On April 2nd 2009, TQHP had an open house to display the TQHP operation to the community. This was for franchisees, people seeking employment, farmers, etc.

Click here for the Audio broadcast of this event.

Pictures will follow once available.

"Good morning! This is the Finger Lakes Agriculture Report. I am Jim Ochterski with Cornell Cooperative Extension, your local connection to Cornell University.

Even though hay making has been around for a few thousand years, there is always room for improvement. And over the past couple years, many of you have heard about an entrepreneurial project in how hay is handled. The new business, Top Quality Hay Processors, has been making headlines in national magazines, and newspapers and business journals throughout the Finger Lakes. But there are some things you have to see to fully understand. This week is your chance to visit the new Top Quality Hay Processors facility at the Seneca Army Depot.

Top Quality Hay Processors will be hosting an open house at their recently completed hay drying and processing facility in Romulus, NY on Thursday, April 2, 2009 from 1 to 3 pm. You can go inside and have a fee look at the entire drying facility and see the finished product.

The open house will be an opportunity for both farmers interested in selling standing hay and job seekers looking for employment. TQHP is currently contracting for hay acreage to harvest and process during the 2009 season. They are also looking for qualified applicants to work as field crew, truck drivers and processing plant workers.

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% . The hay is dark green, clean, leafy, with a sweet, lightly toasted aroma. It is the embodiment of top quality . . . the term "rocket fuel" is an appropriate comparison.

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.

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. 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 workers from underemployment 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.

Again, Top Quality Hay Processors will be hosting an open house at their recently completed hay drying and processing facility in Romulus, NY on Thursday, April 2, 2009 from 1 to 3 pm. Come and see how TQHP is working with farmers and the community for a high quality hay supply, a skilled local workforce and a strong local economy. More about TQHP is available on their website at www.tqhp.com. You will probably need directions too, so call (607) 869-3477.

This has been the Finger Lakes Agriculture Report. I am Jim Ochterski with Cornell Cooperative Extension and on behalf of the Finger Lakes Radio Group, I hope you have a good day of farming.