Wet hay bales

Huskergreen · Aug 17, 2020

Tried to put up some alfalfa for the few sheep we have. Neighbor across the road has a small field, about what I need so bought the 3rd cutting in the field. Well it got rained on twice and was about dry enough, could have been a little dryer, rain was predicted again so baled it in small squares. Now my question, will it help the quality of the hay if some salt is sprinkled on the bale as they are piled? If so how much salt? I think this has been talked about on here before. Thanks

Roger Tomfohrde · Aug 17, 2020

We have done the salt sprinkling. I am not totally sure it helped but we did not pile them tight and may have even spread the bales out for a while in a open building to dry more before putting into the stack. Just a fine spray through the fingers. Good luck.

centash · Aug 17, 2020

Won't help the quality....I think what happens, cattle always seem to like salt, so maybe salting the hay improves it's taste. Does not reduce heating or molding.

Ben

RayP(MI) · Aug 17, 2020

I try to store damp bales inside on pallets. Stack on edge with room between bales, like bowling pins. Have successfully saved several wagons of hay and straw that way.

Bruce from Can. · Aug 17, 2020

We still have a hay dryer in the barn , and baled thousands of bales too wet to keep, and dried them in the mow. Bales were just stacked on a slayed floor, with a 4 foot fan blowing air into the slats .You could create the same thing by stacking your bales on fork lift pallets , and rigging up a fan to blow air into the ends of the pallets. Hay always came off the dryer perfect after a month of air blowing through it. Another thing you could try, would be if you can get big enough garbage bags to put the wettest bales into the bags and tie the ends shut. With no air, the wet hay will ferment and become hay silage. Try a few as an experiment!

BarnyardEngineering · Aug 18, 2020

A neighbor farmer used to put up nothing but sloppy wet small bales. So wet and heavy it made you wonder how the baler was tying them and throwing them into the wagon.

He had a fan and a tunnel in the hay mow, and would HEAVILY salt the fresh hay.

Now, salt does work to draw out moisture through osmosis, but I don't know how throwing salt on one side of the bale does any good. To me you would have to mix the salt throughout the bale.

We put up plenty of "steamed" hay in our time too, but not to the extent that this guy did. Always let the hay sweat it out on the wagons for a few days if we could, and spread it out in a single layer in the mow if we needed the wagons. The cows always LOVED it. Ate it like candy. No salt required.

showcrop · Aug 18, 2020

The salt inhibits the growth of the mold. Without mold there is no heat, but the moisture will still be there. the problem is to get the salt into enough of it. some on top of every bale will will certainly slow the mold in maybe 15% of it. I would try to allow air in by stacking on pallets with air between the bales as others have said, and using salt where one is on another. That would reduce heating and molding significantly.

Ken Macfarlane · Aug 18, 2020

Salt doesn't work, but it makes people feel good, and helps get cows to eat poor hay.

Space the bales out, leave room for air flow.

We grew up salting hay didn't know any different. Comes from a time of preserving meats etc in salt. Just because 200 lb of meat in 500 lb of salt in a barrel works, it isn't the same as 50 lbs of salt spread in 20,000 lbs of hay.

Wet hay bales

Huskergreen

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Roger Tomfohrde

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centash

Well-known Member

RayP(MI)

Well-known Member

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member

BarnyardEngineering

Well-known Member

showcrop

Well-known Member

Ken Macfarlane

Well-known Member

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