Abstract
The drying speed is a pivotal factor for successful conservation of high-quality forage. e drying process can be described by an exponential function driven by a species-specific drying rate, the water content at harvest time and the time elapsed since harvesting. Drying rates are provided by the literature, but there is no available study providing an overview over the whole investigated species range. To this aim, we selected nine papers providing the dry matter content and/or the drying rate (or the necessary variables to compute it) of forage species and expressed their dry matter content and drying rate as the difference to that of Lolium perenne. In general, legumes were found to have lower initial dry matter contents and to dry at slower rates than grasses, but differences between species, especially within grasses, were apparent. Among the legumes, Trifolium pratense, ooen playing a relevant role in grass-legume leys, has one of the lowest drying rates. Under sub-optimal weather conditions, grass-legume leys with relevant yield proportions of legumes should, therefore, be professionally dried in barn drying facilities to produce high-quality forage.