Hi Suzanne Merry Christmas. I'm a little behind on watching the videos but I will get caught up soon. Thanks for all the footage and sharing your operation.

we use a maxilator also (several years ahead of you) one thing we will do if we get highly variable moisture hay like you are dealing with is we will stack the hay on the trailer useing the maxilator with all its dividers in it ....yes it is a floppy stack.....but then we will leave it on the trailer for a couple of weeks if possible pulling it in and out of the barn letting it go thru its sweat ....then when unloading we take out the dividers and tightn up the stack before putting in barn......obviously we have barn space...and extra hay wagons ....i hate the thought of putting possibly high moisture hay in the barn tight stacked .....we work in a much higher humidity enviroment to the point we would never rake hay up the day before baling it as it would just collect dew overnight and be a mess .....if we get heavy dew will will re-ted ...and rake ahead of the baler....thats what two tractors are for ....our hay typically runs around 100 bales to the acre so i kinda snicker at your "heavy" hay problems ....but you will learn......main lesson is a barn full of damp hay will ruin your month/year...obviously this post is to late to be of service

I think you rely too much on the rake for drying. The rake rolls the hay into a knot and doesn't really fluff it and get it off the ground (unless it is a rotary rake which really are the best). You need to ted the hay out to rally get it off the ground and dry it. Over 3 days we ted hay3 or 4 times. We rake it up each evening with the rotary rake to minimize the dew effect and we even ted it out the morning that we bale after the dew is off. Then we rake it up and bale it. With 2nd cut there are no seed heads so the extra handling doesn't bother the hay. Get yourself a decent 4 basket tedder and a rotary rake....problems solved.

You can bale small square bales at 25% moisture, but it's tricky. The key to it is to not stack it so tight. Like the way you did it. Then you should sprinkle some salt on the bales after every tier you stack. The salt will absorb the excess moisture and act as a preservative