Green hay, am I past the overheating risk?

[Tiddlypom]

I posted elsewhere that, because of poor weather, we had to bale this year’s hay a day earlier than ideal, it was greener than I’d like. It was down for 4 full days, but got rained on hard on day 1, but then was turned 5 times before baling just before the next lot of rain. It was properly dry when baled.

It’s been stacked in the barn for 5 days now. No sign at all of any heating and it smells fine. I have been checking it daily.

Have we got away with it, do you think? This has been the most difficult year for hay we’ve ever had, in previous years I’ve been confident that our hay was well made.

 

[Aperchristmas]

I am following this thread because we're in exactly the same situation as you, the bales are far greener than we would want but it was either that or lose the whole crop. Fingers crossed we'll both be fine!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Fingers crossed for you too, Apercrumbie!

Yields are down everywhere this year, so hay will be in short supply and expensive. This is ours as baled.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Do you know a local farmer who may have a bale spear moisture meter thingy you might borrow?
Ours looks a bit green, like you we got rained on at first but luckily had rowed it up seeing the forecast. It was then turned a lot and it seems to have worked.

 

[Aperchristmas]

Fingers crossed for you too, Apercrumbie!

Yields are down everywhere this year, so hay will be in short supply and expensive. This is ours as baled.

View attachment 52294

Thank you! I don't think yours looks too bad personally. I've been moving the first bales in the stack out when I can to give them & others more air, but the intense rain isn't helping matters. I'll try and get a picture later but ours is a fair bit greener than yours sadly. Such a shame as our hay is normally really lovely.

 

[tallyho!]

Just done ours... keeping an eye on the temp but thankfully a cooler couple of days... we are in SUCH short supply we have been using this years spring cut hay. As I have always been maintaining... as long as it's dry and cool with no sign of mould, all is good. And all is good. give it two weeks and check everywhere for that tell-tale smell.

 

[rabatsa]

I have known hay fire three to four weeks after baling and stacking inside. Push your arm in between bales as far as you can. The outside bales will be cooler. If there is risk of it firing then removing bales and letting air into the middle can cause flames as without air it smoulders.

A heat probe is a good idea. Grain farmers often have them.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Thanks all, and thanks for the tip about the probe.

The positive side of the yield being only 75% of normal is that we were able to stack the hay with a good air space between bales, to help it breathe. It’s only 155 small bales, and the barn is open fronted. Normally we get 200 bales in. I’ve had a really good reach through as far as I can, and there is no heating as yet.

We do get local reports most years of barn fires caused by overheating hay. I don‘t want to be one of them! If we hadn’t baled it when we did, we’d have lost the lot.

No wonder haylage is so popular...

ETA Just got the bill for the hay being made - £275 or approx £1.78 per bale. Good value, as they worked very hard to keep turning it to save it.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Farmer friend has a good number on trailers in the barns, ready to deliver as he got held up on Friday when getting it off the fields (complicated calving x 2). He hopes to deliver early this week instead and has advised me he's keeping a close watch as its rather green, despite being fully dry.
A bit concerned as we have temps in 30s forecasted for end of this week, so I'll split it up into hay barn and spare boxes and then re stack when more time at end of the summer I think.
Unless he'll keep it a while longer.....

 

[Tiddlypom]

Unless he'll keep it a while longer.....

Worth a friendly request to see if he’ll oblige, TFF . Then you can stack it at leisure later on.

’Tis always something to be worrying about when keeping neds, isn’t there? I’ve been lucky to escape this particular worry up to now. Next Friday looks set to be hot, but apart from that temps for the next fortnight here are mostly high teens to v.low 20s, which helps.

 

[Polos Mum]

If you can find a long metal pole - old curtain pole, scaffolding pole etc push that into the stack as far as you can and leave it there. If it starts to heat up the metal will conduct the heat out and you can 'test' the middle where your arm can't reach.
If you're really worried you could get someone to wrap it for you?

Mine was supposed to be baled Thurs pm, would have been OK then, due to c£&* up, it was bales on Wednesday night and left baled in the field so I got someone else to wrap it for me later on. £5 a round bale, worth it for the certainty that it wont be dusty in Jan when I really need it

 

[Tiddlypom]

A long pokey metal pole to use as a diy heat probe - genius, thanks Polos Mum . I think we have just such an item knocking around.

How would wrapping bales stop overheating? Stops O2 getting in?

I’m a real Luddite, it’s all naked small square bales here!

 

[Polos Mum]

Ah - small bales would be hard to wrap economically. The heat comes from it starting to rot, like your muck heap - it gets really warm inside. If hay isn't properly dry it will rot, a little fermentation will make it dusty and have that horrible sour smell. A lot of rotting will generate a lot of heat.

It's really an art to decide whether it's dry, you need to find thicker patches - under hedges / trees and look at nodes.
I became a real hay nerd when we made our own, and local 3rd generation farmer helped loads (his ideal for the pole - we had a scaffold pole just just for that).

Wrapping stops rotting as the bacteria have no oxygen. That's how haylage is made with with grass. And why you have to use haylage quickly when open - as soon as O2 gets in it start the rotting process again.

I hate buying 'wrapped hay' because you never know what's inside until you open it and my lazy fatties don't need haylage - but having seen how close to hay mine was before it was wrapped it'll be really interesting to see how it turns out in the winter when we open the bales.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I found a 2m long galvanised metal earthing stake to use as a pokey metal pole, and I was very pleased to pull it out of the centre of the stack this morning and find it was as cool as when it went in last night .

Thanks for the inspired tip, PM. So far so good, though I will keep up the monitoring.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Two recent barn fires involving hay in Cheshire .

The reports don’t mention spontaneous combustion, but no other cause is given, and it is the right time of year...

https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/new.../firefighters-battle-huge-blaze-near-18673517

 

[Aperchristmas]

I'm running to check mine now

 

[tristar]

i usually stack it in 20 small bale stacks with gaps, small gaps but enough to allow air all round, and never had any heating problems, 4 x 4 bales always left in the field 1 - 2 weeks and as they re round they have air gaps between bales when stacked sideways

 

[brighteyes]

Two recent barn fires involving hay in Cheshire .

The reports don’t mention spontaneous combustion, but no other cause is given, and it is the right time of year...

https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/new.../firefighters-battle-huge-blaze-near-18673517

Oh dear, I hope nobody was hurt. After that, all I can think of is that it drives the supply available downwards. We got two lots of first cut and one is beautiful dry and sweet - the other, a rather larger acreage, has heated to 20deg. Not sure what to think and we are waiting for it to cool before investigating. been stacked about a month I think.

 

[Tiddlypom]

My repurposed not-at-all-hi-tech 2m earthing stake/heat probe is still thankfully coming out at ambient temperature. I think that the hay looks a little less green now, though maybe I am getting used to it.

 

[brighteyes]

The outside is bleaching slowly. Looks great.

 

[Aperchristmas]

Looking good tiddlypom!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Looking good tiddlypom!

Thanks, I’m cautiously pleased with it. How’s yours doing?

 

[Aperchristmas]

Thanks, I’m cautiously pleased with it. How’s yours doing?

Still greener than yours but doesn't seem, touch wood, to be overheating. I'm not confident for a beautiful crop though.

 

[Tiddlypom]

No overheating detected and we are now a month after baling, so we did get away with it.

At the time I thought we’d jumped the gun and cut it too early after it got rained on the day after cutting, but there has been no better weather window since then, and the forecast is for it to remain unsettled. Reckon we might have lost the lot if we hadn’t taken that gamble.

I’ve just started using it, it doesn’t quite have that lovely sweet smell of new well made hay but it’s not too bad, and there’s no sign of mould. Steaming freshens it right up and the neds are munching it ok.

 

[Aperchristmas]

Ours seems to have managed as well! We've also had to feed some but it is well soaked for our fatties. Really glad yours has turned out well tiddlypom!