# Wet hay concern



## wyscott (Aug 8, 2009)

I have grass hay mostly timthoy and garrison. I cut it with a sickle bar and normally let it lay 4-5 days as it is thick hay. Raked and baled it. The moisture in the bales was 10-15%. Then it started to hail about 3 inches on all the bales in the field. Followed by rain for 24 hrs about 2" of rain. I left the hay in the field for a week to dry and rolled the bales three times. I have since stacked it. However, my moisture in the bales reads 20-25% in many of the bales. The temperature of the hay in the evening is about 70, during the day about 85. It has been stacked a week. Will my hay be ok, or should I worry about combustion? There is about 30 tons in the stack. I stacked it 9 high, but with a peak at the top. It is only three bales long in width. Our humidity in Wyoming is dry and temperatures in the 80's. Please provide feedback. Thanks


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## Heyhay..eh (Aug 7, 2009)

Whoa bad break

It is always hard to tell what will happen with wet bales. I have had some that got wet after baling, they were in standing water 1-2" for a day. The ones that dripped we opened and fed back through the baler with a fork. Like old time harvesting. The others we laid out for a week or so then stacked tight in a big square 10 bales X 10 but only about 6 high. We built a peak and put a tarp over ensuring that there would be airflow over the top to remove the evaporating moisture. Did not catch fire, was warm and you could smell the hay for a long time. The looser bales were a little mushy and moldy the tight one were caramelized but good to feed.

Fire fighter told me that packing them tight denies the oxygen and will not support combustion. So the hot spot in the middle gets warm but won't ignite. It worked for me that time ... maybe I just got lucky


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## Hedge tree (Jul 18, 2008)

First of all....if they have been stacked 1 week and interior temps are only 85F....kinda following the ambient temp, I think you are past any chance of dramatic heating of your grass hay. Having said that...one must always be careful and continue to monitor the bales. The 'sweat' for my alfalfa and grass hay is considered to be about 30 days....after that, the stem moisture has dissipated and you have what you have.

As for your hay....having it baled off without much stem moisture (15%) and then getting hail and rain, all the moisture could be considered as 'foreign' moisture. For all practical purposes, a good tight small square bale will have moisture penetration about the depth into the bale that there was rain.....2". If you moved them around and turned them...had reasonably dry days humidity-wise, I think you will be okay and I suspect the hay....other than being a little discolored in the top 2"...will look and feed just fine.

This happens to just about everyone from time to time....if you know it is going to rain and just cannot get the bales out of the field....you can make small stacks with the exposure to moisture limited to the top layer of bales...saves lots of work. Also....rained on bales dry very nicely if stacked in tripods or more, leaning into each other on their small end...this allows are to circulate around all but the portion of the end of the bale on the ground.

I think you will be okay with this hay....pretty good job of management after the rain event helped...good job.


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## nwfarmer (Jun 16, 2009)

Heyhay..eh,

Where is Mb in CA?


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## nwfarmer (Jun 16, 2009)

Some of these guys are dealing with high moisture and lots of rain east of the Mississippi. Not quite as easy as we have it out west.


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## bunchgrass1 (Jul 4, 2009)

Hi wyscott,

I had some serious rain on sm squares baled but still in the field - one factor that affected the penetration of moisture into the bale was whether they were on their sides (strings down) or ends (cut side up). The bales with cut sides up had way more moisture issues - deeper penetration. We let them dry for 3-4 days, rolled them over and gave them 3 or 4 more. Some were still moldy - I think that if moisture penerates into a bale far enough, it doesn't or can't sufficiently dry before the mold starts to grow.

Therefore, I stacked those bales and tarped them rather than putting them in the barn. I plan on feeding them until the snow flies, then will switch to my barn hay. Tarps are the worst, especially in snow!


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## wyscott (Aug 8, 2009)

The bales came out of the baler on their edges. The moisture went down from the top and up from the bottom. Now there in the stack somewhat loose to let them breathe or sweat.
The stack is peaked. Thanks for your help.


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## nwfarmer (Jun 16, 2009)

We are in dry irrigation country and it has rained every day this last week and rained again today. Crazy


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