I use a home-made hay sampler - it cuts cores from bales of hay. A description of it follows...
(I promised this description to someone on this site some time ago, apologies for the delay.)

Hay sampler description:
it is basically a core cutter. I will post a photo on the photos tab.
Hardware: cordless drill, 1.5 inch hole cutting bit with the central 1/4 inch drill bit removed, 12 to 15 inch long iron pipe which fits inside a 1.5 inch drill bit, tractor pin to hold the pipe in the drill bit, small diameter pipe to push out the core.

One end of the pipe has a 1/4 inch hole drilled though it perpendicular to the axis with corresponding holes in the 1.5 inch hole bit. The tractor pin goes through these holes to hold the bit and the pipe together as it rotates. The cutting end is made sharp by grinding flat edges around the pipe end so that you get a somewhat serrated edge, sharpen with a flat file.

It take about 30 seconds to sample a bale, detach the corer, pop out the hay sample into a bag, reassemble the sampler on the cordless drill and move onto the next bale.

Since it is hay season - and many of you send samples for analysis, here are some suggestions:

Sample at least 20 bales of each batch you wish to sample, regardless of the number of bales in the batch. Be sure to select from bales throughout the entire batch. REMEMBER, each bale (round or square) is from a very small portion of the pasture and you want a representative sample representing all of the hay in the batch.

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