Farming question

Can straw bales heat up and get hot?
After straight cutting spring wheat a few years ago, we let the straw lay for a day or two before baling into small squares and the bales seemed to go through a sweat and smelled as if the straw wasn't dry or cured.
We wanted to harvest and bale the same day this year but now I'm not sure. Yet the straw should be much drier than green grass which gets baled only a day after being cut with a sickle mower.

Neighbors had a couple of straw stacks burn a few years ago.

Kids were playin' with matches. :>)

Bale 'er up.

Allan

Certainly can- depending on the moisture content. Not too common, but they can sweat and get gray. For years I chopped straw and blew it into the hay mow. 2nd year we almost burned the barn down- chopped 40 acres in one day, filled the barn, few days later it smelled like oatlage. Too hot to sink an arm into- spread out the peak and watched it closely. Fire dept was warned- they said if we come out and wet it down, it"ll still go through heating before drying. Most was gray and tight, hard to dislodge. Since then we chopped no more than 15 acres a day, and raised the header over any wet clumps. No problems since then.

If you're doing small squares then it's easy. If the bale is too heavy to pick up then it's too wet!

If you are cutting direct it can if you don,t let it dry,like hay.If the oats have been swathed,you can generally start right after combining,because the oats have gone thru their sweat in the swath.

Usually, the baler will follow the combine around here when we harvest oats, but that is not to say the same problem would not occur.

We got 6" of rain on Wed., Thursday was just perfect, humidity blew off, sat outside with a mild cigar, a cold beer and a friend, after work, no mosquitoes either, just enough breeze to keep em at bay. Yesterday we got an all day soaker. Today is hot and humid, though kind of mild, still humid, mid 80's.

Right now those oats are ready to harvest, but it's just gonna have to dry up a bit, no way you would be baling the same day, that 6620 JD combine might make some serious ruts too. Problem here is, when the weather is like this, you have to get things done when you can, so timing is important, harvest what makes sense, higher ground, wait for the weather to dry things 1st, then bale the straw asap, might have to sit in the windrow 1-2days, might bale right after once things dry up again, last year the baler followed the combine, had rain coming, but the crop was ripe awhile so the stalks were dry when it was harvested in dry weather. Now he can apply that acid from that 582 JD baler, if the moisture is up too much, though he avoids using it as much as he can. Last year he narrowly missed getting 50-60 bales in after harvest, worked late into the night to get em in, rain was right behind him.

Moisture meter might be a helpful tool, checking by hand etc., noting heavy bales like was mentioned, avoiding wet areas/sections of windrows, I'm no expert, but seems it should not be a problem for the most part from what I have experienced with it as long as you do the best you can to harvest when it's dry or has dried up, like I said, he could harvest today, but that straw and that ground would be awful wet and hard to say what if anything could be baled behind the combine.

I'd for sure let it lay until that waxy coating is gone from the stems.