dry hay, wet ground

picassomcp · Jul 23, 2012

I baled some hay today that was cut on wednesday. Got 4" of rain early Friday morning before I got a chance to rake it. Let it sit all day Sat. On Sunday we raked it all and baled the high ground. The lower ground is very saturatesd, the tires shine as you drive through it. No ruts though. Anyhow the hay on the low ground is dry except for the bottom little bit of the windrow. Was dry this morning before we raked it, it has just soaked up ground moisture. We got more rain coming tonight, so not really knowing what to do, I baled it. Bales are quite heavy, these bales I set aside, far aside. I brought a few home, scattered out in the steer shed, they are quite hot inside. Now I'm concerned that it was just too wet. Anyplace the hay was run over, you can just see the ground moisture come up through it. wasn't much of that, but some. Anyhow, what I'm getting to is, are these babies gonna burn?? is it normal for hay to heat a bit after baling? These are 4x5 rounds baled at 1500 lbs of pressure. Mostly grass

LAA · Jul 23, 2012

I would leave them spread apart outside or roll them out for some livestock to pick through, I have had round bales heat up to smoldering and not combust but I had them out in the open far away from everything else. I have never seen or heard of a round bale spontaneously combusting but I'm sure it can happen. Bottom line is it was not worth baling after 4 inches of rain, hay will never properly cure to bale on wet ground, even if you got it dried out in a week or so most of the nutrients would be leached out with very little feed value, basically mulch. Sometimes you have to cut your losses.

randallinMo · Jul 24, 2012

LAA is telling you right. I"ve actually seen big round bales on fire in the field. Amazing sight. Perfectly green hay field with burning bales (3) sitting here and there. My first thought when I saw it was that someone had set them on fire. But then, due to the random location of the bales, I figured it out. Only hope is that you didn't bale too many of them. Get them fed right away.

paul · Jul 24, 2012

I baled some like that last year, left them sit all on their own far away from anything. For months.

I fed them, free choice, last winter, there was a lot of waste, but the cattle got something out of them.

Be careful, they might turn out ok and they might start on fire, all depends.

If you are feeding hay, you can use a few up quick - be careful on messing up the cattle, but as part of the free choice, they can work over a few bales in the next week.

--->Paul

GordoSD · Jul 25, 2012

It sounds like you are baling hay without any kind of a moisture tester? Is that the case?
Why would you be haying thousands of dollars worth of hay and not spend a couple hundred for a tester that will check both windrows and bales.

dry hay, wet ground

picassomcp

Member

LAA

Well-known Member

randallinMo

Member

paul

Well-known Member

GordoSD

Well-known Member

Similar threads