What farmers do here on hay they can’t get dry, is spray hay in the baler with proprionic acid. This is a vinegar based product, perfectly edible, which will prevent molding and fermentation. Sprayers mount on the baler, spray according to moisture levels they read on the hay.
You can find information about the spray on the internet, learn the parameters of application to use it.
There can be a strong “pickle smell” with the vinegar base, but it is not offensive. Sprayed hay should NOT TOUCH any unsprayed hay. The moisture will transfer to the dry hay and cause molding in the dry hay.
When we were buying hay one farmer used this proprionic acid spray, and put up some pretty wet hay. I did not know much then about doing hay then, so not sure how wet it really was after the rain. Seemed like he cut one day, then baled the next day afternoon. There just was only a day or two between showers ALL SUMMER. He needed hay for his cattle and horses. Hay was half alfalfa/lucerne, half grass, gorgeous stuff! Never got hot, stayed bright green even after a year old. The spray did make the bales considerably heavier to handle! Normal 50# bales were closer to 70#. We did not have to feed as much hay either, it retained 100% of it’s calories! Had quite a bit more left come spring than we normally would… Our horses liked this hay, ate it readily, vacuumed up every morsel! I have heard other people’s horses don’t care for this sprayed hay. The hay farmer’s horses and cattle ate it, other hay customers horses ate it, every stem without issues.
You will hear using the acid spray will shorten the life of baler, rusting them out, which may be true. However not being able to get ANY hay put up is worse! Farmer friend said shorter baler life was part of the cost of doing business as a hay farmer. He did not use the spray for every hay crop, just when wet weather was not letting hay dry enough to bale