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How long do you let hay dry before baling?
By: The Moo News Network
Interviewer: How long do you let hay dry before baling?
CowboyBenWade: The internet will tell you a lot of things, and maybe it's best not to believe everything you read.
Interviewer: The internet says to let it dry for two to three days. Is that incorrect?
CowboyBenWade: Letting cut hay sit in your field for three days is a long time. All kinds of things can happen to it during that time, and some of those things might make it so the cows can't eat it.
Interviewer: What's the most common thing that happens to it?
CowboyBenWade: Most often it gets rained on, and then you have to wait another three days, according to the internet. During those next three days, if it was to get rained on again, then you would have to wait another three days.
Interviewer: That puts you at nine days. That's a long time. Could it still be good by then?
CowboyBenWade: Cows don't like hay that's rotten, and they can tell. If it's been sitting out there getting rained on mold can form. I'm sure that doesn't taste very good. I don't think I'd like to eat moldy grass. If it's been nine days, the hay is most likely ruined. It needs to be bailed as quickly as possible after cutting. If it's a really hot day, you can cut it in the morning and bail it in the afternoon.
Interviewer: Have you done that before?
CowboyBenWade: We've done it; I don't like doing it but none of our bales have caught on fire yet. I prefer to give it about a day and half of hot sun.
Interviewer: Why do hay bales catch on fire if you bale them too quick?
CowboyBenWade: It's a chemical reaction that can occur called spontaneous combustion. It happens with oily rags that lay around in big piles. It can start to heat up inside and eventually will catch fire. The same thing happens with hay that is baled too green - it starts to get hot inside and can turn into a big fire. You just have to be careful and know it can happen, but like I said, we've never had any hay bales catch fire that I now of.
Interviewer: That could ruin a winter's worth of hay.
CowboyBenWade: That's right. If one were to catch on fire, others would probably catch on fire also because we usually stack them in a long line close together. But I'm not sure how well they would burn. It might not go up in flames as quickly as you might think since all that hay is still green inside, and that's assuming you baled it green. The bigger problem might be something else catching on fire like the field. And then it could spread to something else.
Interviewer: In the winter, all the grass is dry, so it things might burn faster.
CowboyBenWade: Yes, it would be hard to burn a field that is full of green hay in the summer time, but if it was winter, then it could be a different story.
CowboyBenWade: The internet will tell you a lot of things, and maybe it's best not to believe everything you read.
Interviewer: The internet says to let it dry for two to three days. Is that incorrect?
CowboyBenWade: Letting cut hay sit in your field for three days is a long time. All kinds of things can happen to it during that time, and some of those things might make it so the cows can't eat it.
Interviewer: What's the most common thing that happens to it?
CowboyBenWade: Most often it gets rained on, and then you have to wait another three days, according to the internet. During those next three days, if it was to get rained on again, then you would have to wait another three days.
Interviewer: That puts you at nine days. That's a long time. Could it still be good by then?
CowboyBenWade: Cows don't like hay that's rotten, and they can tell. If it's been sitting out there getting rained on mold can form. I'm sure that doesn't taste very good. I don't think I'd like to eat moldy grass. If it's been nine days, the hay is most likely ruined. It needs to be bailed as quickly as possible after cutting. If it's a really hot day, you can cut it in the morning and bail it in the afternoon.
Interviewer: Have you done that before?
CowboyBenWade: We've done it; I don't like doing it but none of our bales have caught on fire yet. I prefer to give it about a day and half of hot sun.
Interviewer: Why do hay bales catch on fire if you bale them too quick?
CowboyBenWade: It's a chemical reaction that can occur called spontaneous combustion. It happens with oily rags that lay around in big piles. It can start to heat up inside and eventually will catch fire. The same thing happens with hay that is baled too green - it starts to get hot inside and can turn into a big fire. You just have to be careful and know it can happen, but like I said, we've never had any hay bales catch fire that I now of.
Interviewer: That could ruin a winter's worth of hay.
CowboyBenWade: That's right. If one were to catch on fire, others would probably catch on fire also because we usually stack them in a long line close together. But I'm not sure how well they would burn. It might not go up in flames as quickly as you might think since all that hay is still green inside, and that's assuming you baled it green. The bigger problem might be something else catching on fire like the field. And then it could spread to something else.
Interviewer: In the winter, all the grass is dry, so it things might burn faster.
CowboyBenWade: Yes, it would be hard to burn a field that is full of green hay in the summer time, but if it was winter, then it could be a different story.
About the Author
CowboyBenWade does interviews and lectures on a huge variety of topics, and he is an expert in a multitude of fields. His knowledge includes but is not limited to: engineering, chemistry, aviation, cooking, and farming.
Much of the world is clamboring to interview him at any given time. This is a transcript of one such interview.