costly but the amount of hay we have had rained on this year if could pay for itself in a year or two. Does anyone on here use one or have any experience with one? If so, what kind? The Veda Farming Hay Dryer looks to be very well designed but potentially quite costly. I have also seen videos of dryers that use a sealed building with grating in the floor that could be used as a storage shed the rest of the year but i'm not sure if they would work as well. Any info would be appreciated, thanks.


Hi"Tamswr"!

We are the producer of the innovative hay bale drying technology Hay Dryers Compact:
No problem, I can either put you in contact with our Danish client Knud (as "Tillium Farm" suggested)
as well as with our American customer: Jasper Hill Farm, VT.
They are award-winning cheesemakers and need TOP quality milk for their raw-milk cheeses.

Let me know how you would like to proceed.

Our email is:

[email protected]

In the meantime, I will add some links of the latest news regarding our company in North America, press and TV:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/money/2016/08/18/jasper-hill-takes-sun-out-equation-dry-hay/88622944/

http://www.wcax.com/story/32864824/new-facility-makes-hay-while-the-sun-doesnt-shine

Have a good Hay! 

Sabine
Your AgriCompact haydryers Team

AgriCompact Technologies GmbH, Germany
we deliver hay bale drying solutions. always. also in north america.

www.haydryers.com


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## Tamswr (Jan 18, 2015)

Thanks for the replies. Since it seems like most dryers can only do a small batch of bales at a time (50 max from what I have seen), the dry down time would be very important. I was hoping someone on here had experience with a particular model and could provide some specifications such as, what is the highest moisture that can be baled and then dried?, does it only work on wet cured hay or can you bale hay that isn't cured?, and how long is the dry down time for each batch from lets say 20% moisture down to 11%? Also trying to figure out the costs of running a dryer. Thanks for the reply Agricompact Hay Dryers, I will check out your links.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

The capacity of the drier is not fixed, they can adjust the design to meet certain targets for time and moisture content. It is very expensive to operate a dryer with heating, my numbers it added about 1$ per bale fuel / electric cost for small squares baled at 25%. Dehumidification type is less fuel more capital cost.

Every owner story if read about them is they target in field drying first to have the lowest fuel costs in the dryer. It's more of an insurance policy.

The largest capacity units are the drying bins for loose hay, I think some common sized ones can handle 30 tons dry basis per day. Can always add more units to use though.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Density is huge factor. If you are consuming bales on site you can balance ease of drying with handling. Shipping any distance, not so much.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I looked at one of the links with a news story about a farmer that built facilities to dry hay.He only invested $1,000,000 in it.

To be honest I dont see this working for 99.99% of the hay farmers.Maybe that guy was getting some crazy price for the cheese???


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

There is a whole range of capital cost in setting one up. The options generally look like this:

1. Unheated air - like a grain bin this is the cheapest option. Problems are you need a large volume of air and you are at the mercy of the weather to a degree. You are only going to put up to 25% hay into a dryer like this and if doing squares you can't add much at a time if you are on the high end or if the bales are densely packed. If you are putting 20% hay in you can put more hay in per drying cycle. Rounds you may have trouble getting dry.

2. Solar heated air - for a small jump in cost if your barn roof is suitable, you can capture some solar energy and speed up the daytime heating. Works best during mid summer when you have long hours of sun and low cloud/rainfall.

3. Wood/oil/etc heated air - another jump in cost and you can maintain drying progress at night as well. Do not underestimate how much fuel this will use! I don't have the numbers handy but for the batch size I was looking at, my oversized wood boiler for the shop and house that sits all summer was only 1/4 of the size needed to dry my batch in 2-3 days. The wood use was quite high too obviously.

4. Dehumidification - under many conditions it is cheaper to dehumidify the air than to heat with a fuel only. The "waste" heat lost in the work of the compressor is used for drying and desirable. The programming to manage a dehumidification system is complex as some conditions its cheaper to blow outside air through, or to heat a bit or partially recirc etc.


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## Tamswr (Jan 18, 2015)

Yes the initial fixed costs would be huge, but in my area (Alberta) there can be 200$/ton price differential between premium horse hay and cattle feed, so maybe the cost can be justified over a few years if it actually helped get more hay in the sheds dry and green. A natural gas dryer would be best in this area and I was estimating costs to be around 5-10$/large square depending on the moisture content. The dryer would have to use heat I think to dry down the hay fast to put enough volume through it to make it economical. Thanks again for the relies


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Ok so I'm putting this in this thread but maybe not the greatest spot. This isn't perfect information but may help understand dryers a bit,*Cliff notes, 5-35$ per ton range of cost drying 25-40% moisture hay down to 15% using 0.10$/kwh and about 2.50/gallon oil*. Solar is cheapest to run, and slowest/lowest capacity. Unheated air is just a bit more expensive to run. Dehumidification or heated dryers it depends on climate and fuel costs as to which is cheaper to run. Heated seems to be cheapest to oversize burner to shorten cycle times.

-Because of imperfect airflow you always have to dry to below the target storage % as wet pockets will exist in bales.

-Air only drying without external heating, in a climate where you would need a dryer like Canada or northern US, you are limited to knocking about 5% moisture content off per day on low density round bales or square bales. So bales in at 30% need about 3 days in a well built air only dryer to get to 15%.

-Air only drying doesn't always work fast enough for hardcore round bales or large squares, parts of the middle of the bale may go dusty before it gets dry

-Air only drying fan energy use is about 5 and 7.5 kWh per % per ton for low density and high density bales respectively from one Canadian study. The dense bales require more fan power to push air through. That means for me at about 0.10$/kwh, and drying squares to take 25% down to 15%, its 50 kWh, so 5$ per ton. Each batch would take about 3 days in average weather.

-For comparison, the fan energy is about 1/2 of than when you have a suitable heater but might have to burn around 2-3 gallons of oil per ton of hay dried. Thats getting up to 10$/per ton range here but much faster cycle times, maybe as fast as 6 hours again with a large heater.

-From another study on air, solar and dehumidification drying from 40% moisture found it takes between 69-124 kWh of electricity per ton to dry, the lowest being with a solar collector pre-heating the air. So 6.90$ to 12.40$ per ton using the same electricity pricing. This is pretty inline with the first results mentioned.

-Veda's dryer calculation spreadsheet shows about 12$/ton for their basic dryer using oil and electric forced air 25 - 15% drydown. 6 hour batch time. Raising the mc of bales loaded in to 40% and they estimate it then costs 35$ per ton.

-Euro study of a cold air, solar heated air and dehumidification dryer recently over 2 years found between 22 to 271 kWh/ton needed to dry down (2.20 to 27.10$ per ton). The 271 was wet stuff they brought in as it was going to rain and be ruined. Different dryers used less energy depending on the outside weather.

-A study in New York state of 27 hay dryers found they used 14 gallons of oil and 20 kWh per ton on average. Thats about 30-35$ per ton just quickly in my head in todays pricing, much higher than the previous numbers. This study was over 50 years ago in the days of low efficiency oil burners so there may be significant error or maybe it was just wet hay.

-A study in Quebec found the total cost per ton is about 20% higher for barn dried hay vs bunker or upright silage when you consider fixed and variable costs. They were comparing because the nutrition of dried hay is close to silage. The bigger trouble is the upfront cost is almost double that of investing in a silage setup if you are looking to match capacity.

-Ontario study found 50 to 75 kWh per ton (5 -7.50$ per ton) for air only dryer on 25% range square baled hay dryer.

-Another Quebec study found operating costs of 25$/ton for dehumidifaction dryer and 8$/ton for solar dryer. The dehumidification unit ran around the clock and was faster, putting out 10 times the tons per day of the solar unit but still cost more to setup.

-Frigortec data shows between 50 - 201 kWh energy use, 5-20$ per ton, depending on the type, cold air, solar, dehumidification etc.


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

Tamswr said:


> Yes the initial fixed costs would be huge, but in my area (Alberta) there can be 200$/ton price differential between premium horse hay and cattle feed, so maybe the cost can be justified over a few years if it actually helped get more hay in the sheds dry and green. A natural gas dryer would be best in this area and I was estimating costs to be around 5-10$/large square depending on the moisture content. The dryer would have to use heat I think to dry down the hay fast to put enough volume through it to make it economical. Thanks again for the relies


Based on drying Timothy in the past, you can expect drying costs to be 4x to 5x your estimate Still very attractive, but if hay could be dried for less everyone would be doing it. It sure has been a challenging haying season here in Alberta.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

I always thought a vacuum chamber for drying would work. Does not need to be a complete vacuum. But as the air pressure is lowered the boiling point of water is also lowered. So than lower the air pressure down to where water will boil at about the current outside temperature. But this involves a big pressure vessel which is expensive.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

It will be very difficult to justify drying systems with preservative systems so cheaply available....even when hay is at higher scale pricing the heated drying systems would not be logical for very many...if any here in the US. There are just not enough customers here that would demand that type of product for the price it would take to be profitable....it would make more $ sense for those customers to feed a somewhat lower grade of forage and add a little bagged feed supplement.

The exporters might be able to get some Saudi's to pay the necessary premiums, but I understand they are even doing some belt tightening with sub-$50 oil.

Regards, Mike


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I'd just as soon they tighten it around their neck  Sorry, just a bit grumpy after learning the way the Saudis have treated us......but I'm sure some countries feel the same way towards us, Israel comes to mind lately


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

This thread reminds me of the "Godiva Hay"that was discussed on here a few yrs back.

They cut and hauled the hay directly to a plant that dried it and baled it to make perfect hay.It didn't work out to well for them.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Nice numbers slowzuki, appreciate all that put together at one place.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks, looking at costs vs acid, acid has unlimited capacity in a way. Both acid and drying increase in cost rapidly with increasing moisture content.

From what I can tell acid would come in more expensive per ton than air and solar drying but you aren't limited by the size of the dryer. The heated drying seems to be pretty even with acid operating costs if operated well in conjunction with weather. It's a hard sell on the dryers, acid has very little investment required to get started. It does keep you out of some markets though.


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## Tamswr (Jan 18, 2015)

Thanks for all the info Slowzuki,

Carcajou, would you mind telling me what kind of dryer you are referring to? I believe there were some loose hay dryers in the peace country a few years back but can't remember for sure.

Vol, we are currently using "The Juice" preservative on our balers. It is a nice additional tool to put up hay but it seems we can only sell so much wet hay and it gets very costly soon as the hay is over 14%. Upwards of 18-20% it doesn't always seem to work even when its being applied at high rates. Getting hay under 12% moisture opens up markets that buy the most hay at a decent price.

It seems they may be more money to dry each bale than I was expecting, still might be worth it. Dry green hay always seems to sell where as rained on or higher moisture hay is always a struggle to move.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Tamswr said:


> Vol, we are currently using "The Juice" preservative on our balers. It is a nice additional tool to put up hay but it seems we can only sell so much wet hay and it gets very costly soon as the hay is over 14%. Upwards of 18-20% it doesn't always seem to work even when its being applied at high rates. Getting hay under 12% moisture opens up markets that buy the most hay at a decent price.


Tam, you might want to look at using a different preservative....I bale up to 25% moisture and a tick higher under the right conditions using Hayguard and do not have any problems. I know that others get the same results with some of the other products. 18-20 % moisture is not hard to preserve.

Regards, Mike


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## Tamswr (Jan 18, 2015)

Vol, yes I maybe should look into a few other preservatives. Is Haygaurd granular or liquid? Not sold on acid yet. In our area we need the hay under 10% moisture in a big bale for it not to heat. Getting hay down to 12% once it has sweated out still needs to be the final goal as that is the easiest way to sell the hay.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Wow, I don't think our square bale hay that has been in the barn 2 years is even down to 10%.



Tamswr said:


> Vol, yes I maybe should look into a few other preservatives. Is Haygaurd granular or liquid? Not sold on acid yet. In our area we need the hay under 10% moisture in a big bale for it not to heat. Getting hay down to 12% once it has sweated out still needs to be the final goal as that is the easiest way to sell the hay.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Tamswr said:


> Vol, yes I maybe should look into a few other preservatives. Is Haygaurd granular or liquid? Not sold on acid yet. In our area we need the hay under 10% moisture in a big bale for it not to heat. Getting hay down to 12% once it has sweated out still needs to be the final goal as that is the easiest way to sell the hay.


I think it is in liquid only, but I am not sure. Hayguard does a great job of keeping the hay cool....especially at the 25% moisture range and under. Here, when I bale at 25%</= to it practically has no heat....I would say that is Hayguard's greatest attribute.

Regards, Mike


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

Vol said:


> I think it is in liquid only, but I am not sure. Hayguard does a great job of keeping the hay cool....especially at the 25% moisture range and under. Here, when I bale at 25%</= to it practically has no heat....I would say that is Hayguard's greatest attribute.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Hayguard has both liquid and granular. You might see it called Silo Guard also....same stuff.

This is my first year with hayguard so I'm not sure how it looks inside, but i kept track on some hay that the probe was showing almost 28-35% moisture. I set those bales separately and temp. probed them every other day. I never saw any temps above 105º. Time will tell.

Troy


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