# Cornstalk bale fire.



## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I heard there was a cornstalk bale fire in NW Iowa yesterday.Guy started moving bales out of a stack and when air hit it they started on fire.Kinda strange the stalks last fall were bone dry 8-10%.Spring rain and winter snow melt on the bales that were stacked up probably 3 high??Real common for stacks of a few thousand bales per pile in the area.


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## Texasmark (Dec 20, 2011)

I didn't hear about it but I thought fires were caused by green vegitation curing out. If out in the open where it can remain cool as it decomposes and generates heat as a result of the process, no biggie. Put it in a barn with bale piled on and against bale after bale, all the heat, no place to go and presto a fire.

I would be keenly interested in finding about any fire someone had with hay that has been stored in a barn for years. Probably old barns all over that have some old hay left in them, or attics with family things like papers, old furniture, old mattresses and all. A lightening strike is one thing. But just spontaneous combustion is what I am curious about. Obviously I have one of those old barns. I have equipment sheds adjacent and tractors and my baler under the sheds.

Thanks,
Mark


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> Kinda strange the stalks last fall were bone dry 8-10%


Not all of them were, although I don't think that would matter now. There were some varieties that had moisture in at harvest, and those really needed to be chopped and left to dry for a few days. The problem comes when the baling practice is to drag a rake through standing stalks and follow shortly after with the baler.

My nephew has a side line business of hotshot hauling stalk bales with a pickup and goosneck trailer. Last fall he was hauling bales which he had noticed had a little mold in them as revealed by the bale spears. On his second load he happened to look in a mirror and saw smoke. By the time he was off the road, the fire was too hot to allow him to crank the trailer off the pickup. A nearby wheel loader saved the day by lifting the trailer off the ball, then pushing the bales off the trailer. The pickup had a slightly melted taillight, the trailer was repairable, and my nephew thinks the local fire department doesn't have a good procedure to deal with that kind of bale fire.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Maybe every 10 years we have a a drought that results in a poor corn crop. One income recovery tried is to bale all the corn into hay.

A few manage to get it all backwards resulting in real difficulties.

To do it correctly they cut the corn with a mower or shredder. 
Then a few days later they rake it into a windrow to bale. 
THEN the next day they bale the hay.

To give the fire department something to do they can cut the stalks in the morning, rake the stover around noon, and bale the Hay in the afternoon.

If the hay is round baled and the bales sit out in the field for a week or so, things may work out.

If they round bale and stack the Hay in long single rows they may not loose too much.

BUT if you do as one did Square bale the Hay and stack it in a pole barn things can get hot. This oone farmer just happened to drive by and smell the Hay from the road. He called his Farm Bureau Agent for enough to recover most of his losses. The fire got so hot it melted the macadam Farm to Market Road that went past his hay barn.

Baling in the afternoon, with our low humidities, the baling shatters off much of the leaves and they end up with damp stalks. 
You may use a different management style for the same results.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Gearclash said:


> Not all of them were, although I don't think that would matter now. There were some varieties that had moisture in at harvest, and those really needed to be chopped and left to dry for a few days. The problem comes when the baling practice is to drag a rake through standing stalks and follow shortly after with the baler.
> 
> My nephew has a side line business of hotshot hauling stalk bales with a pickup and goosneck trailer. Last fall he was hauling bales which he had noticed had a little mold in them as revealed by the bale spears. On his second load he happened to look in a mirror and saw smoke. By the time he was off the road, the fire was too hot to allow him to crank the trailer off the pickup. A nearby wheel loader saved the day by lifting the trailer off the ball, then pushing the bales off the trailer. The pickup had a slightly melted taillight, the trailer was repairable, and my nephew thinks the local fire department doesn't have a good procedure to deal with that kind of bale fire.


Wow, now that would get your blood pumping!!

Regards, Mike


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