Another post from the novice hay maker. Well the one acre field is cut and after a good day of hot drying sun we had a downpour. I have gotton two stories on what I can do with this hay. My father-in-law, who was raised on a farm in Italy, says that when it rained on their hay they let it dry again and used it as normal. They didn't have a choice. They could not look in the local paper and buy hay. They used what they had on the farm.

The locals around here say rained-on-hay is good for nothing except mulch or bedding. I have dairy goats and I certainly don't want unhealthy sick animals over the winter from poor quality hay. Our pasture is 40% clover and grass - in case that makes a difference. Any advice is appreciated.

-- Tiffani Cappello (cappellol@alltel.net), June 16, 2001

Answers

Tifani, we turn it and turn it out in the field until it's dry, dry, dry and then bale it. You sure don't want to feed any hay that's been baled wet to anything, you are right about that! Not only will it kill stock, it will start fires when wet bales are stacked up in the hay barn so it's dangerous in more than one way. I hope this helps. :-)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), June 16, 2001.

Hi Tiffani. My poor husband says I get so tense when I have hay on the ground and he should know. We've been putting up hay together nearly 28 years. (He asked me to marry him on a Friday night and got "tested" the next day. The two of us hauled 2 tons of hay for the horses I had at the time)

Anyway, if you are going to get rain on hay the best time is as soon as possible after it's cut. I've had people tell me it doesn't hurt it at all, even had one man tell me to turn the bales on the cut edge so the "rain would run right through." Yeah, right. Unfortunately, with your hay as dry as it was you will have lost a lot of nutrient content. The University of Missouri did some tests a few years ago and found out that as little as 1/10th of an inch could reduce nutrient content by as much as 50%. Think of making tea and how the flavor and color leach into the water as it steeps.

I've had to feed rained on hay but only after it was, as the first poster said, turned and turned and turned until you were sure it was dry and wouldn't mold. Goats can survive rained on hay that was well dried before baling but not moldy hay. Frustrating, isn't it? I've got haying coming up in about 2-3 weeks. The growling noise you hear from Missouri is me when I watch the weather forecasts.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), June 16, 2001.

Well you guys have me worried. We cut one of our fields, the hay man did knowing it was going to rain and it did, not bad but did. The next day it was 90 degrees and about 3 p.m., I guess he felt it was dry he bailed. This is my cows hay for winter so I am worried about mold.. I have another fields which he is doing now into square bales but it isn't suppose to rain. So., should I worry about my round bales of hay?

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), June 16, 2001.

Hi, Tiffani~ It's going to be poorer quality hay, but you can compensate poor hay quality by feeding higher protein grain this winter. At least to a certain extent. If you really need the hay I'd mow it away, anyway and throw more grain at them this winter. If you pick the hay up, you'll notice in a few days/week that the grass coming back in that was under the windrows of rained on hay will be much greener. That's due to the "tea" effect that Marilyn mentioned. So even if the hay isn't so good anymore, you get the benefit of the fertilizer out of it. Maybe you can get a second cutting off the field in 6-8 weeks, too.

I cut my first hay this morning in the teeth of a storm coming. It was raining before I was done. Early first cutting hay isn't as damaged by rain as later on in the first cutting. The protein and total digestible nutrients (TDN) are so high that even if you "waste" some of it to rain, the hay you get out of it is still decent quality, or can be, next to hay that you might get put in in three weeks. Each day past bloom on grass hay is a 1% drop in TDN. So days are precious in getting in high quality hay. Lots of times nice hay cut now that gets rained on is just as good or better than hay you cut three weeks from now that you had perfect weather for.

Jennifer L.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), June 16, 2001.

Dear Tiffani,

Having been through this before.... Be certain the hay is DRY before bailing and You'll probably be okay. You might consider sectioning off Your hay storage area so that You'll have access to this cutting and the next. When You need to start feeding out, combine 1st cut with 2nd cut hay and that will help even out the nutrient loss. I've done this when offered rained-on hay at a GREAT price and it worked well. (I was feeding 23 horses that were worked over trails everyday during the Summer)

As to Debbie's concern - The moisture content at time of baling is the most important. Just last week, after what seemed MONTHS of rain, friends mowed 2 alfalfa and 1 grass field on Saturday and were able to bale by 11:00 am Sunday morning. And we'd a heavy dew overnight. There are so many variables in making hay, that it really seems more art than science sometimes! *grin* If Your farmer friend went ahead and baled, I'm guessing it was plenty dry and You needn't worry. If You've major concerns, try stacking in a very well ventilated area which will assist in drying out.

Good Luck!!

Randle

-- Randle Gay (rangay@hotmail.com), June 16, 2001.

I read somewhere (I think it was countryside) that you can build a drier for your hay out of a storage shed and a lawn mower. The lawn mower acted as a fan to draw the moisture OUT. The mower was installed at the top and drew the air from the bottom to the top and out. I've often wondered if this would help with just this problem. If it would, I think you could make hay at almost anytime. Just add your fresh hay a little at a time to the top and it shouldn't mold. Just guessing, does anyone have any idea if this would work? annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), June 16, 2001.

Tiffani, the clover will turn black and ugly looking, the grass part will turn brown, and the sweet smell will be long gone! For dairy goats this hay will be worthless nutritionally, valuable as fiber only, you will have to feed extra protein as concentrate to make up the difference in nutrition! Such is the breaks in making hay, we lost 1000 bales last year to rain, had to sell it as mulch hay as it is worthless for stock, what a loss financially, did not even recover our costs in labor to put it up!

Better luck next time!

There will be another cutting or two available this year off your field, try, try, again!!! Use this batch as bedding, or mulch on your garden. Landscapers will pay 75 cents a bale for it in any event.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), June 22, 2001.