rain on alfalfa, again!

[walter]

Hello. We cut alfalfa almost 3 weeks ago and got most of it baled (small squares) about 1/4 of it stacked when it started to rain - it's now had about 1.5 inches of rain - is there any hope for it? Moisture readings range from 14% to 50% with the average in the 30s. And it's supposed to rain again on Wednesday - so we should have two days of nice weather before then. At what point can we stack it? I really don't want to open 3,000 bales, and baling it again would be hard on the baler. Any comments? Thanks.

[cfu]

Walter, I think you should evaluate more than just the hay that is in the bale. If it has been in the bale, in the rain, for the past week or so then it has already been damaged to some extent. It has been our experience that you do more damage to the hay that is starting to grow in the field than you realize by taking the time to get the bales just right. It sounds like your bales are in a wide range of moisture levels, so I would suggest you stack them and go for a better second cut.

[brian99]

I agree with cfu on this one. Just get the bales off if you can. You can't cut and rebale all those bales, the cost would be more than the hay was worth(on shear pins alone)