Technology is evolving faster than ever before, and farming technology is no exception. Automated equipment that has become a mainstay on both large and small operations demonstrates just how quickly everyday tasks can be simplified with innovative solutions.
For hay producers, one of these tasks is bale monitoring. The heat generated from hay respiration combined with elevated moisture levels and exposure to oxygen creates the ideal environment for bacteria in bales to thrive — and multiply. As more and more microorganisms respire, bales generate additional heat and hay temperatures rise.
Most microorganisms die when bales reach 130°F to 140°F, and then bale temperatures fall as bacteria populations decline. This heating cycle can occur for weeks after harvest without posing a major fire threat if there is adequate airflow between bales. What is cause for concern, though, is when thermophilic bacteria are present in hay. These heat-loving species incite a second heating phase, exacerbating the risk of fire.
According to the National Ag Safety Database, thermophilic bacteria can outlast temperatures up to 170°F, which is when hay fires are imminent and spontaneous combustion becomes a concern. Although it is recommended to regularly check hay temperatures using bale thermometers and manual probes, many of these tools do not provide continuous monitoring.
A state-of-the-art system
Haytech hay probes automatically track bale temperatures around the clock and alert farmers when hay gets too hot. The wireless plug-and-play system developed by the global tech company Quanturi includes 16-inch probes that are inserted into small square bales and relay hay temperature to a repeater installed inside a barn. The repeater amplifies this information to a base station that sends hay temperature data to the cloud, making it accessible on the Quanturi app.
When farmers open the Quanturi app, they have an overview of the Haytech probes installed in their bales, whether they are contained in a single barn or stored across several locations. Data from individual probes are displayed on graphs that show hay heating over time so users can assess the rate at which hay temperatures are climbing.
In addition to collecting and visualizing data, Haytech alerts farmers when bale temperatures hit a predetermined threshold. Users can customize their alert settings and notification preferences based on their risk tolerance, and they can edit the display name of individual probes to make it easier to locate a specific lot of hay in an emergency.
Aside from fires, a more common outcome of hay heating is forage quality loss. Excess heat and moisture encourage mold growth, which depletes energy stored in plant tissues. Anaerobic conditions can also alter protein structure in hot hay, resulting in a caramelized product that, despite being more palatable to livestock, has little nutritional value.
Haytech addresses these issues with its Feed Value Indicator. This app feature estimates the decline in forage quality based on the rate of rising hay temperatures, adding another layer of data to the bale monitoring system. The Feed Value Indicator does not directly measure forage quality, but it can help farmers make decisions about storing and feeding bales that may have experienced heat damage.
Lowering farm liability
Insurance companies are the poster children for risk management, including the risk of hay fires. That is why Nationwide forged a partnership with Quanturi after Vicente Rico, senior risk management consultant, learned about the hay probes. Promoting the bale monitoring system to producer customers and incentivizing its use with preferred pricing expedites the adoption of new approaches to preventative action.
“It’s all about mitigating risk at the end of the day,” said Rico, who understands the threat of farm fires growing up on a dairy in the drylands of West Texas. “If we can put technology into the hands of our customers to see that there are ways to automate old processes, it will help them enhance their operations.”
Laramie Sandquist, farm-agribusiness risk management leader for Nationwide, said using the hay probes is like adding a tool to the toolbox to lower the odds of on-farm disruptions. He believes the company’s partnership with Quanturi strengthens the message of safer hay management across all aspects of an operation and the agricultural industry at large.
Rico and Sandquist acknowledged some customers are skeptical of sharing farm information with the tech company when they use the bale monitoring software. Even so, most of the feedback they have received from those who go all in on the equipment is overwhelmingly positive. Not only has the Finnish company put down roots in the western United States to reduce the number of time zones between customer service calls, but the developers of Haytech are eager to visit farms to troubleshoot set-up issues and establish personal relationships with their clients.
“The way to get producers to fully commit and understand what the technology can do for their operation is to have boots on the ground at the haystack, putting in the probes, and installing the repeaters themselves,” Rico said.
Scaling to large squares
On the dialing end of many of these customer service calls has been Jeffrey Bushnell, who manages White Mountain Ranch in Dyer, Nev. He started using Haytech probes to prevent fire emergencies on the 3,000-acre commercial hay operation but also to justify an asking price for the high-quality alfalfa he sells to a large dairy. Nearly all of the hay he makes goes to a single customer, so maintaining a consistent product is essential.
“If moisture isn’t where buyers want it, they can ding you on price because they don’t feel comfortable storing it in their barn, and it can create a hassle for them to try and feed it right away,” Bushnell explained. “If our buyer is concerned about hay moisture in a certain stack, I can put the probes in to monitor bales on an hourly basis and show them that there is no issue at all.”
Bushnell said the Haytech system alerts him when a particular stack surpasses what he has set as his safe maximum temperature. When this happens, he separates bales for better airflow, allowing for more heat regulation.
“Roughly a week after hay is baled, it stops sweating and moisture dissipates naturally. Hay temperature should correlate with this process, peak, and then drop,” he said. “If the temperature doesn’t drop, or worse, it keeps climbing, the probes will tell you that.”
Since Haytech probes were designed for small square bales, Bushnell has gotten creative to make the system work with large square ones. He built a solar-powered base station that can sit outside in his stackyards as opposed to being mounted inside a barn, and he has been experimenting with how to position probes in his bales for the most accurate readings. For example, at 16 inches long, the probes can almost extend the width of a small square bale, but they only penetrate a portion of a large square one.
This obstacle was evident during the 2023 growing season when unusually wet weather drove ambient moisture to unprecedented levels in Nevada, the driest state in the country. Bushnell said his bales wicked excess moisture from the air and soaked up rainwater from the ground, causing bale cores to be much wetter and hotter than normal. Unfortunately, his hay probes didn’t reach deep enough into the side of the bales they were inserted to account for the difference.
Instead of letting this discourage further use of Haytech, Bushnell has been working with Quanturi to identify best practices for the hay probes in large square bales. He hopes his on-farm research will guide recommendations and inform product development to ensure hay producers of all bale shapes and sizes can benefit from the technology and mitigate fire and other financial risks on their farms.
“We are still figuring out what location on the bale works best to be able to track peak temperature in a large square bale versus a small square,” Bushnell asserted. “The technology is fully developed, and the user interface of the software is phenomenal. Trying to utilize the hay probes to be as efficient as possible for large square bale farmers is what we are focusing on now.”
This article appeared in the July XL 2024 issue of Hay & Forage Grower on pages 10-11.
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