25% moisture hay

[chevytaHOE5674]

If truly at 25% moisture I would be surprised if you didnt see carmilization and serious mold inside those bales.

 

[NonTypicalCPA]

I've stuck a good sample of the hay in question with a steel rod. The rod has been warm but not so much I couldn't hold it in the palm of my hand. My Belties are suppose to do well on crappy forage, so we will see. If my next cutting is good and dry, I'll switch it out with the wet stuff and put the wet stuff under tarp and feed this fall, with some grain if necessary.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

After 3.5 weeks even the hottest of bales should be cooling off by now.

 

[Texasmark]

I had driven a steel rod into one of the bales last night and just checked it this morning. Warm but not hot to the touch. I'll keep sampling bales and see if I find any hot ones. I do have two barn fans moving air so that will help.

"Warm but not hot to the touch." For a reference number, if you have a standard US market domestic hot water heater in your home and the thermostat is set to Normal, the water is 140F for a reference. For me, I can't leave my hand under the faucet running at that temp. So you can compare that to the chart supplied on this post for an idea as to where you are.

For starters, in the summer, and if the sun is shining and it's the afternoon, the hay is already at the 100F level. You roll it and that temp is trapped inside.....all it can do is to get hotter.

I too have had the wet problem forever and do string tied rolls. Always fighting "Mother Nature" (Oleo commercial years ago). I have a 12" thermometer I bought on ebay for bale monitoring for about $20. Made of SS and has a sensor diameter of about ⅛" making penetration easy.

I find that at about 2 weeks, if you have a problem you will know it. Also you can smell it if it's going bad. This spring I did up my field and thought I was good to go. Don't have a moisture tester but it was rye and although you couldn't use your thumb nail and squeeze moisture from the stems, they were still "too green and plump" even though the leaves were dry and the Austrian Peas accompanying the Rye were well dried and turning brown.

What started out looking good started stinking and showing brown discoloration around the center of the rolls at about 2 weeks sitting under a cover (loafing shed, top only) and spaced out. Didn't check the temp then so I can't say what it was but I knew I was in trouble.

Had a neighbor that had prematurely run out of hay and asked him if he wanted it since it needed to be fed now to get anything out of it. Took it over and they finished it all off the second day. Sure enough, when they got to the cores some were already brown.

I didn't like to feed moldy/mildewed hay but have fed hay with some of it, not overwhelmed with it however. Have had cows prefer 2-3 year old hay thrown in the bar ditch for erosion control to new offerings of great hay too. Never had a dead cow on the place, and don't remember having a sickly one. On a horse???????? No way.