Check your hay

[cowboydoc]

A good friend of mine had a barn fire yesterday. It was started by some square bales of hay that we had put up about two weeks ago. The hay was very dry and wasn't wet in the least. It actually should have been baled the day before but I couldn't get over there with the square baler for him. The fire marshal and insurance inspector were out and looked at it and couldn't find a reason why the hay would have caught fire other than spontaneous combustion. Be sure and check your hay even if it is dry. I sure learned a new one.

 

[slowzuki]

We've probed some of the questionable stuff with a long thermocouple but it is all baled so late with such low protein it isn't showing any sign of heat.
Ken

 

[slowrev]

Cowboydoc,
What kind of hay ? Grass hay or clover and alfalfa type of stuff ?

 

[cowboydoc]

It was a grass/alfalfa mix. This was all probed too. None of it was high in moisture or heat.

 

[slowrev]

hmm, Maybe he had a smoker in the barn ? Maybe the hay is getting a bad rap.

 

[cowboydoc]

Yea that thought was also brought up but the fire marshall didn't agree. He said it was a smoldering fire from the bottom of the loft. A cigarette would have started from the top.

 

[slowrev]

maybe a butt was thrown down and hay stacked on it ?

 

[Cliff_Johns]

When I was about 6, our barn burned. Started in the hay mow. No reason was found, and no one had been there in a week. It was a huge old pennsylvania barn. Very sad, but out in the country, all they could do was save the house and the milk house. That fire was what eventually caused us to stop farming. There was insurance, but it can't cover the total losses involved.

Cliff

 

[alan40]

I was looking out my window about 3 years ago and saw smoke. Threw the boy in the truck with a shovel and headed down. A round bale against the barn was smoking pretty good. Luckily it was on a down hill slope and I got it to roll away from the barn. Called the guy he showed up the next day. Not even worried about the hefiers in the barn.
Proberly why we don't get along. My wife was brought up on a dairy farm and won't even talk to him.
Sorry about your friends barn and the lose of the hay.
Take care

 

[slowzuki]

I read the other day a fist sized chunk of bad hay in the middle of a mow can heat enough to light her up.

By dividing up the size of your piles and increasing airflow one can really reduced the risks involved. The bigger the mow, the worse the heating can be from the layers of insulating hay.

Ken

 

[Egon]

Spontaneous combustion of hay creating a burned down barn has been with us for many a year. Ever since hay was stored in a barn.

The two week period seems a might fast unless it were damp bales that had been preparing for this occassion out in the field.

Egon

 

[bgott]

Someone might have taken a leak on the hay. I'm not saying this to be funny. When I was bucking square bales when I was a kid the worst butt chewing you would get was for peeing in the loft and it wasn't because of sanitation or modesty.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( A good friend of mine had a barn fire yesterday )</font>

Did they save anything? I've seen some of those and I think every one I've seen was a total loss since it's so hard to put out that kind of fire.

 

[bcarter]

A friend of mine from college grew up on a dairy farm in VT. I don't know what prompted it, but his dad suspected a problem with the hay they had put up. Called his son home to help unload it from the loft. My friend said that they started tossing the bails out the loft door and when the bails hit the ground outside, they broke open and burst into flames. I'd assume that there wasn't enough oxygen for combustion until the bails got outside.

 

[kensfarm]

Cowboydoc.. glad you posted about this.. I just finished doing square bales on Tuesday.. I bought an NH 273 w/ a kicker.. and a NH 56 rake. I've round baled before.. but this was a first for square bales. My counter said I made 228 bales.. the first set was from a short field.. dried quickly.. bales felt dry.. the second set was from a tall field.. I took off Tues. and baled. Though the windrows felt dry.. after being baled.. some of bales felt wet. The first set I stacked.. the second set I layed out throughout the bank barn to dry more before stacking.. makes the bank barn really smell like fresh hay. I went around and checked bales for heat Wed. night.. I'll probably move them around some tonight.

Would it take two weeks for the hay to heat up that hot to ignite? I thought it would only take days..

Has anyone used salt before on their square bales to help w/ moisture.. do you just sprinkle it on.. or do you have to rub it into the bales?

 

[cowboydoc]

Bird,

It wasn't a total loss. He was out of town about two hours away when it happened. He called me and I went over there. It was a good thing because he had two horses and a dog in there. The firemen didn't know there were animals in there. It was so smoky you couldn't even see. We got the two horses out but the dog was in the stall above the fire. It was 10 minutes before they got the fire beat down enough to see. They thought the dog was dead and didn't go in there to get him. This dog is like these people's kid so like a fool I ran in and scooped him up and brought him out. As soon as he was out he came to again and in an hour he was ready to run again. I don't know how either the horses or him lived through that smoke. It was so think you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face at times.

Ken,

Hay can go through it's sweat anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. We have a hay probe that we use that will tell us when the hay has gone through the sweat. Once that is over hay is usually safe Salt you just spread on top of the hay on the cut end of the hay. It will work very well on wet hay.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( They thought the dog was dead and didn't go in there to get him. This dog is like these people's kid so like a fool I ran in and scooped him up and brought him out. As soon as he was out he came to again and in an hour he was ready to run again. )</font>

Who could ask for a better neighbor or friend than that?
Cliff

 

[Bird]

Richard, sure glad you were able to save the animals.

And for anyone who hasn't seen a spontaneous combustion fire, hay is certainly known for it, but there are other things that can cause it, too. I may have posted this before, but it's only luck that kept me from burning my house down several years ago. The house had a two car garage and one hot, summer Saturday afternoon, I changed oil and filters in both cars, and was using an old white t-shirt for a grease rag, so by the time I got through, it was pretty oily with dirty oil. We had a special rack, with a lid, that held a plastic garbage bag, so when I finished, I threw the old t-shirt in that garbage bag. Then I went in the house, took a shower, put on clean clothes, and we went out to eat. When we got home and entered the garage, the odor of something burning scared the dickens out of me and I ran through the house, looking for the source, and realized the strongest odor was in the garage. I raised the lid on the garbage bag rack and found that my wife had dropped a paper sack full of garbage on top of the old t-shirt and that old white t-shirt was charred a dark brown, smoking a bit, and too hot for me to pick up. I figure in just a few minutes it would have burst into flames. Needless to say, ever since then, greasy or oily rags are either stored in an airtight metal container OR spread out or hung up where they get plenty of air.

 

[cowboydoc]

Now that I did not know Bird. I throw oily rags in the garbage all the time. Won't be doing that anymore!!!

 

[Bird]

Richard, the bad part is that I did know, and just wasn't thinking. This site pretty well explains what I knew and should have remembered.