RE: Hay logs?

[firefighterjake]

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/farmer-wins-grant-to-make-hay-logs_2013-05-02.html

---

So many grants . . . so much money wasted considering how heavily forested Maine is . . . then again I have seen dumber grants given out . . . such as the grant my brother got to build a gravel road to nowhere . . . it goes out about a half mile and then abruptly ends with a 3 foot drop off. He built it so he could supposedly move his flock of sheep (I think he may be up to 20 or so) from one field to another . . . and this is all on land he doesn't even own. Got another grant to put up fencing . . . he did not get the grant to attempt to grow blueberries on ledge though.

 

[Jags]

Hay? Hay, is critter food. Why would you raise it if you didn't have critters to feed?

 

[Reckless]

I need a grant to experiment with using beer as a fuel source XD

 

[bogydave]

Apply, & you might get a grant to make trees into fire wood.

Several grants given out that make someone a bunch of money.

Maybe he could turn his land back to a forest,
raise trees & then in a few years start selling firewood.
Cleaner , less energy needed to grow, cleaner air etc...
No grant money for that one though.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hay? Hay, is critter food. Why would you raise it if you didn't have critters to feed?

Even though you might raise a lot of hay, it can go bad rather quick and easy. So this guy wants to make the bad stuff into something good.

In addition, I know of many folks who raise hay and have no critters to feed. They just sell the hay and it can be an excellent cash crop.

 

[Jags]

In addition, I know of many folks who raise hay and have no critters to feed. They just sell the hay and it can be an excellent cash crop.

But the hay is then fed to critters. This dude is going through a relatively energy intense process to further process it into logs. I can't see how you could do this efficiently enough to regain the energy input. If I were a betting man, I would guess that the energy input out weighs the heating value.

 

[maple1]

Bad hay that can't be fed to animals might as well be burned to displace some fossil fuels.

 

[BrotherBart]

No difference between this and the work being done to make stove pellets from Switchgrass.

 

[Jags]

Bad hay that can't be fed to animals might as well be burned to displace some fossil fuels.

I have no way of knowing (just speculation), but the energy to dry out and compress that hay into a log compared to the energy of the log may not be a very wide margin of difference. Hay strips nitrogen that needs to be replenished (fertilizer) - might as well spread it back on the field.

Dunno - I might be talking out my butt. It just seams to be a high energy input for what would be the output. Dirt work, fertilizer, seed, harvest, dried, compressed.

 

[Jags]

No difference between this and the work being done to make stove pellets from Switchgrass.

Switchgrass is a much less energy input crop. One of the reasons for its discussion in the ethanol world.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

When Did we run out of "real " wood?

 

[BrotherBart]

He is talking about using rained on hay that can't be used for feed. Here is more detail.

http://hayandforage.com/marketing/burning-market-rained-hay

 

[Jags]

When Did we run out of "real " wood?

Haha - I was thinking that but skeerd to post it.

 

[Jags]

He is talking about using rained on hay that can't be used for feed. Here is more detail.

http://hayandforage.com/marketing/burning-market-rained-hay

Heck - if he can make a go of it (and a buck) - then go for it.

 

[BrotherBart]

When I was Alfalfa bailing hay it was in Texas. Rain getting on it wasn't a problem. In fact we bailed at night after the dew came out to make the bales heavier since we sold it by weight.

 

[Jags]

I used to throw bales and load the hay mow for a few farmers as a kid. When the bales weighed the same as you, it sucked.

 

[blades]

Problem there is if it isn't used like pronto it will mold and then it is good for nothing except erosion control if in sq bales, them big round ones all moldy in the middle are pretty much useless.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Won't mold if it is dried and although you'll find some round bales moldy, that is the fault of the farmer, not the bale.

I recall one year when I was young when the whole month of June was just one rainy day after another. We ended up just burning the hay after all the leaf was lost and what was left just was not worth feeding. In a case like that, if something could be made to make it useful, why not. Still, I'm not really sure this will turn out well in the end.

 

[blades]

Was replying to Brother Bart about the dew on hay, maybe in Tx it isn't a problem but up here it would be.

 

[muncybob]

Was replying to Brother Bart about the dew on hay, maybe in Tx it isn't a problem but up here it would be.

Would be here too...in fact I refused a load of delivered hay a few years ago due to high moisture. I should have told him to make some hay logs out of it!
Sitting up in the barn loft that gets pretty warm is a fire hazard not to mention our horses won't eat even slightly moldy hay. We hear of barns burning and a lot of the time it started in the hay storage area and is frequently blamed on moist hay.

 

[midwestcoast]

I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I'd be surprised if he could hit the needed price-point using hay. Yes it's only the spoiled hay, and more power to him for finding a use for it. It seems a nightmare to work into a large operation. You'd never know where your hay supply was coming from. In a tough, rainy year you're swamped in the stuff & on good year you're SOL.
Why not use straw? It's basically a waste product every harvest. Folks are already making building materials by just compressing straw. Maybe he can use both?
Storage of a lot of spoiled hay is not a trivial matter. I've been to a few barn fires from wet hay. Intense! Also have pulled some hot bales back out of the barn when we made the wrong call on the afternoon when the hay was "nearly ready" and storms were rolling in. Stick your arm down into the middle of a bale of damp hay & it is HOT in there. Can't imagine what the middle of a big round bale would be like. Multiply that by a large commercial storage area...

 

[Delta-T]

what a curious thing....I was not aware that Hay had the apprpriate fibers to hold together under compression.

 

[harleyrose]

Apply, & you might get a grant to make trees into fire wood.

Several grants given out that make someone a bunch of money.

Maybe he could turn his land back to a forest,
raise trees & then in a few years start selling firewood.
Cleaner , less energy needed to grow, cleaner air etc...
No grant money for that one though.

He raises hay because he sells feed hay this is the waste hay that can't be sold and if you did your homework on this you would know that the hay logs are cleaner with lower emissions then wood, less energy to grow and harvest hay and wood has a longer regrowth time plus most of the wood in Maine is used for manufacturing, there is a shortage of seasoned firewood every year

 

[harleyrose]

I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I'd be surprised if he could hit the needed price-point using hay. Yes it's only the spoiled hay, and more power to him for finding a use for it. It seems a nightmare to work into a large operation. You'd never know where your hay supply was coming from. In a tough, rainy year you're swamped in the stuff & on good year you're SOL.
Why not use straw? It's basically a waste product every harvest. Folks are already making building materials by just compressing straw. Maybe he can use both?
Storage of a lot of spoiled hay is not a trivial matter. I've been to a few barn fires from wet hay. Intense! Also have pulled some hot bales back out of the barn when we made the wrong call on the afternoon when the hay was "nearly ready" and storms were rolling in. Stick your arm down into the middle of a bale of damp hay & it is HOT in there. Can't imagine what the middle of a big round bale would be like. Multiply that by a large commercial storage area...

It's actually priced at or below all the other stuff on the market like BioBrikcs, Canawick and Home Fire Prest Logs

 

[harleyrose]

Problem there is if it isn't used like pronto it will mold and then it is good for nothing except erosion control if in sq bales, them big round ones all moldy in the middle are pretty much useless.

That's not true we have stored ours for a year and they haven't molded...they use the moldy bales square and round but the chopping and compressing process eliminates all of the mold and dries the hay