Hay Storage Small Squares

[TheMan419]

So we have horses and prefer small squares.

We have a supplier that is willing to store the bales and deliver them periodically. However he (rightfully) wants to charge us a premium for that vs delivering them all at once and getting paid all at once.

I am trying to convince SWMBO we can store them in her in door riding arena. She of course does not want to give up the space in the riding arena.

1500 bales is what we are going to order.

So what kind of space is that going to take? One end of the arena there is a door in the middle. On either side it is 23 feet from the door to the wall. If I go 10 feet out how may bales can be stored in that area? Rafters are 16 feet high but it seems to me I do not want to go that high, stack would risk tipping over if I go more than 10 feet high or so wouldnt it?

I am trying to figure how much of her arena space I am "stealing" to save the fees the seller wants to charge for storage.

Is there kind of a formula to use?

 

[xcbuilder]

Calculation based on 4x2x2 foot bale would give 6 bales wide 5 bales deep 30 bales per layer either side of the door 8 bales high going to 16 feet. Gives total of 480 bales. So you need wife to give up 30 feet of arena to get close to 1500 bales. Exact numbers depend on actual bale size.

 

[StuartDK45SE]

Store what you can get by with and use that first. Then have him deliver the rest?

 

[TheMan419]

Calculation based on 4x2x2 foot bale would give 6 bales wide 5 bales deep 30 bales per layer either side of the door 8 bales high going to 16 feet. Gives total of 480 bales. So you need wife to give up 30 feet of arena to get close to 1500 bales. Exact numbers depend on actual bale size.

Yeah she is not going to give up that much space......

Store what you can get by with and use that first. Then have him deliver the rest?

That is likely the plan.

If I can get 400 bales in the area she is willing to give up plus I have space where we have been storing for about 300 that gets me close to half of the hay up front. The other half is not so bad to pay the guy to store/deliver on demand when needed.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Selling the horses is the cheapest option. We had 40 at one point and we are down to 16 or so. I guess I'm on the right track. I'd tell her to deal with the loss of space. 10' really isn't that much room. How much money difference are we talking?

 

[TheMan419]

Selling the horses is the cheapest option. We had 40 at one point and we are down to 16 or so. I guess I'm on the right track. I'd tell her to deal with the loss of space. 10' really isn't that much room. How much money difference are we talking?

Net $800/yr. Basicaly he wants an extra $1 per bale he stores. I figured if I could save $1500/yr I壇 do it. We will have a total of 8 horses. Need about 1500 bales a year for them. If I can take delivery of 700 up front I only have To pay to store 800.

Always looking to save a few bucks.

We are boarding most of those horses. So at least I am not paying for all of them!

 

[zzvyb6]

How about a 40' shipping container? Since this is a business (I presume), you have tax write-offs, so the cost of container + delivery is covered. These containers are great for hay because rodents etc. can be kept out. The container(s) can be placed where hay removal is easiest. Yes they are not free, but after 2-3 years they have paid for themselves. Even a 20' might do the job. Extra space in the hayloft may be realized, too. I'm going to add a cupola and windows to one and have an on-site 'caboose'.

 

[TheMan419]

How about a 40' shipping container? Since this is a business (I presume), you have tax write-offs, so the cost of container + delivery is covered. These containers are great for hay because rodents etc. can be kept out. The container(s) can be placed where hay removal is easiest. Yes they are not free, but after 2-3 years they have paid for themselves. Even a 20' might do the job. Extra space in the hayloft may be realized, too. I'm going to add a cupola and windows to one and have an on-site 'caboose'.

Yes is it is a write off, but it is still money out the door. A 40 foot container is 8 feet high by 8 feet wide so 2500 cubic feet of space. I need to go out and measure this guys bales but google gives a size of 14in by 18in by 35 in. That would by 5 cubic feet. So a 40 foot container would hold around 500 bales, assuming you get it perfectly cram packed full of hay.

40 foot container cost is about $3k plus delivery. So we are looking at a minimum of a 6 year pay back. More like 7 or 8.

Eventually we want to build more storage for shavings and the like. Might be that we make that larger than we thought and use part of it for hay storage.

Right now it looks like I could use the space I have and the additional space in the arena she is willing to give up to store 750 bales give or take. That is about half of what we need. So I can pay the hay guy $750 to store the additional hay. Have him deliver it periodically as we consume the hay.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Can you put a loft overtop of the horse stalls and store your hay up there? We board and train them but the wife is getting out of the business. I used to make around 5k squares and 300+ round bales to keep us in hay. Never again. She buys the 3'x3'x8' square bales and i unload 10 per load and store them on pallets. Works pretty well.

 

[StuartDK45SE]

I know you have been feeding square bales, but 16 horses will go through a round bale in short order. Stack some round bales up outside and buy a heavy tarp for them and call it good. My neighbor has high dollar roping horses and the last time he baled my hay, he went with round bales and stored them outside. They ate them all up over the winter with very little waste.