# Hay in barn - how bad is it, really?



## ACinATX

Thinking some more about my new barn setup. This barn has a hayloft that was converted to a, I guess you could say studio room. It's now fully insulated with lots of windows, a patio (!), carpeting, access from outside via stairs, etc. My husband and I are currently fighting over who gets it: him and his woodturning stuff, or me (it could be a gorgeous home office). I don't really want to convert it back to hay storage. I also don't want to build another building.

This leaves me with storing hay in the actual barn. I've read two reasons not to do this: (1) dust causes irritation to lungs and mucus membranes of horses, and (2) fire risk. However, I'm planning on setting up the barn as run-in stalls, so I don't think either of these will be a big deal, because (1) it will be well aired out, with those open doors and the horses can come and go as they please and (2) in the terrible case of a fire, the horses can just run out. I'm also thinking I will buy a hay thermometer to keep an eye on temperatures, just to be on the safe side. The area where I could store it would be somewhere between 10 x 15 and 12 x 20, and I think the ceiling is about 12 feet high (I know not to store it all the way up to the ceiling), so I figure I could easily store 100 square bales or around two tons of hay in there. With three horses and about six-eight acres of good pasture, I figure that should be enough for a year. If not, it will still keep us for a while.

Do you guys think this would be OK? I'm also thinking that maybe tarping it would help keep dust down. This is in the PNW so storing just outdoors, even under a tarp, is probably not a good idea.


----------



## egrogan

When I had to store 10-15 bales at a time on the ground floor of the barn, I lost most of it to mold. Our barn has a poorly done concrete floor without an adequate vapor barrier, so that certainly didn’t help. So having it up in the loft with decent air circulation is a must for me. It gets pretty humid in New England and I imagine much worse for you.


----------



## rambo99

If you put hay on pallets and not on actual floor of barn it will be fine,don't tarp it if it's humid where you live. Leave it uncovered it's already inside so no need to tarp.


----------



## Kalraii

So all the yards I have been/am at have either:

- bought/rent a lorry container and use that to store hay - on pallets
- keep it in the backs of each stall (end of every stall has a tack room, they mostly stuff it with hay allocated that horse for the week). Not really an issue I've found unless its the really crap stuff
- keep it in a glorified shed (seen metal, plastic and wood) but on pallets 
- if big wrapped bales all the places I've been at just dump them out of the way, outside, but on pallets and ignore them in all weather lol
- kept X amount in the barn in a disused stall.. on pallets

edit: seriously. pallets.


----------



## horselovinguy

I would *not* store hay outdoors in the PNW.
Even the most careful of tarping is inviting trouble without some sort of roof and sided shelter...besides the animals that will make a entry point to make nests and homes in those bales from outdoor weather protection you just offered. 
Without a solid floor structure also underneath, the amount of moisture in that region asks for trouble...:frown_color:
_sorry._

No matter where you store your hay though use heavy-duty pallets and stack it on them.
{Tractor Supply by me throws them out. Rural King sells some for $3.00 a piece and the farm supply store charges $1.00}
If you are on a dirt floor, even a concrete slab put down a vapor barrier, a sheet of plastic so ground moisture is not drawn into your bottom wrack of hay.
Air circulation... _helps a lot_.
Buy hay that is cured, then baled at the correct moisture amount.
Buy bales that are tightly strung,...
I throw down bales flat and they literally land & go thud, or if I want to bounce them so they land further down the barn aisle I pitched to land on a corner or end...and they bounced,_ occasionally split too. :icon_rolleyes:_
_Always_ loosely cover your hay so dust and airborne dirt and contaminants, including bird poop not soil your fresh hay bales. Just place a tarp over the hay...that's it.
My tarps range in size and I do switch them out as my supply diminishes so I not fight the excess tarp size. My hay though is completely covered loosely by tarp over the top to the ground...

I keep my hay currently in a empty stall, 12'x12, rafter height is 10' and I stack to the rafter and my roof is open above that..
I can stack 100 bales and still have a alleyway to walk across the entire front of the stall. My bales range between 55 -70 pounds each, solid bales.
I also use tarps and hang them to protect the hay from sunburn and bleaching keeps it looking nicer, the horses like it better and honestly not sure if it helps nutrients be retained better.
You can't get much more humid that Florida either come summer and I have "0" issue of mold, mildew or ruined hay...
Get a good haymen and when you find him, stick with him/her.
My guy is great. He has horses so knows the value of processing hay correctly or pay the price, sick horses. :|
_Use your nose_...if the hay doesn't smell fresh and sunshine clean, well, it would not be in my barn or fed.
I left a store who sold hay that smelled funny, slightly rank and moldy on some bales...if it is in some it is most likely in more than you see since loads are from the same fields, cuttings and baling..._buyer beware!!_
If it doesn't look nice, smell nice, be tightly packed and when you lift a bale the strings are tight with no sag...walk away!
When I worked the show/boarding/lesson barns in my younger days we used the hay lofts and had shipments of 10 - 15 ton delivered at a time..that was on LI so yes, we had humid weather.
I fed out 30 bales a day so our deliveries did not last or sit around long..except our alfalfa supply.
That also came 10 - 15 ton deliveries...stored the same way and again no issues.

So, that's my tips for happy fed horses and no issues have I had with mold, heat or fires.. 
:runninghorse2:...


----------



## AndyTheCornbread

I use pallets on my barn floor and I store 20 ton a year. If it is sitting on pallets I lose little to none due to mold. I throw the bales out of the barn so they go for a bit of a tumble and then load them on a tractor and stack by my horses once every ten days or so. The tumble knocks off any dust and putting 10 days worth at a time out right by their paddock means I don't have to haul single loads every day. It rains a lot in this mountain range I live in so I stack them under a big pine tree and they stay dry enough that I get no mold on 10 days worth.


----------



## AndyTheCornbread

I got the pallets for free from a plant farm, they go through hundreds a year and they were just going to burn them so they said if I came and loaded them myself I could have as many as I wanted for free.


----------



## Avna

Although fire is a risk, I store all my hay in the barn loft, which is very well vented with hay loading doors on each end and a vented cupola. I do not have another place to store a winter's worth of hay (about 350 bales) and it is designed for that purpose.

It's been intolerably wet even for New England but my hay is perfectly dry. I didn't use pallets. On the other hand I have lost bales to mold on the ground floor even on pallets. I only store a few days worth of bales at a time down there.


----------



## Chevaux

With regard to your husband using the former loft as a woodworking place - would that create dust? Also, would that be an increased possibility of fire due to power tool usage, stains and paints, etc?

I store about a month’s worth of hay in my barn on pallets (We’ve got a dirt floor) with no issue. It would be safer to not store in the barn but the hay gets recycled in that it’s fed and then new replacements brought in and, being very honest, it’s really nice having hay close at hand during the hard part of the winter when there’s miserable days where you don’t have the emotional strength to struggle out to the hay stack.

I do have a tarp on to keep dust down - it’s amazing how dusty the top of the tarp gets in a relatively short time but that means that’s dust that’s not making its way into a bale. The tarp is loosely draped over top to allow for air circulation and rodent patrol by the cats although I think they just use the spot for sleeping.

Perhaps, at some point you may want to put up a pole shed (roof and partial sides) to store hay after you’re settled??? With uncomplicated construction like that, it may not be that expensive.


----------



## SilverMaple

We store about 30 round bales in the barn. It's ventilated on all four sides in the summer (we close up three sides for winter) and the horses have half of it as a big run-in. If the bales are properly-cured and your electrical system is safe and nobody is smoking or doing anything that could cause a spark in the barn, it's probably safe enough. Most hay fires are due to improperly-cured hay that overheats and ignites, or hay that got wet and then molded. We keep our hay up on pallets and don't have a mold problem. 

I would not put a woodworking shop in a horse barn. A family down the road from us lost their barn, a dog, and their tractor when the cabinet-making workshop they built in their barn caused a fire. The fire marshal ruled that paint thinner or varnish on rags was the cause. They had finished some cabinets and gone to the house to eat, and the fire was raging half an hour later when they looked outside. Dust in the air will also ignite in the right conditions, so it's a risk. A home office sounds like a safer bet as long as the electrical is updated and you shut everything down when you're not using it. I'd be more worried about a woodworking shop in the barn than dry, properly-cured hay.


----------



## Dreamcatcher Arabians

A) No wood shop above the horses or hay, too much wood dust.

B) Pallets, Pallets, Pallets. I have a big barn that I put most of my year's hay in and haul it to the horse barn a few bales at a time. I just stack 3 or 4 bales in the aisle of the barn and it's fine. The big barn that the hay is stored in has a cement floor, I just use pallets and stack the hay on those. My ceiling is over 20 ft high, so we don't stack that high, but probably 14 or 15 ft high and all on pallets so the bottoms stay dry even if we get enough rain that it comes in under the roll up doors. My hay is dry right now, even though most of my area is under water.


----------



## ACinATX

Thanks everyone, I will definitely use pallets. Would anyone recommend using a double layer of pallets, both for extra strength and extra ventilation? The barn does have a cement floor but I also like the idea of putting a moisture barrier down there just in case. When we go out there again, I'm going to check really carefully for signs of water entry, also, just to be sure that there isn't going to be any moisture. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, I think the barn has little covered channels that run down either side of the aisle. But I'm not sure where they drain to. I will check that out also, and make sure to not cover them with my hay.

I will also tell my husband no woodworking in the barn. There is another outbuilding already set up as a workshop (although for weaving, not for woodworking) that he can use.


----------



## AndyTheCornbread

I have never needed to stack two high. Just be sure you clean everything up when you get down to pallet level each year so the slats don't fill up with old hay duff that touches the floor and the bottom bale eventually. If you clean it up every year it won't ever do this.


----------



## SilverMaple

Yes, two makes it far too easy to step through getting hay and break your ankle. As my brother how he knows this....


One layer of pallets should be fine. Pick them up and sweep under them at least yearly, or they collect chaff and dirt and snakes and other creepy crawlies.


----------



## avjudge

ACinATX said:


> The barn does have a cement floor but I also like the idea of putting a moisture barrier down there just in case.


Absolutely a moisture barrier below the pallets - I think that's much more likely to make a difference than a double layer of pallets. I actually put down a tarp and then several layers of huge sheets of bubble wrap that I got from a local furniture/appliance store - something comes wrapped in it. That was over stone dust that I've seen get damp around the edges and I didn't want to take any chances. Especially after my sister lot the whole bottom layer stored in one concrete-floored stall when she didn't put a moisture barrier under the pallets there.


----------



## Dreamcatcher Arabians

Tarp on the floor, then 1 layer of pallets is plenty. Key to safety (for your legs and for fire) is to pick up your pallets when you've picked up the last bales on them, knock the dirt, hay, junk out of them, sweep the area and stack the pallets until you buy more hay. It also stops you from having to do such a huge clean up in the spring to do it as you go. Be careful of any pallets that have broken or missing cross pieces, it's real easy to fall through and get hurt. I personally hate the pallets, but you really need them. And if you put down plywood on top, it gets way to heavy and cuts the air flow.


----------



## greentree

Hint: find some solid top pallets. These are much easier on the ankles....

DH had a guy give him some mats from his home gym They are slick on both sides, so not good for stall use, so I used them on the concrete floor where I put my “use first” hay. It has worked really well.


----------



## rhooton

I have an open air barn for my horses, dirt floor except where I store my square bales. The floor is concrete there. I throw down a trap on the floor and store as much as 120 in a 12 x 24 space. No issues at all. East Texas


----------



## SilverMaple

For hay storage outside your barn, those metal-roofed carports that they sell everywhere work great, especially if you enclose the two or three sides exposed to prevailing winds. You can get a lot of hay in them, the airflow is good, and even here where the climate is bipolar and fluctuates between frigid winter and rain/mud and dry/windy and hot/humid summer, hay seems to last pretty well. It's a cheap way to store a few months worth of hay without having it in your horse barn.


----------



## pasomountain

I live in the PNW too. My one BO stacks hay in the middle of her barn 8-10 bales high. The ground is asphalt with tarp over it and one layer of pallets. Water has come in under the side of the barn but hay was fine. The worst part is at the back of the barn where bales are up against the rolling doors. She does have plastic over the hay there but we still lose some to mold. Doesn't cover the rest of the hay but horses have never had a problem with it. Did lose one bale that was directly under nesting pigeons--poopy mess. 

The other barn I board at has a raised wooden floor on one side that they store hay on and cover most of it with tarps. The cats and chickens like to sleep/nest there.


----------



## walkinthewalk

I have stored as much as 330 small squares in the same barn area as my horses are stalled. Now that I'm down to two horses, I store about 230 bales in their immediate area.

I do not have cement floors and there are no mats where the hay gets stored so I do this:

1. Visqueen on the dirt floor
2. Pallets on top of the Visqueen
3. Liberal sprinkling of Kosher salt on every row/layer of hay -- and U mean liberal.
4. I have big barrel fans on heavy duty outdoor timers that serve the dual purpose of keeping the hay dry in Tennessee's summer heat/humidity, plus the horse make use of the air from the fans when the deer and hors flies are bad.

5. And after all that, the bottom row can still become moldy so I use it as a sacrifice row, only replacing it every 4-5 five years.

*****
The most important thing to keep the black mold off the hay from all of your humidity is running those big barrel fans. I have two 36" and one 42". They run from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Then from 7:00 PM until anywhere between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM; just depends on the humidity level.

The cost of electricity for me, is far far less than the year I had to throw out ~50 bales of perfectly good fluffy hay because it was sitting next to a window and next thing I knew there were little black dots (mold) all over the hay.

The way my barn is set up, I have no choice but to store the way I store, run fans, use Kosher salt, and suck it up on the electric. Finding good hay that test low in NSC in my area is not an easy task so I consider myself lucky I can buy by the season.


----------

