# Water on windrow to make conditions



## Magard (Mar 6, 2015)

Can someone help with advise. I'm in california west side of the valley. I can't get any conditions to bale. Thinking of creating my own conditions with some kind of water sprayer.


----------



## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

Good idea. The leaves will pull a lot of water, but the stems very little. There are farms that steam alfalfa during bailing to lessen leaf shatter. I would spray at night, give the leaves some time to pull in water and then bail before the sun rises. Good luck.


----------



## Magard (Mar 6, 2015)

Thanks for the reply Hugh. I am baling grain hay. I have heard of this on alfalfa. Thought maybe I could increase the moisture in my hay maybe 2%. Right now I can't even make 10%. 8% moisture is a total reck. Got to try something different. Thought maybe I would try this. Maybe a hour before my best condition, just at crack of dawn. What do you guys think.


----------



## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Besides the expensive steamers I have seen a picture of another unit. It was basically a pick up that just lifted the hay. As the hay came down the other side it had sprayer nozzles to spray both the bottom and top of windrow. They said not as good as a steamer but a whole lot cheaper.


----------



## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

Magard said:


> Thanks for the reply Hugh. I am baling grain hay. I have heard of this on alfalfa. Thought maybe I could increase the moisture in my hay maybe 2%. Right now I can't even make 10%. 8% moisture is a total reck. Got to try something different. Thought maybe I would try this. Maybe a hour before my best condition, just at crack of dawn. What do you guys think.


Spraying seems like a good idea to me, as its rare to get much humidity or dew in the central valley of California. P.S. Buck Owens music is good stuff.


----------



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

Twenty Years ago a CA grower use a spray boom on a nurse truck to spray the windrow 15 minutes ahead of the baler. If the baler got there 30 minutes later they needed to spray it again. I saw the idea in a Califronia Alfalfa Symposium Proceedings.

The people who build a hay preservative deal for the baler also has a thing that squirts watern into the windrow 15 minutes ahead of the baler. Fellow I knew in Idaho had the Pivots on all sides of the circle he was baling running to supply moisture for baling. He was supposed to have 5,000 acres of alfalfa. Had a 50 man hay crew. Could bale all 5,000 acres in 3 weeks.

If the night dew will not yield a 60% humidity then spraying water is your option. That steam machine pulls the baler and a BIG tractor pulls the steam machine, That is a lot of weight to pull and even more weight to stop, on hilly ground.


----------



## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

http://www.harvesttec.com/dewsimulator.html


----------



## Magard (Mar 6, 2015)

I put water on the bales with a sprayer before daylight. The humidity was around 19. I waited for what little conditions I had and went to baling. Made some pretty nice hay that way. You have to wait for the moisture to get in the stem on grain hay. Moisture readings are uneven but between 16 and 10. Important thing is it feed into the baler and held together with no shattering. If I didn't put water my moisture was 8 or less. Just thought I would let you all know.


----------



## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

A 100 miles to your west we just wait it out generally.On grain hay ground there is no moisture to grow anything until fall.The worst I ever heard of in win row from May until Sept. With only baling in early morning with dew you only get 2 to 4 hours of baling a day.After it had sat for over a month,as I under stand he was going to sell it in field for grazing and cattleman was being very cheap,and then before cattle arrived the dew returned and he baled it up. But good to know this works.

For all of you east of the Rockies we are at the end of are rain season here in Ca. Don't expect any more until the fall.If you have irrigation you can get good alfalfa ever cutting. But don't want to cut more than you can get baled.

I am only 8 to 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean but a mountain of about 2000 feet between me and it. I am 1000 to 1600 feet.We can get to 100 degree days from now to Oct.We general always have dew,but can get 2 week spells without when you want to bale.


----------



## Magard (Mar 6, 2015)

Hey ray54. I had condition on the last day. I'm east of paso robles. It was hard to tell much difference in the hay between what I watered or natural dew. Natural dew is more even but watering with a morning sun and still air is what I will do. I'll make my own conditions instead of letting my hay get bleached out waiting for conditions. It's just too much of a dry area.


----------



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

It is interesting to know, but W.V. has some information on the importance of Humidity for baling hay.

What it told me is they are interested in the Humidity down next to the hay. The official ambient air humidity does not count.

We want enough humidity to give some moisture to the leaves, the stems do not matter. From what I read, in the Humid East they can have leaves that are as dry as gun powder and the stems STILL damp, and they will loose the leaves and bale just the stems. Can set a barn on fire that way.

I am on the theoretical divide between the Humid East & the Arid West.( 97 º) 
Baling during the day I will usually have 2 maybe three hours for baling.
The nice thing about HERE is I can rake at the crack of dawn and bale the next day with their humidity of 70%.

If I think I will have more hay than I can bale in three hours I can rake up to a third of my hay the morning of baling and that dew will hold the leaves an extra hour.

When I only measured hay moisture I could bale 18% moisture hay and have hay in the stack heat on me. 
With a $45 humidity reader I have not had hay heat let alone have hot hay.
The average hay moisture does not do you much good.

Nothing is hard and fast, operator judgement still comes into play.

Works for grass hay and small grain hay also.


----------

