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New experience, baling hay with standing water under it

K

Ken Macfarlane

Well-known Member
What a muddy mess. Rain coming so we had to put it up. 90 lb squares that should weigh 45. Ruts, wet tires, water squirting out everywhere when driving.

The tedder driver (me) stayed clear of the mud as I hit it while mowing. The rake guy didn't and nearly got stuck even in 4wd, the baler operator followed the windrow into the mud needing 4wd and front and rear diffs locked to get out. Bad sign when I show up to the feild and there is chunks of sod for a half mile up the road off the tires as he went to the next field.

Looking at the bales, a bunch of them are half mud. Poor baler.

First photo is my old man in the little 50 hp kubota backing a wagon of 90 lb bales out of a dry area of the field, just happened to cut through the sod when he tried to start after stopping.



2nd photo is just one from earlier in the year. Mowing some overmature pasture that didn't get used. Baled up fairly well with second cut coming up through it.

3rd photo, neighbour going with my MF and disc mower conditioner after her 489 ate both belts and split the reel drive pulley in two.
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WARNING!!! DO NOT PUT THE HAY IN A BARN!

Too much moisture will create combustion over time, & catch the hay on fire. You will loose the barn, & insurance probably wont pay anything!
 
Why bale hay that is too wet to keep????? You know you will have junk that way. Maybe it will not rain. Even if it does rain I have tedded hay that had been rained on for a week and was able to get it dry enough to bale.

Are you going to make balage with little squares???
 
Why would you do this? By waiting you aren't loosing anything, and by doing it this way you loose the crop and if you stack it in a barn you'll burn it down. If you feed the moldy stuff to anything but goats you'll kill them.
 

Guess you had your reasons........... I was (the wife was) given about a half acre of barley straw. Because of the screwy weather there was a bunch of green stuff in it. Folks combined the day before it was supposed to rain and she kept nagging to bale it. It meant seat time and peace, so I baled up about 40 bales. Horses ate it like candy but the following day you couldn't open a bale and hold your hand on the inside. Throwing about 20 bales on the compost pile today....
 
I'm not new to this, I know the hay is going to heat or at least go dusty.

The total garbage hay is about 250 bales. I can't leave it on the field as it will make a mess next cutting. Rain is forecast for the next 8 days and the aftergrass will grow up through it.

It got tarped and left out to be sorted through today.
 
I have run a chopper through a field where a freind couldn't get the hay baled because of weather and the best way to handle it was to just run it through the chopper and blowit back onto the field. Same years guys without choppers were baling and just throwing the wet stuff in the woods. I can see doing it and even telling about it due the weather this year.....freind says that he "washed" his first cutting twice this year before baling.


But a couple of weeks ago I saw a guy near Wadena MN cutting.....yes cutting hay in standing water! Now that has me wondering........

Rick
 
I would think the ruts that you left in the field would may a bigger problem for next cutting. Have fun with that.
 
I've done it. Haying season 1999 had started haying two/three wks before Memorial day. We'd had a lot of rain. The first fields I hit I required for a later pasture. Mowing with a Hesston 1400 mower the beaters were paddling water liken a Mississippi stern wheeler. Three days drying I raked the windrowed hay with an AC#7 hay rake behind a WD45 driving along inside the windrow just tipping the windrows on edge onto the dry ground between the windrows. Two more days I baled. The rolled bales finished a mite over 15% moisture.
Fernan
 
You have lake frontage and your baling hay? Sell a chunk or two for cabins or build them your self. With the price of lake property you will never have to bale again!
 
I've had the unfortunate experience of doing that, hill side fields, facing sun, but has some springs, that run when rains are plentiful, though not as saturated as what you appear to be dealing with, did have some standing water, these conditions caused enough extra moisture in the hay to spoil the bales. Hay was dry, weather had been dry and mild temps for at least a week, still had bales turning, was like on the threshold of allowable moisture, was best stacked where air could circulate, makes for extra work that is for sure.

Remainder of the fields were ok, just some areas, it was thick 2nd cut, I was real careful sorting the bales, found 2 warm ones, waited the rest out, before stacking, just in case. Most were ok, but some of it turned, so I used it for mulch.

The ruts I always flattened with the loader bucket, as most if you can work from dry ground, without making more ruts or just start on one end, flatten as you move on, fill em as best can be done in one pass, the rest will settle in, if too saturated, I wait til an opportunity is there when it firms up a bit.
 
I had the same experience two years ago. I worked into and around the worst areas, I had a few bad bales that had to be set aside but most were good. had to go back and smooth ruts, the wagon wouldn't stay behind the baler in the turns. But, as you say, you have to get it up in order to be able to have decent hay next crop weather this year or next. People that don't do hay are just not aware of many downside situations such as this.
 
Look in the background, notice very few houses. Land is all owned by the hydro company incase they raise the headpond. All little 1-5 acres chunks of pasture.
 
With the weather we've had this year... and for that matter... the last few years... the choice is between baling today and it might get dusty and waiting another week for it to get washed 4 times and then it will be garbage. BEst you can do is set it aside and sort through it later on. Bad goes for construction. Good for horses. The way it's looking here right now, good hay will be quite expensive this winter... This past week is really the first week all summer that we've had any kind of decent weather.

Rod
 
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