Rained on grass hay- need advise

I was hoping to get my first hay cutting of 2009 in and unfortunatetly a light rain got on it this morning. So my question is: should I just cut my losses and bush hog my windrows into field mulch? Or is plain old ordinary grass/pasture mix type hay worth teddering out and trying to save? I might have 90-100 bales total. Additioanally, I do not have a tedder so I would be using an old JD 594 hay rake to improvise fluff/ted -less than an ideal tool for the job but certainly doable on my small 4 acre field if the hay is worth saving.

I do already know that my normal customer does not want it since it has been rained on since he has horses.

thanks in advance for all opinions,

Light rain, and grass hay? Just tip it with the rake and let it dry. If we threw away every few acres of hay that had a rain on it-

If I get it cut it has to get awful wet for a long time before I trash it. My opinion is if it was worth cutting it is worth some effort to save it. I have had hay get a light shower the weather clear off and get hot and bale that evening without rolling over. There is no one fits all answer to your question. Take all the replies you get here pick the one that fits your situation.

rake it and bale it,a little light rain isn't going to hurt it

raise you rake real high and try to remove jut the top portion of the ahy. ket that dry good and re rake and bale it. some body will buy it for cow hay or some towns will buy it to act as ground cover on dumps sites. i'd rather have it off the field because when you cat and rake it the next time your going to bale it p anyway. if you can just round bale it and turn it on its ends and pile it full of horese or cow manure and make a mulch bed out of it for either spreading on your field or selling it to green house for muclh. it tkes a bout two years to let it rot down good, but it sure makes a nice admimnet to the soil inyour garden, once its had time to go through a heat.

Just becasue you get a light shower on it doesnt mean the hay is totally lost. As long as it still has color and good smell its still good hay. Now if its gotten soaked all the way through and been wet a couple of days then yea its gonna be a loss. Turn the hay with rake until its dry and then bale.

Last year more than half of my hay was rained on at least once. I think about 15% of the total hay I put up turned out to be spoiled. This year is looking no different.

Last year I was concerned about the feed quality. I noticed something interesting about the sheep and goats which were eating the hay. They just ate a bunch more to make up for it. All that rumen activity probably helped them to stay warmer. Anyway, when I was feeding the really poor stuff, I just supplemented them with some grain to compensate and everyone made it through the winter just fine.

If the hay was only lightly rained on, it should dry down again and be okay to bale. If I were you, I would bale it.

Christopher

Just keep turning it until its dry. Might as well bale it, even if its mulch it still has some value. I try to not get hay wet, even if its the 4th of July. But, sometimes it happens. Thats one reason I try not to rake more than 2 hrs ahead of the baler unless I have a super clear forecast. If its not dead dry though, its not even good mulch. I had 12 s.b.s worth that laid out 2 weeks. Baler went down with one windrow left and it got wet. When it finally got dry it was decent landscape mulch, still worth 4.00 a bale.

I take a lot of heat about it from the horse people but this time of year in Michigan I will generally cut my grass hay right before a front moves thru leaving it green and flat on the ground. After the rain passes I can usually get three days of sun before the next one. Frankly, the moisture going down thru it is a lot less trouble than the moisture coming up from below. The best hay I ever baled is on the wagons right now. It is a month old and did not mold or heat. It rained on it for a full day before I raked it.

It is better for the quality of the hay to get cut at the right time and get a rain on it than to wait too late and be putting up over matured hay that isnt worth what it could be in nutrients if it had been cut at proper time.

I agree with you on rain NOT hurting just cut grass! Old adage from those that have gone before; "June cut hay rained on is better than July cut hay not rained on!" JMHO
Don't think I'll cut today as next chance of sun appears to be Saturday! If it was dry today, and they said "showers tonight and tomorrow AM followed by a couple of "drying days", I'd prolly mow this AM! Again, JMHO

When the hay is still fresh cut, the rain makes no difference at all. Sometimes I mow when I know rain's coming that night. "That'll sure be some clean hay." as my Grandpa used to say. Now, when it rains on dry hay, especially if you've already raked it up, then it starts to break down pretty badly. You'll lose your fancy horser market, but there's always a cow out there who would prefer eating that hay over eating snow.

I agree on it not hurting the hay, but it definatly is not cleaner if the is a good rain. A lot of dirt is splashed up on the grass then.
I will also add that most horse people are ignorant about hay. I always felt they pamper their horses too much. We feed our horses Johnson grass when I was young. Most horse people now think it is poison. A horse is pretty much worthless if it has that weak a stomach.
Get a real horse I say.

Thanks for all the good advice and encouragement. A little update on my status: First the rains are due to hit again tommorrow so my drying time and options were limited. I went ahead and used the rake to turn the windrows and it dried out rather well in the areas that were getting sun and wind. I did have another 1 acre field that I had hoped to bale as well, but it did not dry as it is shaded on 4 sides so that 1 acre parcel got the windrows bush hogged into mulch and I decided to cut my losses on that field ( this parcel was not mine so I will get paid to mow it anyway so it is not really a total loss). I baled the remaining 3 acres or so of my land that did dry out well enough tonight and and that hay is in the barn. I did have to leave some hay in my field that was shaded from the perimeter treeline. In short, I was able to save about 2/3 of what I had hoped to get. All in all 2/3 of something is better than nothing I guess.

The good news is that hay turned out really well - I was quite surprised and pleased. I even had a friend who bales a lot of hay check it and he said it was both nice grass hay as well as dry enough to not mold (nor burn my barn down - LOL). He even felt it would still be fine to feed to a horse which surprised me.

the guys are right as i understand it hay can take up to a half inch of rain afore it gets tough. further more tis better to let it dry and get it off the field other wise it gets in your next cut. worst case give to the kids they can build a fort.

the guys are right as i understand it hay can take up to a half inch of rain afore it gets tough. further more tis better to let it dry and get it off the field other wise it gets in your next cut. worst case give to the kids they can build a fort.