How do you store your hay?

[dmalbone]

Just curious how everyone stores their hay. If you have a separate building, what kind/size is it? How far away from your horse barn? We're just now building and would prefer a separate building, but are unsure about what size it needs to be. Just have 1 big horse and 2 minis now. The most we will ever have would be 2 big horses and 2 minis. They'll be grazing all day in the summers, so hay will be minimal, except for in the winter. I've just been at so many barns where hay is wasted because of bad storage.

[cssutton]

If that is all the livestock you have, just buy hay three or four bales at a time.

If you are going to make your own hay and store a year's supply, I would suggest a separate building similar to a run in shed except solid walls on the ends and sliding doors on the two sides.

A wood floor or runners to keep the hay off the ground so the bottom bales will not mold or rot.

That way, you can put hay up easily and get to it easily.

DO NOT put a hayloft over the barn. That is a real pain in the rear end to get hay in and out of.

CSSR

[county]

I store square bales in the loft above two barns one holds 600 the other 2000 its easy to get them up in the lofts with elevators. Round bales I have a 24 x 80 shed I can stack them 3 high in, a 40 x 80 shed that I can stack them 2 high in, and a 14 x 56 shed I can stack 2 high in. I also have a 70 x 140 dirt pad outside I can store round bales on if the sheds get full by the end of the year I stack on them and feed those first.

[dmalbone]

Yikes! During the winter 3 or 4 bales wouldn't last very long at all! Plus, we live in the country, so we still need to be able to have a reliable amount of hay for bad weather. I'd like to fit at least 50 bales.

[ttldr1]

My brother built my hay storage/run in shed combo a couple of years ago. Like you I have 1 big horse, 1 mini and 1 mini donk (plus a dwarf that doesn't really eat much). The gelding is in the back lot by himself, the mini and donk are in the next closest lot and the dwarf shares the backyard with the dogs.

The shed he built for me is 3 sided but it is one of the short sides that is open. The open end is my geldings run in shed (12x10) with a wall that is solid on the bottom and mesh fencing on the top part (so he can not get to the hay stacked on the other side) and a feed door on one end. This wall is moveable by undoing 4 botls, so if I have to make the run in part larger or smaller I can just move this wall one way or the other. The balance is hay storage with double doors that provide a 8' opening for when hay is delivered it makes for easier access and can be opened for extra air flow in the summer. The building is 10'x32'x10' and I can get 200 bales of hay in there plus feed cans and general grooming stuff and yard tools hanging on one wall. I also added a shelf up high for things like blankets, first aid kit, etc. It has worked out great and I aslo have a smaller shed that I can fit 50 squares in, so I have on-site storage under cover for 250 squares and I usually get about 8-10 round bales that I store under a tarp in the lane leading to the shed. The mini and mini donk each have thier own 8'x6'x6' run in shed in thier lot and the dwarf has a three sided 4'x8'x5' run in.

If my horse was in a real barn with a stall being locked in I would not store that much hay in there (only enough for a few days). Not that I haven't in the past. When I boarded in Michigan one of the barns had the hay storage in the loft above the stalls. The barn was solid cinder block so pretty fire resistive and owners house was about 500' away. Felt pretty ok with that set-up at the time until I moved to SC and about 5 months later the barn I used to board at burned to the ground with 15 horses in it (all perished). Owner was devasted. This barn that was all block construction went from standing tall to nothing left in about 2 hours due to the hay storage. If my horse were locked in a stall today I would have a seperate building for hay too much of a fire hazard and with the horses in the same building with no escape route it is a death trap.

[Over the Hill]

I have a small farm with 5 large horses and 2 ponies. My husband built my hay shed from a kit that we purchased at Home Depot. It is wood, measures about 10x10x7. We put it on pier blocks to keep it up off the ground, finished it with a shingle roof and vented it for circulation. I can store three tons of hay in it at a time. ( about 75 heavy bales ). We installed a solar operated light so we have no electric to the building and have placed it a good 100 feet from the barn and other out buildings. I feel completely safe with this set up and my hay stays in wonderful condition throughout the year.

edited to add: I use a heavy garden wagon to transfer the hay from shed to barn, so that at any time there is only one bale or less in the barn aisle proper.

[deltawave]

I can store just about a year's worth of hay for 2 horses and a pony in the hayloft above the center aisle of my barn: 12 x 36 feet, with a 6:12 roof pitch. Approximately 450-500 40-55 pound square bales. That's packed in TIGHT, and often I keep 50-60 bales "down" in the wash rack/hay storage area just so it's not so cramped up there when we put up the hay for the summer.

[poltroon]

You can figure 20 lbs per day for the large horses and maybe 3 lbs per day for the minis, and that will tell you how many bales you need in the winter times however long you figure winter is. And that will allow you to figure out your storage.

Ideally, your barn will be big enough so it can be stacked in directly with equipment, rather than you physically stacking each bale by hand. Trust me.

Extra height will also give you more air circulation. It's nice if you have the ability to open up for airflow during the summer.

I try to buy all the hay I will need for the year in May from one of my neighbors. I can buy those bales for about 1/3 of the price feed store bales will cost in the spring.

My two larger horses, one large pony, and one small pony went through about 130 ~100 lb bales this winter. I stacked every bale myself. That's 13,000 lbs or about 6 1/2 tons of hay.

I have a building that's 8 x20 and it's not sufficient to store it all, so I make do by watching the weather and tarping, something I can get away with until the end of fall. A bigger, taller building would save me from a lot of work in the next month.

I also need to store some straw.

[Go Fish]

I can store approximately 300 bales in the loft of my barn. Hay delivery is easy with an elevator and I drop hay in the stalls from the loft.

That being said, if I had it to do over, I'd probably store hay away from the barn. It creates dust and is a fire hazard. I think it's safer to store it away from the horses, even if it would be a hassle. I'm also wondering if your insurance company would give you a break if the hay is not stored in the barn.

[shakeytails]

I have a separate hay barn that's about 200 ft from the horse barn. In the barn we have an area about 6x8 that holds about 30 (50-60#) bales. We use either the pickup truck or hay wagon, whichever is easiest, to bring hay to the horse barn as needed. I prefer a separate hay barn for fire safety. It's always made me nervous to put hay in a loft over the horses.

[RedTahoe]

My barn is a four stall barn (two stalls are storage, and one is empty *sigh*), but I have a hay loft. However, I don't keep that much hay up there as I have pretty nice pasture (plus it's a fire hazard - God forbid!), and it's only my friend's horse at the barn anyways.

I brought home (non-treated) wooden pallets from work, and even though the hay loft is solid, I put the bales (4 at a time) on a pallet to keep it up off the "ground." I don't want it to mold or anything.

I make sure to keep underneath it swept and clear so as not to attract four-legged critters who would like to make a nest under there.

[saddleup]

I have three horses. I have a 12x16 three-sided shed perpendicular to my barn where I store the bulk of my hay. It's got a concrete floor and a 12x16 concrete pad in front of it. I have 4x4's on the ground and the hay is stacked on those to keep it off the concrete. I also stage about a month's worth of hay in an empty stall in the barn through the winter, so I'm not having to get into the hay storage more than once a month when it's snowy. I wish I'd built the shed bigger, but it's fine with only three horses.

[Sparky Boy]

In the past, several thousand bales have been stored up in my loft. I only keep about 400 up there at a time and throw down about 20 or so at a time into an empty stall and feed from there. I know they say you shouldn't store in a hay loft but that's what works best for me.

[shawneeAcres]

We have a small (12 x 20) Coverall building that we store what we are currnetly using at end of our barn. Very inexpensive to put up, can do it yourself and works great. We put pallets with plywood on top for a floor. We have additional hay storage in an old tobacco type barn that we fill up during the season for hay baling.

[pj]

We bought a large metal building with wooden floor for this purpose. You HAVE to have ventilation installed to use them for this purpose. Had a roof one done and four wall ones for each side.
Our's is a good ways from the barn as the area around the barn was impossible for big trucks or trucks with big hay trailers to turn around in. We haul from the building and store a couple of weeks worth of hay in an empty stall. Works for us but would be a pain to haul daily if we didn't have somewhere to store at the barn.

[Tamara in TN]

[QUOTE=dmalbone;4103412]Just curious how everyone stores their hay. If you have a separate building, what kind/size is it?

we have six barns the biggest being all metal,about one acre under one roof,24 foot eaves,fan system built into the wall,vents in the roof,halogen lights and a concrete floor...







and in my horse barn, I just throw it into an empty stall :lol:;)

best

[classicsporthorses]

'round here most barns have a mow and most everyone stores their hay in the mow. Most barns that are used now as horse barns, that were cow barns (yes, NYS is a dairy state) date back oh, 100+ years.

My mow will hold, if I fill it to the peak of the "old" part will probaby fit 4-5,000 bale. the lower part of the barn, above the stalls, which was rebuilt in 1979 where the old barn had to come down b/c it was not well attended to by a previous owner (we bought the place almost 5 years ago), can hold 1,000 bale. There is no working electric to the mow.

We Rarely have, if ever have heard of barn fire being due to spontaneous combustion and there are thousands of barns around here where the hay is stored above the animals in the mow.

[JellyBeanQueen]

I have a seperate storage site for our horse's hay. Its about 14 x 12 with cement flooring and the sides are made from rough cut oak. The boards on the side are verticle with about a 1/2 opeing inbetween each board. This allows for ventilation. The front door swings outward and it too is made from rough cut oak. Its on the side of the barn that does not get alot of the weather. We can get about a good 50 bales. Edited to add: triple wired extra large bales

[CB/TB]

I have a separate stall sized shed( 12 x 12) that I keep my hay in. It's next to my 2 stall shedrow. My hay supplier figures me in for my yearly supply when he cuts and I get hay about every two months (60 bales). I can get about 80-90 bales in it if I really pack it, but he's about a mile away, so it's not a big deal and I can get a few bales here and there if weather is a problem when I 'm planning to make the big haul. I also keep shavings, tack and meds there, too. It's not pretty , but serves it's purpose. A friend has used a big generic "quonset hut" type shelter for hay storage for years and it's worked out well for her. It's easy to stack the hay because it's open in front and has lots of space for lots of hay.

[subk]

I have a separate storage shed about 200 feet from my barn. It is 24 x 36 with 12 x 36 dedicated to hay storage for my 6 stall barn. Talk to your insurance agent. We found that the savings on insurance expense when you don't store hay in your barn goes a long way over the course of a few years toward the cost of the shed!

[2DogsFarm]

For my 2 horses I go through about 6 tons of hay a year - that's about 250 50# square bales.
My pastures are so-so and I feed less hay when there's grass and more in Winter. I go through a bale every 1 to 1-1/2 days depending on weather & feeding 3X a day.

I buy all my hay from 2nd cutting each year and store about half - 100 to 150 bales - in my barn which is 36X36 with 2 12X12 stalls. Stacked hay takes up roughly the space of 1-1/2 stalls & is stacked to the rafters - 10'.
Hay is stored on pallets over stonedust flooring and I have lost/tossed out just one or two bales in the 5 years I've been here and they were just "iffy" not definitely moldy.
The other 100 or so bales are stored on pallets in my attached indoor over the sand footing.

My homeowners insurance covers the barn & arena and agent never even asked if hay is stored there.

[MaresNest]

I have a huge shed attached to my barn. It's nice.

Someday I hope to build. When that day comes, my dream scenario is to have a big shed and a big dedicated hay trailer. Drive to hay grower, load trailer, driver home, park trailer under shed, done. That's my fantasy.

[Fancy That]

We have 3 horses and have a 12 x 16 Hay Barn. It has large sliding doors that we generally keep open so the hay doesn't sweat. (we are in California - not too much "weather" to worry about :)

It holds 100 bales.

Here's a pic with the sliding front doors closed.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk150/elaineshickman/Meadowlark/DSC01427.jpg

[King's Ransom]

I have three horses and tons of good pasture. I go through only about 75 square bales a year. I stack them on wooden pallets that are set on a concrete slab inside my barn. I'm glad I don't have to go out to a separate building to get my hay and haul it to the barn through freezing rain, driving snow, pelting hail, and/or 70 mph winds ... all much too frequent here on the Kansas prairie, and just the types of weather that cause me to bring the boys inside and feed them hay.