burning hay for fuel?

[forgeblast]

If you get rfd tv, I am sure praire farm report has shown one that was used for heating.
Farmvideos.com, farm DVDs & videos on shops, cattle handling, inventions, antique tractors, grain handling, & fencing. is the website for the show.

 

[BeezFun]

If you burn it be sure to run the exhaust stack to your upwind neighbor's house so you have the pleasure of smelling what you're burning. Might not be a bad idea to do that with all wood burners, everyone claims their stove burns so clean you can't smell it, so they shouldn't mind breathing it themselves.

 

[rd_macgregor]

A few years back, a colleague of mine toured hay(or straw?)-powered district heating systems in Europe. The slides he showed when he got back were intriguing, but I think the hardware for doing this for a single dwelling would likely be too costly to make it worthwhile, though.

BOB

 

[Depmandog]

The article referred to using bio-mass that had little to no nutritional value as feedstock. Much like oat straw. So no true "hay" is being burned.

As to the person that was complaining about the smoke smell....the article was discussing heat for a poultry operation. I seriously doubt if this producer has many neighbors - chicken farms are pretty stinky. Oh my,the word reeks comes to mind. Having some smoke in the air would be a breath of fresh air in comparison.

 

[AWVFARMBOY]

You have a point with your quote, but, when you produce hay you without having a use for it yourself, it can be quite the burden. If your post of WV is so, we share the same homestate.
I have had problems the last 3 years with hay. I got burned for 1500 bucks year before by someone that wanted the hay but after getting it didnt have the money. Then there are the 500 folks that call you and want 1 roll...or they tell you they want GOOD hay and you quote the price and they agree...then you make good hay and they back out on you....Then there are the ones that want to nickel and dime you to death on your hay or wait till it is colder than a well diggers butt or pouring the rain and the ground is muddier than heck...then want to buy hay.

They cant grasp the thought of 20 grand for a tractor, 5 grand for a good mower, 15 grand for a baler, 5 grand for a rake, and 4 bucks a gallon for diesel, 40 bucks for a twin spool of twine and then...oh...but then..your time to cut, rake, bale the hay....then want to give you 1.50 a square bale or 15.00 for a 4x4 roll of hay...
Selling hay is a pain in the butt if you dont have use of it yourself or have someone that you produce hay for. If you let someone else come on your property to cut hay...then you tend with them getting in your ditches, tearing up your fence, and other pesky nuisances.

I'm not a farmer so I don't know all the details involved with hay production but I do know about making money. Hay is a product, and when you have a product, regardless of what it is, there is almost always a way to make money from it.

In this case, if production costs (labor, machinery, fuel, time, etc...) are a problem, perhaps there is someone willing to cut it themselves. The point I'm trying to make is that where there is a will, there is usually a way. One just has to find it.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Hay Furnace...

NS farmer has an answer to energy and greenhouse gas problems - NB-NL-NS-PEI - Farm Focus

or

http://www.pami.ca/pdfs/reports_rea...eating_fuel_719.pdf#search='straw bale burner

 

[Travelover]

Works for horses.

 

[EddieWalker]

Do you want to do this because you hope to save money using hay for fuel instead of wood or something else?

The simple rule for getting heat is that the denser the material, the more heat you get from something the same size. That is why oak is better then pine. It would also mean that pine would be much better then grass.

The cost to build something to burn and distrubute grass for heat sounds expensive. Especially if you want to make it efficient, easy to load and strong enough to last for decades.

Then there is the expense of getting it from the field, to where you will store it, and then keeping it going to get heat from it.

All of this makes it sound very hard to justify the expense and energy required to be worth while.

Eddie

 

[blunosr]

Lloyd, Thanks for those links! I'm going to look up that guy in Pictou this summer...

My little 40ac farm is also in Nova Scotia. There are many small, unused farms in NS and very few people are still farming, so there really is little or no market for hay. Many of us have hay land, which we either knock down to control the weeds (and prevent fires) or lots of folks just let them grow up in weeds, alders, and wild apple trees... and ant hills. It makes me crazy to see the state of decay of agriculture in Nova Scotia. When I retire I want to do something about it! I want to see all these old fields maintained, and to be used productively would be even better!

In the mean time, I work 6000kms away for ten months of the year... And I'd like to think up a use for my hay, which I cut every year. And sometimes I can even talk someone into taking it, for free of course... 'cause hay is worth nothing around my neck of the woods.

Sad,

Bye for now,

 

[quicksandfarmer]

When I was a kid one of my favorite books was "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. A crucial part of the plot was they ran out of firewood and had to burn hay to stay warm. They spent all day hauling it and feeding the fire because it had such low fuel value.

I use bales to start burn piles and I have found they don't have much fuel value.