How to know if Hay is Ready to Bale

okay so this video here is going to be on how to know if your hay is dry and ready to bail there's many important reasons for your hay to be dry enough to bail most most recommend that it's under 20 percent for small square bales and any big bales like round bales are supposed to be under 18 percent moisture the two main reasons why you would want your hay to be drive before you Bale it is one hay quality so don't get moldy here or or spoil one yet and number two if you're putting it in your barn you definitely don't want it to heat on you and cause a fire so there's many ways to test test town if your hay is dry enough to bail you have just old tricks and sight and feel and then now they've came out with testers to test fit some of the tests are like the bend test the twist test and then just feeling the hay to try to tell how much moistures in it some some people will actually bite it and test it that way and then there's the newer methods which is the tester to actually test what it is there's wind row testers and then there's actual bale testers to where you put it in the bale and test it or like the one that I have you test it if the Hays like laying or in a windrow before you Bale it and then there's also the newer bailers have onboard moisture monitoring do you add your Bayon you can watch the one test is the twist test so you take it and you get you a little bundle hey and you take the hay and you twist it around and what you're supposed to do is once you get it twisted you let it loose so if the hay untwist and kind of fluff out a little bit where you twist of it it it's at the right it's dry the veil so close-up of the twist test you take take your bundle hay and you twist it around and once you let it loose it's supposed to basically untwist and kind of fluff out here in the middle so you can see that Kanna did so that means it's is definitely close to being out with a bale or not just kind of damp it's just something you acquire over time to just tell if it's wet or not so the other way to know if it strives basically just to look at it does it does it look dry is it is it real dark green in color yet or is it dried out to like just a green greenish tint where it looks dry it don't look like a fresh stand that hasn't been mowed or a just mowed so if you compare it as time progresses to see how the looks changed that's another way to test and the other way is is a sound is to kind of Brussels the hey and listen to how it sounds it'll rustle louder the drier it gets so I don't know if you can hear that or not but it's kind of rustling so that's the other way to do it then there's the bend test so if you take a piece and you bend it and if it doesn't Bend back then that means it's a spot that's not already bent so like in a fresh spot that wasn't crimped by the the hey bond or the disc bond so you take it and you bend it and if it doesn't Bend back that that means it's dry then the other way is the actual moisture meter so mine how it works now all of them probably work at a little bit of a different way but mine is the wind prototype so what you do is you have a five gallon bucket and you jam it for hey and then you hook the hook the prong down in and push the Run button and then it tells you the moisture so I'll go ahead and show you that so you just take the hey damn fool and then put your foot put the meter down in push the start button and it spits the moisture back out so right here this this spot shows 19.6% moisture so this is this is a close-up of the moisture meter this this one here is the windrow type this is actually a john deere tester so if you go your John Deere dealer you can get them but there's other people who make them if you look online there's there's multiple other ones like you get your pay in the bucket you put the meter down in and you hold it down in and then you push the Run button it'll do its thing and I don't know if you can see the screen or not but this right here shows 17.4% you test multiple spots to the field that way you know you're good don't just go in and test one spot you need to make sure that the whole field across the board like average is drug the main ways that I know to test if your hay is dry enough to bail everybody's got their own little thing that they like to do and and this probably definitely wasn't all of them these are just some of the ones that I typically use I go by my moisture meter probably the most just because I feel more confident with the number that it gives me but I also do use the other methods just to make sure that that it's good just as an all-around kind of approach is what I like to do those are the ways I know if you do have to know any other once leave some comments below and and and tell us how how you do it but that pretty much wraps up this video so I think that's it and I'll catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Logear

Views: 47,577

Rating: 4.8362575 out of 5

Keywords: Hay, Hay Testing, Hay How To, How To, How to know if hay is ready to bale, Hay Mositure, Making Hay, Testing Hay, Getting hay ready to bale, Logear, Checking Hay, How to tell if hay is ready to bale, How to know if hay is dry enough to bale

Id: YYbY7TqrLgU

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 09 2018