Hay Moisture Testers

[Jogeephus]

Just wondering if their is a special length of time that you should wait before testing the moisture in a roll of hay? Seems there is a big difference between the initial reading and what it might say a few hours later or even a day later. Also which one should you be concerned with? ie Measure some coming out the bale yesterday at 8% and this morning the same bale was 13%

 

[1982vett]

The moisture just after you bale it. It always rises after it is baled just like the the temp does. Goes thru a "sweat". Might even get different readings on the same bale.

 

[kenny thomas]

At what point do you worry about the moisture being too high? I have always been told that anything under 16% is ok but I am unsure about that.

 

[Jogeephus]

Vette, that's how I've been doing it. Never really bothered to check one later in the day or the next day. Me and the fella helping me were just messing around with the tester this morning and found they were higher than when baled. Some were even up near 18% but the bales were light and the hay feels dry to both of us.

Kenny, my personal goal is less than 14%. If it goes over this I'll wait if I can.

 

[1982vett]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the tighter the bale the drier it needs to be so it can vary some.

Our old baler was a JD410. Didn't bale very tight by todays standards and 18% was good enough. Did that with the Vermeer 605L and 3 foot of the core was carmalized.

 

[dun]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the tighter the bale the drier it needs to be so it can vary some.

Our old baler was a JD410. Didn't bale very tight by todays standards and 18% was good enough. Did that with the Vermeer 605L and 3 foot of the core was carmalized.

You're right about the tightness of the bale. But also the tighter the bale the highr reading you will get on moisture testers. Pretty simple in that the moisture that you couldn;t detect when it was in the windrow gets squeezed out of the hay.

 

[TexasBred]

Really doesn't matter once you have it rolled up. You're gotta feed what you have at that point anyway. I'd think the test on a good tightly rolled bale would be more accurate tho than trying to test a windrow. Since I buy all my hay I do test it at the time we're negotiating price and try to use the moisture content as a bargaining tool IF the moisture is too high. Of course if it's "excellent" then I've bitten myself in the butt but that's ok too.

 

[dun]

Really doesn't matter once you have it rolled up. You're gotta feed what you have at that point anyway. I'd think the test on a good tightly rolled bale would be more accurate tho than trying to test a windrow. Since I buy all my hay I do test it at the time we're negotiating price and try to use the moisture content as a bargaining tool IF the moisture is too high. Of course if it's "excellent" then I've bitten myself in the butt but that's ok too.

When I check a windrow (actually severl in several spots) I twist a cheaf of hay as tightly as I can then double it over and test it in that tightest spot. Still usually runs about 5-8 % (sometimes more) lower then what a tight bale shows freshly after baling.

 

[Jogeephus]

Checked the rolls again today and they back to where they were when freshly rolled. Apparantly they experience some type humidity spike a day after rolling then go back down. All temps showed little to know fluctuation and were good as well. Just thought it interesting.

 

[upfrombottom]

Sometimes I wonder what people think they are getting when they buy hay by the ton.

 

[TexasBred]

Sometimes I wonder what people think they are getting when they buy hay by the ton.

If they don't test it they're probably getting quit a bit more moisture than they realize. If they don't buy by the ton they're taking Farmer Friend's word that each bale weighs 1500lbs. :help:

 

[upfrombottom]

A fifteen hundred pound bale at 20% moisture is 300 lbs. of water or 1200 lbs of dry mater. At 10% moisture its 1350 lbs of dry mater. So the dry mater in 40 bales at 10% is equal to 45 bales at 20%. So how could anyone think that buying hay by the ton, without checking the moisture, is any better than buying it by the bale. If I gave $50 a ton for it, I would be saving nearly $5 a bale if the moisture is at 10% as opposed to 20%. I've been a party to this argument before on these boards.

 

[1982vett]

Checked the rolls again today and they back to where they were when freshly rolled. Apparantly they experience some type humidity spike a day after rolling then go back down. All temps showed little to know fluctuation and were good as well. Just thought it interesting.

Got a pittyful patch of millet baled today. 49 1/4 rolls from 20 acres, yep counting by quarter rolls, need everthing I can scrape up. :roll: Baled good, feels like good weight to the bale. Moisture tested 14 1/2 - 15.80 on the bales I checked.

 

[TexasBred]

A fifteen hundred pound bale at 20% moisture is 300 lbs. of water or 1200 lbs of dry mater. At 10% moisture its 1350 lbs of dry mater. So the dry mater in 40 bales at 10% is equal to 45 bales at 20%. So how could anyone think that buying hay by the ton, without checking the moisture, is any better than buying it by the bale. If I gave $50 a ton for it, I would be saving nearly $5 a bale if the moisture is at 10% as opposed to 20%. I've been a party to this argument before on these boards.

I guess just whatever makes you feel best. I've found a whole lot more "light bales" than I have high moisture bales. At least buying it by the ton after negotiating the price based on high/low moisture I know how much dry matter and moisture I'm paying for rather than taking Farmer Brown's word.

 

[novaman]

A fifteen hundred pound bale at 20% moisture is 300 lbs. of water or 1200 lbs of dry mater. At 10% moisture its 1350 lbs of dry mater. So the dry mater in 40 bales at 10% is equal to 45 bales at 20%. So how could anyone think that buying hay by the ton, without checking the moisture, is any better than buying it by the bale. If I gave $50 a ton for it, I would be saving nearly $5 a bale if the moisture is at 10% as opposed to 20%. I've been a party to this argument before on these boards.

I guess just whatever makes you feel best. I've found a whole lot more "light bales" than I have high moisture bales. At least buying it by the ton after negotiating the price based on high/low moisture I know how much dry matter and moisture I'm paying for rather than taking Farmer Brown's word.

I think buying by the ton could be an advantage as often times bales from the same field can have quite a variation in their weights. Running the truck across the scale gives you the total pounds and that's what you pay for. I agree that moisture content can be an issue. My question to you is, would the moisture content not typically fall between say 13-18% or at least within a 5% range? I realize there are exceptions but overall I wouldn't see much falling outside this range. Now, will the weight from bale to bale all fall within a 5% range? I would say highly unlikely. We are talking 1500 pound bales having to be between 1425 and 1575. It seems easy to say that yes they would but have you ever gone to a field and started randomly weighing bales? I have and there is a huge variation from higher ground to lower ground along with the variation in what type of hay is actually in the bale. Each way has it's advantages. I see your side of the argument but I won't say you are completely right as I've seen circumstances where your position would have cost me more money.

 

[TexasBred]

Nova in this area you'd think we would be more concerned with weight than moisture. Most hay is coastal bermuda and dries rather quickly. Sudan, redtop cane, wheat hay etc. take longer to cure and those would more likely be high moisture. In dry periods maize stalks (milo) are often fed and they can be higher moisture as well but the bales may weight 2300 lbs. instead of 1400-1500 range.