Hay Storage--Mold Issue

[Ping]

This is the first year I've had the need to buy a large quantity of alfalfa and orchard grass hay and store it. I have about 4 ton total. It is stored in an abandoned house on our property. It is set up on pallets with fist-size air gaps between bales. The building is dry. The house has lots of air circulation (all the windows are broken).

My problem is mold. The sides and top of the stack are growing mold. The bottom is fine, as far as I can tell.The inside of the bales are fine. The bales on the inside of the stack are fine. It is just the perimeter bales, the ones that have access to air, that are molding.

The place I bought the hay from stored it in big open three-sided pole barns. This is common around here. I've even seen it stored with just a roof and no side walls at all.

So, can someone help me figure out why my hay is molding? Is there something I can do to salvage it? Do different next time? This is high quality alfalfa for dairy goats. Right now, I'm going over every fleck before I feed it picking all the moldy bits off. Thanks so much for your help. This is soooo frustrating!

[springvalley]

Wow, I`m not sure, never stored hay in a house before. It could be the damp air is getting in the broken windows and settleing on the hay and then never dries out. I w onder if you put some plastic over the windows after you fill them it may keep better. I just put mine in the barn and it stays just fine, I also see where you are from, and I bet it gets damp there alot. Thanks Marc

[rancher1913]

my guess with out a photo is either a leaky roof or condensation raining on the bales. if the building gets a lot of sun it could be heating and sweating the hay. make sure you have good cross ventilation not just ventilation.

[agmantoo]

Do some research on dew point. With the wet conditions and the winter temps this would IMO be the results.

[rambler]

That is unusual.

Wet hay will mold from the inside out. So I'm gonna guess the hay was good quality.

For the outside surface to mold but the inside is good, it had to have gotten damp (leaky roof, condensation from temp changes with no air movement, rain/dew coming in the windows, etc.) while stored.

So, you have 200 or so bales stored in a room with the windows broken out. I wonder if you are in that never-never zone, just enough air gets in to let moisture in, but not enough air gets in to let the moisture get out. Kind of a lot of hay packed in a plastered, sealed room, with only a couple small holes in the wall. The hay breathes & gives off moisture esp with temp changes, and did that moisture have anywhere to go - enough airspace to absorb into the room air or enough opennings for the dampness to move on.

I don't know - just trying to think of something.

--->Paul

[TnAndy]

Be careful feeding moldly hay to critters....it will cause pregnant cows to abort. Don't know about goats.

[secretcreek]

Moldy hay will cause a goat to quickly fall into thiamine deficiency(brainswelling) aka Goat polio!! *A bite of bad hay might not- but a diet of it certainly will! Never ever believe that a goat can eat anything...So always buy hay that's horse quality orchard grass or alfalfa. Goat polio is super hard to treat unless caught very early...and even then it's iffy.

Does: pregnant or in production are the only goats that need a rich-higher protein hay, alfalfa hay. Dry does or wethers do best on forage and a grassy -weedy hay= lower protein. My packgoats sift thru looking for joe pie weed, honeysuckle, goldenrod, multiflora rose and poison ivy as the "yummy treats" to eat first. JoePie weed is also known as "Gravelroot" in that its got stone dissolving properties so that's great for my wethers to eat to prevent bladder stones.

Secret Creek Farm Packgoats
SE Ohio

[fantasymaker]

Originally Posted by secretcreek

My packgoats sift thru looking for ........ poison ivy as the "yummy treats" to eat first. Secret Creek Farm Packgoats
SE Ohio

Goats LIKE Poision IvY? I take back every rotten thing Ive ever said about them! How many would it take to eat about 120 acres worth?

[uncle Will in In.]

A mist of 50% hydrogen peroxide will stop the mold

[Ping]

Thanks everyone. Lots of things to consider. Paul, very good points. I think you're probably right about the "never-never zone." The hay is really good stuff (making losing it even worse to stomach) and the inside of the bales are nice and dry. The house is wood and not sealed up at all but has a good roof so no leaking from there. We've had a very wet winter with lots of misty fog. I think the damp air just isn't moving out--not that it has anywhere to go since it's wet everywhere right now.

So, how to salvage the rest? Thanks for the spray suggestion, Uncle Will. I"ll give it a try. Any other suggestions on what to do now? I'm not sure if covering the windows will help the problem or make it worse. Fans would probably be the best option, but no electricity out there--maybe I can run some extension cords. Of course then I'd probably burn the whole thing down.....

I've been careful up to now to move the outside bales as little as possible so as to minimize mold spore release. I've been carefully using the inner bales, which so far are fine.

Secretcreek, thanks for the concern, but as I stated in my original post, I am not feeding moldy hay to my goats. They are dairy goats and need the high quality hay. I am definately not feeding them just "anything."

[tinknal]

I would liberally spread loose fine grain salt on the bales.