One row, three materials, one measurement
Leave this page holding one moisture number and one placement decision: cut today or wait, and where the row goes. Everything below is a name you can walk up to in a field or on a shoulder.
Ten objects, seven jobs, six dated notes. The objects define the things. The jobs are the work. The notes record where the sources disagree, and those are the only pages that carry a date.
window HAY WINDOWchecked 2026-09-16responsible Windrow Field Manual (a named masthead, not a person)
Materials
- windrowthe row itselfALL WINDOWS
- swathwhat the mower leavesHAY WINDOW
- tedderthe flufferHAY WINDOW
- hay moisturethe numberHAY WINDOW
- dew pointthe overnight riskHAY WINDOW
- balethe packageHAY WINDOW
- snow fencethe drift placerSNOW SEASON
- snow windrowthe plowed rowSNOW SEASON
- compost windrowthe curing rowCURING SEASON
- row turnerthe machineCURING SEASON
Field jobs
- take a moisture readingfive readingsHAY WINDOW
- decide to cut todaytwo numbersHAY WINDOW
- ted a swathone pass, maybeHAY WINDOW
- set a snow fenceheight times factorSNOW SEASON
- place your snow pilefour casesSNOW SEASON
- build a compost windrowthe build cardCURING SEASON
- check a bale for heatthe ladderHAY WINDOW
Field notes
- 2026 09 08 dew point lie4 C apartHAY WINDOW
- 2026 08 30 two probes differ4 points apartHAY WINDOW
- 2026 08 21 fifty percent porositywhere 50% came fromSNOW SEASON
- 2026 08 12 bale density tradeoffboth ways at onceHAY WINDOW
- 2026 08 03 turn count argumentfive against twoCURING SEASON
- 2026 07 21 rain damage arithmeticworked per inchHAY WINDOW
How this manual is kept
The clock here is a season, not a feed. Every page declares which of three windows it belongs to — hay, snow, or curing — and the strip above names the one that is open this month. Objects carry no date because a definition does not change. Numbers that move carry a checked line. Only the notes are dated, because a note is a judgement made on a day.
Every page also carries a red tag naming who the page is not for. On most pages that tag is the most useful sentence on the page, because the commonest mistake in this subject is applying the right number to the wrong object — a snow-fence setback to a plow row, a windrow moisture table to an unraked swath.
Put this page down when you have picked the object you are actually standing in front of. The measurement follows from that.
Where the numbers come from
- S1Haymaking (Chapter II), Hay and Straw Conservation, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 154supports the haymaking sequence that the object names on this manual follow
- S2Building Windrows, Municipal Yard Waste Composting Operator's Fact Sheets, Cornell Universitysupports the windrow dimensions used for the curing row
- S3Design, Living Snow Fences, Minnesota Department of Transportationsupports the fence-height and setback rule the snow pages turn on
One link, one document. No home pages, no search results, no bare domains.