# When is alfalfa dry enough to bale?



## honesthilb (Jan 22, 2013)

I don't get on here much but I remember seeing a post last year explaining the relative humidity of hay to bale. It was something like 60%. Can somebody help me find the topic again? Thanks.


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

Assuming the stems are reasonably dry at last evenings sunset,

Small bales as the humidity goes down through 70% as measured at ground level the hay will bale at 18% moisture.

Large dense bales as the humidity goes down through 65% the hay moisture will be in the 16% moisture range and good to go.

According to West Virginia anyway.

Usually if the humidity is below 50% or 55% humidity you will have a problem with leaf shatter.

Humidity is important for hay production. For those of us in the Humid East for sure.

It is important to measure the humidity down next to the hay. I have read the humidity at eye level and the grass was still wet with dew.
I use a inexpensive meter from FarmTek ti measure the humidity.
www.farmtek.com or 1-800/245-9881 or 1-563/875-2288.

The Store is in Iowa.


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

West Virginia on harvesting hay.

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/pubnwsltr/TRIM/5811.pdf


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## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

Alfalfa stems have a thin layer covering them. This layer is called the "epidermis." If you can scrape off this thin layer with your thumbnail, then the alfalfa is too wet to bale. If it is dry enough, the layer will not come off.


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## panhandle9400 (Jan 17, 2010)

We wont go to the hay field until my hygrometer gets to 60% , most of the time it is dark when we bale or wee hours of morning . We are like a high desert climate here around 4000' to 5000' elevation. Hugh thats one of the things I do when alfalfa is all but ready do the thumbnail test , If it scrapes off we wait. btw You can buy hygrometers off ebay for 5.00 on up . I have one under the backseat in my pickup that was a couple of hundred that dont work as well as my cheap ones, I prefer the meters that range from 0% to 99% .


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I don't know about hay wilsons humidity thoughts for where I am. I hope he doesn't get mad at my post. By the time the humidity get up to 65% , if it ever does, the temp will be too low and the dew will make the hay moisture in the 20s or higher. I'm looking at the humidity tonight right now for my location. It would get to 65% humidity at 5am and the temp at that time is supposed to be 55 degrees. I know that it would be much to wet at that time to bale from personal experience. The dew point is 48 degrees. So for me it's not all about humidity, but about dew and how fast it will come in and how fast it leaves. Here sometimes it will be too wet then for 7 minutes it will be perfect then too dry.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Teslan said:


> Here sometimes it will be too wet then for 7 minutes it will be perfect then too dry.


That happens here at night, might be getting on the dry side, then the dew starts to set, if you can bale for another fifteen minutes you're lucky. I don't mean a little dew either I mean enough to make the hay stick to the belts and the rollers on the round baler. When we used to square bale I've seen it go from perfect to blowing a shear bolt in the time it takes to unhook one wagon and grab the next.


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## panhandle9400 (Jan 17, 2010)

Teslan said:


> I don't know about hay wilsons humidity thoughts for where I am. I hope he doesn't get mad at my post. By the time the humidity get up to 65% , if it ever does, the temp will be too low and the dew will make the hay moisture in the 20s or higher. I'm looking at the humidity for last right now for my location. It would get to 65% humidity at 5am and the temp at that time is supposed to be 55 degrees. I know that it would be much to wet at that time to bale from personal experience. The dew point is 48 degrees. So for me it's not all about humidity, but about dew and how fast it will come in and how fast it leaves. Here sometimes it will be too wet then for 7 minutes it will be perfect then too dry.


 Did a few years back seem to be dryer at night up there ? The last few years we have baled more in the morning than at night like we used to do. It does seem like here the last few years have been wetter for us than normal. You are correct about good baling timeframe, somedays it will be great for 1 hr then next day no more get started and then it is too damp. This season we have been rained out more than the last 5 years .


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

panhandle9400 said:


> Did a few years back seem to be dryer at night up there ? The last few years we have baled more in the morning than at night like we used to do. It does seem like here the last few years have been wetter for us than normal. You are correct about good baling timeframe, somedays it will be great for 1 hr then next day no more get started and then it is too damp. This season we have been rained out more than the last 5 years .


Well in 2011 and 12 it wouldn't even get enough dew to do anything until maybe Sunrise. Sometimes not even then. But this year yes the dew comes on quickly. Especially first cutting with all the rain and the ground was wetter then normal. I do mostly morning baling because I don't do all that much alfalfa so I don't care to stay up all night waiting for the dew. But 2nd cutting this year was difficult as it would get dry so fast. I figure with one 3x3 baler really only has time to do 35 acres of perfect alfalfa either in the morning or night before it gets too dry or wet.

Alfalfa for me is a love hate relationship. I like irrigating it (less water then grass). I'm not sure how the environmentalists think that alfalfa uses lots and lots of water. I like fertilizing it (much much less then grass). I hate that it takes longer to dry then grass and you have to be not only careful baling, but raking also. You can't or maybe I should say shouldn't just go bale in the middle of a hot afternoon like you can grass hay. So that can add a day or two to the process.


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## Fossil02818 (May 31, 2010)

When we used to consistently have 4 consecutive days of good haying weather we could mow after the dew dried off day 1, ted day 2, rake the evening of day 3 and start baling morning of day 4 as the dew burned off. This year all our hay, both first and second cut, had to be harvested in 3 day windows. That meant mow and ted day 1, ted again day 2, then rake day 3 as the dew burns off and start baling as the windrows get down around 19% moisture. We usually have less than a couple hours at most before it gets too dry or it gets too late in the afternoon.. Since we are a small operation this translates to about 400-500 bales or no more than around 7 acres per cutting. If we needed to do more acres we would either need more equipment or accept lower quality. We baled a 6 acre field last Sunday and the hour and a half we were baling sure felt like 7 minutes. My helpers have learned that there is a real sense of urgency these days as our haying windows have become shorter and the margin for error seems to be shrinking. Alfalfa can be stressful.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I experimented with tedding alfalfa 2nd cutting. I decided it's a waste of time for me. The tedded part of the field was ready to bale at the same time as the untedded part of the field. And the tedded part included the unwanted features of more bleach and more leaf shatter. Here. Grass tedding good. Alfalfa tedding waste of time.


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## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

When to cut, is the weather going to be good in 4-6 days, when to bale - too wet -too dry, etc is a friggin' crap shoot. You can have 6 PhD's in soil and plant science and the weather will screw your plans much of the time. If you can't scrape the epidermis and the humidity is high to help prevent leaf shatter but no due, then bail it right that minute. I've read several books on alfalfa, have the meters and more, but I've decided that the thumbnail test is about as good or better than anything.

The worst part of it all is the weather forecasting in our area. On Monday they will show no chance of rain for 10 days, and then on Wednesday it might be a 60% chance for Thursday - Sunday. My pet peeve at the moment: Our local weather girl on TV giggles and talks about trivia rather than spending the whole time on weather. She is 50 lbs. over weight and wears tight skirts that show the overhang. Giggling is fine, but they need some good tail to make that work...


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Hugh said:


> When to cut, is the weather going to be good in 4-6 days, when to bale - too wet -too dry, etc is a friggin' crap shoot. You can have 6 PhD's in soil and plant science and the weather will screw your plans much of the time. If you can't scrape the epidermis and the humidity is high to help prevent leaf shatter but no due, then bail it right that minute. I've read several books on alfalfa, have the meters and more, but I've decided that the thumbnail test is about as good or better than anything.
> 
> The worst part of it all is the weather forecasting in our area. On Monday they will show no chance of rain for 10 days, and then on Wednesday it might be a 60% chance for Thursday - Sunday. My pet peeve at the moment: Our local weather girl on TV giggles and talks about trivia rather than spending the whole time on weather. She is 50 lbs. over weight and wears tight skirts that show the overhang. Giggling is fine, but they need some good tail to make that work...


I'll agree with your thumbnail test. Now only if I could get the humidity to 60% with no dew on a regular basis for more then 30 minutes at a time. Last fall I got some of that for 3rd and 4th cuttings. Put up the best alfalfa I think I ever put up. It was new seeding also so it was nice and fine.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Here, I try to get the stems dry first....and when I do I will bale the next day at around 20% moisture on the meter.....the stems will suck the excess and then I don't have leaf shatter as bad. Or dump preservative on it when its under 25%....right now in this part of the country the baling is the best that it has been all year.....I have really been socking it away the last ten days. Baled alfalfa orchard grass mix and been running around 14% on the meter...sometimes less. Hope to finish tomorrow as I am going to start about 10:30 am.

Regards, Mike


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Waited to cut alfalfa hoping the regrowth would receive some rain that never came. Each new day "Intellicast" predicts 0 or 10% chance for rain the next 10 days, or shows 50% chance 8 days out and the next day the 50% chance is gone.

Couldn't delay cutting alfalfa any longer. What good growth is there (~60% of the field) is about 50% in bloom. Finished cutting about 12:30 PM today and the temperature at 4:00 PM was 101 oF in the shade with a clear sky. Laid the cut alfalfa as wide as the NH 488 Haybine could do. Will check drying of the cut alfalfa in a while and am wondering if I will be raking and baling tomorrow.

With no rain for the past 30+ days and the high PM temperatures, grass is drying up. Cow dung heaps were growing taller, so am feeding sm sq bales of alfalfa to herd to supplement protein intake and hopefully help increase digestibility of bermudagrass.


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

There is a good education for hay production in this thread.

It points out the differences in climate very well.

For night baling can be stressful. I quit baling at night and made my adaption the that reality. My low capacity NH 315 can constantly put 300 bales an hour on the ground.

That means two hours of day time baling or four hours of night time baling.
One thing about night baling is we can see the leaves flying and know we are still too dry. When we get rolling we go till the bales become too heavy, or the slip clutch screams at us to put it up.

The WV information here we can start baling around 11 am and need to be finished by around 1 pm.

I actually like to start raking when at first light with visible dew on the hay.

OI realize there are climates where the grower may go for days too much humidity to bale any time during the day, and other climates where to be able to bale the grower must inject moisture into the windrow.
I realize that it is ideal to lay the hay out flat for hay drying and other some locations where if the hay is not dropped in a windrow, tight windrow, the windrow you will bale, the hay, if raked will be a bundle of stems.

This year for me has been an strange. Here it is august and I not only have hay in August but needed to use a full swath for curing. I expect to rake tomorrow at first light and bale the next day starting. True I will need to start baling about 9 or 10 AM. It will be cured hay receiving over 0.50" of pan evaporation a day Needing about 0.75" of pan evaporation to get down to 20% hay moisture.

Usually our weather is so dry in August we can travel or schedule doctor's appointments.
PS this cutting was cut with a 7 ft disk mower to avoid any blister beetle problems. So far this season we have not seen any blister beetles.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Alfalfa failed the scratch test last evening. Hated that because it was still so nice and green. Left the tedder under the shed this morning, opting to leave the wide windrow for drying in the hope that today's cloudless sky, 102 degrees F, and hot breeze would do the job and still have some green alfalfa next to the ground. I'll rake in the early AM and watch the humidity near ground level in the windrow using a hygrometer as per Hay Wilson's suggestion to determine when to start baling. Alfalfa on top of the windrow isn't badly bleached this evening.

Yesterday I failed to mention that I cut about 4-inches off the ground. Why? I know that most of the regrowth initiates from the crown, but perhaps additional growth on the uncut stems will help speed shading the soil (if there is sufficient moisture for regrowth). I'm concerned that the hot unshaded soil (unshaded sand can get up to 140 degrees F near the surface) might kill the nitrogen fixing Rhizobia. I couldn't find an answer for this idea yesterday before initiating cutting. Don't know how deep in the soil Rhizobia exist, but hopefully there are some that will survive to continue providing nitrogen in plant available form to the alfalfa.


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## nanuk (Aug 29, 2011)

Teslan said:


> I don't know about hay wilsons humidity thoughts for where I am. I hope he doesn't get mad at my post. By the time the humidity get up to 65% , if it ever does, the temp will be too low and the dew will make the hay moisture in the 20s or higher. I'm looking at the humidity tonight right now for my location. It would get to 65% humidity at 5am and the temp at that time is supposed to be 55 degrees. I know that it would be much to wet at that time to bale from personal experience. The dew point is 48 degrees. So for me it's not all about humidity, but about dew and how fast it will come in and how fast it leaves. Here sometimes it will be too wet then for 7 minutes it will be perfect then too dry.


I believe Hay Wilson is on the right track

When I was putz'n with natural wood for making flatbows, the discussion around MC vs RH was batted back and forth, until someone actually measured it, and for bowyers, 10% MC in wood is about right, and you can ONLY get that with 50% RH "at wood level"

so, when measured just above the ground, where the hay is, the RH has to be as Wilson says.

the RH given by the weather services is at something like 5'6" off the ground.... and can be significantly different


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