# Mositure vs Compression



## robert23239 (May 10, 2009)

I baled some hay this year and this year I also purchased a moisture probe.

The hay in the windrow seem dry. Teddered twice in one afternoon.

Had problem setting up baler and the bales came out 70 pounds about 40 inches. The moisture in bale was about 20 and a week later was about 25 with a temp of 62 degrees F. Not heating at all. The bale is compressed high and very tight. Usually use a lighter bale.

How much of that mositure reading from high comp ?

Thanks

R.


----------



## BCFENCE (Jul 26, 2008)

I m going to take a guess , I wonder the chance of you haveing some steem moisture and maybe the moisture in the steam passed to the leaves after baled and showed up on the probe later. That was a shot on the dark but maybe it shed some light. THOMAS


----------



## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

You need to test the bale as you are baling it. As you compress the bale the moisture goes way up. Testing the windrow does not tell you much.


----------



## robert23239 (May 10, 2009)

Hello,

Thanks for the reply, how do I test the bale when baling with a portable probe?

I believe what you are saying is that measuring the bale itself is not a true reading.

This is what I thought at least, because the bale feels dry, smells dry and the hay seemed good in the windrow.

The bale temperature have not been above 62 degrees in a week.

Thanks
Robert


----------



## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

The moisture in the bale is the actual reading you should be using but you need to test the bale in the field as you are baling. To test the bale you stick the probe in the end of the bale, that gets the full compression effect of the bale. On round bales stick the probe in on the outside circumfrence.


----------



## chadl (Mar 23, 2009)

That probe is just a tool in an arsenal of whats right or wrong. From you first post and ur last post the hay is going through a sweat. With a moisture probe i dont care what size when u see twenties its time to go home. We have put up enough hay now that really when u see nineteens on that probe u should probably be questioning ur self if ur doing the right thing. then stem moisture is the other thing cuz that can come back and bite pretty quick. Joints are a nightmare have to make sure joints are cured. Too many variables but if hay is cured u get away with a little more. not cured bites you in the ass. my two cents


----------



## robert23239 (May 10, 2009)

I believe I was unsure if I can trust the probe in the bale

Sounds as though I can trust the probe

Robert


----------



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

First off a moisture meter can be induced to provide bad data. If the bales are real tight they will read high and loose bales will read lower than it should. 
Still the information is timely and can provide valuable information. I have my baler set to read moisture on the go. I suggest it is the tight bales that forced the reading up to 20%. 
chadl has some good points.

I am not sure I like how you use the tedder. If the hay will need to be spread out even more, I use the tedder as soon as I finish mowing. If you have help have them follow the mower. Then the first morning after mowing leave things alone, the second morning, here at first light, if you feel the need use the tedder again. The third morning would be a good day to rake the hay into a windrow. The following day with any sunshine at all you should be able during the curing processes you should be able to bale.

If there is little or no stem moisture then you can start baling when the humidity, at the windrow, is 65%. This will put up hay that is 18 to 20 percent moisture.


----------



## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

hay wilson in TX said:


> First off a moisture meter can be induced to provide bad data. If the bales are real tight they will read high and loose bales will read lower than it should.
> Still the information is timely and can provide valuable information. I have my baler set to read moisture on the go. I suggest it is the tight bales that forced the reading up to 20%.
> chadl has some good points.
> 
> ...


This information is confusing. Now you are talking percent moisture or are you talking humidity? The moisture reading in the windrow should be significantly less then the moisture reading in the bale. The compression in the bale brings the moisture content up. Often windrow reading may be 10 percent and the bale will be 20 percent, this is a accurate reading. Back to his original question about moisture vs. compression. This is why you do need to adjust bale compression as you bale if you want to stay within acceptable moisture ranges.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

robert23239 said:


> I believe I was unsure if I can trust the probe in the bale
> 
> Sounds as though I can trust the probe
> 
> Robert


Well I've brought home two JD(Farmex) probes that were bad so far this season. The second one is going back today. I don't know what to trust. I tested them against another probe that been tested and found to accurate with two other meters. I got readings of 45% on almost every bale tested. The known to be accurate probe read 14.4-14.8% I believe.


----------



## brent (Jun 9, 2009)

I've used JD probes for 3 seasons now and found them to be very suseptable to giving bad information. They actually measure the electrical conductivity of the hay. The wetter the better the conductivity. The tighter packed the better the conductivity. So knowing this, taking a probe into the field to try to probe the windrows is a crapshoot. One instruction I read was to take a fistfull of hay and twist it up like a rope, then fold that and jam the probe in. Try it 5 times and you have 5 different readings. Give it to 3 friends and you'll get 15 more different readings.

Best test I ever tried was to bring home a paper bag of hay, as big as would go in the microwave. Weigh it with a kitchen scale, then nuke it a half minute or so. Weigh it again.
Repeat the process until the weight stops going down. As it gets drier you've got to watch not to nuke it to much at a time or you'll have a barbque in the microwave. The difference between the weight at the begining and the LOSS is the percent moisture ... for real.

Now I did skip a critical part. What part of the windrow do you take the sample from?. The bottom middle is the wettest of coarse.

If I keep at it another 15 years I might get it right. Started haying at age 59.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

I was wrong about who made my JD probe, it was AgraTronix not Farmex. Here's a page I found with 
Google about the different models JD offers. If I try another it will be the SW007320, it comes with a 
field calibrator. I priced it when I took back the SW16136 and it was $256, the bale mounted one was 
over $300.

After going, just now, to the AgraTronix site it looks like Farmex and AgraTronix are the same company.

Dealer info page on Hay Testers:

https://jdparts.deere.com/partsmkt/...ster_Hay_Testers.htm#_Accessories_for_SW07310,

Agratronix


----------



## brent (Jun 9, 2009)

The one I use now is the SW16136. Even the same decal on the inside cover of the box, Just a JD logo added.

I don't think there's going to be any difference in any of them. The techinique of testing is the issue.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

brent said:


> The one I use now is the SW16136. Even the same decal on the inside cover of the box, Just a JD logo added.
> 
> I don't think there's going to be any difference in any of them. The techinique of testing is the issue.


Well I borrowed my JD dealers probe, which is a slightly older model the I bought but same 
probe and button arrangement. We used them in the same bales, inserted to the same 
depth and angle, his would 14.4 to 14.8% and mine would read 45%. The second probe I 
brought home read my hay from 39 to 45%. The temperature of my first one was exactly 
the same as the my dealers probe, only the moisture was off.


----------

