# hay inoculant on alfalfa



## haynchaff (Sep 21, 2010)

G'day. New to this forum. I'm a alfalfa/Lucerne growing from Queensland, Australia. We market all our alfalfa to the horse market. Presently we are having an unusual wet winter and spring so not getting the right conditions to make good quality haywhich is stable. The only good thing about it is that we don't need to irrigate it so we won't have a big electricity bill this quarter.

We have never used a hay inoculant before and was just wanting to get some feedback on how successful inoculants can be and find out about some grower experiences with it. We use both small square balers and round balers. I'm looking at using inoculant which is sprayed on, not the powered form. I was thinking of putting 1-2 spray nozzles near the feed in chamber.

Some questions I'd like to get your feedback on is:

1. What is a general rule of moisture the alfalfa can be baled to. I have herd on ave about 20 - 25% moisture is ok. if this is the case, will i have to let the hay settle or can it be sold straight away and feed out, say next day etc.
2. I will be using a natural bacteria strain. Can the horses and owners notice any difference to treated vs untreated alfalfa.
3. Growers using inoculant , do you use it every time you bale or just when you require it etc.
4. Does using inoculant give you a more consistant product etc. I have herd that you get more leaf retention, greener hay, more tonnage per acre and that you can get away with few rakings and get the hay off the paddock quicker.

I would very much appreciate your comments on this as I understand the USA and Canada have been using inoculants for some time now.

Thanks

Haynchaff


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## haynchaff (Sep 21, 2010)

Just following on from my post, the following link is the website of the company which manufactures the inoculant. I'm sure there would be similar products available in the USA and Canada. Grevillia Ag - Home

I have worked out that it will cost approx. $0.11 cents per small square bale.

Thanks Trent


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

I will try,
20 or so years ago I used a hay enoculant from Pioneer and it worked as advertised.
One key is good coverage of all the hay by the spray. I used three spray tips scattered along the feed rior to the bale chamber. 
It works for hay up to 22 maybe 23% moisture, as long as it is mostly surface moisture and not stem moisture that is giving the reading. It really allows us to bale when the humidity is in the 70% range. 70% humidity usually results in 20% to 22% hay moisture.

If there is no need to prevent heating and or mold growth I did not use any.

Leaf retention and pretty green color can be interesting. 
For best leaf retention requires the leaves to have enough moisture to be supple. The moisture in the stems has little or nothing to do with leaf retention. HERE in Central Texas I can bale small squares with the moisture at 20% with an occasional charge that is 22% misture with no treatment. Hopefully this is 10% moisture or less in the stems and not much over 30% moisture in the leaves, averaging 20% moisture.

Now when I pushed my luck the hay would color some. Might even take on a tobbaco smell. Still good feed value. 
If I pushed my luck all was ok as long as the damper hay ended up on the top of the stack. Marginally damp hay on the bottom of the stack will loose it's shape. The stack can shift. Shift enough for the stack to fall. 
I mush prefered to use a buffered acid product, at double the cost or more. If I used enough acid I could bale at 30% moisture, but the bales would for sure loose their shape on the bottom of the stack,.

Green color, is lost with time and exposure to the sun. Hay curing is accomplished by exposure to the sun and time.

Please note the animals are blind to the color green. Only the buyer notices the green color. Then amimals go by taste, smell, & feel. The buyer seldom considers anything other than color and price. Though the buyer will think acid treated hay has a bad smell to it, but the animals apprear not to notice.

Now I use a tedder to spread the hay out in a full width swath, right after mowing. I rake the hay into a windrow the morning of the day before I expect to bale, and bale as the humidity permits. If I were younger I would go back to baling at night for the full summer months.

Now in our desert states that must irrigate, they can retain that green color becouse they do not NEED the sun's direct rays to cure hay. There the hay becomes so dry they must bale at night when the humidity is high enough to reduce leaf loss.

*I no longer use a preservative becouse I do not like the hay that is treated. I have difficulty selling treated hay to the buyers, though the animals appear to like it. The animals also like sun bleached hay just fine.*


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

We've been using a buffered proprionic acid product, so I can't comment on a liquid innoculant. The only thing I might be able to say is to mention that I might have a pot life - once you mix it in your baler tank, it might have to be applied with in a few hours before it dies..... No issues there with acid.

To get better leaf retention you have to be able to bale with some moisture (like Wilson said) to get the leaves to stick. To get the leaves to stick you are going to have enough moisture in the bale that will require the use of some sort of treatment. I would think that in nearly all cases the color of the hay will be determined by the drying conditions. It's not going to get any greener by applying a treatment to it, but it might turn brown if you bale with moisture but do not get enough treatment on. A lot of guy like the silo guard as advertised on here, I'll let them chime in.....

Rodney


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I've used acid for about 6-7 years now. Once this tubs gone I'm never going to buy another. Just replaced my baler this spring, paint is already flaking off areas that the acid gets on. Gonna try Hayguard and see what happens. Also have a spot in a field where I just used a little water to wash the nozzles off to clean em, have had a dead spot there all summer from the acid.


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## maknhay (Jan 6, 2010)

I don't think you'll be any happier with the Hayguard (it's really called Siloguard). It's a sulfer salt based product and it's no less corosive. I think it's even worse than prop acid. I'll collect moisture on the baler sitting in the shed and any overspray that gets on the outer edges of the pick-up and throat areas will dry and then the hay won't flow into the machine as nice. The few advantages to it are only 2 lbs per ton is needed for up to 25% moisture (small squares stored properly) and it's not as critical to an even coverage on the entire windrow as it will migrate through the hay in the bale and it does work........saved our butts numerous times.

Before next season I will be putting a dry applicator box on my big baler and start using Silo-King from Agri-King labs.

If you do go to using Hayguard you must make sure all the prop acid is rinsed out of your current system and you can't mix the two. Another thing I did on both my balers is to step up the tip size a couple notches. You will be using alot less product per ton and this will also lower your pressure so you'll have less overspray.


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## thebonepile (Sep 18, 2009)

I have used a product called ecohay (it comes in a little pouch, mix it up and must use it within 24 hours). Cost is about $5/ton of hay treated

I will have to admit so far I think it is well worth it, and use it in all but the driest conditions (I am very small scale though) - I just mix it up and spray it right on the windrows with an ATV sprayer - I can slow down where it is wetter, and skip over the driest spots - system works good for me.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

Are you guys using buffered proprionic acid? And the paint is coming off? Never had a problem. When I switch nozzles, I remove the 2 from the baler, and tap out the dirt on top of the baler, and that paint is fine. If the guys frget to turn the acid off, it'll drip down onto the frame, and that paint is fine. Not sure about dead grass, or any residual from it, but it is a salt, and if a guy puts enough salt on the ground it will kill what's there. I saw a baler one time that had used non-buffered proprionic acid.... or maybe I should say that I saw what was left of a baler.....

Rodney


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

It's supposed to be buffered. This is places where the hay never wipes it off, it also turns any plated material like the windguard fingers, bolt heads and any other shiny materials to crap very shortly. I'm also sick of the smell of the stuff.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

Interesting. On the windguard we have a little surface rust, and maybe underneath the p/u the paint is discolored (where it's wet all the time). We've been using the harvestec cropsaver, sold through NH.

Rodney


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

We have had good luck with the HarvesTec Hayboss and Cropsaver acid on the big bales. The spreadsheet that they present is BS but it has saved us from storm damaged hay a lot this season because we were able to push the stem moisture a little and get the hay out of the field ahead of the rain. This is all dairy hay so no help with the OP's real question I'm afraid.

Used siloguard in a small baler and fed the hay to our own cows, not sure about feeding any hay treated with these products to horses, I'm sure it is probably labeled for such but I'm a little reluctant to feed our own horses the stuff. Not sure why I feel that way but I can understand a customer's reasoning - ignorance is a big obstacle for all of us.


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