Bad Hay

[equusmaximus]

     Almost forgot to mention...  Opened a new hay-bale last Saturday (the 14th).  This is one of those huge round-bales, and so far nearly half of what we have pulled off of it has been rotten.  There's usually one small bad-spot where they sit on the ground, but it only goes one layer or so deep.  This bale has mutiple bad-spots, and they've gone

Comments

[xander_opal]

I almost wonder if the bale was rained-on while standing on its side?

[equusmaximus]

I'm pretty sure that it was rained on, but I'm also wondering if they didn't bale it while parts of it were still wet. Of course, that's one of the biggest problems with haying - hoping for those perfect weather conditions. :/

[calydor]

I've only once had a moldy bale of hay, a plastic-wrapped one which turned out to be bad through and through. Of course, while it was easy enough for a small tractor to push it INTO the stable, there was no other way to get it back out than to tear it open and move it wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow. With spores filling the air every time you pulled hay out of it and into said wheelbarrow.

It was not a healthy job.

[equusmaximus]

We have the same problem here - The neighbour brings the hay bales with a large Kubota tractor with a hay-grapple, but my little Massey-65 doesn't have a grapple. Getting the hay into the barn is easy, but getting it out, or moving it aside, is another matter.

It just ocurred to me that one way to pull it back out again would be to tie a large rope around it, then pull it outside. Not a perfect solution, as it will drop parts once it's opened, but certainly better than pulling it apart and moving it bit by bit.

[calydor]

Sweeping up a single wheelbarrow worth of hay is better than moving the entire bale that way, I agree. Just remember to lay the rope a little below the middle so it won't likely slip upwards and tear the bale apart. ;-)