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Hay barn advice

grandpa Love

grandpa Love

Well-known Member
We are trying to plan ahead a bit. With lumber prices skyrocketing at some point things will slow way down for us work wise. We want to build an open shed to hold hay, to sell this winter. Looking at 12 x 48. 7 ft tall on back where fence is. About 9' in front. Will stack hay on pallets. Sould we kill the grass first? Lay some landscape fabric down? Put pallets up on 4 x4 treated blocks? Any ideas welcome.

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Will be like tractor shed. Zero snow load issue in central Al. So not looking for span and load advice. Lol
 
In every situation I was ever familiar with here in Missouri, putting hay on pallets was an open invitation and easy access for mice/rats to live under your hay and generally gnawed the twine on the bottom row of bales if they were put in flat. gm
 
Good drainage to keep moisture away from the hay might be just as important as a good roof. Will the building site be at least one or two feet above the surrounding ground before you lay down any moisture barrier? Landscape fabric stops weeds but not water.

Will you be storing small square bales, large round bales or both?
 
With a 9 foot open side and a little wind you can put a lot of rain on a stack of hay.
And once it gets wet it is wet.
For the cost of a ridge cap you could build two 12 by 24 sheds next to each other and make a 24 by 24 shed.

It looks like that land slopes to the fence.
If so you will have run off running into the shed.
You need to either stop this or get the hay up off the ground as much as you can.
If you can keep the floor dry pallets alone should be enough.

The darkness will kill the grass and fabric is nice if you like the clean look but not necessary.
 
The open side you will want a down slop over hang to lessen the amount of rain that can blow in. You will also want to put down a nice thick layer of gravel and then put the pallets on the gravel. Also depending on how much wind you get you may want to tarp the hay once you have it stacked. Also the open side should be the side away from the prevailing winds. Here where I am the wind comes out of the south most of the time
 

I agree with the others suggesting a little ground work. Perhaps just a little swale to direct surface water around it. I would just stack on pallets. Provided you get the moisture directed away you should have little problems with mold. Having delivered to many different barns it sure makes it a lot easier to unload into the shed if you can pull right up so that the side of the wagon is right next to the front of the shed.
 
I don't like pallets to stack hay on. They break or rot and you can get nails in your tires, plus clean up the mess once the hay is out. Many people find that old tires do just as well. You can leave them there for good, drive right over them without fear of nails, and are easier to remove if you wish to do so.

Ben
 
I like the tire idea but tires alone would tend to smash flat and then you don't have the air flow you want to keep the hay dry. Now if the tires are on old rims I could see it working as well as pallets do. I use pallets and do 2 layers of them under my round bales and yes breaking pallets has always been a problem
 
Get you some of that "bahama rock" which is very popular along the gulf coast. Maybe not so much up state.
Or some good red bama clay for a raised pad.
Make the pad higher in the back vs the open front.

Locate your nearest outdoor advertising company like Lamar.
And get you a pickup load of free used billboard vinyls.
Lay two or three thick over the pad as moisture barrier if desired.

Use another two or three as roll up blinds or as just curtains.
Use a length of chainlink fence top rails in top and bottom pockets of billboard vinyl to keep them from flopping in the wind.

Look on CL for some plastic pallets that won't rot.
 

Lay down some fabric and then a min 6" layer of 3" stone, this will allow and moisture to drain down through the rock but mice and rats can't hardly dig thru that large of stone.
We stack all of our small squares on their edge, if mice get in-between the layers they don't cut the strings as bad, also our small barn will hold 200 more squares on their edge than down flat.
Looking at your photo and having my own 24' deep shed I wouldn't want one less than 16' deep.
 
Nothing to add about floor. I used to have all small square bales. Now I also have round bales. The shed needs to be tall enough the tractor can put the round bales all the way to the back of it. Of course if you're gonna stack two or more high, the inner height will have to be greater.
 
Whoa.
This is like an electrical question or generator question.
Plenty of different answers.
May give you a call this evening if that is OK.
Richard
 
Extra labor costs might offset some the extra value gained from storing hay inside.

How will you load hay in and out of the shed? Can you pickup full pallets with a forklift or farm loader and place them on a truck/trailer of will all of it be hand carried?

Throwing bales down off a tall stack into a truck or trailer is much easier than hoisting them up by hand from a low shed.
 
I guess I will add my 2cents. I would suggest baling up some junk hay, and use it for the bottom layer. Maybe make those bales a little extra tight, but not a big deal if you don't. Stack your sellable hay on top of it and leave it there permanently. We did that in one of our sheds when I was growing up, and it works great. Mark
 
I second 450's comments.. we built up ours with what we call drain field rock.. helps keep the rodents down and water can get away..
 
A shed is never to big and go higher than you think. Like said loading on a truck from the ground without an elevator sucks. Also if taller there is less spoilage with more hay up on top. Less ground contact. We store round bales on pallets in a pole shed. The floor is dust dry in there and will still cause hay to mold some from moisture during wet months. Even though the floor is not wet. I would go at least 12 feet in back and 14-16 in front with it closer to the 40x80 range. It sounds bigg till you start putting equipment in there with the hay. I would also use a truss rafter rather than a one slope roof. Helps with keeping hieght down and still can put hay up between the trusses if you need the space.
 


Well Grandpa, Looks like you have plenty of help to spend your money, LOL. I'll bet Richard Gs plan is one of the highest since he didn't want anyone else to see it.
 
(quoted from post at 14:30:56 08/24/20) looks like some one got the count off cu ft of a bale is the same on edge as
lying down
Click to expand...

Yes the cubic foot size is the same either way but we found stacking on edge they pack in tighter and we gain extra bales over flat stacking
 
Having traveled a similar road as you, my 2 cents...

Make your barn tall enough and deep enough to park loaded wagons. I’d imagine one of your next steps might be a kicker and kicker wagons. We made our new barn tall enough to park these loaded wagons and when the rain is coming or it’s hot as a grill, or you need to wait for unloading help - it’s a blessing to be able to park these wagons.

Bill
 
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