Hay preservative systems for small squares?

[jagyzf]

I have a friend that uses Harvest tec and likes it. As Rick said horse people are mixed. I know when we bale (I help the guy) we only put a small amount on the hay. He puts it on just about everything beyond the driest of his 1st cutting. This year was the 1st time I know of due to poor weather forecasts he really needed it badly. A couple of times we had hay down that just wasn't ready, but with rain coming had no choice. The hay never heated and was great, he even sold a few wagons of it about a month later.

A few people I know around here do the same (put it on everything), they say it does keep the bales from getting "dusty" over the winter.

 

[hslogger]

I have never made hay myself. I have bought hay out of the fields and sometimes a barn for over forty years. If the hay has dampness feel to it, it stays in the field or in a "gonna use soon" stack NOT in my barn. All my hay when it goes in the barn gets salted. Layer of bales go on a wood floor that has been salted. Next layer of bales goes on top of the first layer that has salt on top of it. Each layer gets salted including the top.

I have found that this helps ****** mold, keeps the horses thirsty and drinking when they don't want to but should, in the winters. Damp hay will not go in my barn. One of the things I dislike about bale wagons, the only thing, is that the bales aren't touched by humans. When we pick up bales in the field by hand or with a Henry pop up loader, we cull out the heavy ones, ones that seem heavier than the norm. Salt and common sense, vigilance work for us.

 

[tcreeley]

I have been buying 200-300 bales of hay for my horses since 1976. I grew up on a dairy farm. I have bought all kinds of hay- abandoned fields to nice timothy/mix. Hay is hay. Unless it is dried properly, it will mold in the barn. I can always tell the bad bales- have a heaviness to them - can be from the shady or wet side of the field. Feed those right away or don't take them. Mold and dust injures the lungs.
I have also learned that you cannot store even well dried hay directly on the ground, even inside a building- molds from the damp in the ground. It has to be up on a wood floor, or on pallets laid down over a moisture barrier on the ground. I never have dust in well dried hay up on the second floor of my barn.

-I would never feed my horses treated hay- why would I want to? Hay off a recently sludge fertilized field gives horses colic 2 and 3 months later- no matter how dry and nice it looked going into the barn. -Lost two horses this way before I traced it to the hay.
I'd keep the additives out of the field.

Guy I buy from now- last 14 years- saves out a field of timothy/mix. He doesn't fertilize it - keeps it as is. It produces nice hay - sells me mine and keeps the rest. The hay is always excellent. The guy has a nose for the weather. Another guy up the road does it by the book- his book! He cuts on a sunny morning, has it rained on overnight, turns brown in the field drying for some days, baled and he has mulch for sale. He is the most unlucky guy going. Once in a while he gets a good crop in.

One old trick I remember for bad hay being fed to the cows was to use a watering can full of molasses and walk down the row sprinkling the bad hay to get the cows to eat it. Nothing wasted, but no nutrition in it. Less milk.

 

[AKfish]

Had a long talk with one of the local producers that uses propionic acid with a Harvest Tec system. Called him to buy a couple bales to feed my horses (and to hear about his experiences). Well, he didn't have any to sell me 'cause he hasn't used it for a couple of years, now.

Still has the system in place on his round baler - as a backup - but he's doing hayledge/baleage now. Has been training his horse customers the merits of hayledge. One gal lost a horse and seems to believe his hay is at fault but he's not convinced nor has he seen any testing that would indicate a botulism problem.

Nonetheless, he wasn't happy with the inconsistency of the application rates and the final product. He believes it was due to the fact that the computer was not analyzing the hay moisture fast enough to adjust the amount of preservative being applied.

He bales with a 90+hp tractor and windrows with a V-wheel rake. I think he said he was baling around 24 tons per hour (30 bales - 1 bale every 2 minutes). So, he figured that the moisture sensors were only reading @ 4 second intervals and the amount of hay moving into the bale chamber was great enough that some of the hay was not adequately treated.

You round baler experts can evaluate that one way or another... I've never rolled a round bale; so, I don't really know.

He did give me another hay producers name that uses the HarvestTec product and I'll give him a shout in the near future.

AKfish

 

[RickB]

Moisture sensors on round balers are inherently less accurate than the same sensors on square balers for two reasons:

Round balers only offer the outside of stems to the sensors, prperly mounted sensors on square balers will read moisture at the cut end of stems.

A high rate of feeding into round balers can lower the sampling rate per pound of hay and increase the amount of hay that is baled between a sensing event and the control system's reaction to the results.

The level of technology in the particular system and the operator's supplied input parameters are also contributing factors to success/failure.

 

[Tx Jim]

I agree with Rick that rd baler installed moisture sensors aren't as accurate as on sq balers or hand held testers. The rd baler I owned with moisture sensors & the others I've seen are mounted in the side wall of baler therefore only test mostly the outside of windrow.

 

[jagyzf]

The system we use doesn't rely on a moisture meter. You manually have to set the application rate, so it's for worst case. We do have a moisture meter on our current baler (New Holland 570) but didn't on our Deere in years past.

Anyone I know around here with a large square baler put the stuff on so heavy you can smell it 1/2 mile away when they are baling.

We have been using it for 8-9 years now with good results, mainly as a defense against dusting. As I said in earlier thread it wasn't until this year we actually put in hay that we wouldn't have gotten without it. Those bales stayed in the wagons for a week anyway before they were put in the barn. Then 3-4 weeks later several loads of that hay were sold. Person buying knew what they were buying and was very happy.

 

[AKfish]

Yup... What you're all saying makes sense. I couldn't help but wonder... Why not slow down just a bit and/or pull the wings on that rake in another cutter swath?

He also mentioned that the hay (even in the middle of the bale) felt moist to the touch and some of his customers were concerned about that. I shoulda asked if they ever totally dry down; but, forgot to.

HarvestTec fella did say that the computer and tank and some of the hardware, pump, would be able to migrate to a round baler platform in the future if desired. That sounded positive to me...but, using on a round baler appears to be somewhat more problematic vs a square baler.

In my mind, the juries still out on palatability and successfully feeding the treated hay to horses. I'm fairly convinced that it's not harmful but less so, regarding how well they'll eat the hay.

Appreciate the talk.

AKfish

 

[Tx Jim]

AKfish
Did you ever investigate this hay preservative I mentioned to you called Hay Guard?

 

[AKfish]

AKfish
Did you ever investigate this hay preservative I mentioned to you called Hay Guard?

I did chase that a bit, Jim. IIRC, it's a sulfer based preservative and is more expensive to use. I did not find an applicator "system" for the product, though. I'm guessing that you would need to buy the hardware from a different company.

AKfish