Best Hay Preservative ....(apart from sun )

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
IMO you shouldn't move hay for 4-5 months after its been baled with additive, especially if you're using the full rate. Stick it in a shed and leave it there, it needs to go through a curing process, warm up a bit and then cool down. And the acid breaks down too I expect, so you lose the smell as well. If I've baled hay with lots of additive on it I won't send it out to customers until nearly Christmas. And I've never had any complaints, in fact I had one lot that I had to bale in an emergency that was up to 25% when baled was chosen by several customers as what their horses liked the best, over far 'better' hay.
25% is fine with crop saver. Safe to 30% . Only heats up slightly for first 2 weeks. No caramelization.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
But We can't control the weather.
Farmer standing in the field looking at his hay
It's half a day off and it looks like rain
He has 2 choices in his mind
Burn the shed down or wrap it ,
In my experience if you bale hay over 16% it will never have the color and smell of dried hay , unless it's barn dried that is , but the hay I buy is the color of green grass in the field and has a strong hay smell to it , if your happy not to have perfection then by all means use an additive
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Farmer standing in the field looking at his hay
It's half a day off and it looks like rain
He has 2 choices in his mind
Burn the shed down or wrap it ,
In my experience if you bale hay over 16% it will never have the color and smell of dried hay , unless it's barn dried that is , but the hay I buy is the color of green grass in the field and has a strong hay smell to it , if your happy not to have perfection then by all means use an additive
I'm not convinced about wrapping either, how many bales wrapped of all the ones made have mould or some sort of similar issue which spoils it, or part of it.?
Its only strips of cling film after all.
 

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
Farmer standing in the field looking at his hay
It's half a day off and it looks like rain
He has 2 choices in his mind
Burn the shed down or wrap it ,
In my experience if you bale hay over 16% it will never have the color and smell of dried hay , unless it's barn dried that is , but the hay I buy is the color of green grass in the field and has a strong hay smell to it , if your happy not to have perfection then by all means use an additive
Sorry. That's utter crap. I would have agreed years ago. But since having the 2270 and harvest tec applicator and using the acid. I'm a convert. Cant beat it.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Salt.

Back in the day (1982) my old boss liked to make "green" hay bales - all 18,000 of them, every one hand balled - then sprinkle salt on to each layer. After the bay was filled, used a large fan to blow air through the stack. Looked like the barn was on fire but dang, the hay at the end was like tobacco and smelt good enough to eat.

The Add-H preservative did the same. As well as the acetic acid rotting the baler!! :unsure:

When I had stopped applying the acid into teh bale chamber and I had a few doggy bales from headlands and the like, I would use the knapack to soak the layers of bales with Add-H which worked well in stopping all mould forming... mostly
 

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
Several dozen (possibly 100 plus) hay stack fires here each bad drought as a lot of arable blokes cut droughted wheaten hay with a high sugar content and potentially the head in the boot still. Looks fine. Rustles and shatters like hay should to the unsuspecting and will read 10% or less on the meter. But most times the flag leaf will still be green and sappy.
Using the acid us the safest bet I have seen especially if weather is closing in. Yes, I agree , natural curing is best. But as we all know during spring it can be challenging.....even in an ACTUAL drought.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Hmm, let's have a look at this one then....
:unsure:
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
I’ve never used an additive in 45 years of making hay.
Maybe I’m lucky but I wonder if it is yet another invention to tempt us to spend money.

They’ll invent a tractor cab soon and everybody will want one of them too!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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