Raining on my hay

farmeroz

Member
My second cutting Alfalfa was in full bloom, weather man gave me a 3 day window for cutting. I tried it and came up short some. We baled a bit over half of it last night at any where from 16 to 23 percent moisture. I did use preservative so it should make dairy hay. The rest is getting washed good. When baling such hay you can listen to the old 14T and it will tell you when the hay is getting wet. My wife and grandson were on the wagon, they also told me when it was getting heavy!
 
I know the feeling. Weather forecast early this week was for 80% chance of rain......said we'd get 1-3 inches. 'Not a drop! Then said we'd have a three day open window also. I started cutting my third cutting alfalfa, had about 8 acres on the ground and the clouds started building in. I thought I'd best stop mowing. 'Got 3/10ths on it, plus they "adjusted" their forecast to rain on day three. I knew there was no way to get it dry, so I tedded it out and raked and baled it in silage bales that next afternoon. Out of 90 acres of alfalfa cut this year, only 7 acres have been put up dry. And, like you I had to use preservatives on it cause it was 22-23% moisture. Sure made some beautiful hay though. What preservative do you use?
 
I used HayGuard on the alfalfa and seems to have worked good. Half that hay is loaded and headed to the auction in the am.
 
Been having similar issues here also. Having a lot more rained on hay then average and having to round bale more then I wanted. My baler also tells me when it is getting moist, I start getting mis-ties then.
 
I got $190 a ton at the auction. Fair enough, just glad the dairy can use it. When I deliver to this dairy I get a free milk shake from their store and some dough for mileage.
 

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