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rain on hay bales. do you just not buy them?

F

fastline

Member
The water shedding ability of a tight round bale is pretty impressive and I have looked at bales 2-3 days after a big rain with little evidence of rain. However, buyers seem to consider rain on any bale as "junk".

I make hay and proved to a guy with my moisture probe and hand that hay just in inch inside the bale is not even wet and the outside will dry down with little complication with sun and air.


Are people just used to buying out of a shed or is there more to this story?
 
Here 90% of round bales are stored outside. I have baled 1300 so far this year and none of them have seen a shed. I do think net wrap prevents moisture from getting as deep into the bale but normally there is very little loss over a couple inches into the bale. No reason to think that tight round bales stored outdoors are not quality hay.
 
A bunch of fussy "horsey" A-holes,plain and simple. Think they know everything when they know nothing.

We had a big flood back in 86,I think it was. FSA was paying a disaster payment for round bales thinking that 12 inches of rain in 36 hours had ruined them all. Had a neighbor who collected big time on it. He developed cancer and sold out,I rented the farm after that and all those bales were still in the fencerow. His wife told me to do something with them even if it was shoving them in to a pile and burning them. I pushed a few and when they flipped over and started coming apart there wasn't a thing in the world wrong with them. They looked like they were baled the day before.

The bulk of them that I put in the barn have always been rained on at least once if not for two weeks before I put them in. There's no way they're any worse than they would be if they were put in the day they were baled.
 
I've feed hay from net-wrapped round bales that
sat outside for over a year in a climate that
typically gets around 30 inches of moisture a
year. The outer inch or two is used for mulch but
beyond that it is just as good as the day it was
baled. Of course if the bales are setting on low
ground it makes the spoilage a lot worse on the
bottom. Also, you don't want to stack bales on
top of each other because that causes pockets
which force water to soak in instead of run off.
End to end butted up tight in single rows spaced a
foot apart is the way to go for outside storage.
 
I wouldn't do it again. I've had them freeze together that way and ended up dragging 3 bales when I tried to pick up one. Best lined up side to side,not touching,not under trees,ends open to the north and south. That way the morning sun dries the east side,the later day sun dries the west side. That's what the manual for my Gehl baler says.
 
Yes, people are spoiled and expect perfect hay, stored in a new building and perfect shape all for a rock bottom price. And yes horse owners are the pickiest of customers. too picky but in my area that"s the only customers so. I"ve had sorghum Sudan grass outside for three years and once you peel off the outer crust the inside has always been fresh and clean. In the end if the hay was put up properly and isn"t too wet when baled it will be fresh as day 1 even in a year or two. A loose core baler may be different but with my solid core round baler I"ve never had mold or moisture problems on outdoor stored hay.
 
one thing I have done is try to train or educate the customer. Providing data from a university study or something may help. In one case I even presented a email from a professor at a university to show my ceral rye wouldn't harm horses if fed. some customers will accept it and some won't. One other option is to take a sample from those rained on hay bales and have it tested. If it comes back good then why wouldn't they buy it. Now if the hay was rained on before it was baled while being in a windrow then that's a totally different story. I know that washes minerals and nutrients from the hay.
 
I pulled two bales right out of the barn for one of those fussy PITA one time and sat them on his trailer. He started whining and wanted to know if he could have a different one because there was gravel stuck to the bottom of one.
About makes your head explode!
 
I came REAL close to unloading them both and telling him to get the h#ll out of my yard,but I knew his horses were so hungry that they had chewed right through a board fence.
 
It also depends if your trying to sell them for a premium price.
If you are people expect the best and want them covered.
 
Id simply take them home. Its a negotiation tactic.
I had a guy from Texas, early in the drought 3 years
ago sitting in my driveway with a semi. About half
loaded he said he just wasnt sure it had as much
alfalfa in it as he wanted. So I unloaded it, got
off the tractor, shook his hand, and told him to
have a safe drive home.
 
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