Harvesting
Moisture Testing
Making sure your hay is at the right moisture level during all steps of the haymaking process is important to hay quality and safety.
Miscalculating your hay moisture content by even a few percentage points can be enough to ruin your whole hay crop. Even if your hay is baled at the proper moisture level of 15-20%, there is still a negligible amount of moisture left that may cause the bales to heat a bit. You will want to let your bales sit for a couple of days in an unconfined area, not touching each other before storing them in a confined area. Check your hay moisture in the windrow before you bale it to make sure that you don’t bale it too wet and then you should check the bale moisture again before you store it.
Hay that is baled too wet will lose its color and feed quality from the inside of the bale where you most likely won’t see it until you feed the bales and it is too late.
There are different methods of testing the moisture content of hay. The most accurate method is to test the moisture of the windrow before you bale it with a battery powered moisture tester. Using a moisture tester is just as fast as twisting the hay with your hands, but it is more accurate. Using the hand method is a good way to judge when your hay is getting closer to the correct baling moisture, from about 40% moisture down to about 25%. However, from about 20% to 10%, moisture content it becomes very difficult for the human hands to judge the moisture of the hay. In most crops the hay moisture should be less than 20% but no drier than 15% when baled. Hay that is too dry will tend to shatter or lose leaves and hay that is too wet will spoil. With all of your hay on the line, it is important that you don’t take a chance by not testing the moisture. Talk to your extension agent or see your equipment dealer to find out more about moisture testing and where to purchase your own moisture tester.
