Quick answer: "Baling on the dew" means letting hay cure bone-dry, then baling in the evening or overnight as a light dew settles and softens the leaves so they fold into the bale instead of shattering off. It works because surface dew is not what spoils hay — stem moisture is. Dew makes brittle leaves pliable for a few hours; the stems must already be cured. It is standard practice in the arid West, timed roughly 10 PM to 1 AM as the dew sets, and you stop when the dew gets heavy. Get it wrong — bale with stem moisture still in the crop — and bales heat, mold, and can even catch fire.
Ask an eastern hay maker about baling in the dark and you will get a raised eyebrow; ask a western alfalfa grower and it is just Tuesday. The practice looks reckless — deliberately baling as moisture returns to the field — but it is one of the oldest tricks for putting up leafy, green, high-value hay. The catch is understanding which moisture you are welcoming and which you are avoiding. Get that straight and dew baling saves your leaves; get it backwards and it costs you the whole bale.
What "baling on the dew" actually means
The move is simple to describe: dry the hay all the way down in the heat of the day, then wait for the evening dew to come back and bale in that window. A western grower summed it up in one line:
"Its standard practice in the west to bale alfalfa with dew. Just get the hay completely dry and catch it with the dew coming in to bale."
— Jay in WA · HayTalk thread 26931
Why bother? Because bone-dry alfalfa and fine grasses shatter. The leaves — where most of the protein lives — turn crisp and crumble off the stem the moment a rake or baler touches them. A little surface dew makes those leaves leathery and pliable again for a few hours, just long enough to roll them into the bale instead of leaving them on the ground.
Dew moisture vs stem moisture — the whole game
This is the distinction that makes dew baling safe instead of stupid. Dew sits on the outside of the plant and moves off again; the moisture that spoils hay is locked inside the stem. One producer relayed exactly how a friend threads that needle:
"He waits till it's 'bone dry'... and then goes out to bale when the dew starts coming on. He does this with big squares and puts (I think) 4lbs/ton of acid on. He said that the stem moisture is what is going to make the hay spoil not the dew moisture."
— lidaacres · HayTalk thread 26931
Another put the principle in five words worth taping to the baler:
"There is a big difference between dry hay and cured hay before baling."
— mlappin · HayTalk thread 26931
"Dry" can mean the outside feels crisp at 4 PM; "cured" means the stem itself has given up its internal moisture. Bale hay that only feels dry and you trap stem moisture inside the bale, where it ferments, heats, and molds. Bale truly cured hay with a little dew on the leaves and the surface moisture equalizes out harmlessly. If you rely on a meter, learn what it is really telling you in the hay moisture tester guide, and pin down your target numbers in baling moisture for net-wrapped bales.
Why leaves matter (and when they don't)
For alfalfa especially, a touch of dew is the difference between hay and a windrow of bare stems:
"For alfalfa yes you do need to bale with a little dew/humidity moisture otherwise you will end up with a bale of stems with some crumbled leaves. When I first started baling alfalfa I was scared to death it was too wet to keep in a bale because it felt damp but since the stems are fully dry when I bale I guess they take care of the extra moisture."
— FarmerCline · HayTalk thread 26931
How hard you chase leaf retention depends on who is buying. It is not a universal law — it is a market decision:
"Leaf retention depends upon the market. Export wants leaf retention. Dairys don't care because the TMR is going to chew it up anyhow. Plus they don't want to buy any water. Cowboys just want cheap feed. I bale both ways, depending upon the conditions and targeted market."
— Jay in WA · HayTalk thread 26931
Chasing the dew for the horse and export trade makes sense; for a dairy running everything through a mixer, the leaf you save may not be worth the risk of a late-night wet bale. One more myth to drop while we are here — dew does not make hay green. Color comes from cutting and curing management, not from the dew you bale in:
"baling hay with dew moisture and the green color of the baled hay are unrelated."
— FarmerCline · HayTalk thread 26931
For where color and leaf actually come from, see when to cut alfalfa and how to make dry hay faster.
Timing the night — a real schedule
Dew baling is a moving target measured in hours, not days. Here is how one western outfit runs the clock:
"That time of year we bale at night, anywhere from 10 PM to 1AM as the dew sets, and when the dew gets to heavy we quit. In the mornings after a heavy dew, it is not uncommon to have to wait until noon or 1 PM to get it dry enough to bale again. It just depends on how heavy the windrow is and how much dew set the night before."
— Lostin55 · HayTalk thread 26931
The window opens as the first dew softens the leaves and closes when the dew gets so heavy it is wetting the whole windrow. Even in the humid East, an unusually dry spell can crack the window open — one eastern grower found himself baling from 9 to 11 PM during a low-humidity stretch, "almost unheard of here." Read your own field: the right moment is when the leaves bend without the stems feeling damp.
When dew baling goes wrong
The failure modes are real, and worth respecting. Dew can arrive faster than you expect and swamp the crop before you are done:
"I've never had any luck trying to bale a lot of hay when the dew starts to set at night, just sets so fast it'll go from pretty good to material sticking to the belts on the round baler in a hurry. I do however bale early mornings sometimes while the hay is a little tough, but for that to work and avoid heating or getting dusty the hay had to be very dry the day before, like 12% or under."
— mlappin · HayTalk thread 26931
And if the stems were not truly cured, dew baling just hides a wet bale that shows itself a day or two later:
"if its cured enough it'll be okay maybe alittle dust. If the stems still are high in moisture it'll heat and make lots of dust and smell musty maybe discolored as well."
— Bgriffin856 · HayTalk thread 26931
That heat is not just a quality problem — a stack of warm, wet bales is how barn fires start. The safety margin is simple: get the stems genuinely dry the day before (a Bermuda grower described waiting until "no bale tests higher than 14" percent), then let only surface dew do the leaf-softening. If a batch comes in borderline, keep it separated and spread out rather than stacked tight, and watch it. Fresh bales that feel warm are covered in does hay sweat after baling, and if a night goes sideways, what to do with rained-on hay has the recovery playbook.
Dew-baling decisions at a glance
| Question | Rule of thumb farmers use |
|---|---|
| Are the stems cured? | Twist a stem — snaps clean means ready; if it bends or peels, wait |
| How dry the day before? | Very dry (around 12% or under) so a little dew won't push it wet |
| What time to bale? | Evening into night (about 10 PM to 1 AM) as the dew sets |
| When to stop? | When dew gets heavy and hay starts sticking to the belts |
| After a heavy dew? | Wait until midday (noon to 1 PM) for windrows to dry again |
| Which markets need leaf? | Export and horse: yes; dairy TMR and cowboy feed: less critical |
Where XES fits
Net wrap holds a bale's shape — it does nothing to preserve wet hay, so dew baling never lets you skip curing the stems. What good net does add is a tight, uniform package: the mesh sheds the light surface dew off the outside of the bale and lets the bale breathe as that trace moisture equalizes, instead of sealing it in the way a plastic wrap would. Bale cured hay on the dew, wrap it snug in DLG-tested (Report #7439) net, and you keep the leaves you worked all evening to save. Compare widths and lengths on the net wrap product page, and set your moisture targets with baling moisture for net-wrapped bales.
The bottom line
Baling on the dew is not about baling wet hay — it is about baling cured hay while a little surface dew keeps the leaves from shattering. Dry the stems all the way down in the day, catch the evening dew from roughly 10 PM to 1 AM, and quit when the dew turns heavy. Remember the one rule under all of it: stem moisture spoils hay, dew moisture does not. Bale the stems dry and let the dew do nothing but save your leaves, and you will put up the leafy, green hay the good markets pay for.
Frequently asked questions
What does baling hay on the dew mean?
It means letting the hay cure completely dry during the day, then baling in the evening or overnight as a light dew settles on the crop. The surface moisture makes brittle leaves pliable so they fold into the bale instead of crumbling off, which preserves leaf and quality — especially in alfalfa and fine grasses.
Does dew moisture spoil hay?
No — internal stem moisture is what spoils hay. Dew sits on the outside of the plant and moves off again as the bale equalizes, while moisture still locked in the stem ferments, heats, and molds inside the bale. That is why the stems must be fully cured before you bale, even though the leaves feel damp from dew.
What time of night do you bale on the dew?
Commonly from about 10 PM to 1 AM as the dew sets, stopping once the dew gets heavy enough that hay sticks to the belts. After a heavy overnight dew it is normal to wait until around noon or 1 PM the next day for the windrows to dry back down before baling again. The exact window depends on humidity and windrow size.
Why bale alfalfa with dew?
To keep the leaves on. Bone-dry alfalfa shatters, and the leaves hold most of the protein, so baling dead-dry can leave you with a bale of stems and crumbled leaves on the ground. A little dew makes the leaves leathery enough to bale intact. How hard you chase this depends on the market — export and horse buyers want leaf, dairies feeding a TMR care less.
Can dewy hay heat or catch fire?
Only if the stems were not truly cured. Surface dew on cured hay is fine, but if you bale hay with stem moisture still in it, the bale heats, gets dusty and musty, and a tight stack of warm wet bales is a genuine barn-fire risk. Get the stems very dry the day before, bale on surface dew only, and keep any borderline bales separated and spread out.
This guide is maintained by the XES Netting team — a bale net-wrap manufacturer. Every farmer quote in this post is verbatim with a thread link, so you can go read the originals. Baling and storage conditions vary widely by region and crop; use a moisture tester, follow your baler's operator manual, and monitor fresh bales for heat.
Featured photo: Iowa hay field harvest by mahalie stackpole, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
