questions about "brokering" hay

In another thread I shared that Im out of hay and have a couple good customers I want to keep stocked. I started looking for hay at a few local farms. Jumped in my truck and brought my JD moisture meter. Id like to share my experience and ask some questions:

 

Found a nice supply of medium bales at a nearby farm. Looked like typical 1st cutting. Low on weeds, but a little on the tough side. Looks like it was baled a day early. Farmer told me bales went through baler around 14%. Bales were made 30 days ago. Probed several bales with my moisture meter. Every reading was 20-25%. Farmer (very forthright nice guy) thought my moisture meter is inaccurate- I never trusted it, either.

So he offered to split a bale on the parking lot. Bale looked nothing like a 20-25% bale. It looked pretty good inside. Just a very slight amount of dust between layers and you really had to look for it. Honestly my bales can get slight dust in them sometimes. We looked through several layers. Again very minimal touch of dust. No white mold anywhere. Bales were about 95-105* and it was about 90 in the barn. I bought a sample bale from him to take to my customer. He said when his father got home, he would probe bales to see if he got same results as me. 

After I got home, he texted me a picture of his dads (same as mine) JD moisture meter stuck in bale. Readout was 17.8%. He said he probed several of the same bales I did and got  mostly 15-17%. Highest was 19%. 

 

I tend to believe my moisture meter reads way high based on the 20-25%+ moisture bale we split that was clean. Also noteworthy that I recalibrated the meter twice and replaced the battery. 

He also told me he'd never store hay in his barn over 18-19%. I wouldn't either. He obviously knew high moisture hay is dangerous. He has 250 bales stacked deep into the barn. He didnt appear stupid enough to risk his very nice barn to a fire. He was clearly a bigger more experienced operator than I. 

 

Soooo, can I trust the hay? Any other insights that could help me decide? Frankly, it scares the shit out of me when I don't make the hay. I feel incredibly responsible to my customers, their animals and their buildings. 

questions about "brokering" hay