Help! Stupid moldy hay!

[Duloc141]

I have a two stall shed row barn that I store bagged shavings and hay in. The stall I keep the hay in has oak kickboards and a plywood floor. I've been storing hay in there for about two years without any issues. This summer it was very rainy here in New York and one load of hay I got must not have been very dry. It went moldy. I got rid of it and got in a new load.

However...on the bottom of the new stack and those against the wall have turned moldy, mostly around the ends and sides. What can I do to prevent this from happening again? Should I spray the walls with something? Bleach? If the wood was exposed to mold hay in the past does that now mean it's "infected"? Can the mold from the previous hay be in the wood and ruin hay from now on?

Grrrrr! This is so frustrating! :mad:

[BramblewoodAcres]

Pallets are your friend. Get the hay up off the plywood floor and give it some space to breathe.

[ChocoMare]

Pallets are your friend. Get the hay up off the plywood floor and give it some space to breathe.

Ditto. Also keep the bales away from direct contact with the walls.

Perhaps consider adding an exhaust fan in the roof, too...one that's on a thermostat so it runs only when it reaches a certain temperature ;)

[BuddyRoo]

And yes...before you throw hay in there again, spray down the walls with bleach water or anti fungal....then rinse again. The spores will infect new good hay.

Circulation is a key...but even still, given spores + moisure--even from humidity--can ruin hay.

[goeslikestink]

Pallets are your friend. Get the hay up off the plywood floor and give it some space to breathe.

and keep it slightly away from the walls so the air can get roundit but not the wet and rain

[pj]

Oh my gosh I feel for you.

Several years back I got real "smart" and purchased a large metal building to store hay in. It would hold my years worth of hay and the hay trucks could get to it so easily. I got a load of burmuda and a load of very expensive alfalfa and sat back with a contented sigh. Set for the year.

Didn't open the building for some weeks and when I did it was something out of a horror movie. Mold coating all the hay, mold hanging from the ceiling, mold draping the walls.
Thousands of dollars worth of hay destroyed.

Come to find out there isn't enough ventilation in those buildings to store hay.
Got rid of all the hay, cleaned down the inside and left it wide open for a while and had two ventilation things put on each side of the building and one of the top ones that turn with the slightest breeze. Since then the building has worked just fine for hay storeage although when we get in new hay I also now leave the big door opened for some weeks, too.

That was a very painful and very expensive lesson for me.

Also as others have pointed out don't stack your hay against the walls. Cuts down a bit on your space but will help your hay.

[Duloc141]

Excellent! Thank you all so much!

I think I'll bleach, then after it dries put down stall mats and then put pallets on top of that. That should do it!

Thanks everyone! I'm just about to load up on nice second cutting, enough to get me through the winter. Glad this all happened now before I did! :yes:

pj - Oh you poor thing. Yikes. Well, now we know!

[Phaxxton]

Bleach does not kill mold. You need to clean the walls and floors with a biocide and then you need to let everything dry out thoroughly before storing more hay.

I agree with others -- get pallets so the hay is up off the floors and don't let the bales touch the walls.

[Grataan]

We take straw bales and put one layer of straw (we have a huge hay barn so we can put bales, but you could break them open and put flakes down instead) underneath the hay. Then make sure you leave room for the hay to breathe-don't stick it right up touching the walls. Then of course cover it so that condensation doesn't drip on it from the roof.

[betsyk]

Around here, people tend to sacrifice the bottom layer -- so you'd have your floor, then a couple layers of pallets (which will fill with chaff) then the sacrifice layer that stays there year after year til you can't stand it any longer - then your hay that you're planning to feed.

[scrtwh]

I feel your pain. We had severe mold damage a few years ago from condensation from our metal roof ... what a waste that was. Folks here gave good advice.

[WBLover]

Better yet, PLASTIC pallets (that have air holes). Wood can hold moisture, plastic does not. I use the plastic ones and even the hay bales that have been sitting on the pallets for several months are dry and fresh.

[Showbizz]

Wow - I'm just building a metal hay storage building on our new place - never even thought about condensation with the metal, as my last barn was wood. Thanks all.

[PNWjumper]

Better yet, PLASTIC pallets (that have air holes). Wood can hold moisture, plastic does not. I use the plastic ones and even the hay bales that have been sitting on the pallets for several months are dry and fresh.

Where do you get plastic pallets? That sounds like a great idea!

[sketcher]

Bleach does not kill mold. You need to clean the walls and floors with a biocide and then you need to let everything dry out thoroughly before storing more hay.


Bleach is indeed a biocide. It is suitable for use on non-porous surfaces so not appropriate for wooden surfaces in a barn.

[WBLover]

Plastic pallets--sorry, I can't help on where to get them. My neighbor's place of business uses them, he works at a chemical paint manufacturing plant and since plastic is less flammable than wood, that's what they use there. He brought us home a few "spares" they had laying around!