Hay storage question

holleegee · #1 09/02/08, 02:22 PM

I have a few questions. We are totally new to all of this....we just finished our first hay "harvest" 130 square bales of grass hay. I don't have a barn so we stacked it and covered it with plastic. Will that be alright or will the plastic draw moisture. It is setting on the gravel driveway so it isn't on concrete or bare dirt.

Thanks for your help.

(I learned what real labor was this labor day....those bales are pretty heavy!!)

RosewoodfarmVA · #2 09/02/08, 02:42 PM

First off, they must be off the ground on atleast one, preferably two pallets, to avoid wicking in the ground moisture. Second, stack bales tightly and cover loosely with the tarp. Tarp should be completely over the top and most of the sides. Either lift sides of tarp away from the hay or leave a foot or so of space where the tarp rests on the ground for ventilation. I would strongly recommend that you find some cheap building materials and put up atleast an open shed, you don't even need siding or floors to start with. Tarps are not the best for hay, and after you have put the tarp back on for the 10th time when it blows off, and have some of the hay ruined by water infiltration, you'll wish you put it under a tin roof! Blown in rain on the side of a haystack doesn't do much, but direct water on the top ruins it.

ADDED..... by the way, welcome to the wonderful world of farming!!

copperhead46 · #3 09/02/08, 03:04 PM

A lot depends on where you live, Colorado and a lot of areas out west can stack outside because they don't have the humidity. Here in my part of the country, it just doesn't work well. It also depends on what you're feeding. You can probably get away with it for cows, but if you have horses, you could be in for some trouble. If you need to store hay outside, you should really have the hay baled into round bales, it will keep better outside.
I know what you mean, labor day is just another day to cows and horses, haa haa.
P.J.

Tiffin · #4 09/02/08, 03:53 PM

I hope it is dry enough so it won't catch fire.

sammyd · #5 09/02/08, 06:54 PM

If you used sisal twine make sure that the bottom bales are stacked so the twine is not in contact with the ground or you'll have broken strings on all of em. I'd second the pallet idea as well. We use a single layer of pallets with whatever sort of tarp on top of the bales that we can find. We leave the bottom open a bit so it breathes and we haven't had a problem.

stifflej · #6 09/03/08, 08:14 AM

a previous post mentioned a fire risk, what can be done to minimize this risk? I plan on storing hay in my newly built loft, and would hate for it to catch fire.

Thanks.

francismilker · #7 09/03/08, 10:20 AM

Most of the time, hay fires come from baling the hay before it was properly dryed or letting it get wet and then not provided adequate ventilation. When hay gets wet, it begins to produce a lot of chemically made heat that can lead to spontaneous combustion. Although hay fires do happen, they're not common. Usually a person that puts up hay too wet ends up with some seriously moldy hay. (do not feed to horses)
If in fact you can cut open a hay bale and feel "heat" inside of it after it has been baled for a few days, it's a good idea to loosen up the stack to let air get through it. It's also a good idea to stack it on edge rather than flat. This allows a minimal amount of air to flow upwards through your stored hay. (That is provided that it wasn't baled so tight that the strings pop when you pick it up.)

ozark_jewels · #8 09/03/08, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by francismilker

Usually a person that puts up hay too wet ends up with some seriously moldy hay. (do not feed to horses)

And goats are even more susceptable to moldy hay than horses. Cows are fine with it.

G. Seddon · #9 09/03/08, 08:05 PM

I would not advise feeding moldy hay to cattle, especially pregnant ones.

http://beef.unl.edu/stories/200212100.shtml

I don't think storing square bales outside under a tarp is a good idea; we did that with some one year and lost most of it.

ozark_jewels · #10 09/03/08, 10:27 PM

Feeding hay with mold in it to cattle may not be *ideal*, but it is a *very* common practice and if it was truly terrible it wouldn't be so common.

Truth is, most folks with cattle operations simply don't have hay barns so their hay is stored outside in the weather. Sometimes tarped, sometimes not. Tarped hay still molds in this humid area. Pretty much every beef operation in this country round bales their hay and most set it to the side of the field and feed it over the winter a bale or ten a day. All these bales have mold in them...some more mold than good hay!

We have always fed our Jerseys(bred and open)hay that was roundbaled and stored outside. Way back it was twine-wrapped, now it is net-wrapped so less mold. No problems whatsoever. Not ideal, but you do what you gotta. The cows get any of the goat hay that slightly molds, they eat it right up.

Cows will eat some mold and leave the stuff that is very molded. They are not susceptable to it like horses and goats.

FreeRanger · #11 09/05/08, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RosewoodfarmVA

First off, they must be off the ground on atleast one, preferably two pallets, to avoid wicking in the ground moisture. Second, stack bales tightly and cover loosely with the tarp. Tarp should be completely over the top and most of the sides. Either lift sides of tarp away from the hay or leave a foot or so of space where the tarp rests on the ground for ventilation. I would strongly recommend that you find some cheap building materials and put up atleast an open shed, you don't even need siding or floors to start with. Tarps are not the best for hay, and after you have put the tarp back on for the 10th time when it blows off, and have some of the hay ruined by water infiltration, you'll wish you put it under a tin roof! Blown in rain on the side of a haystack doesn't do much, but direct water on the top ruins it.

ADDED..... by the way, welcome to the wonderful world of farming!!

My experience described above!

If you must use a tarp, place a few pallets across the top of the stack to give you an air gap and to force the water to drain to the edges.

One year, we built a 16x16 "shed roof" only by using metal scafolding to support ceiling joist, sheets of used plywood and covered the whole thing with tarps. Worked great for the most part. Would still be doing it if I didn't build a pole barn. Might do it again to provide shelter for cattle and hay in a back pasture.

Hay on the ground, including gravel is bad outside as well as inside a building. All of my hay is on a layer of plastic, then pallet, then hay bales. Use your old semi-holey tarps under your pallets to slow down the moisture further. the pallets allow for air flow.

FreeRanger · #12 09/05/08, 11:34 PM

forgot to mention. we started with just a simple lean-to off the side of the chicken coop. I could fit one pickup truck load of hay (fifty bales) in the 10x13 space with just enough room to keep the chickens happy too. It was their outdoor covered run so they weren't too happy to see the hay at first. But got use to going over it to get to the outside when the weather permitted.

3kidsomy · #13 09/06/08, 12:14 AM

i live in the NW, and even up,off the ground and covered with a tarp, they still mold. All my hay has to be in a barn. I even tried putting it in a lean to off the barn, and covered the hay with a tarp and it still molded, mind you it does nothing but rain all fall winter and spring here.

genebo · #14 09/07/08, 03:35 PM

I had some hay in a shed. Some was covered with a tarp and some was not. Some of that not covered was near the sides and got wet. It didn't mold, but all that was under the tarp did.

Genebo
Paradise Farm