# how long have you found the cropsaver preservative work?



## wjkrostek (Jul 12, 2011)

I need your experence on how long you have found the preservative works. On the net I have found some people say only 10 days and others say 4 to 6 months. I live in an area where drying is always a problem with low temperature and high RH.

here is what I have. 7 acre field that had to be baled with most of the hay in the 20% and some slugs at 30%. I baled with about a gal to the ton. I spread the bales single layer and have a fan blowing cool air over the bales. That was two weeks ago and I check every bales for heat and have found about 10% of the bales heating and removed them. The rest have stayed at about 60 degrees and no sign of heating or mold. The temperature is in my favor the the rH is always high so not much drying is happening . I have sold about 30 bales to 3 different people and no problems. they say their animals like it. The question is how long can the Crop saver last? I'd like to hear your experiences That you may have had. Thanks.


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## wjkrostek (Jul 12, 2011)

I should of noted that it is Grass hay baled loose. I assumed baled real loose is better than packed tight. What do you think? will it last a few months ? I also assume that as the acid looses its stuff the other bales will get hot too unless it drys down to 18% before then. I need the room and will need to stack it or throw it out before I cut the next field. Any ideas?


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

I have been told that cropsaver (buffered propionic acid) lingers for approximately two months in a bale of hay. I have baled at moisture levels that you describe without problems, but our application system applies 10lb per ton at the wettest levels. I suppose 1 gal per ton is pretty close to that. You are doing everything right that you can it sounds.


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

It should last 4-6 months, but I find my acid hay tends to lose the acid smell after about 2 months. Usually during that time the bales have sweated out and dried down in the mow to about 16% or lower. Even with high RH the bales tend to dry down in my mow. I'm usually not stacking more than 10 bales high and 5 wide (long way).

If I bale anything that I'm worried about I chimney stack it so every bale has airflow so it dries down before the acid is gone.


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

Bishop said:


> It should last 4-6 months, but I find my acid hay tends to lose the acid smell after about 2 months. Usually during that time the bales have sweated out and dried down in the mow to about 16% or lower. Even with high RH the bales tend to dry down in my mow. I'm usually not stacking more than 10 bales high and 5 wide (long way).
> 
> If I bale anything that I'm worried about I chimney stack it so every bale has airflow so it dries down before the acid is gone.


We have a buffered propionic acid applicator locked and loaded for our square bale - but never had to use it, yet....

Once the acid smell goes away, does the "normal" hay smell return? After the bales dry down over time, do they get a little spongy/less dense?


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

leeave96 said:


> We have a buffered propionic acid applicator locked and loaded for our square bale - but never had to use it, yet....
> 
> Once the acid smell goes away, does the "normal" hay smell return? After the bales dry down over time, do they get a little spongy/less dense?


Yes, the normal hay smell returns.

My bales don't get too spongy, but I don't usually bale too much above 21% (acid costs money). I have baled as high as 26% and yes once they dry down they lose weight and get sloppy.


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## wjkrostek (Jul 12, 2011)

Bishop said:


> It should last 4-6 months, but I find my acid hay tends to lose the acid smell after about 2 months. Usually during that time the bales have sweated out and dried down in the mow to about 16% or lower. Even with high RH the bales tend to dry down in my mow. I'm usually not stacking more than 10 bales high and 5 wide (long way).
> 
> If I bale anything that I'm worried about I chimney stack it so every bale has airflow so it dries down before the acid is gone.


Thanks for your response, You say your bales sweat out. Are you getting any heating during the sweat? My problem is coming from I the 30% they are getting hot but I knew that would happen. I just hope I can find them all. I check every one while I have them spread out. Had I stacked them they would all molded. Thanks again.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

wjkrostek said:


> I need your experence on how long you have found the preservative works. On the net I have found some people say only 10 days and others say 4 to 6 months. I live in an area where drying is always a problem with low temperature and high RH.
> 
> here is what I have. 7 acre field that had to be baled with most of the hay in the 20% and some slugs at 30%. I baled with about a gal to the ton. I spread the bales single layer and have a fan blowing cool air over the bales. That was two weeks ago and I check every bales for heat and have found about 10% of the bales heating and removed them. The rest have stayed at about 60 degrees and no sign of heating or mold. The temperature is in my favor the the rH is always high so not much drying is happening . I have sold about 30 bales to 3 different people and no problems. they say their animals like it. The question is how long can the Crop saver last? I'd like to hear your experiences That you may have had. Thanks.


 curious where you using the actual Crop Saver brand


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

wjkrostek said:


> Thanks for your response, You say your bales sweat out. Are you getting any heating during the sweat? My problem is coming from I the 30% they are getting hot but I knew that would happen. I just hope I can find them all. I check every one while I have them spread out. Had I stacked them they would all molded. Thanks again.


I do not get any heat during the sweat with bales in the low 20% with acid. Since I started to ted my hay out it has greatly reduced wet slugs of hay, so I'm not too sure. Basically my moisture is pretty consistent from bale to bale, and I'm using the tried and true method of stacking bales that feel a bit heavier on the outside of my stack, and the odd bale that is really heavy I throw down right away and feed.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

wjkrostek said:


> Thanks for your response, You say your bales sweat out. Are you getting any heating during the sweat? My problem is coming from I the 30% they are getting hot but I knew that would happen. I just hope I can find them all. I check every one while I have them spread out. Had I stacked them they would all molded. Thanks again.


 something is going wrong in this process you are to have a little bit better results, I agree maybe some of the hay wetter than what you think. Not the whole bail but just that occasional chunk that is 30% that is getting 10 lb of acid per ton and need 16 pounds of acid per ton. You said you Bale very loose, and I agree you do not want them Brick Tight but you do not want the bales sloppy loose , 
Acid can not do its job that way either, I believe you understand the process and you'll get it


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I used to put round bales away up to 25% with acid, it mainly keeps em from heating the first few weeks. Acid kills the bacteria that causes hay to heat, once it's dead its dead, least this was my understanding of the process. Anything over 25% I had em keep, but experienced hay buyers could always tell something was off about those bales.

Those 25% bales would test 14-16% when I got around to hauling them to auction.


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## wjkrostek (Jul 12, 2011)

endrow said:


> something is going wrong in this process you are to have a little bit better results, I agree maybe some of the hay wetter than what you think. Not the whole bail but just that occasional chunk that is 30% that is getting 10 lb of acid per ton and need 16 pounds of acid per ton. You said you Bale very loose, and I agree you do not want them Brick Tight but you do not want the bales sloppy loose ,
> Acid can not do its job that way either, I believe you understand the process and you'll get it


you are right just the part with the wet slug is heating up and getting moldy. But I don't have any animals to feed so I don't try and sell them and just give them a way to a lady that understands what they are and can use them. I don't want to sell a bad bale to someone. What I'm worried about is the other bales start to heat up. It's been about 18 days and they are still in the 20's% and temperature in in the high 50's to 60. No dusty bales. Why do you think the acid can't do its job with loose bales? Thanks for you Comments.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

wjkrostek said:


> It's been about 18 days and they are still in the 20's% and temperature in in the high 50's to 60. No dusty bales. Why do you think the acid can't do its job with loose bales? Thanks for you Comments.


If it's too loose then they allow more oxygen into the bale.

Temperatures close to a 100℉ is normal in hay under 18%.


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## wjkrostek (Jul 12, 2011)

Well I thought I'd get back to tell you all how long it lasted for this time anyway. It's been about 6 weeks and I just gave the last 20 bales away to a fella that had some cows that don't seem to mind dusty hay. I don't agree you should feed such hay as the last bales where very dusty in my opinion anyway. What do you think? Anyway it lasted about 4 weeks in good shape then the last two weeks they all seemed to get dusty to the point I just gave it way. without the hay saver it would of been bad in two days. So it worked as good as I expected and I would use it again. Thanks for your input


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

The acid evaporates out of stack with water. It's a balancing act to keep acid level high enough as the moisture leaves. The time it takes water / acid to leave depends on the bale density, stack tightness, building tightness, humidity etc.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Went and looked it up, proprionic acid has about 1/5 the vapour pressure at room temp of water. It's not an exact ratio of pressures relationship but it evaporates slower than the water.


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## wjkrostek (Jul 12, 2011)

Slowzuki thanks for your input, Because the water moves faster from the bale than the acid it might of been better had I baled them tighter and stacked them loosely so they could get some air around most of each bale and less to the inside of it. These were baled so loose I could get my fingers into the bale. There was no out side mold or dust on the surface of the bales only after you get in a few inches. Seems to me that the acid must of moved faster than the moisture the way I did it. Had the moisture went first the bales should not of molded. Had I stacked them there may have been mold were the bales touch. Any ideas on that is welcome as a learning experience.

Anyone have an opinion on feeding moldy (dusty) hay to beef cows?


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## skyrydr2 (Oct 25, 2015)

They should eat it up with out issues.


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## 6125 (Sep 14, 2009)

If it were me, my preference would have been to stack bales in layers rather tight together, leaving an air-chamber in the second layer to shove a fan in and blow continuously in forcing air through the whole pile, rather than spreading them out and moving air over top of the bales. Until that heat comes out on it's own, the damage is done. We've found it better to drive the heat out as quick as possible and keep it out over the next couple of weeks. Here we deal with the "heat of the day" as the big problem that the preservative can't seem to hold. Once that initial heat is out, the preservative does it's job, but it don't like that "heat of the day" to contend with right off the bat.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

One of the very best attributes of Hayguard preservative is that it keeps the hay from heating. Even when I bale a really high moisture bale(close to 30%) it does not heat. I have used a good deal of preservative this year due to climatic conditions, and I have not had the first bale get much above 90°.....the vast majority of bales stay in the upper seventies.

I believe this has been the most aggravating year ever for making little squares that I can ever recall. It just seems as you cannot get the hay dry like it should.....but I have made a lot of hay. But I am getting worn down with dread now. Hopefully, things will sell well this late fall and winter.

Regards, Mike


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Nothing more frustrating than having great hay to sell and no market for it...or at least not market that will pay good money...


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Anyone have an opinion on feeding moldy (dusty) hay to beef cows?

I had a very unusual to us 3 inch rain July of 2015 had a 1000 3 string bales on the ground. Because of heat they dried without be becoming totally black outside but where very dusty inside. Found a home for half them in the straw market for erosion control in vineyards, the other half went to my 50 cows to get rid of.

Cows had dry grass as normal for us,but all water soluble vitamins and minerals are washed out at that time because of the rain. So we us a lot of molasses tubes with protein and minerals from acorn time till we get green grass anyway in our fall calving cows. Grass can come any time from Oct to as late as March,generally Nov to Jan. The cows cleaned up the dusty hay as well as they do any hay. They did not lose any more condition even as they calved( Oct and Nov ) than is normal for us. None where sick so no harm from moldy-dusty hay, so I would do it again. Not scientific but worked this time.


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