Thoughts on Hay Barn

kthompson · Jul 25, 2017

I am will be needing barn for hay next year, my first. It will run North to South with west side needing to be closed due to sun and dust from dirt road that direction. Will be small square bale for sale.

Looking for suggestion height, think 12 is minimum and 14 might be best height. Will be stacking with full size tractor with grapple. If all numbers work it will need to hold as much as 12,000 bales, that amount of storage will build over the next 2 to 4 years so rather have design can add to as need grows. Or may need to build at least two buildings.

Looking for recommendations on flooring, type of building and any thing you think is important.

mddorange · Jul 25, 2017

My barn runs North to South with the East side next to the road. Is your 12' or 14' the height of the walls or roof? My barn walls are 12' high with a 16' roof for a 36' width and gives me a lot of storage.

powerscol · Jul 25, 2017

First measure the height of your tractor with grapple fully raised, I suggest going two feet higher to the low point of any truss or girder. Second lay out your barn on the ground(mark support post locations) and try driving your tractor and grapple around within the limits you have ( include any ballast box). Can you turn around or be able to stack sideways? also remember how your grapple works when stacking. You will probably be surprised on how tight it can be. I stack to the side on each side leaving center open, and the last row on one side is a real bear. Wish I was 3 feet wider than I am and I am at 36' wide using a compact tractor. Last what is the prevailing wind/weather direction and account for that. My customers like to see the hay fully enclosed not just one or two sides.

One farmer down the road has several sliding bypass doors (top rail hung) and he roles them along as needed to store and cover. He also loads the barn from the sides too. A second man has tarps that he unrolls down the side of the stack to cover. These are both traditional pool barns with clear span inside (support poles and trusses only rest on the outside) One is totally open front, sides and back, the other has full height 14 or 16 foot doors.

As for base, I have free draining gravel over ground fabric and stack on wooden pallets - someday I will put concrete down, but still use the pallets. Take time and visit your neighbors too and see what they have. Also interior lighting helps in the winter.

PS my barn is steel with square and round steel posts. Siding is steel roofing panels - cheaper than wood here. I lined the inside with cheap 1/2 plywood to keep from denting the panels when stacking the hay.I also have a Morton Building unit, my garage - they may have a dealer in your area. Might be worth a chat.

Hope the helps

tcreeley · Jul 25, 2017

I'd suggest you get the hay off the ground, cement floor, etc.. It will absorb moisture and start to mold. Wood pallets is good. (Gets in the way of walking is a drawback.) Stacking it on a wood flooring would be best if there was a way to get your tractor close enough to use it drop the hay. Hay conveyors is one way to move the bales around.
Good project.

kthompson · Jul 25, 2017

I plan on WALLS of at least 12 feet to 14 but really like the laying out the building and doing test runs with equipment. Have done that often in setting up office equipment over the years.
As to absorbing moisture think the best would be to have a vented floor that would support your equipment and the hay. Bet that would be costly. I remember, not sure what era from but maybe WWII, we had some panels that were temporary use for run ways. They would lock together and were maybe an inch wide, maybe less, maybe 3 by 6 or even a 4 by 8. Something like them sure would be good to keep the hay up but not sure would want to work my equipment tires on them.

Thanks for the thoughts.

leeave96 · Jul 25, 2017

kthompson said:
I plan on WALLS of at least 12 feet to 14 but really like the laying out the building and doing test runs with equipment. Have done that often in setting up office equipment over the years.
As to absorbing moisture think the best would be to have a vented floor that would support your equipment and the hay. Bet that would be costly. I remember, not sure what era from but maybe WWII, we had some panels that were temporary use for run ways. They would lock together and were maybe an inch wide, maybe less, maybe 3 by 6 or even a 4 by 8. Something like them sure would be good to keep the hay up but not sure would want to work my equipment tires on them.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Google asphalt for a hay floor. You might like what you find.

Creamer · Jul 25, 2017

For a cheap floor I was always wondering about a vapor barrier with rock on top and laying 2x4s with a large stock panel laid on top ($16 panel for 64 sq ft.). You couldn't drive on it but the 2x4s would give you ventilation and the panels would keep the hay from falling in. i am not sure about 2x4 spacing but I was thinking 16 -20". Then when you remove the bales pick up the cattle panels and clean up the dropped hay in between barn fillings.

Permanent ventilated floors have two major problems - 1) they have to be strong enough to drive on or you move the hay by hand and 2) they invite rodents and critters to live underneath

aczlan · Jul 25, 2017

Timely thread, we are looking at something similar but for round bales. My current plan is going to be laying down pallets on the floor one row at a time and stacking round bales on top of them. That will require about 60 pallets if they're full size pallets (ie: 40" by 48")

Aaron Z

tcreeley · Jul 25, 2017

Interesting link on hay storage - Floor on hay storage? - Alfalfa/Hay - HayTalk - Hay & Forage Community

JimRB · Jul 26, 2017

Make room for the collector/tipping machine. A few of my hay farmers are annoyed that they have barns too low for a New Holland 1095 or a Freeman 8000. Others are quite happy they have tall barns and do not need $10 labor to collect from the field or stack, and can get a lot of bales in one pass.

kthompson · Jul 26, 2017

Just wondering here with NO experience with moving hay with tractor but why not build pallets that fit the hay and just use forks to move the loaded pallet from within the barn to outside? Maybe onto trailer or set on the ground and transfer to trailer. Could you not place the pallets on trailer and load onto them in the field and then using forks lift and move into the barn? Could you not stack second pallet on the first pallet load if needed to get full stack height?

EddieWalker · Jul 26, 2017

When I was buying square bales, one guy I bought from had an attachment on the front of his skid steer the picked up a bunch of bales at a time all in a big square. All his hay was stacked on a concrete floor with this attachment, and it seemed in great condition. But that attachment was the neatest thing ever!!!!

I've switched to round bales and hope to build a hay barn in the next year or two. My thought for flooring is to build up the pad enough to make sure that no water gets into the building. Then put down plastic and gravel. I don't think I really need the plastic and gravel, but it will look nicer. Our clay dries out so hard that my full size backhoe struggles to break through it.

hslogger · Jul 26, 2017

My guess is at some point you are gonna want a bale wagon and get one. In that case, looking ahead, you need to go extra high with your set up to accommodate the bale wagon offloading procedure. I wish I had. I never figured it was going to be in my equation but as the area continues to switch to more mechanical harvest and large bales it would have been smart(er) for me to do this.

We hand stack two and three tie bales in our barn that has a dirt floor. I put down four by four and four by six sleepers on the ground and then lay plywood sheets and scraps by hand on them. As the hay usage goes thru the winter, I pickup the sleepers and plywood and then can use that same area for livestock or anything else.

Yes it gets mousey underneath there but it isn't all that bad. We have barn owls that we encourage and they do a swell job in the barn. Also, when putting down the temporary floor we salt the heck out of it that cuts way down on spoilage. We also lime the ground before putting the sleepers and floor down using hydrated lime

cat fever · Jul 28, 2017

Do you plan to get a stack wagon? That would determine the height you need. Large one's require 18'.
I think a pole barn style barn would be the best type of barn to build because you can just keep adding on as the need/money allows. Just make sure to leave enough room for the addition.
Flooring is different depending on area and humidity levels. SC I'm sure would be much different than Utah. I don't like pallet's only because of the mouse heaven it create's.
Here's a shot of my pole barn build, you can see how I could just add more post's and trusses and keep going longer.

Good luck and post lots of pics of your build.

Fievel Farmanimal · Jul 28, 2017

kthompson said:
Just wondering here with NO experience with moving hay with tractor but why not build pallets that fit the hay and just use forks to move the loaded pallet from within the barn to outside? Maybe onto trailer or set on the ground and transfer to trailer. Could you not place the pallets on trailer and load onto them in the field and then using forks lift and move into the barn? Could you not stack second pallet on the first pallet load if needed to get full stack height?

Yeah:

Hay on pallets

Baling

I know that barn is not optimal, would like a better one too.

kthompson · Jul 28, 2017

Fievel Farmanimal, like the pictures. Especially of the barn.

aczlan · Jul 28, 2017

I wonder how well it would work to put a coat of Slurry Seal on top of concrete to eliminate the need for pallets.

Aaron Z

powerscol · Jul 31, 2017

EddieWalker said:
When I was buying square bales, one guy I bought from had an attachment on the front of his skid steer the picked up a bunch of bales at a time all in a big square. All his hay was stacked on a concrete floor with this attachment, and it seemed in great condition. But that attachment was the neatest thing ever!!!!

I've switched to round bales and hope to build a hay barn in the next year or two. My thought for flooring is to build up the pad enough to make sure that no water gets into the building. Then put down plastic and gravel. I don't think I really need the plastic and gravel, but it will look nicer. Our clay dries out so hard that my full size backhoe struggles to break through it.

Like This

In the picture of me staking in the barn notice how close the roof perlin is. I haft to be very careful - thus my suggest to measure your max reach and add the 2 feet.