How do you store your hay?

[Jessey]

For those that don't have a purpose built barn, how do you store your hay to keep it dry, contained and not too wind swept?

With the arrival of Indie I will be using more hay, so in addition to my normal hesston bale in the barn I will have another hesston or a 5ft round and figured it might be easier for me to keep it down the far end of the field so I can just dish it straight out (rather than carrying each portion down there)

 

[newforest]

At my last place I used to buy in round bales. These were stored on pallets.
I just had tarp over each with a pallet in the centre, tyres around the base.
However with no electric, it wasn't uncommon to see a horse eating from it on my second visit. That's known as adlib I think, I call it pinching the portions!

 

[Frances144]

Never ever in my van. I learned the hard way. Damp is not hay/straw's friend.

 

[mystiquemalaika]

BALETIDY DELUXE - HAY/HAYLAGE/STRAW COVERS/WATER RESISTANT TO FIT UP TO 5' BALES | eBay

Suitable for use in exposed areas. Made from heavy duty fabric with overlocked seams for extra strength. Feed is taken directly from the top.

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I have had this for 9 years now and have to say it has been worth every penny. The deluxe version not the light weight version.I haven't used it for the last 4 as don't use rounds anymore but they now use it at work. Bale on a pallet and this on top. Never moves, you can tighten the bottom and top and the middle as the bale gets smaller,has kept hay dry (longest I had a bale under there was 6 weeks) and is easy to use. Tip if you get one put it over and pull down with netting still on, then cut netting off and pull back up and close up. It is hard to get it on after you remove the netting.

ETA I pull it down and unwind the bale then pull it back up rather than pulling out from the top, that's a pain but easy to pull down and back up and keep the bale together.

 

[chunky monkey]

Well i have my big barn obviously, but down at my sheep sheds i have a leanto which holds about 40. My leanto is sheltered on one side by a shed and tin sheets on the other side but open front and back. I always stack onto pallets. Its okay as long as the rain isnt blowing in.

As the horses are currently in the bottom field i have no hay storage so i drive down with enough bales to last the 6 days they are down there. It was 3 originally, then went to 4 as the grass went down, now its 5 bales. I just stack in the field. If its a wet week then the bales do get more soggy. However since chunky developed that copd symptom a couple of years ago and i had to start soaking it because of the cough im not to fussed if it gets a bit wet. This year it actually has worked in my favour and hes only had a few cough days. Think that was when we had a dry week funny enough. Im not deliberately having to soak it myself which was hard work. Neither of the boys are a fan of completely soaked hay. So the wades are part wet and dry.

How long is a round bale going to last you if you left it in the field. The one thing i did find last spring when out uncovered if i was taking out several bales, as the temp warmed up in spring and if it had got wet it started to get more mildew/fousty hay smell. Its seems okay at the moment leaving bales out several days as its cold.
The only dilemma you will have is if its raining and you have a cover or tarp over you get wet trying to uncover it. Not ideal on your flying visits before work.
You could use a plastic sheet and get one of those rachet/lorry straps. You can get the rachet done up tighter than having a long bale string going round the sheet and bale. That way it stops the wind whipping the sheet off. We tarped and racheted the large hestons in one field last year for the cattle.
If you can roll the bale onto a pallet to keep it off the ground that will also help but its not easy to roll them onto pallets.

 

[Jessey]

I figure if I am feeding from both a round down the bottom and a hesston in the barn, the round will last a month-ish. I had a brainwave moment last night, I have the trailer sat up the top which I haven't yet finished the overhaul on, so I will probably move that down the bottom, at least temporarily, to put the bale in then I can get around to building a little shed come spring.

 

[MrA]

I used to keep mine under tarp for 6-8 weeks at a time and it was okay, would sometimes loose the end of a bale though where it had got damp. I was saving up to get a shed but now have a communal hay barn luckily so didn't need it in the end! Trailer sounds like a very good idea!

 

[chunky monkey]

I was going to suggest a trailer as I thought you had one. But then I figured it might not be practical to get down the field if muddy. You've just got to get the bale up the ramp which is easier said than done. You'll need to park the trailer on a slope to stand any chance of rolling one in.

 

[Jessey]

I was going to suggest a trailer as I thought you had one. But then I figured it might not be practical to get down the field if muddy. You've just got to get the bale up the ramp which is easier said than done. You'll need to park the trailer on a slope to stand any chance of rolling one in.

My friend picked the bale up for me on his flat bed, with any luck and a good wind we can roll it straight off down into my trailer from there. I should video this for when it goes epically wrong.....

 

[Trewsers]

I've always been lucky here to have either the byre or cat barn - and in an emergency the garage lol
But, back at the old place before we had the proper stable block built I had a tarp over it in the field and some stored inside those mahoosive green B & Q boxes. It wasn't good really, the ones in the box got mice riddled and the ones with the tarp scared the horses and kept blowing and flapping up and ultimately got damp. For that reason I ended up swapping to small bale hayledge.

 

[chunky monkey]

@Jessey your right it does go wrong. For a number of years we used round bales of straw for the goat sheds. We used to roll them off on the road. Turn them, then had to roll down a step slope into the yard. One got away one day when we slipped in the mud and sat on the floor and the bale got up speed down the slope. Fortunately it hit the gate on the goat shed. The straw nearly killed me with the weight. Them hay ones are slot heavier. So if you have to push up the ramp into the trailer it won't be easy.

 

[Jessey]

I used to have 5ft hays at the old yard, I used to have to do what felt like a mini assault course to get them from the storage shed to the feeding shed, no slopes but 50m of not flat ground and I'd often have to do it alone as my livery only came out a few times a week.