# How do you make your dry hay in the Northeast?



## deerebentley (Jun 29, 2015)

Hi everyone,

First post on this forum, have been reading everyone's stuff the past couple weeks and really enjoy the knowledge you all have to share. I am young and was wondering everyone's process on making dry hay. For example, what time do you mow, when to ted, when to rake, and when to bale for an all grass mix in northeast PA. Grew up milking cows so that meant making all baleage and silage. Now a change of pace into dry hay for horses, so any and all advice will be greatly appreciated!

p.s. new to forum so feel free to direct me on how to use this site better.

Thanks,

Jordan


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## jr in va (Apr 15, 2015)

Welcome


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## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

Welcome to the Hay Talk, Jordan! 
You are right, there is a wealth of informarion and collective experience that folks from all over the world are willing to share here. I myself have gained so much from asking, reading and then taking it out into the field and using, developing and in the end understanding.

Now to attempt to not even get close to answer your question...... 
There is no magic time, no magic number or event that will make good hay. It has everything to do with understanding the conditions of your fields, the ground its planted in, reading the weather, and being able to adapt to the weather, as it will change. you're own time management. Then finally the tools you have to work with. 
It can be sunny for 4 days and you may never get dry hay because of the humidity, verse it could be partly sunny for two days with very dry, low humidity and cold and make great hay. 
When to cut, there is a lot of threads on here on when to do so. Again even if it's best to cut in the afternoon, you might have to cut early in the AM or even the afternoon before a rain storm. All depending on what's coming next with weather and your time, and conditions. 
Not sure if this helps, but stick around keep reading, I'm sure others here will be more than willing to give you a better insight than I just have! 
Cheers,


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Not to sound smart but generally in the northeast its like this:

Cut the day after rain where the forcast shows 3-4 days clear. Bale on the last day before rain.

Waiting a couple days after rain to cut means your hay will be 1/2 dry when the next rain comes.

Mow one day, ted second day or third day, if its heavy crop ted twice,rake and bale last day.


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

I've even mowed in the rain to get a good jump on downing some acres. Then, ted sometimes twice. I usually rake early morning I think I can bale. Want all the hay in a nice fluffy windrow when the sun starts to become intense.


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## CaseIH84 (Jun 16, 2013)

I agree with what everyone else said. I really try to mow around noon if possible. Works out well for me because I work full time. I have also mowed in the rain before trying to get jump on weather. I ted per the weather conditions. If I have nice drying days I will ted hay as soon as I am done mowing. Then ted next morning about ten or just when dew is starting to come off, this helps with leaf retention. When the hay is around 35% give or take will rake the hay and finish drying out in windrow. We monitor hay with hand help moisture meter, plus meter on baler, these were new to us just a year ago or so and have really helped in my opinion in baling hay at correct moisture instead of too dry or too wet. Hope this info helps and welcome to Haytalk. You will love this site.


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## deerebentley (Jun 29, 2015)

Thanks everyone, I already love this site. I know there is never gunna be a "set in stone" way to make dry hay, just to many variables, but hearing what works for other people should help me come up with a good system. I have purchased a fx 2000 moisture meter kit. Any recommendations on installing the on-the-go sensor in a jd 446 round baler? And using it in general for most accurate results.

Thanks again

Jordan


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Different varieties dry down at different rates as well. I have one field of old timothy that I can bale early on the third day whereas I have newer stands that have much thicker stems and take a full three drying days. Pan evaporation of a sample can give you a pretty good indication of how big a window you may need. I have one field where I need 6 days very heavy yields but a pain to dry.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Jordan-welcome to haytalk. Making quality dry hay in the Northeast (I will hedge and call the northern Shenandoah Valley in VA part of that for at least haymaking ventures) is part science and part art. Over time you will develop a sense of what works from experiencing what does not.

I empirically know that one "can not make dry hay in early may in this area" but nevertheless, attempt to do so from time to time with the same results, the weather is just too iffy here. Memorial day is a good starting target and this year was the only long window we have had but it was not forecasted, just happened. So, one of the "hay senses" you have to develop is to just have a feeling and go with it. Sorry, not very scientific but as DSL said, you have to be able to read your weather buy looking at the maps, forecasted wind direction events up wind from you etc.

While I agree with the windows desired that are described herein, they have been fleeting over the last several years. Just not many 4 clear days in a row here with the mountain influences plus stuff moving up from the Carolina coast.

I will often cut with a discbine just before a rain (I mean showers, not all day rain) or during showers but prefer to cut the hay dry even if it then rains on it. The ground will dry much faster if the hay is not standing. I will usually ted the next morning about 11 (trying to get the top dry of dew first) or earlier if it rained on it a good bit. No sense leaving saturated cut hay there to dry, it won't. If the drying conditions are really good, breeze and sun with low humidity, I will ted multiple times with the tedder speed fairly low just to mix it up. I find that is the best approach with our weather to be able to maintain the nice green color in the hay which really helps sales. I never make hay with less than two teddings, and mostly do 3. I prefer not to rake until the day I bale but more recently have found that if I rake at 4-5 the day before, the top of the windrow cures out, then I wait til 11 the following day and roll the windrow over and let it sit until 2-3, then hit it with the baler.

On cutting decisions, I would rather cut early and risk an immediate shower or so, with a great day for baling than cut on a great day and be iffy on baling day. Clouds at 2 on baling day is a bummer, the hay just does not want to get crisp.

I use a hand held moisture meter all the time but you will develop a sense of bale wt for your baler setting and each field of hay (varieties and which cutting). At some point in your experience curve, you just can go over pick up a bale and have a pretty accurate assessment of whether it is right or not based on the weight. Almost always, if it feels too heavy, it is too wet. That does not replace the value of a moisture meter. This is why I do not change my baler settings. I shoot for a 34" bale with 2 atm on the chamber. That means with good hay in the proper moisture range, well raked windrows and proper baling speed, the twine is tight and stays tight, really tight.

My experience is that the baler runs really well at about 510-520 pto rpms and make adjustments on ground speed for the windrow. My baler can bale more through the chamber than I can cleanly get through the pickup so my preference is to be in the 3-4 mph ground speed range and keep my windrows manageable. a rotary rake is fabulous for this as you can make your windrow more vertical than horizontal like wheel rakes and parallel bar rakes. Windrow management is to me the biggest seller for the additional $ to get a rotary rake.

That is my story and it is worth what you paid for it. Happy haying! If it isn't making you happy, you are in the wrong line of work. rick


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

In my neck of the woods we need a 3-day window with the equipment we have right now (disc mower/conditioner, NH side delivery rakes and JD square balers). I try and mow after the dew is off on the first day so that the hay gets dried down enough to stop it's respiration before the first night. That helps keep the nutrition content of the hay. The second day we just let it set and dry. On day 3 we will rake just as the dew is coming off to help retain the leaves (usually around 9:30 am to 10:00 am) and start baling around lunch time. We try and get the bales off the field and into the barn as quickly as possible from there (we do small squares, so they can't be left out like round bales). This is what the general plan is for us, but as has been mentioned above, it can be changed depending on different circumstances (full time job, weather, equipment, etc.).

We currently do not use a tedder, but I'm keeping my eye out for a decent one. We do have the preservative applicator on the baler, but haven't used the spray that much, only the moisture meter that is built in to the unit. The way this summer is going, we may end up using preservative on everything. Normally I want to be at least halfway through my 1st cut by now (if not completely done), but as of today, we haven't even hooked up the mower.

Welcome to Haytalk, I'm sure you will find plenty of great information on here.


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## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

Nicely put Hayman, I concure. 
Another factor not yet mentioned is using a preservative. I've found it a necessity in this new dawn of unpredictable and short weather windows. It allows us to bale higher moisture hay and save a lot of hay that otherwise would have turned to mulch hay. 
Just this last weekend a preservative saved a very nice 20 acre field with high yields.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Yeah, thought about the preservative aspect later. Does not come natural to me as I don't use it-I have always been afraid that my customers horses (it only takes one horse in the barn) would not eat it with preservative and then I am toast. Did a haytalk for a trailrider group two years ago and of course everyone brought samples of the hay they were feeding with questions. One woman who seemed quite reasonable brought some pretty nice mixed grass-dominantly og that her horses would not eat. I smelled it and it had something on it. It was either some type of preservative or something dumped from a plane or one other issue is biosolids or chicken litter. I don't know what it was but it was not a hay smell but it looked really nice and had a good green color. My concern is probably not well founded but most of my customers are in to the local and natural thing so I plug along without preservative.


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## deerebentley (Jun 29, 2015)

yes well put by everyone!
I have been looking into the hay guard preservative, have a guy in my area that tried it last year and loved it. He is installing another applicator on his round baler also As he tried it on his sm squares. The hay guard is not supposed to stink, so hopefully the horses won't bother.

Thanks

Jordan


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

deerebentley said:


> yes well put by everyone!
> I have been looking into the hay guard preservative, have a guy in my area that tried it last year and loved it. He is installing another applicator on his round baler also As he tried it on his sm squares. The hay guard is not supposed to stink, so hopefully the horses won't bother.
> 
> Thanks
> ...


I don't know if the stuff actually has to smell bad for the horses to be put off by it. Some animals will not like it just because it is different than what they are used to, even if it is better. I have sold some treated hay to my main customer and he was a little skeptical, but tried it anyway. He told me the cows he fed it to didn't even seem to notice, but the couple of horses he tried it on were a little tentative about eating it at first, but they eventually did. The hay I put up with it didn't smell bad, just different.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Don't forget, especially as you are learning (ascontinually happens in life) sometimes you get lucky as well. Sometimes not so much. Either way as long as uou weather it and learn from it you will only get better.

Sometimes better lucky then good though...


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## deerebentley (Jun 29, 2015)

Good info from everyone. It was great to read this....with ur guys help I went out on a limb and mowed a little for the first time this year. Looked like about 2.5 days dry. Will see how it goes.

Thanks

Jordan


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Well from what I've observed is we do it all wrong. Discbine with condtioner, tedder, bar rake and jd square baler and NH round baler. Takes 4-5 days to dry hay enough to bale. Amish neighbors sickle bar mower, bar rake, hayloader and wagon, JD square baler hay dry in 1.5-2.5 days.....

My thinkings are fertility and ground moisture plus weather have more of an effect than techniques.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Grif-I am somewhat inclined to agree with you but I have watched some of those guys (Amish haymakers) getting up hay and wonder why they don't burn their barns down. That stuff looks really green. On the otherhand having just had some prime hay washed for two straight days, sure glad I have a good tedder today as I will be able to salvage this hay and will be able to feed it in my barn without incident. Would not want to tackle that task with my dad's steel wheel NI side delivery rake!


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Deerebentley- It did occur to me that if you are assessing the advice that you got in this thread with the weather we have had in the northeast this year that you probably think we are all nuts. While that is probably correct-we are all haymakers which makes us guilty as charged-this is such an abnormal year that you will likely have to wait til next year to apply whatever pearls of wisdom you have gleaned for your haymaking adventure. Probably are not going to see a 5 day stretch of good weather this year.


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## deerebentley (Jun 29, 2015)

Hayman- I have applied a little bit of everyone's advice in the 11 acres I have gotten so far. Like you say weather is crazy...have had only 2 dry spells to make dry hay for me. Have gotten hay in tho.

Anyway I have one field I made, I got sm squares and RB. The rb averaged 15% MC and the sm squares averaged 13 % MC out of same field. I think the bale density is why rb are higher. The sm Sq have stayed the same while the few days after the RB have went to over 20% and felt warm. I didn't have my thermometer yet to check temp but they obviously were warmer than ambient temp. Not hot like danger of fire or anything just warm. Anyway it's been 2 weeks now, MC of RB is still high but (got a temp probe) the center of the bale is under 100 degrees. (The barn was 85-90 inside). I think I've read you guys calling this the "sweating" process, just wondering will that make the hay a little dusty or what temp will the hay generally have to heat to get dusty. Btw it's a mix of cool season grass nothing fancy.

Thanks to all.
Jordan


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## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

Have a suggestion. Why not refer to small squares as *sq *and big squares as *SQ* this way we save on words


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## farmero (Sep 23, 2013)

Welcome Deerebently. I am in Lehigh County where it has been rain every third day. The corn and beans love it but hay- big laugh. What everyone else says does work. Just need to learn when to use what tactic. This is the yr. for preservative. I just did some second cut timothy, cut Thursday morning and baled Friday night with preservative and it was raining by the time we got it in the barn. Will it keep? I don't know, but I needed to try it. The timothy will be alowed to cure (or spoil) then it is gone. The Thursday cut alfalfa is still laying in the field. I enjoy what I do and my wife helps, that makes it easier. Good Luck.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Hayman1 said:


> Grif-I am somewhat inclined to agree with you but I have watched some of those guys (Amish haymakers) getting up hay and wonder why they don't burn their barns down. That stuff looks really green. On the otherhand having just had some prime hay washed for two straight days, sure glad I have a good tedder today as I will be able to salvage this hay and will be able to feed it in my barn without incident. Would not want to tackle that task with my dad's steel wheel NI side delivery rake!


Some round bales we baled up the begining of the month that was left to sit outside for a week are still warm. Stuck a small round steel fence post down in one that was real bad that I've been feeding off of and left it for two days and pulled it out it was warm and sticky. Not a good sign is very dusty as well. This hay was mowed on Thursday and baled on Sunday, tedded twice and raked in single windrows. Still haven't figured how some are putting it in like they have been. Guess we need to stop spreading manure and fertilizer.....


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