It has been estimated that 100,000 tons of alfalfa were wafered in California in 1965. Each year for the past six years increased amounts of wafered alfalfa hay have been fed to dairy cattle. A new experimental wafering machine was tested in the summer of 1965. Windrowed alfalfa was picked up by the experimental wafering machine, sprayed with water, chopped, and channeled between two wheels. A smaller wheel with scalloped cutting portions operated inside a larger wheel to compress the hay into wafers about 1 × 3 × 3 inches in size.

FMC Corporation, Sun Jose, furnished and operated the wafering machine; Deuel Vocational Institution, Tracy, furnished cows, facilities, personnel, and hay to conduct the trial; and the University of California Agricultural Extension Service Laboratory at Davis did the chemical analyses of samples.