haying

[Coffee drinker]

4

 

[LouNY]

Making a round bale creates a lot of heat from the friction of the hay and belts. I expect if you had had a temperature probe and checked any of those bales when they were baled it would have been well above 0C.
That nice warm wet hay started to work just like silage bales would and then not being seal wrapped pulled in more air and is now composting itself and generating it's own heat.

 

[Coffee drinker]

I wouldn't have thought it would heat those bales 7 degrees, but maybe your right. So would it have worked if we had waited a day or 2 later when the outside temp was -30C?

 

[LouNY]

Hard to say, hay with moisture and temperatures can be hard to keep ahead of. If it is an option wrapping the bales and letting them silage is the only way I've seen damp hay work with good results.

 

[super55]

Lou is right. Actually 30% is about perfect for haylage. The key point in the process is that you have to wrap it to eventually starve it of oxygen.

Once you bale, you've take all the moisture trapped inside and gave it an escape route. As it tries to perspire (ie. breakdown) its going to generate heat and being tight it retains it. Decomposition requires oxygen which generates heat. Get the oxygen out it turns into fermentation which will be lower in sugar than hay but more digestible.

I've had the same thoughts but mine was with frozen manure when cleaning out the paddock. Stuff frozen rock solid, put it in a pile compact it, never got above freezing and then rolled the pile and have steam billowing off it.

Thanks for your post btw. I read a few articles on frost baling but most were after first heavy frost not this late like yours. Are you just using it as filler feed?

 

[Hay Dude]

Grab a probe and check ‘em.

 

[LHF2019]

Doesn’t matter what the temperature is. 35% needed wrap. Any thing above 20% should be wrapped. I baled hay in November small squares that never went above 18% but they didn’t feel right. Left them stacked on the wagon to confirm and about 20 went bad.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I don't have any insight on the problem, but just thought I'd throw in that this how hay was traditionally cut in New England. In particular, "salt hay" was cut in salt marshes in the winter. It was prized as feed as it was high in minerals from the salt water. The picture in my avatar is a salt marsh that borders several old dairy farms.

 

[redman135]

OP, baling with that high a moisture content requires wrapping or the bales will rot, as oxygen can get in.
A salvage option if baling damp hay is to use sprinkle salt liberally on each layer of hay as you stack it. This is an old timer trick that is forgotten these days as is the technique of stacking to vent damp hay.