Talk:Hay

message: Is there a citation for haylage being more common in Europe than the US?  At least anecdotally here in northern New England haylage is very common, though difficult to compare to traditional baling since the wrapped bales get left stacked visibly outside while other hay gets stored out of sight.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vttale (talk • contribs) 15:17, 30 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I can't say if there are any statistics one way or the other.  However, in my entire life, I've never seen a haylage bale anywhere west of the Mississippi and we'd fear to feed it for worry about botulism.  If there are stats in either direction, it would be interesting to see them.  Montanabw(talk) 19:22, 31 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Haylage in the US 

message: I think that this section should probably be properly wikified (instead of consisting out of block quotes). The reference from which was cited could then be listed in references as "Some of this article comes from the public domain resource [...]". —Michiel Sikma (Kijken maar niet aanraken) 09:30, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  History section 

message: I am going to move the information on hay making out of Uses and in to Hay Making.  Makes it easier for the reader to keep 'uses' seperate from the 'how to' part. wagors 16:38, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Uses

message: Past tense used in this section makes it sound like no one makes hay anymore.  Also very industrial country centric as hay is still gathered by hand in some parts of the world.  Will come back later and see if there is something I can do. wagors 16:52, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Making Hay

message: Please remove all the images from the article that show Straw (dry stalk of cereal plants), and no hay (dry grass). This should be featured? You geeks. --Tom 17:28, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It's hay (probably weedy, but not straw) that has not been removed from the field. There are a couple of bales on the right of the picture that are probably over a year old, but based on the shape of the bales the others are not much over a month old. They sag around the edges with more time. If it's gotten some rain on it hay turns brown pretty fast.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.158.66.149 (talk) 22:35, 16 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Straw, not Hay

message: Up to the end of the 19th century, grass and clover were not often grown together because crops were rotated.
:An annon user known for other spamming activities modified this line to change the date range.  It MAY be a valid edit, in which case I just changed it back to the wrong version.  Can someone who knows better verify it and remove the  note? --Mdwyer 04:15, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Bad Edit?

message: I've just expanded the article a little, covering spontaneous combustion and the move from small bales to large bales.
Here's a photo I took a few hours ago, which shows the dense hay in the middle of a large round bale. Is it worth adding this photo to the article? Cheers, CWC(talk) 14:50, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It's a very nice photo. Feel free to add it, I'd say. There isn't really a need to ask. I think it would look even better in a different light, by the way, perhaps in the evening or morning so that it's possible to see the shape of the hole a bit better. —msikma <user_talk:msikma> 09:53, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the tip. I'll try to get a better photo. Cheers, CWC(talk) 10:55, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Changes made 30-Sep-2006 

message: User  recently added this to the article:
:To find the number of tons of hay in a stack
:Multiply the overthrow (the distance from the ground on one side over the top of the stack to the ground on the other side) by the length, by the width (all in feet); multiply by 3; divide by 10 and then divide by 500 to 600, depending upon the length of time the hay has been in the stack.
This seems like an interesting piece of historic lore, but we'd need a citation. Can anyone help? Thanks, CWC 10:41, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  How to calculate mass of hay 

message: In the second image down, barley has been recently substituted for alfalfa, but the caption still reads newly baled which would refer to a field scene, not the shed. The alfalfa before was a perfect example of rounded bales whereas the barley appears to be variously cured or mixed grasses. - Athrash | Talk 20:09, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I'll look at that and see what's going on.  I saw the substitute, didn't notice the caption wasn't changed. Montanabw(talk) 04:00, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Fresh Image

message: Regarding this reversion  - The source listed in reference 7 doesn't state *anything* anymore, as that linked page no longer exists. I was incorporating information found lower in the page (in the Section "Safety issues"), as I though a statement saying that drier hay has a lower risk of burning was counter intuitive and needed explaining. But on further review, it appears that the source given there (#12) doesn't exit anymore either. -- 128.104.112.114 (talk) 16:35, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Looks like MSU Extension redid their web site.  I will attempt to find the article and fix the link. I see your point that it seems counterintuitive ... but "rot" isn't really it, it's fermentation, which may eventually lead to rot, but when haystacks burst into flame, it's usually early on, within hours or days of being put into a stack, long before rot.  Hay that just gets wet on top from weather after it's stacked isn't as big a problem as hay baled too wet...  I don't have a problem tweaking the language a little, just don't put it as if it's part of the footnote.  Montanabw(talk) 05:17, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spontaneous Combustion 

message: There seems to be a degree of confusion about wrapping bales with plastic film as in the silage bale picture and using netwrap instead of twine to hold the outer layers of a round bale in place.
The netwrap is increasingly popular as much as anything because it speeds the final stage of round bale making which with twine requires many revolutions of the bale. Net wrap only needs go around three or four turns.
There's very little evidence or claim made that netwrap 'repells moisture'.
It may keep the outer layer somewhat more compressed which might enhance the self thatching effect.
I changed the caption on the picture but haven't made changes to the main text.
A little caution may be needed in this due to different experiences dependant on climate variation - but the above is my experience in the UK.
we are in a dry area where hay is still quite widely made as well as silage (clamps and bales) - but annual rainfall is such that hay cannot be left outside without considreable spoilage of outer layers.
4wd (talk) 21:49, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Hm.  Regional differences, yes.  Out here, (Western USA) there is a very fine wrap sometimes used OVER twine that sheds a bit of moisture, used for hay stored outside.  It wouldn 't hold the bale itself at all, too flimsy.  It is not waterproof, but it slows down rot a bit, especially here where it is quite dry and ground moisture is probably  bigger problem for spoilage than what falls out of the sky.  Here, twine is used, multiple strands, not many times around.  I haven't seen net as a wrap.  Yes, problem for sure is that there is such worldwide variation.  I suppose careful captioning is in order, for sure.  Montanabw(talk) 01:49, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Wrap(ping)!

message: (Continued from Montanabw's talk page.)
Although it is not widely understood, grasses are flowering plants, and, as such, have flowers and fruits. The flowers are tiny, mostly hidden by bracts, and without petals. A grass grain is the fruit.
All this relates to hay because the same factors affect the nutritional value of grass hay that affect legume hay: the distribution of nutrients in different parts of the plant at different stages of growth. Early in the growing season, the leaves are nutrient-rich, because they are active sites of photosynthesis. As the season progresses, nutrients move to the developing flowers and then fruits, and in perennial plants to the roots to support the next year's crop of leaves.
Straw comes from the end-point of the process: all the nutrients have moved into the grain, which was harvested, and the remainder of the plant contains only those nutrients that couldn't be relocated, primarily the cellulose of the cell walls. Late-season hay harvests approach the point of being "straw + grain", with a very different proportion of nutrients, and with less nutrients overall (energy is expended by the plant in making the grain). I'm not familiar with the literature of hay nutrition, but I expect it could all be evaluated in this context.--Curtis Clark (talk) 15:11, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Fair enough.  Of course, I do sometimes refer to cheap grain as "horse beer!"  LOL!  Montanabw(talk) 00:53, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Terminology and nutrition 

message: What do they call hay that is stacked in a barn(small bails)Is it Hay Mound? or hay Mow?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.44.136.113 (talk) 09:01, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Haystack, at least where I live (American west).  Doesn't matter if inside or out. A Haymow is a loft in a barn where hay is stored.  A Hay mound implies unbaled hay. May be other names elsewhere.  Montanabw(talk) 18:52, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: "Stack" also typically used in UK for external unprotected structure. Otherwise, it's hay in a hay-barn. Round bales don't really "stack" as well as rectangular ones, of course. () Although we also had this guy back in the 1980s. Martinevans123 (talk) 23:08, 16 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proper Name 

message: Many farm operations involve only a single person and managing a single 50 to 90 pound hay bale is relatively safe for one person.  However, large round bales weighing 800 to 900 pounds are now the dominant form of hay harvesting in mechanized parts of the world.  Lifting the heavy cylindrical bales with a tractor front end loader has proven to be unsafe as bales rolling from the loader is not infrequent.  Farm tractors are also slower than road traffic and are generally less safe for longer distance hay moving.  Small farm pickup trucks are commonly modified to convey a single bale by means of penetrating the center of a bale with a four foot spike.  The spike hydraulically tilts the bale forward and up to a safe attitude that allows secure public road transport above 40 miles per hour.
Photo of pickup truck bale lifting mechanism needed.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Homebuilding (talk • contribs) 19:23, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: LOL, I never have my camera handy when I see one driving by!  Montanabw(talk) 18:39, 10 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Safer Hay Handling Equipment Design 

message: How frequent are fatal accidents with hay bales? Does their (apparent) relative scarcity make any individual case any more or less "trivial". I would guess that victims' families would not regard these events as trivial. Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 19:14, 11 April 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, if you had read the paragraph to the end, you would note a statistic of 74 deaths in a six year period. I think more than 10 per year, given that the people at risk are a small percentage of the population to start with, is pretty significant.  Thus, once you start providing case reports, or making value judgements that one accident is worse than another, the list will quickly escalate.  Now, if someone wanted to start a List of people killed in hay-stacking accidents or something like that, I have no problem with doing so.  It's the "laundry list" problem here that I hope to avoid.  Montanabw(talk) 20:47, 11 April 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: sorry dude, fell out the stack 'afore had gotten to the bottom... Or even List of people killed in US hay-stacking accidents? Can't wait to see User:Red Pike of Doom get his fork into that one.... But know what you mean. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:47, 16 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fatal accidents with hay bales 

message: Montanabw thinks I reverted twice, but I didn't.see this edit summary I added content, which I partially reverted (once) to correct the "bad form" that you pointed out.  Also I didn't remove a footnote: I merely moved the whole text, footnote included, from Composition to Safety issues, where it turns out the fescue endophyte mentioned by 24.220.222.246 was already discussed, though not clearly.
I don't think we should have information repeated in Composition and Safety issues.
What to do next?
--Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 20:34, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: I put the better material in a logical place, the trick now is to look at the overall article and figure out how to best get rid of the redundant material, it's important to keep the better source - or maybe both sources. Give me a couple days to get to it and if I don't fix it by Monday, ping me here and remind me.  Montanabw(talk) 09:22, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Endophyte]]s 

message: If we want to link to conditions related to eating fresh grass, I think that it is WP:UNDUE weight to list them in the main article body text, and not helpful to list only a single example.  A better approach would to be to create an efn with the major conditions listed that way.  Montanabw(talk) 22:34, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Grass sicknesses 

message: Why was Haystack deleted and redirected to Hay? It looks like a decent article, with useful information (which was not included into Hay). Don't you think it should be restored? Thanks. Zgaba (talk) 05:46, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Not necessarily. Most of the needed info was incorporated with the merge, which was... 7 years ago. Montanabw(talk) 07:08, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: Haystack