Young Blonde Girl In The Hay With The Orange Scarf

Safety issues
Hay baled before it is fully dry can produce enough heat to catch on fire. Farmers have to be careful about moisture levels to avoid spontaneous combustion, which is a leading cause haystack fires. Heat is produced by the respiration process, which occurs until the moisture content drying hay drops below 40%. Hay is considered fully dry when it reaches 20% moisture. Combustion problems typically occur within five days to seven days baling. A bale cooler than 120 °F (49 °C) is in little danger, bales between 120 and 140 °F (49 and 60 °C) need to be removed from a barn or structure and separated so that they can cool f. If the temperature a bale exceeds more than 140 °F (60 °C), it can combust.
Due to its weight, hay can cause a number injuries to humans, particularly those related to lifting and moving bales, as well as risks related to stacking and storing. Hazards include the danger having a poorly constructed stack collapse, causing either falls to people on the stack or injuries to people on the ground who are struck by falling bales. Large round hay bales present a particular danger to those who handle them, because they can weigh over a thousand pounds and cannot be moved without special equipment. Nonetheless, because they are cylindrical in shape, and thus can roll easily, it is not uncommon for them to fall from stacks or roll f the equipment used to handle them. From 1992 to 1998, 74 farm workers in the United States were killed in large round hay bale accidents, usually when bales were being moved from one location to another, such as when feeding livestock.