Hay Storage

[Scoutman]

New member here. Just bought a Yanmar 2210 last week and picked up some round bales for our 2 horses for the winter. I'd like to know the best way to store these. The plan was to put them under a tarp and possibly put them on pallets to keep them off the ground. Any other good suggestions other than building a barn to store them in the dry?

Thanks

[Scoutman]

I'm only talking about ~8 bales here so I'm working on small scale

[Radly53]

In the past I used blue tarps and stacked them on pallets. It worked OK

[sweettractors]

New member here. Just bought a Yanmar 2210 last week and picked up some round bales for our 2 horses for the winter. I'd like to know the best way to store these. The plan was to put them under a tarp and possibly put them on pallets to keep them off the ground. Any other good suggestions other than building a barn to store them in the dry?

Thanks

You can pick up plastic sleeves special made just for sliding over the rolls. Ken Sweet

[schmism]

a heaver duty tarp will make the biggest diffrence. Call around to the bilboard shops and see what they are getting for old signs. they are high quality "tarp" material.

[biker4jc]

I'm using tarps and pallets, and the horses seem to be staying fat enough.

[MIKE R]

I try to stay away from tarps as they trap moisture and trap it close to the bales causing them to mold. If you use a tarp put something across the top of the bales to give it breathing room and keep the tarp a foot or so off the ground to allow for air cirulation. I have seen many hay get ruined by tarping them wrong.

[SoonerLS]

I don't keep any hay, but around here I usually see round bales lined up by the fence in a corner of the pasture. I don't recall seeing any tarps or anything more than net wraps on them (though I don't know if that'd be different if we weren't in the midst of a multi-year drought).

[Scoutman]

Wow, thanks for the responses. I put a tarp over them on the trailer last night to keep them dry from the showers we're supposed to get tonight. Should have bought a bigger tarp though. I have a pole canopy that I wasn't crazy about using but after talking to my wife last night I think we have a place we can put it that won't be too visible from the road and that the horses won't mess with. I will lay some pallets down in it and put the bales 2 wide and 5 deep for a full house. When I don't have hay in there I can always store a Jeep or the tractor in it. It's 10 wide, 20 deep, and 12 high.

[Lou66]

Keeping a bale off the ground and dry will save you about 20% of the bale,, that about how much you lose just setting them outside in the elements.. They did a study on it at Texas AM I was surprised how much hay lost was on a round bales when stored outside on the ground,,