
Putting the Squeeze on Hay Bales -- and BugsBy Marcia Wood March
2, 1998 Compact bales of American-grown hay are moving more swiftly through dockside
agricultural inspections in Japan and then on to dairy cows, beef cattle and
racehorses. Meanwhile, U.S. growers are spared the higher costs of shipping
bulky, standard-size bales. That's because scientists with the Agricultural
Research Service developed a procedure to ensure that compressed bales of
timothy, alfalfa, oat, bermudagrass or sudangrass hay do not have pesky Hessian
flies hiding inside. Japan wants to remain free of Hessian flies. U.S. growers export about $240 million worth of hay to Japan every year.
Farmers in every state raise the crop, but those in Arizona, California, Idaho,
Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington are the most frequent hay exporters to
Japan. Compressed bales are about the same weight as conventional bales, but only
one-third the size. They're becoming increasingly popular with shippers--and
anyone else who doesn't like toting the bulkier traditional size bales. ARS tests with more than 630,000 laboratory-reared Hessian flies showed that
compressing bales with 1,136 pounds of pressure per square inch will squash any
Hessian flies concealed in a stray wisp of wheat or bit of weed. Fumigating with
hydrogen phosphide for 7 days at 68 degrees Fahrenheit provides an extra measure
of pest control. Victoria Y. Yokoyama led the tests at ARS' Commodity Protection
and Quarantine Insect Research Unit, Fresno, Calif. Fumigating hay bales to rid them of insect stowaways isn't new. But
Yokoyama's tests are the first to win Japan's okay of a multiple-treatment
process for compressed bales. An article about compressed hay bales appears in the March issue of ARS'
monthly magazine, Agricultural Research. The story is also on the World
Wide Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar98/comp0398.htm Scientific contact: Victoria Y. Yokoyama, ARS Horticultural Crops
Research Laboratory, Fresno, CA 93727, phone (209) 453-3026, fax (209) 453-3126,
[email protected]. Story contacts Horticultural Crops Research Marcia A Wood U.S. Department of Agriculture | |