Round Bale Fires

[LouNY]

In my part of the country any hay left outdoors is junk.
I've heard numerous people try and tell me that only the "outside few inches" was bad.
So 10 inches on the outside of a good sized round bale is roughly 20% of the bale.
Then the moisture and mold that forms were the bale has wicked moisture up from the ground
and now you've got a half a bale and your animal has a good chance of ingesting mold toxins.
Yep, you've really saved by outside storage. Net wrap or twine it doesn't matter.
Here if you are going to store outside you have to treat dry hay just like baleage and plastic wrap it.

 

[Farmer495]

Any shape bale put up too wet can combust. Small squares were commonly associated with this since they were baled and taken to barn immediately and stacked tightly in a barn.

Most round bales are left in the field for a few days before being put in a barn, in some cases they get left where the baler drops them until fed out.

I started doing round bale silage/haylage. Too few hot dry days to make good hay, nice being able to not worry about it being dry enough. Plastic is an expense but cows eat 100% of the bale and it's stored outdoors.

Net wrapped dry hay would fair the best stored outdoors here.

 

[EddieWalker]

Yep, you’re right.
I don’t know if TX has “rainy” parts of the state….

East Texas gets a fair amount of rain. A normal year is close to 4 feet of rain. Every year we get at least one storm that drops 3 inches. 5 inches in one night is my personal record. 8 inches in three days didn't even break any records.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

East Texas gets a fair amount of rain. A normal year is close to 4 feet of rain. Every year we get at least one storm that drops 3 inches. 5 inches in one night is my personal record. 8 inches in three days didn't even break any records.

I was in Gilmer yesterday.

 

[EddieWalker]

Gilmer is less then half an hour from my place.

 

[Hay Dude]

In my part of the country any hay left outdoors is junk.
I've heard numerous people try and tell me that only the "outside few inches" was bad.
So 10 inches on the outside of a good sized round bale is roughly 20% of the bale.
Then the moisture and mold that forms were the bale has wicked moisture up from the ground
and now you've got a half a bale and your animal has a good chance of ingesting mold toxins.
Yep, you've really saved by outside storage. Net wrap or twine it doesn't matter.
Here if you are going to store outside you have to treat dry hay just like baleage and plastic wrap it.

I leave them outside only a few days after baling to sweat.
Would never leave them out other than hot summer days.
Agree that leaving them out on ground for long periods ruins them
I saw a few barns burn and everytime it was bales put away too soon or a roof leak.

 

[Gord Baker]

It is not the shape of the bale, but the moisture content. I recall in the 50's spreading salt in the mow of square bales that may have been too damp and possibly cause spontaneous combustion.
One cure seemed to be pack the bales tighter to keep out Oxygen? Likely untrue.

 

[mahovy]

I've heard about square bales spontaneously combusting if they are stored too soon after baling. Does this happen with round bales too?

It will happen with any bales when the hay is too “wet”(green and not dried sufficiently in the sun). And if they don’t get hot and combust, they will probably mold from the moisture.

 

[Cycledude]

Any hay baled to wet can catch fire weather stored inside or outside, if it’s going to start burning it usually takes about 6 weeks before it happens. Yes spreading salt on baled hay used to be a very common practice, I really have no idea if it actually prevented any fires. Now days most farmers use moisture testers to see what the actual moisture content might be.

 

[cqaigy2]

It will happen with any bales when the hay is too “wet”(green and not dried sufficiently in the sun). And if they don’t get hot and combust, they will probably mold from the moisture.

and doesn't even need to be a bale, a pile can do that too.