# Baling at night



## kfarm_EC_IL

I've heard baling at night several times and have seen balers with lights. Keep in mind production baling experince is limited to 3 yrs. I have tried baling in the evening but usually only accomplished several shear bolt changes. I'm baling in Illinois which may make a difference in the type of climate.

I'm interested in how this works, and why? etc.
Thanks
Mark


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## JD4755

Im from northeast colorado, and bale almost always at night. Sometimes i have problems even getting any dew to hold leaves to bale with, if you bale in the day all you have is sticks and powder, no leaves at all.


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## swmnhay

Basically you are letting it get bone dry and then when the dew comes on the leaves get damp first so they don't shatter.The stems are still dry so overall moisture is perfect.hopefully.There can be a window of time that this works it can go from to dry to perfect then to wet.This is depending on alot of variables humidity,ground moisture,wind. You will have to loosen up chamber compared to daytime baling if you are breaking shear bolts or you were too wet for baling.Here if the hay is dry when the humidity climbs above 50% the hay is probably ready for baling. One thing for sure every day is different when making hay.LOL


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## JoshA

When I first heard of this by guys in Montana, Colorado, Oregon, California, I thought it was for just those regions, surely we couldn't do that up here in Alberta......... but this year I did! Twice! The first time was on the first day of the season, planned to bale right up until we got dew. Well, we never did! My neighbor was running my bale while I stacked, and we went until 4am ---- at which point we were forced to stop due to a couple flat tires on my bale accumulator.

The second time, I actually baled at night to utilize the dew. It's kind of tricky, but definitely a different experience! Honestly, kinda nice. Doesn't work so good for my photoshoots though...... :-D

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j107/JoshJA/2008August/IMG_4274.jpg


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## Lazy J

we added lights to our NH 273 when we first bought in 1999. While we farmed in Iowas we used the lights on several occasions when the Humidity was low. It was nice being able to bale until late in the eveing to finish a field.

here in Northeast Indiana, we had two occassions to use the lights last year. When we purchase a replacement baler we will add lights to it also for those rare times when we can use them.

Jim


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## Rodney R

Baling at night is an absolute necessity. The leaf loss in alflafa is nearly 99% when you bale in the heat of the day. But around here, we have a very tricky window - one night it might be 4-5 hours, the next night it might be 1-2 hours. We don't bale until a few leaves get a little moist on the outside of the roll - I walk around the field and pinch the leaves - when they shatter and fall off it's too dry, when they just roll up and stay hanging - let's roll! We'll run a healthy dose of proprionic acid on all of it baled at night, and you have to watch the bale weight and tension - you can make bricks that won't keep, but the best hay is made in the dark. We run 2 575's, and neither on has lights on it..... the tractor lights make enough light, except back on the knotter. I do know that night time is NOT the ime to have trouble with knotters or twine....

Rodney


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## anokes

We live in c Kansas and do most of our baling at night. we start by checking hay for stem moisture in the late afternoon. about an hour or so before dark i will start calling a local weather station to get relative humidity reading. will start baling a when humidity is 60-65%, depends on stem moisture and number of acres to bale. Someone told me about a website called wunderground.com and started using it some. The website actually predicts the humidity for a week in advance. It seemed relatively actuate this summer when i looked at it. The website was most useful in the late fall you could see if there was going to be enough moisture to do anything at all. There is a box with a cell phone and humidity sensor in it that you can program to call different numbers when the humidity reaches a certain point. The unit cost around $1800 was thinking about getting one but was wondering if any of you guys have used one.

Thanks
Austin


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## 4020man

We have too much humidity to bale at night here. The dew will set about 8 and you're done


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## Riverside Cattle

It varies a lot some days it is too dry to bale so I wait until the dew sets, often though I only get to bale a few hours before it gets too wet.

I have noticed that dew moisture and stem moisture isn't the same. I can get away with baling a lot higher moisture readings with dew moisture than I can with green hay. That is with small squares they seem to sweat it out a lot more than our round bales do.

-rsc


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## kenny chaos

This is a new concept for me. Usually around here the baler starts having problems about six p.m. but there are times when I could have gone later but didn't because of habit. I've never seen anyone in these parts baling at nite but I'll be the first, when the time is right. I take that back. Last year there were some guys making large squares of straw on the 4th of July in a field next to where we were at a party. They had one heck of a light show to bale by. Like somebody said, maybe there will only be a time or two when I can but that could make a difference especially in my little operation.
Thanks for the ideas.
Ken
Rochester, NY


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## TBrown

Riverside,

We have done a lot of work and trials with preservative. You are very correct about dew moisture versus stem moisture. If you let the hay get dry (under 16%) during the day, you can push the moistures up a lot higher if you know you are working with dew moisture. It is very essential to make sure the hay gets dry enough first. I have baled hay as high as 40% with dew moisture and 10 lbs per ton preservative and it kept just fine.


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## kfarm_EC_IL

I seem to have problems with hay color if we let it dry to a moisture that would allow for night baling. I know that sounds silly, but my customers mainly horse look at the color mainly. How do you deal with this issue. 
mark


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## Rodney R

Every so often we have that problem - the hay almost turns white or brown during the day while it's drying. It'll rake up green in the AM, and by baling time it's brown. Could be that the sun is too hot and the hay was too mature... I think the only solution would be to bale it in the AM, if that happens with any amount of regularity..... We're lucky enough that it only happnes once evey few years, and we can let it dry enough to bale in the evening.

Rodney


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## JD4755

I know it will get "bleached" with the dew coming on and off several times, other than that i dont really know


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## BCFENCE

I would like to try it here but when it starts to get dark the dew sets in and when every thing gets wet shuts you down. THOMAS


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## kenny chaos

I got a buddy that uses preservatives. I call it spray paint because his bales are soo green they don't look real. His hay goes to the big horse tracks.


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## hay wilson in TX

Night baling is an option to have enough moisture to save the leave when baling. 
For you and day time baling, the time of day to rake hay is in the morning when the humidity is above 90%. (Now the hay could care less what the humidity is at the house, weather station, or in the field but at belly level.)

What is important is the humidity right at the windrow. There are a number of tools to monitor this.

For day time square baling when the humidity is ± 65% the hay will be between 20% - 18% moisture, when baled. Reasonable for small square bales as long as you are paying attention, 
With the humidity is 60% at the windrow remember, the hay will bale at 14% moisture or above. Ok for round baling. 
With the humidity down close to 50% the hay will bale at 14% moisture or less. 
At 50% moisture most square baling should be done, over, quit for leaf shattering. Somewhere in the range of 55% humidity is for Large Square Baling. Fortunately with an inline baler most leaves stay with the bale even if shattered off the stems. Still it can be too dry to put up hay of high quality when the humidity is too low. 
There are several ways to work around a low humidity, at the windrow remember. 
One is to bale with some stem moisture and this moisture can provide the humidity for leaf retention. If you are going to push your luck then use a hay preservative to prevent mold. 
There are several systems designed to put moisture back into a windrow. The usual rule is to bale 15 minutes after applying the moisture, and you need to be finished baling that hay within 30 minutes of application or it will be too dry again. 
I have heard of hay growers who not only have to bale at night but must run the pivots on all sides of a field being baled, if for no other reason for the humidity.


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## JoshA

hay wilson in TX said:


> What is important is the humidity right at the windrow. There are a number of tools to monitor this.
> 
> Somewhere in the range of 55% humidity is for Large Square Baling. Fortunately with an inline baler most leaves stay with the bale even if shattered off the stems. Still it can be too dry to put up hay of high quality when the humidity is too low.
> 
> If you are going to push your luck then use a hay preservative to prevent mold.


Enjoying yourself Bill? (hope so)

Few questions for ya.
1) What tools are there for measuring windrow moisture?
2) 55% humidity, wouldn't that be roughly 16-18% bale moisture? Isn't that fairy high to expect it to keep in big squares?
3) I haven't done much night baling, however I have been quite impressed with the amount of leaves in my hay from this year. My question is, the leaves are supposed to stick at baling, simply to get them into the bale, but at feed-out time, the leaves are supposed to be fragile and shatter right off the stems right?
4) I know back in 2006 you really did not like preservatives, what are your thoughts on them now? You don't seem as negative toward them, have they improved any, or have you just more experience/knowledge regarding them? Are the organic ones any less effective?

Thanks,
-Josh


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## JD4755

If your stems are fully cured out you can bale up 20% moisture and it will keep ok, if they are green your in trouble


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## HALLSHAY

Mother nature doesn't always cooperate and sometimes you do what you need to get a crop off the field. In perfect haying weather, we try to bale ALL of our premium hay at night. My opinion is that there is more alfalfa and grass/alfalfa mix screwed up in our area by people who like to go out and rake early to finish curing, or rake in the morning and try to bale it when the dew is coming off. We do not rake hay until it is ready to bale for several reasons. First of all, lets say you go out in the morning and rake green hay to get it cured for that evening's baling. You are exposing it to possibility of a wind blown disaster, you are sun bleaching more of the windrow, and you lost the ability to draw moisture from the ground. Your baling moisture must come mostly from the atmosphere. We let the hay cure in the windrow. As soon as it starts to cool off in the evening, the hay starts to draw moisture from the ground if it is still laying in the unraked windrow. We go to the heaviest areas of the circle, normally the center, and start raking and baling. It might not be much, but the hay has very consistent moisture from the top to the bottom of the windrow. The heavier hay will dew up quicker and needs to be baled before it gets too wet. We turn the rakes loose and let them run wide open and get as far ahead of the balers as possible. By raking ahead, we then slow the dewing of the hay by lifting it from the ground. I guess we use our rakes to help control hay moisture. When most guys are starting at 2A.M. when their little thermohygrometer says 60some% and their moisture meter says 16%, we are already 5 hours into the session. As soon as we notice a drop in the baler pressures to hold the load, we shut down. I think guys are waiting too long to get some moisture into their raked hay and baling the majority of it too wet. We sometimes rake ahead of the balers BEFORE too much dew sets to get some hay ready for the morning baling. Those windrows will not be matted together and the moisture leaves more evenly. We are not raking wet hay into a windrow like you would if you waited until 6:00 am to rake. Lets say you go out at 6:00 a.m. and rake wet hay to bale when the dew is coming off. You end up baling a windrow at 10:00 a.m. that is wet on the bottom and crispy on the top. The windrow never gets very consistent all the way through until it looses all of its moisture again in the afternoon .
We do bale hay more on the dry side, but I would rather have a little leaf loss on green hay than all the leaves in brown hay. We listen to what our balers tell us and never trust what a moisture tester says. I always thought it was funny that anyone could walk into the JD dealership and spend $249 and instantly become a hay expert.


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## JoshA

Tim, not disagreeing with you, but our environment doesn't allow that.

1: We don't normally have enough time to let it dry down THAT much in order to be able to allow it to "dew up" for baling. If we did, it'd be laying in a swath all summer getting rained on every 3-5 days.

2: We twin-rake for two reasons. Firstly, to allow it to dry. Often it can be hard to get it to dry on the bottom of the swath(if I leave it very wide, which i like to do). By raking it we fluff it up to get it off the ground, and to allow the wind to air dry it. Secondly, because I don't have the patience nor the time to bale a single swath with the big baler.

Depending on the weather/month/crop situation, sometimes we rake directly before baling (if it's dry; [usually] narrow swath from the mower), sometimes a few hours ahead of time (if it's damp underneath; [usually] wide swath from the mower), sometimes only 20 hours after cutting, a day or two prior to baling (late in the season, less heat from sun, more wind).


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## HALLSHAY

I was mainly talking about my climate and a few of the states around me. We twin rake 18ft swaths to slow the baler down and keep it full. We also move our duals all the way out on our tractor and never drive on our hay.


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## hay wilson in TX

Josh,
I use the little portable WX station in Gimpler's www.gimplers.com. It is the Kestrel 3000. As a bonus it does more than just humidity. When working around the barn I lay it in the shade & when I go to the fleld I put in the shade & on the windrow.

With an open tractor I can monitor the humidity if I reall want to.


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