Beware of New-Baled Hay!

[Lady_Eboshi]

Just putting up a little PSA for newer horse owners who may not know; beware of the local Farmer Jones who calls you and offers a ginormous discount if you go “pick the hay up off the field” so he doesn’t have to truck it and stack it in his barn. They usually call when racing thunderstorms, which is suspect right there. :ambivalence:

I got another one of these calls yesterday from the usual character, which reminded me. :winkgrin:

If it sounds too good to be true, IT IS. First of all, chances are that no matter how good the hay looks to you, the horses won’t eat it that fresh. The enzyme-curing process hasn’t taken place completely yet, so the taste is sometimes “off.” Furthermore, it has a lot of drying to do even if it WAS baled under ideal conditions (and plenty isn’t!), so it’s going to weigh a lot less after a month or two in your barn.

The bigger issue is “heating.” If the hay was NOT truly dry when baled, fermentation will take place causing literal heating of the hay; a condition the results of which can range from musty, dusty unfeedable hay to BURNING DOWN YOUR BARN! :eek:

So wait to buy for a couple of months post-haying season, that way if it’s going to curdle it does it in the hay-man’s barn, not yours.

[SuckerForHorses]

Not necessarily in regards to your comment about the farmer “racing thunderstorms”. We only sell our hay out of the field, we do not have storage to stack it to sell later. We are not “racing thunderstorms” every time we bale hay.

As with everything else in the horse world, there are exceptions to every rule and there is nothing wrong with buying hay out of the field if it’s been done by someone who knows what they are doing.

[JB]

I bought 6 round bales from my hay guy the day they were put up, so not literally out of the field, but might as well have been.

My horses thought it was crack.

Back when I boarded, new loads of hay were brought up from SC once a month or so, and the farmer got several cuttings. This meant at least once, sometimes twice, the load would contain freshly baled hay. Nobody went on a hunger strike.

Even if hay that’s been baled for 3 months weighs less than it did on Day 1, when you’re buying by the bale, it doesn’t really matter

[LauraKY]

I’ve helped load hay right out of the field for a rescue. BS Lady Eboshi.

[Sansena]

My dad hayed for a living, after he retired from his regular occupation. We regularly pulled hay directly from the fields and put it in front of horses at my work and for my personal horse. Only issue was doing a 50/50 split between the existing hay supply and the ‘new’ straight from the field, otherwise they’d get a little loose stool. Never a problem with refusal to eat or finding it unpalatable.

[tabula_rashah]

Um, yeah. Not quite. I’ve never seen a horse turn down freshly baled hay, nor have I ever had a problem feeding it as long as the bales aren’t hot.

[Calvincrowe]

Whatever. I’ve done fresh from the field, old from the barn, makes no difference to my horses. We bought out of the field locally for years, sometimes following the baler. Never had any issues, because the farmer put up his hay correctly–not wet, checked moisture, not rained on, dry enough, cut at best time. If I were a hay farmer and I was risking my baled hay getting rained on, you are damned right I do anything to get it sold and off the field! Wet hay is worthless.

[Carolinadreamin]

[QUOTE=Lady Eboshi;7694799]
Just putting up a little PSA for newer horse owners who may not know; beware of the local Farmer Jones who calls you and offers a ginormous discount if you go “pick the hay up off the field” so he doesn’t have to truck it and stack it in his barn. They usually call when racing thunderstorms, which is suspect right there. :ambivalence:

I got another one of these calls yesterday from the usual character, which reminded me. :winkgrin:

If it sounds too good to be true, IT IS. First of all, chances are that no matter how good the hay looks to you, the horses won’t eat it that fresh. The enzyme-curing process hasn’t taken place completely yet, so the taste is sometimes “off.” Furthermore, it has a lot of drying to do even if it WAS baled under ideal conditions (and plenty isn’t!), so it’s going to weigh a lot less after a month or two in your barn.

The bigger issue is “heating.” If the hay was NOT truly dry when baled, fermentation will take place causing literal heating of the hay; a condition the results of which can range from musty, dusty unfeedable hay to BURNING DOWN YOUR BARN! :eek:

So wait to buy for a couple of months post-haying season, that way if it’s going to curdle it does it in the hay-man’s barn, not yours. :)[/QUOTE]

Ummmmm…

[AKB]

Years ago I bought freshly baled hay. To begin with, it was great. A few weeks later, it had all molded. I guess the hay farmer baled it too wet.

The hay man who I have used in recent years won’t sell it to me fresh from the field. Even though he is careful about moisture, he doesn’t want to take a chance on burning my barn,

[airhorse]

A compost thermometer is very handy to keep track of hay temps. Anything over 120 needs to go back to the seller. Anything over 140 needs to go to the fire department.

[AKB]

Air horse, how often do you check the hay temps and at what point after baling is there no more risk of fire?

[hosspuller]

Again the true answer is “depends” I’ve thrown broken string bales from the baler into the horse pasture. Horses stopped picking and went directly for the just baled orchard grass.

I’ve baled hay and decided after baling, it was too wet. So fed it straight from baler to horses. My horses ate it all. Never had a chance to heat since it was consumed in hours.

[airhorse]

We purchase big squares and every now and then will get a damp one or two. The compost thermometer is a great way to keep track of how good or bad it is going to get.

As far as a time frame goes, it depends. I feel pretty good after 30 days.

I always stick the thermometer into a few bales before we get them off the trailer.

[saultgirl]

Around here mostly everyone buys/sells right off the field. Waste of labour to move it twice. Weight doesn’t matter because it’s all sold by the bale anyways.

Not to mention, we’re still doing our first (and only) cut here now, and 3 months from now there will be snow on the ground (which is, of course, preceded by a few weeks of mud). Mostly everyone gets a year worth of hay in the barn NOW. Those who run low over the winter pay quite a premium for hay that has been in storage.

[SnicklefritzG]

Not to hijack the thread, but I think hay bailing machines are so cool. I had never seen how these work until last week.

[JoZ]

My hay guy is a real hay guy. (This is in contrast to my landlord, whose hay I wouldn’t trust as far as I could throw it.) I asked my hay guy about waiting – a curing period – when he brings me fresh stuff over the summer. He said that wasn’t necessary. If it’s made correctly, it is cured and ready-to-eat. The horses love it.

[Foxtrot_s]

Old timers used to believe hay had to be old before feeding - like last year’s hay - not so, that has been disputed, in fact, new hay is better as long as it has been put up in good conditions.

[TrueColours]

I bale and feed straight from the field. As we are putting the hay into our storage barn, I also have the fellows pay attention to any bales that are heavier and appear to have some moisture in them and put them aside. I then bring those bales INTO my barn into a spare stall or two where Ive put skids down to allow airflow underneath, cut the strings and allow the bales to open and breathe which is all it usually takes to allow it to finish curing and dry out. Ive put 30-40 bales into the barn this way and have never had an issue with combustion or moulding or the horses turning their noses up at it. It gets fed first and everyone is happy

[fooler]

LE has a point especially if the person is new to baling hay.
We have been very fortunate to find a man who knows how to properly handle hay. He is very careful when he cuts, turns and bales his hay so it is safe as possible to pick up out of the fields. Plus he stands behind his hay - it if goes bad he will take it back and refund or replace the bad bales.

If you don’t know how the person handled the hay prior to baling, then LE’s warning is very valid.

[katarine]

As much as she insists we should know where our food comes from, we should not buy our horse’s hay out of the field? ROFL!

There is nothing wrong with fresh hay. There is something wrong with vilifying farmers .