Hay inside barns and out

My Grandparents had retired from farming sometime in the 1960's. My father eventually bought the farm from them and started to raise beef cows. There were still a few bales of old hay left in the barn along with bales of straw and also piles of straw (back when they didn't even bale it.)

My Dad wanted to "clean out" the hay bale side of the barn and eventually fed all the old hay to the cows. After cleaning out the hay side and laying down new boards, he filled that side completely full with hay.

Next he wanted to "clean out" the straw side of the barn. So he used that for bedding. (The cows could go outside all day, but would always come in at night to sleep and also eat hay and chop). When putting down that old straw for bedding - some of which would easily be 40 + years old, the cows ate it like it was the finest hay.

Sadly, many of the old time barns are falling down due to the owners not spending the money to keep it in repair (costs too much). And once the roof starts to leak it's only a matter of a few years before it comes tumbling down.

Those old time barns can be used for so many things - and there are is so much storage area in them, the "costs too much" isn't factored in to what all a barn can do for a person (not to mention the historic value).

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Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

Bales of either kind kept in a barn that burns or collapses are lost. Barns are expensive to build and expensive to keep in repair, especially wooden barns.

I buy round wrapped bales and store them outside and I buy square bales and store them covered on pallets that I can pickup with my tractor fork lift. I pile the hay as close as possible to where it will be used in the winter to minimize or eliminate moving hay.

Additionally, a barn is too tempting to the tax assessors. Since we actively farm and the tax laws are as they are, right now, a barn is not taxed. However, not that many years ago they used to tax ag buildings and if we stopped farming but still had the barn they would start taxing it for a lot of money. The whole real estate tax system is corrupt. No, I should generalize further, the whole tax system is corrupt.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

In building a barn u might want to include a steep pitch roof for either a hay forks and rail and trolley, or for a hay elevator mounted at the peak of the roof. It needs to be steep to keep from falling inward from the weight. Next. NEVER keep baby calves or pigs in a barn that is made of stone. Great place to find pnumonia
My aunt and uncle had 2 barns, one an OLD 1800s barn, a general purpose barn with a loft, and a newer 100 X 50 or so hay barn. They kept there bull in a pen inside on a corner, maybe 30ft sq thereabouts. They had V mangers on both sides of the hay mow. The mow ran from the ground to the peak. In earlier times they had used the forks. By my time they used an elevator another uncle had gave dad. Uncle walt eventually bought a big JD hay elevator. Ours was a Kelly Ryan grain elevator. If the tractor belched or hiccupped, it would through a bale. I think if it had been painted and schallaced? It would have worked fine. It was ALOT of work to fill that barn. They had a big dairy and milked, or kept around 25 cows.