New barn building. old hay problems

[FarmboyBill]

I am getting ready to start frameing in a barn probably start this summer. Got to thinking that, at age 60 Im not going to want to be fighting hay bales forever, and I dont have a tractor big enough for a bailer, let alone not haveing hydrolics, also, I wouldnt have any use for the hay mow if I went to big bale, and I hate the thought of the wasteage. Now, I have a loose, and a bale hay loader s. and I intend to put a hay track in the barn in case I should want to use loose hay. My thought is, Did they ever think of an easy a way to get they hay back OUT of the barn as they did to get it in? True, you can get twice as many bales worth of hay in a givin area as loose, and for as long as I can handle bales, ill probably also have the livestock to feed it with, But as I get old. Ill probably have fewer livestock, and go to loose, IF I can figure a way to get it out as easy as I got it in. Whats your thoughts??????????

[js2743]

i think in the old days when they put hay up in the loft with the hay hooks they never really took it back out. it was fed by putting it down through feed ways into mangers in the stalls. all the livestock was kept inside through the winter and that way they got good use out of the hay. they put hay in the barn and took out manure for fertilizer in the spring and put it on their fields. so i guess they used a pitch fork to take it back out lol.

[Jennifer L.]

If you are building a brand new barn you might consider a design like the barn that my father built when I was a kid. It was designed for loose hay that was blown in with a McKee blower and wagon (probably not made anymore). Anyway, the barn was a pole barn with a concrete floor, and there was a moveable bunk at one end of the barn. The cows would eat at the bunk and you'd pitch the hay down to them by hand. As the cows ate the hay during the winter, they'd push the bunk back gradually. Either that or my father moved it back by tractor, but I think it was moved by the cows. It was quite a heavy bunk. You didn't have to pitch the whole face of the mow down, just the top to keep it from overhanging the bunk too far.

Jennifer

[FarmboyBill]

It had bunks on both sides, and you would pitch the bales off over the side of the stack down into the bunks. BUT, My problem is, where the barn will set is where only the one or 2 milk cows or goats, or (if I get them, the team of horses will reside, along with the baby calves Ill raise in the winter and feed them on hay till its nearly gone, then start selling them, BUT, the goats will be in a shed a good 100ft away, and ill have to get hay out of the barn, into a hay rack and up to that shed to feed them. Its just the scamatic of how the place is layed out. The goats, and/or hogs cannot go from there pasture to the barn lot, (At least not yet, in my mind, cause to build a lane to the barn, I would have to open and close 2 gates so as to get down to the farm ground every time I wanted to go there). That may prove to be a lesser of 2 evils as I get older, and opening and closeing 2 gates might not seem like near as much a pain, as fooling with getting a wagon load of hay up to the goat shed.

[Jennifer L.]

Well, I'd say get yourself a skid steer. I know, everyone gets sick of me chanting "Bobcat, Bobcat!" but I can tell you I'd never have farmed alone for so long without them.

In this case you could have your cows and larger stock in the new barn, then keep the skid steer parked in a position where you can fork hay down into it but where the other animals can't reach it. You might only take hay to the goats every three or four days, and you'd be tossing hay down into the skid steer bucket each time you fed the cows and horses. Then when it's time to get the goats done, your bucket will be full and you just drive down to the barn where the goats are and dump it into a bunk. If you worked it out right you could just reach over the fence with the skid steer and dump into the goat bunk without opening a second gate.

I'm fairly certain there are designs for gates that you can push though with equipment that are electric,too. Made of conduit with wire streamers hanging down so the gate is electrified to the animals, but it's mounted on spring hinges that you can push open with your tractor and drive though without getting off to open them by hand. I've only had one like that and it was made out of a whip antennea to drive a four wheeler into the cow pasture, but you could certainly do something to make a drive through gate. It's how I'd do it if I were you.

Skid steers are better than hired men. They do huge amounts of work that otherwise you'd have to do by hand. If you are getting older and don't want to do so much hard work anymore, they are perfect. I've been using one for close to 40 years and if someone said what do you want to give up, three fingers on your left hand or your Bobcat, I'm afraid I'd let the fingers go!

Jennifer

[barn-apart]

We sometimes run across old hay knives when we dismantle old barn frames. These are about 2 1/2 ' to 3' long, curved ,thin bladed, T handled, and serrated ,large toothed. They would cut into the stacks of loose hay verticly to seperate ,then fork that section away and repeat. Loose hay in a stack after being in the pile for long becomes very difficult to fork out as the long fibers matt together. Blacksmith could probably make one or maybe e-bay.

[Terri]

Would it be possible to make a hay shed with one open side, so the animals could help themselves?

I am thinking of a movable fence inside so that they would not trample it: just reach out and grab a mouth full.

[Common Tator]

I really like the Pennsylvania Dutch style bank barn. built into a hillside, or with a dirt ramp to the second story, you can drive right up into the second story with a tractor or truck to unload your hay. Drop it through feed slots to the livestock below. A picture and description is here: http://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Detailed/235a.shtml

Also, as hubby gets older I keep trying to think of things to make ranching easier. I would like to put a pully in a strong rafter and station a winch on a strong wall stud. Run the cable through the pully and have a hay hook on the other end. Let the winch do the heavy bale lifting of the bales, while we direct it;s movement.

Right now he is only 57, but he wants to keep doing this work for the rest of his life, and I can't see him hefting bales of hay at 80.

[FarmboyBill]

Barn-apart. I have a hay knife. I have nearly everything that is farm related and old, But I dont thjink I want to be doing much forking forking when im 80. What do u think?? Terri/ I think that is what Jennifer is talking aboutRead my post, The hay that im worrying about is for goats away from the barn and barnlot, not the calves that are at the barn in the barnlot TATER/ If you ranch, then you got an idea what Okla ground is like. Its not steeep enlough here for a bank barn, tho, I have seen them, and even lived where one was built in 1882 up near St Joe Mo. The same year that JJ was there, but 4 mos later

[fantasymaker]

Two hay elevators in line with electric moters would run that hay the 100 feet out to the goats, Id say one 100' one would work too but Ive never seen one over 60' long.
I suppose you could set up a conveyor along the same lines.
Or just hook up enough drag chain and build a trough to run the distance

[Terri]

Can't you have a separate shed by the goats?

[celadon]

I put up my own hay for a few years. I could not handle the heavy bales so I made light weight bales. Took a bit more string but I could handle them very easy. Now I am buying hay and it is so darn heavy. Going to talk with my source and see if he can make me smaller bales.