# Moisture in Big Bales



## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I keep hearing people talk about the moisture level in big squares needing to be 12% or lower. I have absolutely no experience with big squares but have done the rest for close to 50 years. With the density of round bales as good as it is now and with small squares being baled at 15% to 20%, why can't you bale big bales at 15% moisture? Especially with the treatment applicators that most people have installed on their balers. What am I missing? I think if I could bale my hay at 10% to 20% with a big baler, I would be in the market. I'm thinking about buying one for straw but I would like to use it more than that. TIA, Mike


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## CF-Farmer (Jan 10, 2012)

We try to shoot for 13% to 15% hay when baling with big bales. It makes the best bales with now acid. We do have acid and use it when needed. The kits are auto and always on. With acid for us, the best baling is from 18% to 22%. After that it is to expensive to do all the time and have to stack a little different. Our ground has a lot of low wet places and creek bottems so our hay in a field can vary from 12% to 30% depending on where you are at. The acid works great but I also know where the higher moisture bales are and keep them out. To get the hay off, I have baled at a lot of different moistures and had good luck if keep eye on the high ones. Never worry to much about 20% and under with juice.


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## hay rake (Dec 31, 2011)

we bale a 4x4x10 63 flake 2,200 lb brick. at this compaction the bale does not breath so a low moisture is needed. we run acid down to 10% and have good looking bales. if we were going to run no acid at higher moisture we would need to make a less compact bale. i would assume a lot would depend on the type of grass you are baling but in our area i would never want to bale above 13% without preservative.


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## balerguy1975 (May 6, 2012)

Up here we often have to bale at night or in the AM to use the dew to keep the leaves on. We find that once the hay is cured, moisture is less relevant than when it's not cured. I generally don't use a moisture tester but would guess when we either finish at night or start in the AM the hay is likely 22%. We have to shoot for the average of the "hay". Typically I will quite baling when the tires on the tractor get extremely shiny. When it's dry and we are starting out at night the tires are a flat black and as the dew comes the tires show the moisture level. Hardly scientific but with 4-5000 rounds to make a year, gotta go when you can go. Alfalfa also takes moisture better for us than the grass hay does!


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should"

That's the best motto to live by for big balers and acid. I leave my Harvest Tec on 'auto' all night and try to only bale with dew moisture. We have pushed it to the limit and even finished baling as it was raining. Never burned a bale and it all fed way better than we had expected. The Harvest Tec/Hesston spreadsheet is bullshit, you can't make hay consistently like they say because on stem moisture you use way too much product. It can get you out of a jam but I wouldnt feel confident pushing the stem moisture limits on an everyday basis.

At $2550 per tote, baling with a lot of moisture adds up fast! You can put up hay the same with the big baler as any other system but the best results are with dew moisture alone and the acid as an ace in the hole.


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## HALLSHAY (Nov 30, 2008)

When baling big bales, density of the bale is just as important as the moisture content. Premium baling conditions are 15-16% in my opinion. We seldom push over that, but if we do, we drop the load to make an 1700-1800 pound bale. One of the best tools we have is the scale on our accumulator! Weight and load tell me when hay is getting too tough.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I have a question. How can you get below 12% moisture?. My moisture tester doesn't go below 13% just with the air moisture. And we are very dry here. We've had 3 testers and it is the same with all. I baled hay yesterday that was almost to dry and it never got below 14%. I just keep seeing guys put that they bale at 9% or so. Just wondering how that is possible. I also do similar to balingguy1975 with regard to the way the tires look.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I guess that I assumed that the moisture had to be really low in order to bale and for them to keep. That's what everyone has been telling me but if 15% to under 20% is ok, I might have to try it. Mike


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I have been planting a lot of cover crops the last 2 years and it would be real handy to be able to package them in 3x4 bales early in the year. There is a lot of tonnage coming off of those fields (mainly rye) and it would also save me a lot on hauling all of those 4x5 bales. We can't ship 5x6 bales down the road. Mike


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> I have a question. How can you get below 12% moisture?. My moisture tester doesn't go below 13% just with the air moisture.


I don't have a answer to why but the Harvestec system will register down to 8 percent, below that it shows "low moisture content".

I too have puzzled over why a hand probe will show 13% in the air and 50% when immersed in a bucket of water.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

HALLSHAY said:


> When baling big bales, density of the bale is just as important as the moisture content. Premium baling conditions are 15-16% in my opinion. We seldom push over that, but if we do, we drop the load to make an 1700-1800 pound bale. One of the best tools we have is the scale on our accumulator! Weight and load tell me when hay is getting too tough.


Tim, I've often wondered how moisture at baling relates to how they slice in an operation like yours. If you bale in the upper teens do you have to wait until it gets dryer to process? Or can you process right away to aid the cure? Can it be too dry?

I've seen your packages at Harold's place. I wish I could pull that off in this climate.TIA


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## HALLSHAY (Nov 30, 2008)

18% alfalfa will not keep in a big bale here especially if it is baled with the dew coming off(saturated stems). Different story when your getting a few 18 tests dew raising, as long as your getting lots of crack in the stems(leaf moisture.) This also only works if you keep the density a bit lower. I can definitely slice 17-18ish alfalfa within a day or two of baling and stop potential problems. I always immediately slice turn row bales and anything that I think is suspect as it is coming in. Amazing how hot wet spots get in a few days!! It is normally only a few bales towards the end of a baling session that I worry about. 
With grass and mixes, I don't really like anything over 15-16ish. Grass is easier to slice after the sweat. A wet grass bale can shut a 5" cutter cylinder down. 
Too dry can be a problem.


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## JoshA (Apr 16, 2008)

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> I guess that I assumed that the moisture had to be really low in order to bale and for them to keep. That's what everyone has been telling me but if 15% to under 20% is ok, I might have to try it. Mike


Easy there Turbo.... Careful not to get confused by some of the replies, your assumption that the moisture in a big square had to be really low is correct. 15-20% is only okay with preservative, and even then it's touch and go.

Bale size does play a bit of a role in moisture tolerances, and you can see the trend in square bale size across the continent of the US. West coast you see a lot of the 4x4 bales, moving east you you see 3x4s through the central region, and then 3x3 bales in the North and East regions. Exception to this of course is California etc, where the 3x4 works better than the 4x4 due to export. Bigger the package, dryer the hay/less humid climate.

In my experience, even the length of the bale makes a difference. It's harder for me to get a 3x4x9 to keep than a 3x4x8, without the center foot of length being heated, even with preservative. If the hay is lower quality or I'm more confident of the dryness, I'll crank the bales up longer whenever I can. We much prefer 9'+ long bales.

Another thing to consider with moisture in the squares vs the rounds, is that generally speaking, the squares will be tightly stacked and covered within hours of being baled [dependent upon weather]. Leaving the rounds in the field to breathe/sweat for even a few days can be the difference between horse and cow hay. Not that I'm very confident in the square's ability to sweat much out anyway. I have not found benefit from backing the load/pressure down on the big square to permit higher moisture tolerances, but that is hardly anything scientific. I feel that in order to get them loose enough to actually make a difference, your bale has lost its integrity/stackability.

I've got a small square baler, 5x6 round, and 3x4 big square. I run a Gazeeka moisture detector and liquid preservative applicator on the big square, and will likely add one to the other balers at some point as well. [Here] it is critical to run preservative on the 3x4, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to get the alfalfa dry enough to bale unless all you want to bale is stem. Even raking a few hours ahead of the baler, any fresh dandelion leaves raked in can be enough to heat bales/cause mold. Grass is more forgiving to get over-dry, but by then it's usually so bleached out...

I run Silo-Guard/Hay-Guard, which claims to be perfect to 22% moisture in a big square. I run it into the 20s, but I've learned not to expect perfect / marketable quality hay past 20%. Cow hay sure, but not horse hay, nor dairy hay. Just can't keep the centers from heating! Often baling side by side with the round baler, I need preservative on the square, but not the round. So expect to tack on another $5/ton minimum of extra cost for preservative when you switch to square. But if you're selling your hay by the ton rather than by the bale, well which do you think weighs more, a 13% bale or a 20% bale?

I don't trust the moisture probes for nothing. I've had bales mold and spoil in the squares that tested 13% before now. I've got a few probes, I basically only use them for testing temperature. Stick em in for a few minutes an then see if they feel hot! ;-)

Now that I've cut the squares down (wish the people I'd asked before purchasing the square hadda done that for me!!), I'll tease you a bit with some trucking pictures. ;-)

Hope that helps,
-Josh


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Thanks to both Tim and Josh on this topic! Very helpful and informative. I will add that in small square systems (stackwagon or bundle) if you back off compression enough to aid in moisture loss you have lost a lot of stackability also. Only differance seems to be about 3-4 points of moisture higher will work with the same treatments.


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