Pacerron,
I do not have race horses, but we love them. I went to some effort to find decent HORSE hay and I've got some that is pretty darned good. I have another 65-75 square bales I need to pick up before he harvests end of May, and I currentloy have approx 30 bales stored in an old woodshed I want to convert into the chicken shack.
I need storage advise, and I'm just going to ask it here vs.starting a new thread I think.
My current idea is this...
I have a large metal shed IU plan to make into tractor and attachment storage soon as I move the chickens/guineas/ducks out.
It is dirt floored & will be open front when I remove the roller door so my ROPS & canopy fit.
I was planning to lay down a large tarp in the back. put good wooden pallets down, stack the square bales cut end up on the pallets with airflow, and put up a tarp across the front & top (or something similar) to keep the dirt dust off of them that is generated by the tractor starting and moving attachments.
Will this work?
David
I looked at the list of threads you have started in an attempt to see perhaps
what this metal shed structure looked like but 88 threads would be a bit too time consuming to find it. Regardless... to answer a couple of your questions and probably create more.
1. If you put a tarp down under the pallets you will be amazed in short order how much water and mold will collect under it. Not a good idea in a hay storage area.
2. If you cover the hay with a tarp the hay will collect moisture, even year old hay and start to mold.
Metal sheds/barns, do mainly to temperature changes constantly on the outside surface throughout a 24 hour period and the moisture in the air in your location, will sweat inside. Metal barns without insulated roofs will even drip the sweat like raindrops.
This time of year and until all the spring rain is out of the ground and the humidity becomes lower later in the summer, the best thing for your hay and your metal tractor and equipment is to get as much air flow through the barn as possible. If you keep it all closed up and have hay dust on the floor ( or the top of your floor tarp, if you must ) you may even see mold developing
on the tarp and on the ground. A hand sprayer with some clorox water sprayed on the ground helps eliminate this but it is much better to keep the air flowing and not have mold in the first place.
3. From your present situation you describe ( from our experiences of 40 years of horsing) it would be better to not put a tarp down on the ground.
We would suggest putting skids down on the dirt ( in an area where the ground stays pretty dry normally) inside your barn then putting a sacrificial layer, packed tight, flat ( not on end ) of your existing left over hay to make an area large enough so you can stack useable layers on top. The sacrificial layer can remain in place for many years. It will protect the useable layers from mold if they are cut and made properly. The bottom layer should never be fed to horses.
4. Any new cut bales should be stacked on end.
5. Any shelter for a horse needs to lined with tongue and groove 2x8's or wider. No metal siding should ever be exposed to horses. They will kick, rub, and do what horses do, causing damage to the structure and themselves.
A 3 sided shelter is good for protection from bugs and weather.
If you can afford a shed deep enough, say 24 feet or more so there is 12 feet for humans and 12 feet for horses times whatever length x 10 feet per horse. They will both crowd into one 10 x 12 open on one end stall at times but you will find the human convenience and comfort well worth the money
when feeding, caring for hurt or sick animals, and trimming hooves.
A closeable pipe gate that can retain one animal in a stall is very helpful at times too.
Since one end of the shed is open, the choice of place and direction is important. The floor needs to be higher than the dirt outside. Best friend you or wife could ever have are rubber stall mats inside the stalls to keep the dirt in place. No bedding required on top of rubber mats unless you are caring for a sick animal and lock them in the stall.
Next best friends are water and electricity in the barn. But.. build the barn far enough from the house that you will not be invaded by flys from the horse area.
Last but not least... NO barbed wire.
Ron
