Moisture increase after baling - what’s normal?

vendredi 21 mai 2021

Hi all! Small scale commercial mixed grass hay farmer here in Massachusetts. All small square bales.

I’m often the first one to attempt dry hay in town. It’s often beautiful quality, but acts strange in storage compared to the rest of first cut. This year I got a moisture meter (Delmhorst), and when baling both the in-baler probes and hand probe agreed I was at 8-10% moisture. (Around here below 15% is what I’ve always heard as ideal.)

Just to be safe I stacked this hay single layer, cut side up in the barn. Lo and behold, both 24 and now 48 hours later, there is a small amount of perceivable dampness to the touch, and the moisture meter now reads anywhere from 15% to 22% (usually 16-18). This is my first time with a moisture meter, so I have nothing to compare to.

In short, is it normal for recently baled hay to have a spike of moisture content in the barn? Zero signs of heat, but don’t want this beautiful feed to mold/dust on me. Plan to keep it single layer cut side up as long as I can and keep checking, but can’t figure out if I’m missing something. Also don’t want to panic and sell it as discounted use-asap “feeder bales” - but would prefer that to a batch of dusty mulch in a month or two.

Any thoughts welcome! (Just remember - northeast, mixed grass, small squares)

Thanks!

Moisture increase after baling - what’s normal?

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