I persuaded G to help and we loaded up both trucks of beautiful looking hay. It wasn't until we were halfway unloading the first truck in the barn that I noticed one of the bales felt warmer than the last. Uh oh. Stuck my hand inside, and yep...hot in there and just a bit damp feeling. We cut it open to confirm, then went back through and found three more in that load. By then I was feeling paranoid about accidentally setting the barn on fire and returned the rest to the farmer.
No big dramatic story here, but it easily could have been. We only lost 4 hours of our day loading and unloading hay (and then reloading!) but it could have been worse. Best case it just went moldy before I fed it, worst case (and the one that scared the crap out of me given that one bale was almost too hot to touch on the inside, only a couple hours after baling) is it could combust and burn the barn down.
So, just a friendly reminder to check what you're putting in your barn this hay season. I was complacent given I've only ever got beautiful hay from this farmer before, and to be fair, the majority of what we picked up looked and smelled perfect.
Live and learn, I guess!
It's hard enough to put one bale in my trailer, I can't imagine loading and unloading an entire load!!!
ReplyDeleteI was NOT a happy camper when we loaded the hay back up to return it. Silver lining, I could consider it a 4 hour gym session rather than a failed hay delivery. My body is tired today :)
DeleteGood warning, thank you. We are required to have hay storage insurance (cuz there is an insurance for EVERYTHING here). I still worry a lot, even when we load hay by hand (nothing mechanized). Lately I've been more worried about poisonous weeds in hay, cuz for the first time this year, we will be feeding the hay harvested from our own pasture. I walk through and see buttercup, thistle, and two others I don't want in my bales. What can I do?
ReplyDeleteYou'll hopefully be OK, mine are pretty good about picking the weeds out of the hay, the odd time we have some. It seems there is always something to worry about with horses, though!
Deleteugh i am going to get hay today thank you for the reminder!! :)
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