# dry/wet hay-when to bale



## nanuk (Aug 29, 2011)

I bale for a guy up here, bison rancher

I don't know anyone who irrigates, fertilizes, or soil samples, just plant, cut, bale, hoping for the best.

we just tend to wait for 4 days with no rain and give 'er hell!

the ONLY concern I have as the baler, is the moisture. He cuts when he thinks it is good, or when he can, and I bale it when it is dry enough, or too dry.

I"m still learning, and am gonna set up lights on my tractor/baler, so I can bale into the evening..

BUT I can't believe some of you guys when you bale. We are dry usually, up here, but have heavy dew that is not off until 1-2pm lately, and even when it is really dry, dew is on til 11am.

with the onboard moisture meter I just bought, I hope to get a better understanding of dew issues, cause we have a bit of a handle on the internal moisture issues.

some things like when the hay is under 8%, some guys mention baling at night to reduce leaf loss. but how much dew can be on it before it will mould?

I've been trying to find info on these issues, but have been having trouble.

oh... we only take one cut, under 2T/acre of alfalfa/grass mix. it is unusual to be able to bale in 48hours. no raking or tedding. 14ft haybine, with steel crimpers. lays a 4-4.5ft windrow max. I bale with a 430JD this year. 300 acres.

been VERY wet this year. since mid june, I have not had 4 days in a row with no wetting rain.

we are looking at options of different raking styles etc. my Case930 simply can't fit over more than one windrow if the stuff is thick. (looking for a better tractor for next year. leaning to a Case1070)

is there a Hay101 online course that discusses these issues? or has someone here put together something that would help me understand better?

my rancher pays me top dollar, as I only bale for him, and give him priority of lots of other things, and he'd pay me more if we could get better quality


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I'm sure there is more info in a course form, we are a lot wetter here in the east, 4 days is a long window for us but we lay the hay out full width, we ted it multiple times and rake the day of baling.

I do square bales, I shoot for between 14-18% the non-scientific way. Twisting stems. Its surprisingly accurate. One twist to full breakage is too dry, you are smashing the leaves. 2-3 twists is about the range I said. 4-5 is into molding hay.

As this only really tests stem moisture, dew wouldn't be considered. Out here you can't bale with dew on the hay, and you need at least a couple of hours of dew free if it fell in the previous evening. I would guess if your hay got too dry, at some point in the night the moisture would be right then pass into too wet.

Given that I square bale, I can go towards the 18% end of things where you need to be closer to 14%. With square bales its easy to monitor the bale weights from experience, a tight dry bale in our size will be 45-50 lbs. Wet it quickly shoots to 55,60, even 80 lbs even without green slugs. The springback falls off with moisture and lets the baler pack denser, also the hay just weighs more. When I handle 100% of the bales this is fine, when some go through help, they don't notice or complain so we get spoilage. Not good for clients to get dusty bales.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Stem twisting with me went out when the Delmhorst arrived and I've never looked back. Put yourself a sensing shoe in the bale chamber and get a continuous read as to RM.

I believe the administrator on this site sells Delmhorst Instruments and the sensing shoes as well. Go up and click on Hay and Fencing supplies at the top of the page.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Darrell I've done some moisture readings and it would be nice to track it in early first cut where I get really uneven drying on shaded windrows, but its a fair amount of money to spend that could buy lime or fertilizer. This year the the first time I've had a significant problem with bales going dusty but I had no choice, rain was coming. Next really wet year I suppose it and an acid applicator would pay for themselves.


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