New Hay Barn Going Up

[EddieWalker]

We use about 1 bale a day of coastal. I can store 90 coastal bales in one of the 12'X12' stalls in the stables. Using the tractor and hay grapple I can put the 10 bales in the aisle next to the stall door but then I have to hand jack them into the stall and stack them 5 high. After the hay barn is finished I will stack them using the tractor and hay grapple. Then once a week use the tractor and bucket to bring 8 bales over to stack in the stall.

My hay supplier is in Chandler. I reserve X amount of bales at the beginning of the year. He stores them in his big hay barn and I picked them up as I need them. Now I will be able to make 3 trips of 120 bales at a time and be done with it for the year.

The 3 string alfalfa bales go in another stall that we use for feed and supplements. They weight 100# or so. The feed store charges a $25 delivery fee to deliver 20 and stack them in the stall. That's a good deal for me after having back surgery.

Sounds like you're using your horse barn for hay storage. This is really going to give you a lot more roof for the horse!!!!

Do you feed hay all year long? 365 square bales a year?

In winter, I go through a round bale a week, but for most of the year, a 5 1/2 foot round bale will last me about three weeks because they are feeding out in the pasture.

 

[WM75Guy]

We have a 5 stall barn, 3 for horses and 2 for feed and hay. This will give us another stall if needed, although we don't need another horse. Two get worked 4-5 times a week and the third is our retired 29 y/o pasture pony. Our horses get horse feed and a flake or 2 of hay twice a day. They also have access to pasture 24/7. Our warmbloods weigh 1400 to 1500 pounds so they need more feed than the average 1000 pound quarter horse. They are all between 17 to 17.2 hands.

When this picture was taken we had horses in all the stalls and feed stored in bins seen on the left side. Hay was stored in our shop building. The feed is now in the stall on the far left end and hay is in the far right stall. We store shavings on pallets where we were storing the feed bins. The shop building is now totally stained glass operations.

 

[WM75Guy]

Roof and exterior panels are all up. Still have exterior trim, roof vents, gutters & downspouts, rollup doors, and finish up some interior walls and trim to go. Doesn't look like it will be finished this week.

 

[EddieWalker]

I forgot if you mentioned it. What is the size of the doors? Are they going to be roll up or garage door style? Will they have openers?

My shop has a 10x10 manual roll up door. It's not a big deal to open and close it, but when I build my bigger, better shop, I'm going with garage door style doors and openers so I can use a remote, or push a button to open and close them.

I really like how much nicer the insulated garage door panels are.

 

[lman]

My newest barn has two 20' doors, 14' tall. One at each end. No complaints so far.

 

[WM75Guy]

I forgot if you mentioned it. What is the size of the doors? Are they going to be roll up or garage door style? Will they have openers?

My shop has a 10x10 manual roll up door. It's not a big deal to open and close it, but when I build my bigger, better shop, I'm going with garage door style doors and openers so I can use a remote, or push a button to open and close them.

I really like how much nicer the insulated garage door panels are.

Doors will be 12'X12' roll ups with chain openers. There is no power to the building. It is for hay storage and to keep my 25' Big Tex trailer out of the weather. It is the trailer I use to haul hay and tractors. I have 20A plug on an arena light pole close to it if I need electricity.

 

[EddieWalker]

Not having power inside the building surprises me. Seems like it would be nice to have lights in there at night, or outside to see what's going on out there.

 

[WM75Guy]

Not having power inside the building surprises me. Seems like it would be nice to have lights in there at night, or outside to see what's going on out there.

I would have to have the power coop run about 300' of wire underground across the field and set a new pad mount transformer to get power to it, all at my expense. Something I may consider in the future but right now I really don't have any need. I shouldn't have to be in there after dark. Being retired gives me plenty of daylight to move hay.

The arena next to it has lights so the area around the barn can be lit up. I can put additional lights on the 2 poles next to the barn pointing towards it as well, the mounts and power are already there. I used a double light mount kit on each pole but only put up 1 1000W light per pole for lighting up the arena.

 

[WM75Guy]

Fabrication guys worked hard today to finish up. Thought we would be complete today. Overhead Door guys were having trouble with the doors sticking. They figured out the factory sent all 3 door frames 1" longer on the left side, so the doors are not sitting square in the tracks. Other than that, the building is complete. They will be back next Tuesday to remove and remount the doors. I will clean up some small trash and smooth out around the building next week. Next pics will be with hay in the barn.

 

[EddieWalker]

That has to be a really good feeling to see that big open space all sealed up from the weather!!!!!!