Conditioner for Grass Hay?

[scott_vt]

Brian,
All the old timers wont use hay that has been rained on for feed. They will go to almost any means to prevent that from happening. They will sell it cheap for bedding etc. A few sprinkles wont bother it but if it gets soaked thats it /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

The sheep farmer up the road from me caters to the horse people in the area, and they for the most part like square bales. He is starting to get older and wants to use a small round baler, but is getting resistance from some of his horse customers /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Im not sure what he is going to do, but the square bales are a lot more work handling.

Nice talkin to you!

 

[scott_vt]

Brian,
All the old timers wont use hay that has been rained on for feed. They will go to almost any means to prevent that from happening. They will sell it cheap for bedding etc. A few sprinkles wont bother it but if it gets soaked thats it /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

The sheep farmer up the road from me caters to the horse people in the area, and they for the most part like square bales. He is starting to get older and wants to use a small round baler, but is getting resistance from some of his horse customers /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Im not sure what he is going to do, but the square bales are a lot more work handling.

Nice talkin to you!

 

[farmerjim]

hay that has gotten a good soaking from rain is pretty useless for feed, if you get a light shower, it should be ok. most of the time you just sell that for mulch or bedding.if that does happen you just tedder the heck out of it til its dry then bale it up. the only advice i can give, which was given to me by some old timers, is watch the weather reports to a t, as long as they're saying no rain/inclement weather for about 3 days you should be ok. i try to go by 2 different reports by different weather stations, like weather channel an/or 2 dif local stations. as they tell me back when they did the hay it was alot harder to predict the weather, modern computer age has given us an advantage.

 

[farmerjim]

hay that has gotten a good soaking from rain is pretty useless for feed, if you get a light shower, it should be ok. most of the time you just sell that for mulch or bedding.if that does happen you just tedder the heck out of it til its dry then bale it up. the only advice i can give, which was given to me by some old timers, is watch the weather reports to a t, as long as they're saying no rain/inclement weather for about 3 days you should be ok. i try to go by 2 different reports by different weather stations, like weather channel an/or 2 dif local stations. as they tell me back when they did the hay it was alot harder to predict the weather, modern computer age has given us an advantage.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Jim,
Yep, and even with computer weather reports it can be a crap shoot /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Jim,
Yep, and even with computer weather reports it can be a crap shoot /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Woodbeef]

If it's going to get wet,it's better to be on the first day. Once it starts to dry nutrients will be washed away,and hay will be bleached out looking.

 

[slowzuki]

I'm just across the border from Maine and it is just about impossible here to put up unconditioned hay. We mow with a a mower conditioner, then ted, sometimes twice then rake right before baling. It is a race against the weather as we have only had 2 periods of weather 2 days long to put up hay so far.

Unconditioned hay here needs 3 days drying with at least two tedder trips and usually gets lost.

If rained on right when it is cut the rain won't hurt, later the rain will cause the bacteria / molds that are breaking down the plants to begin regrowing. You can rescue from a thundershower with a tedder but a solid day soaking means road hay/bedding/mulch.