Moisture Meter Readings - Square Baler Mounted

Did a little baling with the JD348 and on it, I've installed the John Deere labeled version of an Agtronix BHT-2.

 

Low humidity, good breeze during curing - the hay was crisp and dry (timothy).  I've inquired before about side doors (which this baler has and when to use them) - and one thing I've found is if the hay is really dry, on my baler, having the side doors about 3/4 in (we've played with different settings) along with the top tension, holds the grass great and we get a nice looking brick bale.

 

Moisture reading - pretty much 11%.

 

Then the shadows started coming and with it higher ambient humidity, the hay started rehydrating some.  The moisture reading started slowly climbing, up to about 16%.  At that point, the bales were noticably heavier AND tighter - understood.

 

The only real adjustment we made - to continue baling for another hour to finish was back off completely the side doors.  When I unscrewed them, you could hear the bale chamber groan - almost like an old wood stove cooling heating up.

 

I tell my kids - every piece of equipment speaks to you and you have to listen for it.  Higher the humidity in the air, the baler started working the tractor a bit harder, in addition to tighter and heavier bales.  It was time for an adjustment.

 

After we took out the compression of the side doors - the hay returned to 11-12% humidity.  The bale weight returned to what we had become accustom to, strings tight, nice brick bale.

 

The manual speaks to density of the bale and it's impact on higher readings.

 

Question is - how much do you trust these baler mounted monitors?

 

I'm still new with this one - and feel that as we go forward, we will see a pattern where the readings fall-out.

 

If we are getting up in the ambient humidity and it starts reflecting in the monitor, yet we've adjusted the bale density - then it's probably time to switch on the buffered propionic acid as the moisture climbs.

 

I had thought that hay preservative would be for potentially whole afternoon's baling - where a 3ish day window was all that was available.  I can see not that with the moisture meter readings "live", we can gain some earlier start and quit times as the ambient humidity comes and goes.  This would really help in baling around the day job hours too.

 

Bill

Moisture Meter Readings - Square Baler Mounted