Alfalfa is the queen of forage plants. The drying rate of this product in the field influences some properties including quantity, quality and field curing time during harvest. One important factor in drying of this product is the resistance of boundary layer to the air humidity. When a mower conditioner is used for harvesting alfalfa, drying happens with lower rate because of higher density of the swath. In some zones the dew formed by wet air layer affect resistance of boundary layer. Because of radiation and wind blow, leaves and stems on the upper part of the harvested alfalfa swath dry faster. Alfalfa in the lower layers of the swath usually has higher moisture levels which cause problem in quality and delays in baling. Therefore to overcome this problem, it is necessary to design, fabricate and evaluate a device for fluffing the swath without turning over or displacement. Air movement through the alfalfa windrow as a result of fluffiness permits equal drying on different layers in the windrow. A fluffing mechanism was designed, fabricated and evaluated having a frame, three point hitch and power transmission unit. A hydromotor provided the power for running the system. A pickup mechanism similar to what is used on bailers was used. Field test was performed and compared with customary field curing of alfalfa. Machine performance and it’s effect on drying rate, shatter loss and quality of harvested crop was compared with performance of a wheel rake. Cutting of alfalfa was performed using a self-propelled windrower having crimper conditioning rolls. A complete block design with four replications was used to conduct experiments. Moisture content at cutting and baling stages was 70 and 20% on a wet basis, respectively. Moisture content was measured based on standard procedure in 3 hour intervals. The well- known exponential model was used to estimate and determine coefficient. Results indicated that alfalfa raked and processed by fluffing machine had a faster drying rate as compared to alfalfa undisturbed and cured in customary method. Average value of drying constants for rake, fluffer and undisturbed windrow cut with swather was 0.077, 0.066 and 0.051, respectively. Experiments for determining the amount of shatter loss and quality of the crop harvested were performed using a complete block design with three replications. The results of analysis of variance showed no significant difference among different treatments for shatter loss, percent protein and dry mater harvested.
