RE: Rained on hay.

This second cut hay was actually picked up in the field by one of my horse customers. It had been down for less than 24 hours when an unpredicted front came through with brief pop-up showers. When I went Sunday AM to tedd it, I found moisture well down into the hay, but very little moisture in the blades or stems of the grass. After five hours under bright sun I raked it, and then tedded the outer two windrows out again. Mon. AM I tipped the windrows and around 2:00 went and pressed it. This hay was supposed to go to two VERY LONG TERM horse customers. One is fairly fussy, so I called her in the morning and she told me that "Oh, I can't take a chance on that". Early in my 35 years of haying I had probably 300 bales worth get rained on in early June. I went to my dairy farmer mentor and he just told me flatly "It won't hurt it". We actually got it tested and found only around 10% nutrient loss. The big problem is that there is a pervasive belief, especially among horse people, that despite the haymaker's ability to bring standing crop with 80% moisture down to 16% before baling, that if it gets rained on we are not able to get it dry again if it gets rained on. As I was baling the hay it was looking so good that I decided that I needed to take a bale to the customer and show her how good it could be despite being rained on. She was favorably impressed and texted me later to tell me that her horse liked it. I took a pic of the bale to post here before I delivered it, because I though that it could provoke a little thought. The main point here is that early cut hay has much more nutrient value than late cut hay, so even though 10% may be lost to the rain, the nutrient value can still be far higher than late cut hay.

Horse owners are such a pain to sell hay to. I agree rained on hay that hasn't laid on ground for many days that's been dried to 16% or below moisture before baling is fine for most horses.

They buy by THEIR eyeballs and snouts. They don't consult the horses for an opinion. Sell to somebody else or go fishing!

We have horses, have had for many many years. We are careful about our hay, however, I could care less if it has had rain, what I do care about is dust, I have had hay that never had any rain, however ended
up being dusty, can not feed that to horses, I have had hay that got way more rain than I ever care to see on it, yet due to diligent raking thru the storms it turned out not so green, but not dusty either.
I laugh at the people who think a field is completely ruined if it gets any rain at all on it. They need to grow their own hay, and deal with the weather guessers on their own.
I bet they would have a stroke if they knew that I have cut hay in the rain before. Sometimes the only window starts if you cut while it is still raining.

the key is exactly what you did. you ensured the hay was dry before baling and before it could get moldy. rain or dew can promote
mold if the hay is baled damp which can lead to colic in horses. if the moisture from what ever source is eliminated, no problem.

I sell all my brome to "horse people". Most expect me to call before I cut a patch so they know it went down dry and never got rained on. They are a giant PIA but I also get $6 a bale from them while other buyers are paying $3 an $4 a bale right now.

I don't mind selling to horse people but some of the "pet" horse people are really hard to satisfy.

If I have hay that gets rained on, I just do whatever
it takes to get it dry before it is baled. Once baled it
goes into storage with all the rest. I don?t like to sell
hay during hay making season. Sell out of storage
when there is snow on the ground and supply is
limited. Surprising what kind of hay a horse will eat
3-4 months before the new hay season begins. One
other thing, hay from storage always cost more. I
never take less for hay even if it has been rained
on. Once in a bile moon I will keep hay over, but this
year supply is tight, and you can get $40.00 for a
4x4 bale out of the field.

I've always had two points that I make to my hay customer on this subject. First, if hay is green and gets rained on it doesn't really hurt it, it's when it's dry enough to bale that a rain will really hurt it. Second, I point out that most nights during the drying process there is some amount of dew. I ask them how much difference is there between a heavy dew and a light shower? Sometimes at that point I can see the light bulb coming on in their heads.

(quoted from post at 09:11:20 08/13/19) I've always had two points that I make to my hay customer on this subject. First, if hay is green and gets rained on it doesn't really hurt it, it's when it's dry enough to bale that a rain will really hurt it. Second, I point out that most nights during the drying process there is some amount of dew. I ask them how much difference is there between a heavy dew and a light shower? Sometimes at that point I can see the light bulb coming on in their heads.

Click to expand...

hatever the 'hay', my FIL used to say, "it will beat a snow ball".

Grew up riding on the ranch working cattle almost everyday. We feed the horses the same hay the cows got. Sometimes the cows were eating on one side and the horses were eating on the other side of the same
bale. None of the horses ever complained to me about poor hay. We did grain the horses better than cows because we worked them harder. We use to sell hay to horse people but most horse people have no money
and can?t afford a horse. It became too much of a PITA, listening to them whine, trying to get them not only to our price but just to pay before they left the yard, helping them fix flats on their trailers, (lending and never
returning) rope to tie down the bales on the trailer, etc., so we quit.

Uh-huh! And when you consult them for their horse's opinion, they look at ya like you're crazy.

Mike

I've had hay get a brief shower many a time, ran tedder and then baled it with no issues.
Even round bales stored outside get wet, but you only lose a few inches on outside of bale. Cows eat it anyway.

Horse people are picky. But they will pay a premium for good hay. Typically they want weed free, fertilized, third cutting
jigs and don't even stutter when I tell them 70 bucks a roll for 4x5.

I have probably fed more rained on hay that hay that didn't get wet. I will cut into a rain day if the next four days call as
clear. Thankfully I don't have the stress of selling much hay any more. It used to really bug me selling hay to people that would
be quite fussy only to have them dump a round bale into an open field and let the horses tramp 50% of it because there was no
feeder

I hope your horse owner lady treats her husband as well as she does her horses. If so, he's a lucky guy.

My wife and I retired live on and own two quarters of land.
A Neighbor runs Horses....They asked if we would shake on a rental deal?

If the cut hay is rained on then the rent is a set price. If not rained on, then the rental price is higher.

Second Neighbor runs 200 head of cattle...asked if we would shake on a rental price regardless of the harvest...?..second neighbor has rented our land for the past 8 years....and supplied us with all the ELK ROASTS we can eat....

Only good thing about horses people in our area they seldom stop in!



Bob...North Western Alberta......

Horses don?t bother me as long as they are in a cowboy movie!

Marginal loss of nutritional value, you could lose that much just from sun bleaching it. I've fooled with this in a few ways, ideally, you want the cutting to dry as quickly as possible, avoiding rain and too much time in the sun, result being the darkest olive drab color hay you can get. Rarely will happen and a thick cutting, forget it. However, I have done it small scale, lighter cutting, volume is not much, but those bales just smell incredible.

Years back, I worked out deals buying hay from my long time friend and farmer, used to cut rake and bale my own. One year, he had a fresh planting of Timothy, similar circumstances with rain, early that morning, enough to delay baling a little, but as far as feed quality, was very good. Thing is as you know, baling it dry, I've had hot bales come in from a local farmer we dealt with near the other place, darned good thing I was handling the hay myself, if any of those got into the stack, barn would have burned. They actually were wet and warming still, I opened them up, spread it out and we were able to feed it out. Farmers thought was that if he put a wet one in with all the dry hay, it would absorb the moisture.... not in my barn, ever. I used to find these really heavy bales, densely packed, but dusty, cannot feed those out, but knew what he did after the previous. I agree people buying hay for horses can be a real pain to deal with, but we as horse owners, also put up our own hay for longer than we have not. We certainly know how to grow and put up good quality hay, and are not eccentric about being picky, just no dust or mold. Some hay while baled dry, is cut too late, too stalky, low feed value, horses just mash it into their bedding and make stall cleaning more difficult. There was nothing I enjoyed better than feeding out a lush green 2nd cut, they sure enjoy it.