Best way to get rid of (round) bailed hay??

[Richard]

Backstory: Farm used to be leased and one thing he did was to create what seemed like 1,000 round bails of hay (probably 200). Lease is up, he left BUT, left his hay stored here. Phone call was made to him and he picked MOST of it up, leaving behind, maybe 30 bails.

This stuff was bailed/stored I'm guessing 5-7 years ago. Nobody would let me get rid of the hay in case he wanted it. I suggested they call him to have him get it. I waited two more years... and now the time has come.

Not knowing anything about it, I put it on Craigslist for free.... just have to pick it up.....no takers. Fine, that was last chance.

Yesterday, I went to one of the locations that only had about 3-4 bales and at that, two of them were like half bales, very small. Had to use the backhoe to pull them out from the growth around them.

The contents were closer to mulch than hay. VERY VERY damp/wet, very dark brown.

The bales had some kind of cross patterned "net" around them and then on top of that was a white saran wrap type material.

Of course, things fell apart and I probably spent two hours just trying to pull these out (easy) cut them open and then separate the contents from the plastic wrappings so I can dispose of the plastic.

Pulling the wrappings off was a ROYAL pain in the butt. Wife is still admonishing me about calling someone (specific) local to give the stuff to him.... I told her there's no way he'd want it besides, the reason we'd want to give it away is to have him clean up the mess and (I know this guy) there's no way he'd clean up anything. He'd just grab & go leaving the very problem I'm trying to fix.


So, this pile was under some trees which made it a bit more difficult to deal with. The other 20 rolls are lined up nicely in the field in a double straight line. Though there are 1" saplings growing all around them where there should be no saplings.

What would you suggest as the best way to open them up, separate the contents from the plastic and then spread the contents around? That was another issue yesterday, I had a big pile of "clump" that didn't spread around easily. I suppose I'm going to have to just go over it and over it and over it to work it all out.

Thought I'd see if anyone has some ideas, my apologies on no pictures.....I didn't think about that yesterday when I was out there.


Second thought: We have a drainage ditch that is compliments of this farmer (when he worked the fields, one is on a hill and focused ALL the water down to a flat area and now we have a big long ditch there that he never fixed)

Anyway.... would this material be worth any effort to put into the ditch as preliminary filler (I plan to move some dirt to fill it in "over time" so this could be a possible quick fix for both issues, the ditch AND moving the pile of muck someplace)

??

 

[Egon]

Split the plastic and netting and roll them out.

 

[riptides]

Split the plastic and netting and roll them out.

Agree. If they won't roll, spread them out as best you can. Let Mother Nature do her thing.

 

[BRMyers]

We have used old bales in washouts along the edges of the field.

 

[Coboco]

Basically you got some free mulch/fertility if you garden anything...too bad it's all wrapped up, just going to take some more effort and time to get it how you want it!

I watched a vid where a guy grew potatoes very successfully by simply setting potatoes right on top of a grass lawn. He then covered them with a thin layer of compost, then piled on old spent hay. He hilled them a couple times lightly with mediocre soil then more spent hay.

 

[sea2summit]

Split the plastic and netting and roll them out.

First post nailed it.

 

[LouNY]

Depending on how they are stacked, up right like an oil can, or laid on their side and the equipment at your disposal will determine the best way for you to proceed
If you can get the bale out by its self without destroying it,
if it's on it's end using a utility knife slice the plastic wrapping and netting from the ground up to the top and across and back to the ground,
move a quarter of the way around the bale and repeat.
Pull and lay the plastics sections on the ground then pull push or scoop the hay off of the plastic.

It's up to you but when I had the "hay" clear of the plastic I'd just pile it in a big winrow and give it some time to compost down,
if winrowed now, late summer next year I'd stir it up with a loader and repile it the next year it should be good compost.
If you are in a dry area add some water and cover the pile to speed the process up.

 

[Richard]

I'm not sure about the remaining rolls.... I think they're laying on their side. The rolls I dealt with yesterday were 'mummified'. They were wrapped around the round sides.....then 90 degrees to that where the contents were totally covered (keep in mind that several of these were partial rolls) The rolls by the barn are full sized.

I think we've decided to attempt (if we can carry them that far without them ripping themselves to pieces like they did yesterday) anyway, our first attempt is going to be to put them into that drainage ditch that didn't use to exist. That might be a good place to try to get rid of them and make it safer to cross. Maybe get some dirt for it in spring.

 

[super55]

I had some hay I had to get off the field and I knew it was going to be mulch hay. I use it all the time to fill low spots. If it is semi-dry you can get it to burn but it puts out a lot of smoke.

 

[ponytug]

Basically you got some free mulch/fertility if you garden anything...too bad it's all wrapped up, just going to take some more effort and time to get it how you want it!

I watched a vid where a guy grew potatoes very successfully by simply setting potatoes right on top of a grass lawn. He then covered them with a thin layer of compost, then piled on old spent hay. He hilled them a couple times lightly with mediocre soil then more spent hay.

We used to do this growing potatoes, albeit by first making a trench, tilling the bottom of the trench, planting the potatoes, and putting 8-12" of well rotted hay on top, then the remaining earth, more straw in top. Picking potatoes was a dream, and the yields were fantastic.

Back to Richard's problem:
Personally, I would split the plastic and use a backhoe, or tractor based tool to pull the plastic off. I would spread the remainder as best you can. From your description, you are talking tons of material, and I would be thinking about big, powered equipment to do this. Those bales probably weighed 1000lbs dry, and now perhaps a ton each. If you don't just leave them to slowly rot on the side of the field, then that is going to be a lot of trips with a powerful manure spreader, or zillions of trips with a grapple bucket. If you mix in some nitrogen, it will rot faster, as will getting in there with forks to aerate the piles. If they have any integrity, you can unroll them, but I'm assuming that they are too rotten for that. The more spread out that you can make them, the faster they will mulch. Left in a bale, they will probably persist for a long time.

The pile we had growing up lasted years- it just sat there, shedding rain and snow, with only the outermost layer mulching. We got great mushrooms off of it for years.

Good luck with the piles- sorry for the pill of a tenant.

All the best,

Peter

Some of it would help your wash out, but as it is already mulch, it won't slow the water much. Still, if you can put some pegs in to help hold it in place, it will help.