Why bale at night?

Thats it for now.

The green scale starts at 13% runs up to 15 or 18% (going from memory here), 18 - 21% is the yellow scale, red if from there on up.

Tester cost me around $150. But after I got the tester, and old timer told me the same thing about the "twisting". That works with alfalfa, grass hay is too dry when you can break it by twisting. At least with my experience anyway.

As far as testing I use 2 methods. I have an 'Agritech' moisture meter from NASCO, runs a couple hundred $$ (less than the deductable on my fire insurance though). It gives digital readings of the bale (and also temp). Since I use propionic acid injection when I have to I need accurate testing and alfalfa will typically run 2% higher than the meter reading (it reads too fast to account for stem moisture) I calculate actual.

For actual moisture weigh a sample of hay (I use a battery powered digital scale from Carolina Biological) ($118.00). Weigh out a sample (I like to start with a 100 gram sample). Put sample in microwave and dry 30 secs. Weigh. Keep doing this until sample no longer loses weight, it is them 'dry'. DO NOT LEAVE THE SAMPLE, IT CAN CATCH FIRE! Subtract dry weight from your wet weight and that gives you % moisture provided you use 100 grams to start. Otherwise divide the 'larger #' into the 'smaller number' and this will give you % dry matter as a decimal. As 24% moisture is when I have to up acid rates it is real important. Meter also goes to 45% moisture so I can tell when baleage is getting too dry. Yes, it takes about $350 up front but it beats a barn fire, or losing a customer.

We used to bale just as the sun went down in the mountains but it was considerably less humid there than here in the flat lands. I mow at night because it does not get in the way of my working to support the farming habits and rake at night to keep the leaf on the alfalfa. I rake what alfalfa we are going to bale the next day after 9:00PM and we can generally start baling around lunch the next day and have very little shattering. Grass hay I do when I can get to it.

I can't believe what you old boys have to go thru to throw up a cutting of hay...this has really been an eye opener for me! Maybe living out here in the "Great American Desert" has it's advantages after all.

In this country, we like to just about get the hay "too dry". Almost to the point that the leaves are �crackly�; you can just touch it and tell when it is ready to go. You can smell it and tell when it is ready to go. Then catch that dew the next morning at 4am and go like a house afire till midday.

If a guy can catch the conditions just right, that bale will open up on the 17 of January almost like the minute that alfalfa plant hit the ground. Just like a schoolgirl's pressed flower in her prom book. Prettiest thing ya ever saw. Green as a yearling toad.

That's the hay with the protein & that�s the hay that sells. Unless of course you are dealin� with the �horsey types�, then you just bail up the broam-grass along the ditches & headlands. :>) (Sorry, that one slipped out)

Thanks for the enlightenment from your end of the river; I had no idea you guys had to go thru all this �too wet� business. Damned good thread, this.

Allan

One guy told me. He said grab a palmfull and twist. If it brakes in 3 twist it ready.
Not very scientific and not sure if thats correct anyway.
Thanks for the info. I will try the scale thing next year.

For alfalfa, I like to have it 1/2 raked. Then the morning of baling, turn it together at 11:00am, as the dew is still there, but about gone. Then bale about 2:00pm or 3pm. If it is really dry air, need to catch it all sooner, but that's rare.

For grass hay, probably rake after dinner, bale in the afternoon whenever it dries down.

That's in good weather of course. Anything goes to get it in when the weather is otherwise.

My grass hay tends to be wetter/thicker than my alfalfa, have to stir & wait longer for the grass hay.

--->Paul

Anything goes to get it in when the weather is otherwise.
I found myself doing this most of the year.

besides it attracts more bugs that way

In the more arid areas of the US you need the night dew to get the moisture level up to the minimum. In the humid areas you need to try to keep it below the maximum. Here in the transitional zones you may have to deal with both. Our ranges here in KY (from UK) are (under) 20% small square, 18% round, 16% large square with a minimum of 12.5% for grass hay and 14% for alfalfa. There are days that I can not get hay to 18% because of the ground moisture and relative humididty. Others that it drops right through optimum. Had some grass hay a few years ago that dropped all the way to 10% by the time I had finished raking, had to wait for dew to even get a core to form in the baler. Propionic acid can help preserve the hay if you cant get the moisture down and I have used water in my acid injector to get it up.

2. It is shadier so you don't get as sun burned?