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jaydee 08-10-2009 13:58:12 69.168.144.145 18924 Report to Moderator	Just finished baling 120 small square bales last night. They are on edge waiting for the bale wagon. Woke up this morning to pouring rain should I run around and lay them down? What then?Leave in the field till sun dries them, turn them over dry some more? what is the correct procedure now? [Reply]   [No Email]
36 coupe 08-19-2009 04:19:50 216.220.250.168 18977 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   Sell them as mulch hay.   [Reply]   [No Email]
ChrisLSD 08-16-2009 19:58:29 98.135.148.100 18967 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   take one - haul it to the next one - stand them on end - lean one on the other into a tepee shape - three stand better but block the wind more - orient them so the wind can blow through the tepee - open one up after a few days but should be OK - pick them up before the next big rain   [Reply]   [No Email]
farmer steve 08-11-2009 07:14:32 216.235.160.193 18938 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   Much depends on what you are feeding them to. Cattle, sheep, goats will all be fine. Horses will probably not like the additional chance of mold. Also the bales will not have quite the feed value they did before. I leave my bales out on a pile year round. After two years they are still nice and green inside. Flip the bales back on it"s bottom to expose the wet side. Let this dry in the hot sun and by the next day they should be fine. Do not destroy the hay it will be just fine.   [Reply]   [Send Email]
MLD 08-11-2009 07:01:58 206.125.176.3 18936 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   I would say correct procedure is your screwed!! If it was just light rain they would probaly dry. You say pouring rain, I baled for a guy last summer & he & some helpers stayed in the field till 12:30am getting it up because of the threat of rain. Next day by 8am it was raining hard, he made the right call working very late.   [Reply]   [No Email]
The Bachelor 08-11-2009 07:00:46 65.83.55.160 18935 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   Like J48, I have never had any luck drying out rain soaked bales..... If you need the hay, get out your knife and cut em re rake em and dry em. If you don't need the hay, pile em like John said... sometimes, its just not worth the fuel....   [Reply]   [No Email]
johns48jdb 08-11-2009 03:51:59 205.188.116.80 18933 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   not worth all the effort. pile them up in a weed invested corner of the field. cut the strings off and remove them. go to any source you can get for manure and bring home several dump truck loads of it and pile it on the hay. keep it stirred with a front end loader every 2 or 3 months for a year and then sell it to people to put on thier garden spots or use it on yours. i did some round bales that way several years ago and the ground is so mellow and soft its hard to even walk in it to pick vegs.   [Reply]   [Send Email]
patiolant 08-10-2009 20:50:18 216.65.164.163 18932 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   Only happened to me once too. I now only bale what I know I can pick up the same day. If hay is going to be rained on, better in the swath than in the bale. If you get a few nice hot days, you may be able to salvage the bales as kyhayman suggests, but I found that they still ended up with a little mold dust.   [Reply]   [No Email]
farmerboy 08-10-2009 18:28:38 98.108.40.143 18929 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   Hey Jay, F-I-L said, when he was a kid, a neighbor would regularly let hay get rained on before he got it picked up. He would go out and set one bale on end and set another bale flat on top of the on-end bale. The top bale would shed the rain a bit and the bottom bale would keep the strings from rotting. It was sorta like stacking oat shocks. Dunno if this a good idea...   [Reply]   [No Email]
kyhayman 08-10-2009 17:59:48 99.196.32.58 18928 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   I hate when that happens. Only had it happen to me once, never again did I leave hay out. What I did, and it worked, was to let them dry a day, turn them flat and let them dry another day, flip them back and picked them up late in the 3rd day.   [Reply]   [No Email]
showcrop 08-10-2009 17:13:55 75.67.231.80 18927 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   I would try leaving them out and see how well they dry in one day. I have had bales that somebody missed down a slope or in a corner that got rained on and it penetrated only about a half inch.   [Reply]   [No Email]
ohio 08-10-2009 16:53:10 71.50.192.228 18926 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   Got an outdoor wood burner?   [Reply]   [No Email]
Ed S. (IL) 08-10-2009 14:51:35 173.15.98.99 18925 Report to Moderator	Re: wet bales in reply to jaydee, 08-10-2009 13:58:12   The last time that happened to me, I ended up plowing them back in the ground, but your mileage may vary. And do note that I still consider myself a newbie at haying. Are they cut side up? es   [Reply]   [No Email]