Keeping hay bales green

[picassomcp]

I just got back from a hay auction, lots of hay there from many different sellers. Wow was there a difference in color of the hay from each seller. Some hay was very brown, other bales glowed green. Whats the difference here? I looked into some of the brown bales and less than an inch inside the bale was nice green hay so I figured the bale may have been bleached from the sun. Then a few piles over I find some hay that says it was stored inside but was still kinda brown on the outside. The really green stuff was in small square bales, I figured it must have been baled at a higher moisture to have that kind of color. I picked up a bale and it was not near as heavy as I was expecting it to be if it had been baled wetter.

Once the sale started I kept track of prices. The hay that was brown on the outside but really nice 1 inch inside sold for $40 a round bale, the greener round bale brought $70. Similiar hay, but the bale with the greener hay on the outside had the buyers all excited. The glowing green stuff in a small square brought $7/bale!! Nice hay in a bale with nice color was selling for $2-$3 all day long.

These buyers just go nuts over hay with green color on the outside of the bale, they don't bother to look whats inside the bale at all, they buy based on bale appearance rather than hay quality.

I can't seem to get the green color to stay in my hay bales, I work real hard to make good quality hay, I bale at 15% moisture and the bales look great on the field. I move them inside after sitting out for a week (to let them sweat, I don't wanna burn down the shed) They still have good green color at this point. But once February comes and I wanna sell it, it seems the bales have turned brown on the outside. Inside an inch is still green, but the buyer just won't look inside the bale, they judge it by exterior appearance and color. What can I do to keep my bales green??

Could I spray preservative on the outside of the bale with a small hand held sprayer after baling or prior to placing them in the shed??

At the end of the day, the color of the bale makes all the difference when it comes time to sell hay, I'm looking to get my bales greener, any ideas????

 

[Dave H (MI)]

Brown on the outside is normal. It reacts with the air and oxidizes. The real green stuff is going to be sprayed in the bale chamber to keep it from oxidizing so rapidly. That is my understanding of it, I don't spray my bales with anything and I have no trouble getting good money for them. I sure would not pay nearly double in March because a bale was green on the outside.

 

[495man]

I have several dozen round bales that I was able to have no rain on the hay, and the bales did not even sit out overnight after being baled, no sun or rain on the finished bales, straight to the stack.

I opened that stack up later this winter, hay looks like it was just baled. The other bales that were out longer, or saw some rain before stacking are brown on the outside, but still green inside.

 

[black]

I didn't know spraying was the secret . Down in Glendale AZ I saw the greenist round bales ever on a transport. They must of had tons of irrigation to get that green ?

Larry --ont.

 

[cool hand]

Wow! Where was this auction? Four weeks ago at an auction here in SE IN I sold (by the ton)a load of top-notch alfalfa/orchard grass hay in small bales and netted $1.76 per bale! Plus, I had to deliver it 24 miles away.

 

[old]

Sun will bleach them brown in a short time. If you have a big pile of square bales the ones in the inside of the pile will still be green but the ones on the out side will be brown. Deal with that all the time and have people ask and I show them. Like yesterday I moved a big round which was on top of 2 other big rounds. Where it had been and the sun light could not get to them the other 2 bales looked nice and green

 

[Cory Schmidt]

Many factors. Had some nice and green for the whole year, other black as ace of spades when baled, and everything in between from between baling and feeding. Sometimes all that from the same crop and field. Weather cut at different times; the amount of rain, wind, and sun it got; what's in it and the list goes on. None of our hay (or anything for that matter) gets sprayed with anything, ever (that just gets expensive and nothing really to show for it).

 

[wilson ind]

years ago when I worked weekends on the famous dug out ranch southeast utah, lady running the show was so proud of her purchased hay cubes. I happend to show her the hay around back of the so called factory. Worst round bales of once or twice wet hay ever. Then showed her several empty barrels of food grade green dye.She donated thousands of western grazing land to shall I say city conservation group, with her keeping life estate. Several movies are and were shot there.

 

[GordoSD]

We are selling second cut alfalfa for dairy hay in IA for 175 a ton. Mostly large square, 1400 lb bales.

 

[Allan in NE]

Preservative.

Allan

 

[Dick L]

Color sells that is sure. All winter I fed my horses brown all the way to the center round bales. It had straw colored wide stems mixed in. My horses cleaned it up better than any hay I have ever fed. I ran out of those bales and started feeding bright green alfalfa and grass a coupla weeks ago. The horses are picking thru it eating out the alfalfa and standing at the gate looking over at the bale at feeding time with a good portion of the green grass on the ground. No color added as I know where the hay came from. I'll open a bale this morning from yesterdays load and see how they eat it. It looks like no rain hay from the outside. Grandson sells his bright green big square bales to horse people in the South because they buy color.

 

[Bill VA]

What I saw with our hay from last summer, where we had grass blades vs stems, the green blended-in throughout. Even though we baled at around 15% moisture, I was a little nervous. But all was good. I sold all but a few bales and cut them open after a few months to check for dust/mold and it was OK - but the color had faded somewhat towards light brown.

Another batch of hay - I had at least 5 days between cutting and baling, no rain. It all came out pretty much light brown with some green grass blade colors mixed-in.

We sell by the bale, not the ton - so our pricing doesn't have to be to low.

OTOH - I've been watching auction prices and craigslist prices for square bales and this time of the year, early March, it's amazing the prices for even mixed grass hay - $5-$6 per bale in some cases. I guess some folks are desperate for hay. It would be my luck that if I held hay until March, I'd be stuck with it!

Bill

 

[State of Jefferson]

Several things will affect the color of the hay.
Little bit of rain, or just heavy dew will bleach it out.
Length of time it spends laying in the windrow- sun will bleach it out.
Oxidization takes the green out.
Was talkin to one of the hay truckers a while back. Said he was hauling a load of tough stemmed, but bright green first cutting alfalfa into a feed store. Horsey gal happened to be there lookin at some nice, fine stemmed 2nd cutting, that was bleached out a bit. She said "I want that nice bright green hay, it's higher quality!" "Ok ma'am"
Color will raise the price more than quality to the average person.

Ben

 

[formenwhogrow]

If your bales "sweat",you didn't bale them at the right moisture. If you need to leave them outside to allow them to go into a heat so they don't "burn down" the shed, then they weren't dry enough.

 

[redforlife]

sunlight can bleach it, but air exposure has a simular effect. For instance, a stack of hay bales that were green when stacked will be the same as an individual bale will get. The outside edges of the stack will do the same as a far as changing color but the bales within the stack will remain green just like the inside of a bale will remain green. Part of the trick is to bale when hay is dry enough to stack and get it stacked as soon as possible. The other part of the trick is to stack hay when selling with the green side out. So like if you have a bale that is brown on the top and one side, stack it when you are selling it with the brown top to the bottom and the brown side to the inside of the stack. Just kind of a way to be clever at doctoring things up for eye appeal. The quality of hay doesn't really change with a little bleaching. For what its worth, some hay is just not going to maintain its green color. Laying to long before its baled will pretty much guarantee that it will lose its greeness. Sometimes that just has to happen in order for ya to get it baled right.