How long to wait before using baled hay

[neal in PA]

Hi, I'm just getting started in baling my own hay. I seem to recall someone saying not to feed freshly baled hay to livestock. I think it was called "letting it sweat". How long must baled hay sit before it can be used? Thanks, Neal

 

[tim(in)]

if i remember right it was 3 days to a week.

 

[RodinNS]

News to me. If you need it, feed it.

Rod

 

[DeltaRed]

I keep feeding the oldest first(as long as its in good shape).If your out of feed,feed it,it wont hurt a thing.

 

[old]

That is just another one of those wives tales. Hay is hay be it a day old or a year old does not matter. If it did then the animals could not eat it right out of the field before it was cut or when it is cut either way.

 

[JMS/.MN]

With some livestock feed, a new FEED should be introduced gradually. Does not apply to hay- cut/baled. Hay is used as a buffer with cattle buyers with new cattle- anyone can eat it without digestive disturbance- cattle are designed to eat roughage. Fills the gut without changing rumen bacteria a whole lot. Starting them on oatlage, haylage, corn silage, shelled corn, CAN be another issue. Start slow, keep dry hay available, etc. Hay going through the sweat just reduces the chance of burning down your barn. Also lowers the feed value, even to the point of turning it gray- which is a mild form of combustion- ie- you got lucky! Unless your insurance is current and you could use a new barn.

 

[JD Seller]

I beg to differ with the other posters here. I have lost cattle feed hay that was heating. It can cause them to bloat. If you have grass hay then the odds are long but if you have legume hay(alfalfa or clover)it can happen. It is because of the chemical reaction going on as the hay goes through the heat cycle. This reaction causes excess carbon dioxide and methane in the first two compartments in the digestive track. The most common type of bloat is frothy bloat where gas builds up in a foam or froth above the liquid/semi-liquid fraction of the rumen content and the normal belching is inhibited. The digestive track expands and puts pressure on the diaphragm. The cattle can't breathe and die.

There are several ways to make sure you don't have problems.
1) Just wait until the hay has an internal bale temperature back down to the outside air.
2) You can put special mineral block out several days ahead of feeding the heating hay. These blocks are commonly called bloat blocks. They contain Bloat Guard® (Poloxalene)
3) Feed grain with Rumensin® added, for a few day before and during feeding the heating hay.
As valuable as your cattle are I would not take a chance on losing a few because of feed hay that is heating but you do what you want with your cattle.

 

[Don Mac]

If you have to feed it out as soon as you have made it then you have a major problem in pasture management. Good pasture management means there should be sufficient grass for the hay crop and for feeding stock, we make hay when grass production is in surplus.
There is only one exception if it is going from the field to the feedlot right away.

 

[kyhayman]

When hay sweats it is losing stem moisture down to the point of equilibrium. Not all hay has to sweat, depends on moisture content when its baled and where hay normally stabilizes in your climate.

As to local observations only, use for what its worth. Most legume hay sweats, most grass hay before June 15 sweats. If it sweats it can heat and it can lead to rather bad things happening.

As to the animals, I cant see any real biological problem feeding it to cattle. A lot of my customers feed immediately. As to bloat, yes, any moisture in legume hay can contribute to frothy bloat. But, fear of bloat causes far more losses than bloat itself most years. I graze alfalfa and yes I lose an occassional animal to bloat. Now horses are a different story. Colic is much more common, especially on stall kept horses. Its also just as fatal if not more so than bloat. Most of my customers for horse hay who have higher value animals want hay to sweat out 6 full weeks in the barn.

 

[kyhayman]

When hay sweats it is losing stem moisture down to the point of equilibrium. Not all hay has to sweat, depends on moisture content when its baled and where hay normally stabilizes in your climate.

As to local observations only, use for what its worth. Most legume hay sweats, most grass hay before June 15 sweats. If it sweats it can heat and it can lead to rather bad things happening.

As to the animals, I cant see any real biological problem feeding it to cattle. A lot of my customers feed immediately. As to bloat, yes, any moisture in legume hay can contribute to frothy bloat. But, fear of bloat causes far more losses than bloat itself most years. I graze alfalfa and yes I lose an occassional animal to bloat. Now horses are a different story. Colic is much more common, especially on stall kept horses. Its also just as fatal if not more so than bloat. Most of my customers for horse hay who have higher value animals want hay to sweat out 6 full weeks in the barn.

 

[RandyB(MI)]

If your hay is "heating" then you got in too much of a hurry to bale it. We have some around here that got so used to the "quick" way ( uncured hay in loose round bales) that when they decided to go with the large rectangular "tight" bales they had a major fire and these were even stored outside (good thing,lost it all) If you are going to bale it correctly it needs to be dry. Seems the "new breed" of hayer around here is in such a hurry their finished fields look like the head of a raggety Ann doll. Half is still in the field and nothing but stripped stems. When we did hay it was all in the barn when done. We did the raking and turning , if needed , when the heavy dew was on in the morn. Our alfalfa still had 80% of its leaves after baled.(cattle don't eat "stems" that well and "stem" hay don't sell for much either.) So IMO if your hay is heating , you did it wrong. If it was dry when baled then you can feed it the same day. Like the other poster said , if it is heating you have more immediate problems than bloat to deal with.

 

[Jerry/MT]

I can see no reason not to feed grass hay to cattle immediately if it"s nacessary. How could it cause a problem when the cattle normally eat fresh grass with much higher moisture content than hay?
I wouldn"t hesitate to feed cattle properly put up baled alfalfa immediately after baling.

I would only turn cattle on to Alfalfa pasture, in desperation and never with out bloat blocks and prefeeding them some grass hay to try to limit alfalfa intake initially. I"d never turn out hungry cattle onto fresh alfalfa.

 

[Michael Soldan]

I used to set the elevator up on the north side of the barn which was also the pasture field, the cows and the bull usually managed to get seven or eight bales off of each load before I could get it all set on the elevator, they loved cured hay and they were eating it right off the wagon! I never had a problem and never heard of a problem with cattle eating freshly baled hay..they would grab straw bales too and eat them!

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have seen Holstein Heifers bloat from eating fresh alfala. the better the hay the more dangerous it is. Introduce it slowely. Be safe.

 

[Anonymous-0]

bale it today, feed the missed bales today.