Storing
Bale Storage Information
Small Square Bales
In most regions, the best place to store small square bales is in a well ventilated barn or shed protected from wind, rain and pests. When done so, small square bales will keep indefinitely. If you do not have a barn or shed to store square bales, you can use a large tarp to cover them from the elements. Even in more arid regions, tarping can be helpful.
Tarp Bales Securely
- Any moisture or pests that are able to get to your hay will reduce both the mass and the feed quality.
Stacking bales on wet ground or ground that is slower to drain is a quick way to ruin your hay, especially if you are feeding to horses, which can be more sensitive to molds.
- You want to be sure that your hay is free or mold and mildew.
- Try spreading some gravel or straw where you are going to stack your bales if your shed has a dirt floor.
Another hay saving technique is to stack bales on pallets or tires to get them off the ground.
- This is a good solution, just be careful to manage any pest problems because pallets and tires create safe areas where pests tend to nest, reproduce and eat your hay!
Make sure that you patch up holes in your shed or barn where pests might find their way through.
Use covered secure containers to store other feed or supplement in the same building so pests are not attracted to the food source.
Give your bales some breathing room.
- Stacking bales together tightly can make it harder for moisture to escape. When moisture cannot escape, the hay can start to break down inside the bale, causing it to loose feed value and palatability.
Stacking bales on their sides will also help moisture escape.
To check how well your bales are keeping, remove one bale from the middle of your stack, break it open and take a look. The bale should be sweet smelling and clean from mold mildew or dust.
The National Forage Testing AssociationLarge Round Bales
Round bales are a great option for growers looking to put a lot of hay in a package that will be easy to store and keep. Because of their mass it is hard for some to find a barn or shed to store their bales. With little preparation and up keep, a round bale will weather just fine out doors.
Choose the area where you are going to store your bales carefully.
Here are some things to look for in a good hay storage area:
- Try to choose a place that is not too far away from your feeding areas. If you feed in a couple of areas choose one that his fairly centralized. This will help if your bales are older and have started to loose their structural integrity.
- Find an area that is well drained. Any low lying area is usually not a good location.
- Sandier soils tend to drain faster than more compact, clay based soils.
- Avoid stacking your hay under trees or other shaded areas that are slower to dry.
Once you have found the right site for storing your round bales, take some time to get it prepared. Doing this will save you money because it will reduce hay mass and quality losses.
- If your area is rough, level it out. This will help make moving bales a more comfortable chore. Also high and low places can cause water to stand, even in well drained soil.
- Soil contact is one of the fastest ways to ruin you hay so cover the area with gravel, course rock or another type of barrier to keep the bales off of the soil.
- When stacking bales outside, place bales in long rows, end to end, so that moisture runs off the side of the bales and not over the ends where it can soak in.
- Do not stack bales on top of each other when stored outside. This causes moisture to be trapped where the bales touch causing spoilage.
- Bale rows should run north to south so that the rounded sides of the bales are exposed to the drying sun.
- Place bale rows at least 3 feet apart to allow for air flow between them.
- Make sure the area is cleared out so that there is plenty of room to move bales around safely without getting into tight turning situations.
- Since you will be storing your bales in rows, make sure you can enter your hay storage area from both ends so you can use your oldest hay first.