What to do, what to do?

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Bigfoot

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Riding out a little streak of bad luck here. Had a couple hundred hay rolls stacked and tarped. Some kind of freak wind came through and and got the tarps. Were, probably up to an inch and a half of rain on untarped hay, thats stacked. Calling for a few days of sunshine. Assuming I order some more tarps, will this hay ever dry from this enough to tarp? Unstack it?
 
Bigfoot sorry to hear your having a heck of a time over there. Is the hay net wrapped. Folks around here leave net wrapped hay out all of the time and generally use within a year. Are you trying to hold it over more than a year?
 
Bigfoot sorry to hear your having a heck of a time over there. Is the hay net wrapped. Folks around here leave net wrapped hay out all of the time and generally use within a year. Are you trying to hold it over more than a year?
It's string not net. Tahes me about 600 rolls to get through. I'll have 1/3 in a barn, 1/3 under a tarp. and 1/3 on the ground. I'll feed them ground. tarp. barn. I had some severe hay loss last year on my outside hay. It was laso, one of the wettest years I can ever remember though.
 
I'm odd but I would unstack it and let it dry then stack it once it's dry and tarp it again
Were talkinin over 200 rolls. I'm feeling unstack, and stack back myself, but I'm not finished with my first cutting yet. I think my 3rd 3" rain is out there now. Been at a stand still here for weeks. Getting my first off this late, there may be no second if it turns off dry. One loader tractor, and it pulls the roller.
 
It's string not net. Tahes me about 600 rolls to get through. I'll have 1/3 in a barn, 1/3 under a tarp. and 1/3 on the ground. I'll feed them ground. tarp. barn. I had some severe hay loss last year on my outside hay. It was laso, one of the wettest years I can ever remember though.
So make this the third on the ground.
 
That much rain on stacked hay - I would unstack it and let it dry before I restacked it. If it remains stacked, it will not dry where the bottoms of a bale sit on the tops of bales below. And it will rot there. That is my experience. When you unstack and restack, lay heavy plastic twine or nylon rope under the bottom bales and tie those to the straps or grommets in the tarp. Keep those tight and the tarp will stay on. Let the tarp overhang the bales on the ends of the stack a foot or so and tie those grommets with heavy twine from side to side of the stack on the ends to keep the wind from getting the tarp and lifting it.
Net wrap or twine on the bales make no difference on stacked wet hay. Advantage of net wrap is making a smooth tight surface to shed the water (runoff) when exposed to the weather in open air - but not when it is stacked and in contact with another bale.
 
Your not too far from me and I never figured the first cutting was too late until July 4.
I've always told "myself" quality drops fast by June 15th. I also tell "myself" this is my year to really shine. Never works, but I like to hear it.
 
I've always told "myself" quality drops fast by June 15th. I also tell "myself" this is my year to really shine. Never works, but I like to hear it.
In this part of the world making hay in the spring is always a challenge. A bale of poor hay is better than watching it rot in the field. Very little to no hay been baled here. Been way to wet for the last two weeks.
 
It will rot pretty bad where the bales touch if you leave it stacked. Tried a tarp for a few years and it didn't work out for me. Many of the same problems you are experiencing. Have pretty much decided anything to do with a hay bale for a cow is where the cow man loses 90% of any money he would make. A necessary evil but between making, storage and feeding a lot of money is spent/lost.
 
1st cutting for us always put in rows, at the fields or somewhere, tight end to end. Only will tarp the better 2nd cutting hay. I would put it out as the 1/3 rd you leave out... unstack and put into rows. Then get the 2nd cutting that won't fit inside into a stack later on. But that is me. We do not have inside storage for anything but the square bales and we make alot of the better orchard grass as sq bales for sale and the lesser quality fields as rolls for 2nd cutting as it is still a finer hay.
We have made 1st cutting as late as mid July because of not being able to get on fields due to rain. Lots of "2nd " growth coming up in it.... Beats snowballs in the winter. Feed the "worst hay" to the dry cows that don't need a high quality hay... we will roll it out too so they can pick the best of it and lay on the worst... adds back to the soil so not a complete loss either when we are trying to improve some of the pastures.
We don't tarp much hay anyway.
 
Although there is a difference in the size of scale it was the expense of putting up hay three times a year that became one of the prime
movers for me to go to rotational grazing and haying once a year. Unless you can keep the bales dry and preferably off the ground
the loss from spoilage is almost unavoidable. If the operation is large enough a hay shed could certainly be a consideration.
The main point I would make here is to not get locked into the idea of doing something just because that is the way you have always
done it. Changed of methodology are more apt to fail from being implemented too late than too early.
That last sentence is a personal admission.....
 

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