hay hay hay "HELP"

Just finished cutting some sorghum sudan grass, due to wet weather for 2 months it had already headed out and was almost as tall as the exhaust pipe on my 8050. Luckily I sowed it very heavy and every seed must have come up, therefore most of the stems were about the size of a cigarette up to the size of my little finger. I cut it with a discbine and did a good job of cracking the stems.  Question is, will the cows eat the coarse stems, they are very sweet, as I chewed some just to see. Neighbor suggested  baling it wet and wrapping it as bailage, said cows would eat every bite of it that way. Never baled any high moisture hay, but I do have high moisture kit in my baler. If I bale it high moisture, then I will I to  find and pay someone to wrap it.  My original plan was to cut it, ted it at the proper time and bale as usual. What do yall think, think the cows will eat the crushed stems? Will they still be sweet after drying? Will I just have a bunch of bales cows wont eat?  How bad is high moisture baling?(deere 567 baler new belts this spring) Thanks, give me your ideas!

I have no experience with that type of grass but I have baled fescue that I was going to wrap dry but the day the neighbor brought the bale wrapper over we got a shower and decided to wrap anyway. Even though I baled it dry when we wrapped it while it was raining it still fermented. I gave the bales to a friend of mine because I didn’t want to feed to the horses. He tried a couple of bales and the cows loved them. He came back and bought the rest of the bales even though I told him he could have them. Would it be possible for you to try to speed up the drying on a sample of hay and see if the cows would eat it. Maybe sitting it on a table and leaving a fan to blow on it overnight?

Edited by Red Bank - 16 Aug 2020 at 7:55pm

Just remember what I was told years ago when I started making hay—-“it sure beats snow balls” they will chew on it fine. May not eat it as well compared to nice alfalfa however if for beef, roughage is good. Wrap it wet, they like it even more.

Edited by allisbred - 17 Aug 2020 at 5:27am

I had this exact same issue a few years back. Stuff was at least 14 feet tall when I got to "most" of it. In my experience, it takes a bugger of a time to dry out, so you might as well plan on baling wet and wrapping. Wrapping does make excellent feed seems no matter what you wrap! One thing about the bales, they are VERY heavy. Might consider making them a little small, but your call.

I can say this: chopped, wrapped, baled wet and sitting there, the cows ate it. I never did get my whole crop off due to the wet weather we had that year.

Wrapped it can be challenging. The thicker stalks love to puncture the plastic. If you round bale it, probably would work better than twine. I used to make it for silage with cow peas. Had extra one year so put it in an ag bag and the bigger pieces ripped the plastic and I had to re bag

baling corn stalks here is a big waste of time cows will not touch it even if its all thats laying on the snow

Geeze, I’ve never seen cows turn away from cornstalks, either beef or dairy.

Edited by Lars(wi) - 23 Aug 2020 at 12:00pm

If it is foreign moisture, it may be a problem with mold.  Plant moisture is ok.

I grew a sorghum/Sudan grass soybeans mix which I chopped and put in an Ag Bag for Dairy Cattle who really liked it in their Total Mixed Ration. The second cutting was all Sudan grass and I did the same with that only feeding that to Dry Cows and Heifers. As for Nitrite Poisoning in Sudex that comes after a frost or drought and does not effect ensiled crop as much. I would bale wet and wrap as heavy as the crop is as you say it will take forever to dry enough for baleing. Wet feed is lower in dry matter but better in palatability so cows eat more.

You are correct about mold Tbone and that is why wrapping bales makes sense as it keeps oxygen out. Mold cannot occur in an oxygen free environment. That is why I chopped and put mine in an Ag Bag. If I were to do it now I would wrap bales as less machinery investment.

Yes, wet hay can mold with plant moisture.  The trick is being free of foreign moisture (rain or heavy dew).  Too much plant moisture needs to be just a little moisture on the belts at max.  We do not have mold problems with alfalfa or haygrazer, if we follow this criteria. I am located in southern Kansas.  Most of the time, we do not have too much moisture.  Outside bale storage of hay is not a big problem.  The hay is fed to beef cattle. Dairy hay is handled differently because of higher quality demands.

Holy smoke!   I have round baled hay so wet that I couldn’t get a probe into and have never had one catch fire (those set out side) and are normally steaming for a few days. Our cows have cleaned up all junk hay made over the years not wasting any bales, good stuff gets sold to horse people. But then again, our steers are not picky because they like ignition wires as well. Good hay around here needs to be around 16% to keep from getting dusty.

No— I have heard of it around here years ago in square bales, always just thought the bales were too loose and a wet slug got hot and ignited. I have never seen round bales outside catch though, they just sag from what I have seen. If I want to get the field clean and don’t have time for square bale hay to hit below the 16%, it gets rolled and sometimes wrapped. Very hard to get dry hay without preserver here. Other day, I made 16.5 hay and the neighbor was doing 30 plus using preserver- they did about 40 acres in big squares and I questioned how that would turn out. Just always looking for the limits that work I guess.

I bought round bales from a big-timer up north of here about 5 years ago. They were delivered in March or early April. First couple bales were great. Then we cracked open one in the barn that was HOT to the touch inside, and black/ charred looking hay throughout. I figure that had to be dang close to catching. Turned out around half the hay we bought had heat and damage of some sort in it. And it was EXPENSIVE!