A Revolution in Hay Making Starts in the Finger Lakes
Jim Ochterski, Extension Agriculture Economic Development Specialist

Even though hay making has been around for a few thousand years, there is always room for improvement. Top Quality Hay Processors has nearly mastered the technique for making hay at the top of its class: Relative Feed Value near 200, Adjusted Crude protein over 23% and Neutral Detergent Fiber at 29% for third cutting alfalfa in late September. The hay is dark green, clean, leafy, with a sweet, lightly toasted aroma. It is the forage equivalent oftop quality . . . "rocket fuel".

I have been following the development of the new business Top Quality Hay Processors (TQHP) since they were first mentioned in the Finger Lakes Times in March 2007. At the time, I joined a number of others who were curious, but skeptical that such a process would ever work. Hay is cut under nearly any weather condition and loaded directly into a dump trailer - one trip through the field per cutting. The wet hay is trucked a short distance to the processing center and unloaded, detangled, and transformed in a matter of hours through more than 100 feet of drying conveyors. The dry stems are then rehydrated to the optimal moisture content, baled, and readied for sale. Sounds like a lot of work, but anything worthwhile is.

As an Extension agent, I have been offering any insights, leads, contacts, strategies, and encouragement that could help inch the project forward. I have learned a great deal in the process and have been constantly impressed by the persistence something like this takes. We have met with bankers, town leaders, state officials, federal administrators, private agriculture development professionals, agency personnel and my own Extension colleagues. Remarkably, the TQHP partners have spent three years and $3.5 million to bring this project to its current "full size test system". State Senator Michael Nozzolio was able to help by securing some of that funding. Yet, incentive funding is not what makes projects like this go. It is persistence - a common theme in farming. This new hay processing facility embodies the full entrepreneurial spirit, combined with the persistence of a farmer's outlook (sometimes mistaken for stubbornness).

Last month, I stopped by to visit with Jeff Warren, the leading a TQHP partner at the pilot plant located at the Seneca Army Depot (originally planned for my home area in Ontario County). The indoor drying line is enormous and impressive. It took more than four months to disassemble the equipment in North Carolina, load it onto a dozen tractor trailers, and reassemble it here in the Finger Lakes with a new boiler. Along the way, Jeff brought nine underemployed workers into full time jobs for all the steamfitting, electrical, plumbing, ventilation and mechanical work.

Now that the drying line is complete, the initial batches and subsequent forage tests are confirming what had only looked possible on paper - this thing really can produce top quality hay consistently. Total indoor drying will eliminate harvest losses, so the hay ought to be uniformly high in quality. This unique system permits harvesting earlier in the spring and later in the fall, so we will be able get more cuttings and hay tonnage than otherwise possible.

Now that the revolution in hay making is underway, our attention moves to the value of this forage in animal nutrition. There are so many species that will readily consume TQHP hay (dairy cattle, high-performance horses, rabbits, alpacas, gerbils, and more), it is hard to know where to start with marketing. Concurrently, the full-scale model facility is providing accurate figures on energy costs and other expenses. The financial math remains promising.

When the facility is tour -ready, please make a point to stop by. In the meantime, you can get a better sense of making hay "the TQHP way" on-line at www.tqhp.com.
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