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Barn Dried Hay
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<blockquote data-quote="Two Tone" data-source="post: 3591956" data-attributes="member: 44728"><p>I'd be very cautious about trying to barn dry large square bales. I think the density of these bales will be too high to get sufficient air flow through them.</p><p></p><p>I used to do conventional baled barn dried hay using a flat 8 system. We baled the hay about a day early when it was still quite green. You had to stack it very quick or the bales would overheat and become like bars of soap. The fumes were also horrible!</p><p></p><p>The problem is getting the bales tight enough for the flat 8 grab to work, but loose enough to provide adequate throughput of air to actually dry it. Air will always follow the path of least resistance.</p><p></p><p>The other problem was that the hay would often shrink so that the strings became too loose to out-load them using a flat 8 system. Don't try loading them on a lorry to travel too far after barn drying!</p><p></p><p>Ideally I'd use a tunnel system with the tunnel dimensions being as near as possible 10% of the stack height and width. You also don't want the bales tight up against any side walls to allow the air to escape rather than be blocked by any walls.</p><p></p><p>What you often find after drying is that each end of the bale is perfect, but the middles are like cardboard. It takes a hell of a lot of luck to get it right.</p><p></p><p>The steam or water vapour coming off the stack would scare the crap out of you sometimes!. How the heck we didn't have a serious fire, I shall never know!</p><p></p><p>If you are going to try it on a ventilated floor, you'll need an enormous fan to get enough air flow through the whole stack in one go. I'd advise not building any stack as high as you would have done with grain and make sure the bales are overlapped on each layer to prevent air leakages. So your stack will end up almost pyramid shaped on the sides and ends. And castellated at each end too on each layer.</p><p></p><p>Blow it at night when the air is cooler*. As long as the air is 5 degrees C or more below the temperature of the Hay (or grain!), you cannot make it wetter, no matter how damp the air is. Even if you were blowing a fog through it! This is exactly the reverse principal of taking a can of cold drink out a fridge on a hot, humid day and watching the dew form on the side of the can. Cold wet air moisture cannot condense onto a warm surface.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Having said all of the above, you could consider using the system you describe to air assist making sure your hay is kept properly, once you have made it into normal, field dried hay.</p><p></p><p>One of the problems we had last year was hay that was stacked in very high field temperature conditions when we had that very hot weather in July (29 degrees!). Low volume ventilation blowing at night, certainly brought the stack temperature down quickly and stopped any stack deterioration. But I am again talking about using lower density conventional bales here.</p><p></p><p></p><p>*High volume (high pressure) ventilation could actually make it hotter by compressing the latent heat within the air, in exactly the same way as a diesel engine compresses air enough to (burn (**not ignite!) the fuel.</p><p></p><p>Having said that, warm air has a greater ability of carrying moisture than cold air. That is why we use it to dry grain quicker. It's a balancing act.</p><p></p><p>** Diesel engine burn fuel. Petrol engines ignite and explode the fuel.</p><p></p><p>Be careful!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Two Tone, post: 3591956, member: 44728"] I'd be very cautious about trying to barn dry large square bales. I think the density of these bales will be too high to get sufficient air flow through them. I used to do conventional baled barn dried hay using a flat 8 system. We baled the hay about a day early when it was still quite green. You had to stack it very quick or the bales would overheat and become like bars of soap. The fumes were also horrible! The problem is getting the bales tight enough for the flat 8 grab to work, but loose enough to provide adequate throughput of air to actually dry it. Air will always follow the path of least resistance. The other problem was that the hay would often shrink so that the strings became too loose to out-load them using a flat 8 system. Don't try loading them on a lorry to travel too far after barn drying! Ideally I'd use a tunnel system with the tunnel dimensions being as near as possible 10% of the stack height and width. You also don't want the bales tight up against any side walls to allow the air to escape rather than be blocked by any walls. What you often find after drying is that each end of the bale is perfect, but the middles are like cardboard. It takes a hell of a lot of luck to get it right. The steam or water vapour coming off the stack would scare the crap out of you sometimes!. How the heck we didn't have a serious fire, I shall never know! If you are going to try it on a ventilated floor, you'll need an enormous fan to get enough air flow through the whole stack in one go. I'd advise not building any stack as high as you would have done with grain and make sure the bales are overlapped on each layer to prevent air leakages. So your stack will end up almost pyramid shaped on the sides and ends. And castellated at each end too on each layer. Blow it at night when the air is cooler*. As long as the air is 5 degrees C or more below the temperature of the Hay (or grain!), you cannot make it wetter, no matter how damp the air is. Even if you were blowing a fog through it! This is exactly the reverse principal of taking a can of cold drink out a fridge on a hot, humid day and watching the dew form on the side of the can. Cold wet air moisture cannot condense onto a warm surface. Having said all of the above, you could consider using the system you describe to air assist making sure your hay is kept properly, once you have made it into normal, field dried hay. One of the problems we had last year was hay that was stacked in very high field temperature conditions when we had that very hot weather in July (29 degrees!). Low volume ventilation blowing at night, certainly brought the stack temperature down quickly and stopped any stack deterioration. But I am again talking about using lower density conventional bales here. *High volume (high pressure) ventilation could actually make it hotter by compressing the latent heat within the air, in exactly the same way as a diesel engine compresses air enough to (burn (**not ignite!) the fuel. Having said that, warm air has a greater ability of carrying moisture than cold air. That is why we use it to dry grain quicker. It's a balancing act. ** Diesel engine burn fuel. Petrol engines ignite and explode the fuel. Be careful! [/QUOTE]
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