Round bale hay

[tinsheet]

Am no scientist but fire needs oxygen to fuel it?
Combination of the 2 I expect

you may be right in a way but then at least the round bales the heat can get out if stacked on end
I know some one that baled rye-grass hay in square bales before it was fit, they notice it was getting hot in the shed and decided to move it out as soon as they touched it it caught fire

 

[Henarar]

Am no scientist but fire needs oxygen to fuel it?
Combination of the 2 I expect

yep about right
My dad had to cut down through a shed full of lose hay with a hay knife to let the heat out he said he could only stay in there for a few minutes at a time and what he through out didn't touch the ground it blew away ash I spose
i have a tool that was meant for doing this apparently it looks like a big apple corer

 

[willie waver]

get your bales in as soon as dry

quick history lesson here, the advice that you can leave round bales out without them spoiling comes from when round balers first came on the scene. basically they all had string tying mechanisims which took about a minute to wrap round the bale. this was a pain in the arse having to wait for every bale to string, but the advantage was that the bale rolling round the chamber for that long, flattened the outside hay to a nice shiny waterproof skin that could be left in the field for weeks with no damage

now modern baler net and spit out the bale in seconds, great for the baler man, not so great for waterproofing the bale. the result being, heavy rain will seep into the outer inches of your bale and ruin a large percentage of it quality

so to recap, if your using an ancient string tie baler, leave em out as long as you want. if its a net wrap, get them feckin in

 

[mushnt grummmble]

get your bales in as soon as dry

quick history lesson here, the advice that you can leave round bales out without them spoiling comes from when round balers first came on the scene. basically they all had string tying mechanisims which took about a minute to wrap round the bale. this was a pain in the arse having to wait for every bale to string, but the advantage was that the bale rolling round the chamber for that long, flattened the outside hay to a nice shiny waterproof skin that could be left in the field for weeks with no damage

now modern baler net and spit out the bale in seconds, great for the baler man, not so great for waterproofing the bale. the result being, heavy rain will seep into the outer inches of your bale and ruin a large percentage of it quality

so to recap, if your using an ancient string tie baler, leave em out as long as you want. if its a net wrap, get them feckin in

only 1 side of the bale would shed water??the other side would attract it in

 

[YorkshireAndrew]

Whenever you get them in , stack them on end .

 

[Goweresque]

get your bales in as soon as dry

quick history lesson here, the advice that you can leave round bales out without them spoiling comes from when round balers first came on the scene. basically they all had string tying mechanisims which took about a minute to wrap round the bale. this was a pain in the arse having to wait for every bale to string, but the advantage was that the bale rolling round the chamber for that long, flattened the outside hay to a nice shiny waterproof skin that could be left in the field for weeks with no damage

now modern baler net and spit out the bale in seconds, great for the baler man, not so great for waterproofing the bale. the result being, heavy rain will seep into the outer inches of your bale and ruin a large percentage of it quality

so to recap, if your using an ancient string tie baler, leave em out as long as you want. if its a net wrap, get them feckin in

I knew there was an advantage to using string! Still do TBH, as my round baler's net wrap mechanism is out of action. Have got the parts to sort it out but sounds like I could be better sticking with the string. Particularly when I only use the round baler when there's a rush on and I don't have time to get them in before the rain arrives.

Dad used to leave Claas Rollant 44 bales out for ages back in the day, looked pretty rough on the outside but the hay was fresh as a daisy inside still. Just had to make sure they went into the barn dry and they were fine.

 

[Goweresque]

Whenever you get them in , stack them on end .

But if they are a bit too green and likely to warm, put something on top of the top bale as a sacrifice layer - I stacked a few baled too soon rounds on end a couple of years ago, they heated, the bottom ones turned out fine, the top one of each stack was ruined by the rising heat leaving the bale and causing condensation, which made the bale go black and mouldy.

 

[YorkshireAndrew]

Fair comment if they've still got some 'nature ' in them .

 

[milkloss]

Net wrap will not shed water as well as string

Not so sure I would agree with that. Our net wrap bales look a lot better than the neighbours stringy ones. We use 2.5 turns wrap in a jd belt baler going a fraction over full tilt.

 

[Sid]

Uncle use to use a box of matches to test if hay was fit to bale. If it burnt bale it

Next door neighbour managed to burn big square bale hay in 2001.

 

[Willy A]

Would you bale round bales of hay as tight as you could or slacken the baler to not pack so much in them.

 

[Devon James]

Max density

 

[Cow1]

If it's not quite fit slacken the pressure and leave them out for a few days. I only bale hay at max pressure when dead fit.

 

[JD-Kid]

intresting rounds shed water squares suck it in used to have hay out side all the time ... row it up so sun hit's both sides IE row it north south not east west

if feed out the same year loss less then intrest on a shed unless in a high rainfall area or foggy days

 

[Henarar]

intresting rounds shed water squares suck it in used to have hay out side all the time ... row it up so sun hit's both sides IE row it north south not east west

if feed out the same year loss less then intrest on a shed unless in a high rainfall area or foggy days

Yea I heard that before some folk will put them the wrong way round

 

[JD-Kid]

we spotted it with tubeline balage N/S OK but E/W we seen a higher amount of mould on the southern side

 

[Me Myself & I]

If it's not quite fit slacken the pressure and leave them out for a few days. I only bale hay at max pressure when dead fit.

We prefer to use a fixed chamber round baler for hay as it has soft centres and allows the bale to breath.

 

[Haytime]

Have a bit of a concerning problem here…
Have some of my round bale hay, would’ve been baled 6-8 weeks ago and been left outside since. Has been carted back from the field to the field next to the farm.

We had a few days heavy rain this week and have found the flat side that was facing the direction of rain and became wet, has become very hot inside the bale, other flat side where no rain hit is fine. The rain must’ve got in as the hot parts are almost a dark peach colour and some even steaming when I pull hay out.

Is the hay ruined now? Can I leave it out a few more weeks and it’ll cool down? Any advice is appreciated as I’m having a bit of a panic here!!

 

[JSmith]

If it’s for cows just leave it out, stacked single file on there side, you’ll lose a couple of inch over time due to rain but better than the barn burning down!!

 

[Haytime]

If it’s for cows just leave it out, stacked single file on there side, you’ll lose a couple of inch over time due to rain but better than the barn burning down!!

That’s exactly how they were/are stacked outside before this rain came. I’ve never had the rain manage to get inside the bale and cause it to heat before.

Just worried if that’s those bales of hay now ruined or if they will come alright after a bit more time staying outside.