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making hay with high humidity

D

DLMKA

Member
dew points have been running in the low to mid-70s and I can't get this hay dried down. Don't know what the moisture content is exactly don't have meter but it feels like some I baled a while back that is full of white mold and smells musty. 4 days since cutting now not relief in sight. Am I down to the use of preservative? Thinking about mounting a 15gal atv sprayer on the baler for preservative with two sprayer nozzles over pickup. Need to do some figuring to get flow rates and size nozzles appropriately.

No one within an hour radius stocks preservative other than 55 gal drums, was reading that apple cider vinegar makes an acceptable substitute at a slightly higher application rate. Back tension on bale chamber off and make 60lb bales at 19-20%?
 
If I waited for low humidity to make hay I'd only be making about about a week or 10 days all Summer long.#1 thing is do not cut hay when its wet even if you have a machine that will do it as it traps the moisture under and in the hay.
 
When you mow try to leave some stubble for the hay to lay on. Stubble helps to keep the hay up so air can get under it. A rotary tedder is a great investment and really helps. Neighbor used mine and baled dry hay yesterday that would have taken two more days to dry. Right now we are struggling with cutting grain due to the weather and even getting straw fit is hard. Tom
 
Preservative is one option.... one I've been threatening to use since a while but still haven't. Multiple passes with a tedder does it here
in 2-4 days depending on what you're working with.

Rod
 
Left 4-5" stubble. Was cut Friday afternoon and cut while sun still fairly high, maybe around 7pm. Cutting in the afternoon is just part of the reality for a guy that works a regular job. It's mostly grass with some red clover and alfalfa and wasn't real heavy. I raked it Sunday afternoon thinking it was plenty dry but the first two bales off said otherwise. Was tedded back out Monday. Cloudy and humid today. Sun just came out and got some breeze.
 
Have you thought about someone bagging it and basically making silage out of it in a bag? Some of the surrounding farmers are doing that here in
Northern Ill.
 
I have high humidity here all the time so I cut the hay wait a few days rake it on a good hot day and then bale it later that day I rake it. When I rake it I make sure it is nice and fluffy so air can get in and under it
 
Your New Holland dealer should be able to get their crop saver preservative (Deere and Agco/MF are the same) in 15 gallon drums. I priced
Deere and NH and NH did not charge shipping. Might to late to order for your hay. I believe the stuff is by Harvestec, it is buffered propionic
acid.

Good luck,
Bill
 
raked some up this afternoon and tried a few bales. Basically felt like the same moisture as it did Sunday when I tried. Think I'm going to order a just of the preservative and mount an ATV sprayer tank/pump on the baler with some spray nozzles over the pick-up.
 
Tedding will just about cut drying time in half, we would not be able to get hay dry this year without it.
 
My hay guy cut on Saturday and wanted to bale on Monday but my truck was sitting in the way of the barn and I was at work an hour away, so they did it Tues. (yesterday) Hay was very dry. Our dew points have been up in the 70s recently. This was third cutting. Some around us have barely gotten 2nd cutting done.
 
(quoted from post at 19:28:18 08/02/16) raked some up this afternoon and tried a few bales. Basically felt like the same moisture as it did Sunday when I tried. Think I'm going to order a just of the preservative and mount an ATV sprayer tank/pump on the baler with some spray nozzles over the pick-up.
Click to expand...

Do you have a moisture meter? Are you going by feel alone? We added a in bale chamber moisture meter to our baler this year, extremely helpful feedback as you are baling. With it in place, we know when to turn on/off the preservative. Our hay has been dry enough this year not to need it.

Google CropCare hay preservative applicators. They have a simple on/off type preservative applicator and manuals/charts for pressure, nozzle, application rate calculations, etc. if you are making your own sprayer system, it's great reference material.
 
Do you have a moisture meter? Are you going by feel alone? We added a in bale chamber moisture meter to our baler this year, extremely helpful feedback as you are baling. With it in place, we know when to turn on/off the preservative. Our hay has been dry enough this year not to need it.

Google CropCare hay preservative applicators. They have a simple on/off type preservative applicator and manuals/charts for pressure, nozzle, application rate calculations, etc. if you are making your own sprayer system, it's great reference material.
Click to expand...

I haven't invested in moisture meter yet but it's on my list. Going by feel. Dropped a couple bales off at a neighbor last night to have hip use his meter on them this morning. Backed tension off on bale chamber and still making 70+lb bales. I had about 100 bales spoil from first cutting that I jumped the gun on and don't want to make more of those expensive mistakes. That was $500 that got used for mulch because I won't knowingly sell someone junk.
 

DLMKA, the biggest single factor is TEDDING. You don't even say if you use one or not. I know that you need to try to make hay even when humidity is up kind of high. 2X what Bill VA said about getting help from the people who sell the preservative. I tried it once, but wasn't happy with it. I just found my tester a week ago after not seeing it for twenty years. A suggestion: what I have done is rake in PM to reduce exposure to dew, tip it over in AM 1/2 hour after sun is on it, tip over again a few hours later, a half hour before baling.
 
I always have high moisture conditions. I usually cut mine and tedder it the next day. In very heavy hay, I may tedder it again a few hours before I rake it. If possible I like to have it raked a couple of hours before I bale it. This year has been a tough hay year. The dewpoint has been over 75 most of the summer here too. That usually means the dew don't dry off until after noon. A couple of years ago we had a really good hay year. The dewpoint stayed in the 50's. I actually baled hay that was dry and green colored.
 
(quoted from post at 08:01:59 08/03/16)
DLMKA, the biggest single factor is TEDDING. You don't even say if you use one or not. I know that you need to try to make hay even when humidity is up kind of high. 2X what Bill VA said about getting help from the people who sell the preservative. I tried it once, but wasn't happy with it. I just found my tester a week ago after not seeing it for twenty years. A suggestion: what I have done is rake in PM to reduce exposure to dew, tip it over in AM 1/2 hour after sun is on it, tip over again a few hours later, a half hour before baling.
Click to expand...

Just bought a brand new H&S Tedder this week. Heavy fog last night, going to have my boy ted it again once the dew burns off here shortly.
 
Ever since I was able to help had a rake tedder combo. Before I can rembember Grandpa had a 3 bar New Idea rake-tedder, thought it was about wore out and traded it on a John Deere 4 bar rake only, think second year (possibly first year) hay got rained on and that Deere went byby for a new New Idea No. 4 4 bar rake-tedder on steel and had it till quit making hay in 1981 when cows left. How suprising that the rakes Grandpa thought were wore out back in the late 40's are what I am rebuilding now. I have 4 of the NI No. 4 rakes setting in front of my house now undergoing a rebuild and I tore a beyond repair NI 3 bar apart to use parts to rebuild these 4 bar units. And when done all these rakes will be back in field selling for around $800+ each or more than they cost new. And the tedder function was used every year, Ohio
 
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