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Arond here, I've always noticed, that when hay is still left in the swath, and rained on, then turned over when the rain stops using a rake or tedder, you seem to benefit from the thatch roof theory/effect, as the underside is usually still green, depends on how much and how long it rains for, sometimes it's a loss, and although you may have the top layer bleached or tanned to some degree, when you rake/ted then bale it, your bales still have plenty of green and sometimes look as if there was no rain involved at all. It seems that with what you have, you have no choice but to get it dried out asap, after the rain stops. Once it's raked/ted'd fluffed up, rain mat's it down soaks it, then re-raked/ted'd, hard to say what it will look like when dry again. Seems to take a beating sometimes, I can recall baling just to get it off the field after losing it to weather, and also raking into big windrows for removal without baling, as it was no good for the horses, most of the dairy farmers then, usually had enough so no one needed it, and was not worth storing for mulch hay then. Best advice will come from the experts, not me, and lately around here there ought to be some experts on dealing with hay that has been rained on, per the latest weather this season, mostly rain ! At least we've had some hot and dry weather and I don't mind a fair amount of rain, but's really been a tough year to get anything done outside. I had a visitor from another farm this morning, same guy who was dealing with some large quantities of hay from some really nice and recently planted hay grasses, I saw a self propelled Challenger bine doing the cutting back in June, recall a window of dry weather then, said the modern equipment cut his dry time by a day, I just happened to notice the fields nearby cut and he had some rained on, but apparently recovered it, I think he's put in 5000 bales from what he said. May have to take a look at it, I think some of that will be up for sale.
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