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Air moisture for baling hay

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Where can I find information on the maximum AIR humidity level for baling big round bales of hay - net wrapped and stacked - but NOT bagged or wrapped? It is 1:00 pm, cloudy and the humidity level is 65% here in north central Missouri. Is there any reason to go to the hayfield? What should the RH be to cure heavy grass hay - fescue/brome?
 
I would be more concerned about the dryness of the hay. General rule here for square bales is that a handful of hay rotated between the hansd should practically shatter. Have been lead to believe some round bales can be baled damper than squares.
 

Go to the Hay talk forum. Search for post on that subject by member Hay Wilson in TX. Here's one of the articles on relative humidity he referred to.
http://mbfc.s3.amazo...Undersander.pdf
 
Do the '3 twist' test to determine dryness.'Humidity" should not be an issue,unless the hay feels damp. If you are concerned,go buy a spear type moisture tester. Just 'stab' the bale and you will get a accureate reading. I bought mine from the local John Deere dealer. around 220.00
 
The average humidity here is always at 60 to 65... If that were true, we could never bale hay around here. We are barely...in the coastal plains influence so our humidity is usually a bit high 80 percent of the time.
 
If we couldn't bale at 65% or higher we would never bale. Been many days handling bales at 80%+
 

When the humidity cranks up it seems the only thing that will get it fit to bale is bright sunshine. Not partly cloudy, but blue clear skies, plenty of heat and a little breeze.

I had some that was tedded, raked, tedded again and raked before it was fit to bale. Was baled on 6th day. About 5:30 pm was starting to take on moisture and wasn't fit to bale anymore. Last 50 bales got rained on.
 
I also have a spear tester like DeltRed. I could take and wrap hay around the end of it and twist tight and read it. Would be about the same if I popped out a bale. I used the rule of 14%. On small sq. Grass.
 
(quoted from post at 14:21:26 08/15/16) Where can I find information on the maximum AIR humidity level for baling big round bales of hay - net wrapped and stacked - but NOT bagged or wrapped? It is 1:00 pm, cloudy and the humidity level is 65% here in north central Missouri. Is there any reason to go to the hayfield? What should the RH be to cure heavy grass hay - fescue/brome?
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat as Jon, we seldom have humidity in the summer months lower than 65%. I don't have a moisture tester but 40+ years of baling hay you get a feel for what hay should feel like. If your unsure a tester might be a good investment. I've baled hay when the humidity is above 80%. It's not the best scenario but it's not a disaster either.
 
It's not the moisture in the air that counts, it's the per cent in the bale. Get a tester and you will quickly learn when to start and when to stop.
 
I cut some pretty heavy hay yesterday with a sickle bar mower 97 degrees,baled today and it was just right 95 degrees and around 70% humidity both days.Sunny and the wind was around 10-15 MPH that helps a lot after its raked to have a hot South wind blowing thru the hay.Rained tonite so glad I got it rolled up.
 
Well, we didn't bale today, it was supposed to be sunny, but instead it was cloudy and dead still. Some of this hay has been down for 7 days, been tedded twice and had about 3-4 inches of rain on it. We tedded and raked some. Baled two bales and they were so heavy the baler darn near bounced off the ground when we kicked them out. We were trying to beat the 2.1 inches of rain we got on it that night. I have put up a lot of hay for a lot of years and never have experienced anything like this. But at least the crops are green and the cattle on grass are really doing good! My rant for the moment. . .
 
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