Grass hay round bale storage idea

[BarnyardEngineering]

(quoted from post at 08:56:57 07/26/23) If you want to retain quality, the do not stack bales. That has been proven to be the worst way to store large round bales. You will loose more quality by stacking the bales than you will by setting
them on the ground. Further the most favorable way to preserve round baled hay is to row them north-south tight against each other. That way the bales get equal sun on both sides and less
air/water between the bales.

I speak from experience, all of this is true. Rain runs off from the top row of bales and into the trough formed by the top and second rows. First year we did round bales, Dad stacked them all up in nice neat pyramids, and they turned into moldy mushroom habitats.

Last year, I thought I could mitigate that by tarping the bales. All that did was trap moisture under the tarp and cause the bales to mold. Then the tarp blew off. I put it back on and staked it down even better. It blew off again. No matter how much I staked the tarp down, it kept blowing off until I gave up. By that time the hay was ruined anyway.

These were DRY bales. Measured <15% in multiple locations with the probe.

The only place to stack round bales is under an actual roof.

 

[mlauk]

A barn with a roof and no sides will pay for itself. Storing outside, 10 percent of the bale can go bad, depending on how it is stored outside and weather. So one out of 10 bales, you essentially lose one bale. If you have extra hay, then you can carry over to the next year with minimal loss.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

(quoted from post at 09:53:41 07/27/23) A barn with a roof and no sides will pay for itself. Storing outside, 10 percent of the bale can go bad, depending on how it is stored outside and weather. So one out of 10 bales, you essentially lose one bale. If you have extra hay, then you can carry over to the next year with minimal loss.

I make about 200 4x4 round bales a year. At $35 a bale, it won't even make a payment on a hay barn, let alone the barn paying for itself.

 

[Destroked 450]

(quoted from post at 08:16:36 07/27/23)

(quoted from post at 08:56:57 07/26/23) If you want to retain quality, the do not stack bales. That has been proven to be the worst way to store large round bales. You will loose more quality by stacking the bales than you will by setting
them on the ground. Further the most favorable way to preserve round baled hay is to row them north-south tight against each other. That way the bales get equal sun on both sides and less
air/water between the bales.

I speak from experience, all of this is true. Rain runs off from the top row of bales and into the trough formed by the top and second rows. First year we did round bales, Dad stacked them all up in nice neat pyramids, and they turned into moldy mushroom habitats.

Last year, I thought I could mitigate that by tarping the bales. All that did was trap moisture under the tarp and cause the bales to mold. Then the tarp blew off. I put it back on and staked it down even better. It blew off again. No matter how much I staked the tarp down, it kept blowing off until I gave up. By that time the hay was ruined anyway.

These were DRY bales. Measured <15% in multiple locations with the probe.

The only place to stack round bales is under an actual roof.

I ve got a little experience stacking and covering hay myself, been doing it for several years. The area one lives in can effect how one stores hay, in my area setting out uncovered I loose more to ground rot than to weather even though we get a good amount of rain, putting bales on a stone pad as worked best for me, stacking and trapping has resulted in the lease spoilage.

This stack as around 140 4x5 rolls of which around 100 are last years hay. Good tarps tied down properly and keeping the bales off the ground is key when stacking outside
Last year this stack had 209 bales under 3 tarps, a tarped stack beside it had nearly 100 bales on the ground, we lost about 1/3 of the bottom bales to ground rot, it was the last hay we put up and the first to be feed

 

[mlauk]

Mine paid for itself in about 15 years,
and you can depreciated it. I do have one
wall on the North side

 

[495man]

I used to stack outside

Tried pallets, made a mess of broken wood and nails, frozen to ground

Tried tires, huge pain in the behind to get that many laid out and similar sizes.

I was buying the good Inland haystack tarps, they fit a 3-2-1 stack perfect, but usually leaked after a couple winters after UV, rodents, birds, ice etc took their toll.

I did think about the wooden pole idea, but didn't pursue. I do think it would work, and not be a big issue to drive on. I ended up doing a barn + wrapper instead.

Storage base aside, I got tired of loosing part of the bottom tier, loosing tarps in hurricanes and winter storms, rodents chewing holes in the tarp, shoveling snow off to untie the tarp to get at hay to feed etc.

I'm a bale wrap fan now. Cost money but perfect bales in winter and no waiting for it to be dry to bale.

 

[Destroked 450]

Like you I was buying the Inland traps and only getting a couple of years out of them
The MyTee traps I use now cost less and last longer