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Well, my hay guy explained it this way. Once the decision is made to cut hay 
you let it lay for a day or two. Then it has to be turned over and let dry a 
day or two. Then you have to have the moisture content checked on it because 
while it may LOOK dry, inside it may still be to "wet" to bale up. In which 
case once it is baled, will heat up and turn into mold and then for sure 
your hay is ruined. Sometimes they have to turn the hay several times, 
especially if it has rained after it has been cut.
The key is to have the hay analyzed for moisture content BEFORE it is baled. 
I have been getting truckloads of hay from him for several years now and 
have never had bad hay so I think he knows a little bit about it.

Talk to your guy and find out what the process is. The education of hay can 
be very interesting.

Lisa Salas, The Odd Farm
> > Ok, I need some moral support.. I'm sitting here with newly cut hay in 
> > the field and watching it get rained on. My hay guy cut it yesterday 
> > afternoon.. Don't ask me why.. I had been watching the weather and knew 
> > we had a high possibility/probability of getting stormns and a lot of 
> > rain.
> > So to say the least I was surprised to meet him on the road as he was 
> > leaving and I was goining to the house.
> > So it was cut late yesterday, around midnight we have a huge thunderstorm 
> > and it contines to rain all night and has rained on and off all AM.  So 
> > almost 12 hours of steady and hard rain..
> >
> > I'm feeling that my hay is ruined, and I'm just sick.  I had planned on 
> > having it  put it up in small square bales, for the horses.  I do have 
> > another much bigger field that isn't cut yet, but this is my higher 
> > quality hay, fescue, timmothy, lespedeza and some clover.  The lespedeza 
> > is thick this year.  I was looking for a significant yield.
> >
> > It may rain another day too, so if I can't get it to dry quickly, so that 
> > I can put it into square bales,  should I just write it off?
> > Roll it into big round bales for cattle, or just leave it in the field 
> > and turn the horses out onto it with the hay down as it is?  I had 
> > planned on turning the horses out as soon as the hay was  put up in the 
> > barn.
> > It's their summer pasture.
> > My next question.. is it appropriate to be angry with my hay guy for 
> > cutting the hay when  heavy rain was predicted at over 50% chance???  I'm 
> > pretty unhappy, but if it's not reasonable to be unhappy about this.. I 
> > guess I'll need to "get over it".  Thanks for any info...
> >
> > Columbia, Missouri
> >  NATRC Region 6
> >  AERC # 65
> >  AERC Central Region
> >  OCER member
> >
> >
> >
> >
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