# Hay moisture



## glinka (Jul 5, 2012)

Two weeks ago I baled, small square. Testing moisture I range from 14% to 25%. I'm not getting any heating in the bales, don't smell bad feels like fresh cut hay. Should I be concerned? Other cuttings this year have been in the 10% to 14% range.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

High temperatures and humidities promote mold in high moisture hay. If you are cool now with low humidities and have the hay stacked where it can expire the moisture, there is a good chance it will not mold. I have baled alfalfa this time of year in the Southeast that was 25-28% moisture and it did not mold.....our humidities most days now is very moderate and the temps are in the low to mid-eighties. I stacked the alfalfa on wagons and left it there so that it could get air flow from bottom to top. It was primo.

Regards, Mike


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I have same scenario. Moisture in high teens to mid 20's. no heat, no mold.


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## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

Same here, Especially with second cut less stems the moisture will escape. If I know the hay might be on the wet side I will also loosen the tension on the baler. Not sure but it seems to help. 
I have some 3rd cut that I was sure was wet, heavy and very high moisture readings in the mid 20's. it is some of the greenest hay I have ever put up. Loosely stacked in the barn and planed on feeding it out. As we are feeding it out no mold!


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

to my way of thinking and experience, 10% is too dry but some will always be there if the field is right. I shoot for 15-16% normally and as long as I don't get a bunch over 20-22% I am fine even in first cutting. I don't use preservatives, always stack on ends with gaps for moisture to wick out. Depending on cutting, will ted 2-3X so the moisture is fairly uniform.

The biggest killer on high moisture hay that I have seen is a stalled front in early june with extremely high humidity, fog, drizzle and moderate heat-there is no where for the moisture in your hay to go and the natural sweat process drives the mold into overdrive.

What you are seeing and the other answers posted is why late sept and early oct hay is so primo!


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

Time and again the differences in the conditions for haying across the US to those here in Western Australia can be stark.

I have never seen acid for hay or other products like hayguard and indeed until I visited the US a few years ago had never heard of acid or throwers or baskets.

The culture here would I believe not accept acid or other preservatives in hay.

I bale small squares at between 10% and 17% moisture if to go to storage immediately and can go to 18% if not to go to storage for at least 2 days and there is no ground moisture or rain in the period until picked up.

Moisture levels above that will start mould within a day and there will be heat even fire if stacked.

Very little grass hay is grown in the area around here, it is regarded as inferior by horse people, although I know good quality grass hay can be better than cereal hay.

Cereal hay is usually an oat crop with a variety suited to hay production ( protein, carbohydrates, quantity, digestability, fibre, and colour) or a very old variety of wheat that has high sugar content and high quantity of vegetable mass. This wheat is "Baroota Wonder" and was I understand first bred in the late 19th century or early 20th.

A couple of decades ago horse owners would not consider oaten hay (it made their horses too hot) and wheaten hay was the benchmark, now there are only die-hard pockets that want wheaten hay. Pony owners will buy grass hay, some horse owners too but only a few.

At time of hay production the air moisture levels vary widely during the day and night. As the season progresses the moisture levels in the hay fall, summer is nigh, but with wide daily temperature ranges even a low relative day-time humidity can reach dew point sometime during the night.

At this stage of the season the moisture content of the hay may well be below 10% causing the hay to shatter into splinters if baled, not good. Baling the has to wait until the temperature drops and relative humidity rises enough to lift hay moisture levels above 10%. As a consequence baling sometimes can only be done at night and has to stop shortly after dew point is reached as hay moisture goes above the magic17 to 18%. Baling may restart the next day when the hay dries and before the lower moisture contant of 19% is reached. I have had this window of opportunity as short as 3am and to only about a 1/2 hour after the sun rises, stopping by 7am.I have worked for decades in hay and until I discovered the forums could only talk/seek help from a few crusty, grumpy locals like me, but now with the internet it opens up continents and aworld of experience in my office.

I think this is a great forum for the exchange of ideas and methods/practices between different regions and countries, keep up the good work Haytalk and members and a big thanks too go to the administrators and moderators for giving of your time and knowledge. 

THere is something about knowledge, it does not matter how much you learn you do not get tired carrying that knowledge home.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

When you say no mold without preservative up in the high 20's define mold . or is the hay slightly dusty


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

hello Coondle Down in the Land Down Under. The land of my Most Distant First Cousin, Northern Victoria some place.

From West Virginia, USA I picked up these Universal Truths. Use them any way you wish.
Humidity we are talking about the humidity down near the hay's level.
90% humidity the hay will be no drier than 40% moisture.
70% humidity the hay will be no drier than 18% or 20% moisture.
65% humidity the hay will be no drier thnn 16% to 18% moisture.

Now West Verginia is in our Humid East wherfe they have enough humidity to bale during the day. In our Arid West where much of the baling is done at night to find enough humidity to bale and save the leaves. There they are looking at a rising humidity and they like the humidity to be in the 60 or 70 percent range to start.
Night baling is actually reasonably simple, HERE. HERE. you can feel the night humidity. Than bale a few and watch close. If the leaves afe still shattering, stop for a bit. When all is ok bale till the hay becomes too tough to bale.

Hay moisture can be interesting. The leaves dry down quickly, but the stems are slower. HERE the leaves can be dry as gun powder and the stems still have moisture and be limp. Over night the leaves pick up moisture from the night dew, while the stems pick up little or no night moisture.

Baling in the day the stems should be fully dry while the leaves are damp enough to hold to the stems. Say the Stems have 10% moisture while the leaves are 30% moisture. Average that magic 20% that people like to talk about.

Baling at night the stems will still be fully dry and the leaves pick up enough moisture from the night air to be limp. Maybe 20% to 25% moisture, the leaves hold and the hay will do fine.

Trouble happens when the leaves are damp and ths stems are damp. Then you have hay that heats, sweats a lot, maybe forms dusty hay, or patches of white mold or even black mold. Do it right and the hay in a stack will catch on fire.

Dusty hay is ok but not good for cattle. Horses any mold is bad if you sold the hay to the horse owner. If it is your horse and they eat the hay, ok.

It is real difficult to sell hay that has mold. I have seen cattle leave green grass to eat hay that was black with mold.

Do what you can, with what you have, and it should do just fine.

I am with you, and am not impressed with acid &c. It was a shock to me to see hay flying out the back of a baler into a basket on wheels.
HERE is right on the line between the Humid East and the Arid West. So much of the year it is too wet, and some of the year it just does not rain at all.


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## nhbaler282 (Oct 5, 2009)

Mr Wilson explain something to me,how do you know that the stem is 10% moisture and the leaf is 30% moisture? If the hay is that dry it has to loose a lot of its color,I am talking bermuda grass of course. I have been baling hay for 50 years and of course we can tell when to bale by feel the old fashion way but I would like to learn this new modern way. I am over here in humid east texas and would like to learn how to check humidity at the windrow,do you put the meter on the ground at the windrow or inside the windrow? Been reading your post on this subject for awhile and thought I would ask these questions hopefully I can understand better cause I am from the old school, Thanks


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

Here in Western Australia's Western Central Wheatbelt (about 60 miles north-east of Perth) we have a Mediterranian climate with most rain in winter a rapid drop off in rain in early October and usually only the occasional summer thunderstorm with the winter pattern of rain starting in May. Usual pattern but there are huge variations particularly in more recent years.

This year the early rains in May promised a good start to the season, but June was very dry with almost no rain. So little rain that oats I planted on about 6 June did not show above ground until rain in July, so much for a ten day germination period!

Conditions for haying vary considerably across our grain growing belt. The further East the season is shorter and haying earlier, further North the same variation, such that 300 miles North of here, hay is ready a month earlier. Three hundred miles south and hay can be 2 or even 3 months later. The bulk of the hay production particularly for export to Asia is cut and baled from mid September to late November.

Average annual rainfall in the hay growing belt varies from about 12 inches up to about 25 or a bit more. The annual average for where I am is about 22 inches and falling with a series of dry years, only 2 in the last 10 years exceeded the average and then only just. The lowest annual rainfall for here was under 10 inches. In 2010 I had only 115 mm or about 4 1/2 inches during the growing season, yet wit minimum till and water conservation/harvesting sowing tine profiles still grew a reasonable hay crop averaging nearly 100 (55 lb) bales per acre or nearly 2 1/2 tonnes per acre (1 tonne equals 2200 lbs ) or 5500 lbs.

I do not measure the humidity accurately but apply a moisture meter to the bale or take samples from the windrow and crush the sample onto the moisture meter probe.

Not being the grass style hay that we grow there is little difference between leaf and stem moisture.

In addition to the moisture meter, I also use old fashioned methods to determine if the hay is ready to bale. First touch, if I can feel moisture it is too wet, if the feel is a clammy dampness the it is borderline, if that feel is just the top layer in the windrow then may be OK to bale provided there is dry feeling about 1/3 way down into the windrow and the same or drier 2/3 way down. If clammy dampness is repeated down into the windrow then too damp to bale. The better test is to grab a sample of hay straw and leaf in both hands with hands about 6 inches apart and the bundle grasped is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches diameter, crank the hands to form a crank handle in the hay sample and wind one hand in relation to the other. It is amazing, if the sample breaks in less than one revolution then it is too dry to bale and the hay is shattered into dusty chaff rubbish of splintered straws (vary bad for horse gums) and moisture content on the moisture meter will be 10% or less. If the sample breaks at 1 full turn, the moisture meter will be 10% to 11% and OK to bale at 7 turns the sample breaks the moisture meter will read 17 % and still OK to bale at 8 turns (you guessed it 18% and ok to bale but bales must have fine dry weather for several days before storing otherwise mould. If it does not break in 8 twists the straw becomes like string and you could twist almost forever and it will not break and is unsuitable for baling.

This year I was having to turn my hay to dry out the underside of the windrow as it had received about 1/2 inch of rain 5 days after cutting , and the windrows were heavy, that paddock produced 1605 bales from 8 acres (11,000 lbs of hay per acre) which was my best paddock, the next was 3 acres producing 554 bales yet the next gave only just over 100 bales per acre. Those first 3 paddocks were all baled in the hottest part of the day (after about 11.00 am) and too damp 1/2 hour before sunset to bale. That took me 3 days to bale bundle and stack in the shed those 3 paddocks. By then I did not need to turn the windrows and could only bale mid morning to early afternoon, or early evening to say 9.00 pm before moisture levels rose too high. Two weeks after starting baling I could not start until 8 pm and was able to bale well into the night as a strong wind was blowing keeping the moisture levels down, ie dew point was not reached. But happily the end of the season was reached and the last bale baled at 2.30 am.

The end result I had 9500 bales from 70 acres and contract (custom) baled another 1570, so 11,000 bales for the year through the baler and the Bale Bandit.

On the topic of the Bale Bandit I did the last about 10,200 bales into bundles without the bandit misbanding one bundle, it worked exactly as one would wish.

On the subject of cattle seeking out mouldy hay, I believe it is because of their fermenting style gut and the mould helps the process, my thought but no science. I have agisted cattle that went to the mound of hay scraps out of my shed, heaped up over years and composting down, to dig holes in it burrowing down into the richly composted areas. I had not seen cattle eat holes dow into a heap before and they had plenty of grass.

So many things that I cannot directly relate to, such as Bermuda grass, totally unknown to me as is Timothy grass, but no matter, there are some constants such as the right moisture levels even if the % does vary between varieties .

Hope this gives some explanation of detail and someone who is old school but trying to embrace the modern and live in both worlds because each has something to teach the other.

But I will admit that no matter what the moisture meter shows if the hay does not pass my twist test it is not baled.


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