Has anyone ever re-baled haylage?

[hayinamanger]

I am buying small bale hay, it's not that great and it's expensive. We still have some round bales of last year's haylage, but cannot open them as we will not use them quickly enough. I know some people re-bale big bale hay and am wondering if anyone has ever done this with haylage?

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

I have never done it but I would imagine by the time you've opened up a large bail & taken the time needed to re-bale then air would have got to it & it would start going off? I could be wrong, but hopefully someone will be able to clear up the point.

 

[Miss L Toe]

I am no expert, but: when grass is ensiled/pickled by covering with plastic, certain changes occur, however the grassage/haylage still remains alive because it is in a fermented state, so it will deteriorate if the bag is punctured.
Hay is preserved by drying not by "pickling" so one can open small bales or large bales and re bale them, there will be losses due to fragmentation but not due to fermentation.

 

[Suelin]

A farmer close to us rebales his haylage. He big bales it for speed and then rebales depending on what the customer requires. I don't know what he has to do to it though to ensure that it doesn't go off after opening. I have had some from him in the past and the quality wasn't affected by the rebaling.

 

[jools123]

if you big baled to get it off the field and rebaled within 24hrs it would be ok but after that its not possible to do it without it starting the fermenting process

 

[Miss L Toe]

if you big baled to get it off the field and rebaled within 24hrs it would be ok but after that its not possible to do it without it starting the fermenting process

Aha, then I suspect that the he is selling small bale haylage to the premium market such as tack shops, so the extra cost is justified, but he can't take big bales after they have been ensiled for months and re - bale them.
I had to take a full bale of haylage one time, and it heated up after three days, so I spread it out on the ground to dry it out like hay, that worked OK, it did not rain or it would have been spoiled, but if I had dried it totally I could have baled it as hay.

 

[hayinamanger]

Thanks for your replies. I was thinking of re-baling 1 round bale, we would use it easily within 2 weeks, but I reckon you're right, it would probably spoil. Just been out and bought 2 small bales of hay (all they had) at £5.90 each.