Curing Hay

[Raylefarms22]

Around here, lots of people mow their sudan with discbines, (Flails do dry sudan better than rollers) then as soon as they finish mowing, they hook to the bushhog and chop it again. breaks it up more and the old timers say it knocks a day off dry down time

 

[Texasmark]

Good point! the tobacco smelling mold is not harmful - in fact it improves the palatability for cows - what does that say about them?

Shucks, I thought it was because it fermented (sorta), turned to booze, they ate it and got pleasantly got drunk. Grin. Thanks for the tip on non harmful. Feeding it to my cows is one thing. Feeding to other's cows sometimes takes some explaining.

 

[Creamer]

Shucks, I thought it was because it fermented (sorta), turned to booze, they ate it and got pleasantly got drunk. Grin. Thanks for the tip on non harmful. Feeding it to my cows is one thing. Feeding to other's cows sometimes takes some explaining.

I understand - it is not green and therefore it is not good to the non-wise.

 

[Tx Jim]

Good point! the tobacco smelling mold is not harmful - in fact it improves the palatability for cows - what does that say about them?

If you do some research you'll discover that the heat created from baling hay at too high moisture actually lowers the protein of the hay. Even though cows like the smell they get less feed value out of higher moisture hay. I'm not referring to hay referred to as baleage & wrapped. It's also possible this tobacco smelling hay could have black mold which can cause pregnant cows to abort.

 

[Jerry/MT]

I'm scrapping out a bunch of bales of Sorghum-Sudan hay I baled in the May-June time line here in N. Tx.. It appears that once again, I didn't get it dry enough and it developed some mold. I realize that SS doesn't pack as tight as grass but it does have to sit out; do not have adequate covered storage and all. This mold is down inside, well beyond of any precip after rolling. I do have and use a crimper and tedder. Don't have a moisture tester. Usually dodging rain. Dry windows usually aren't long enough.

On curing, you guys in Northern climates where your winters are longer and wetter (usually with snow and all), how do you get your hay crops cured out if you run cool season grasses and harvest in the spring.

Thanks,
Mark

So far, my biggest problem is the hay dries so fast that my round bales will fall apart if I don't bale early in the morning or later in the evening! Just the opposite of your situation. I use a Delmhorst moisture meter and pull samples from the windrow. I place them in a 5 gallon bucket and compress them and then use the meter to check the moisture content. I do this for several places in the field. I then make a bale and check it with the moisture meter. I try to get the moisture up to 10-14 % in the bucket before I start baling. By the time I finish the bales are in the 18-20 % range so I quit. All my customers this years were horse people and they have raved up the hay quality and the fact that it is virtually dust free. the closest end of the field is a quarter mile from the nearest county road so there is relatively little dust that gets to the hayfield.
We net wrap the bales and store them in long rows with space between them and they get a little damage on the bottom but the net wrapped bales shed water very well and we get very little spoilage. I tried stacking them on ead with one row vertical topped by one row horizontal and the water appears to stay attached to the net wrap below the max diameter and ruins the sides of the bottom bale. This does not appear to be the case for twine wrapped bales. I think because the outside surface of the twine wrapped bales is rougher and the water does not come around the max diameter as it does with net wrap.

I've only been making our own hay for three years now and that's what I learned so far.

 

[LouNY]

In my area upstate NY in depends on what you are looking for in your hay, grasses or alfalfa cut for high quality protein 1st cut will be haylage or wrapped baleage as the weather and ground moisture makes it almost impossible to dry bale, if you want more fiber and roughage 1st cutting won't be done till end of June start of July and with luck the weather will cooperate. 2nd cutting can usually be baled if the weather guessers and you guess right. 3rd cutting it's getting cooler and it's hard to get dry bales it's back to haylage or baleage.

 

[joeu235]

Texas A&M has reasonably priced testing services for hay if you are really concerned.

 

[Texasmark]

Thanks guys for the replies. Think I will investigate the Delmhorst. TAMU support; I use them for soil testing since I have an open time window. On moisture it can change as the time of day changes which I can detect on how the bales form and come out so if done, I'll have to do it.