Loose hay

[Devil's advocate]

It keeps getting a mention on here because of the Austrian/Swiss barn drying with loose hay & using hay cranes to handle the hay. I think most of us agree that is sking money been spent.

But does anyone in the UK make loose hay? I suppose a timber lined barn is essential, the harvesting is easy with pick up wagon, then the problem of how to fill the barn, 12m teleporter to buck rake or very long potato elevator? Then the feeding either extra expense baling to sell or handling the loose hay to stock (maybe not hard with shear grab?)

Certainly old farmer/shire breeder told me loose stored hay was superior to baled & horses did not cough before the pick up baler.

 

[spin cycle]

It keeps getting a mention on here because of the Austrian/Swiss barn drying with loose hay & using hay cranes to handle the hay. I think most of us agree that is sking money been spent.

But does anyone in the UK make loose hay? I suppose a timber lined barn is essential, the harvesting is easy with pick up wagon, then the problem of how to fill the barn, 12m teleporter to buck rake or very long potato elevator? Then the feeding either extra expense baling to sell or handling the loose hay to stock (maybe not hard with shear grab?)

Certainly old farmer/shire breeder told me loose stored hay was superior to baled & horse did not cough before the pick up baler.

storage space other issue i reckon

 

[Devil's advocate]

storage space other issue i reckon

I agree, but stacking say 8 metres high will the weight compact the lower layers. Defeating the object if too packed of course.

 

[Spencer]

Just put up a 1500t on floor drying grain store and just back in and fill with wagon, then switch on the fans. Cost about £150k then, sell hay for £1-£2 bale on eBay. Simples. Then put bulk grain store to store the cash

 

[Dry Rot]

There was a drying "barn" on one place I worked. It was a long narrow barn with horizontal wires stretched lengthways that the hay was apparently meant to be hung on. I never saw it used and I suspect it never was. Probably the bright idea of a former landowner who'd seen something similar in use in Eastern Europe and had not realised the only practical way to get hay onto the 'washing lines' was to pitch it up with a fork using peasant labour!

On the other hand, I have seen tripodded hay in the west of Ireland and that system produces beautiful hay in a wet climate. I know some on here have seen/used the system in Scotland. Now, if only that could be mechanised, it might be the nswer for top quality horse hay. The Irish stuff was made from natural wild flower meadows and my friends were buying hay for top grade show jumpers.

 

[Sid]

Place where a friend worked in Canada use to loose store all the hay above the cattle, in the winter use to fork it down into racks.

 

[Dry Rot]

Place where a friend worked in Canada use to loose store all the hay above the cattle, in the winter use to fork it down into racks.

That's the way it used to be done in Devon. My uncle took me up in the loft to look for birds' nests. Then he looked around and I had disappeared -- down one of those holes for throwing hay down into the racks for the cattle! I must have been about 6. No apparent harm done as the ground was several feet deep in dung and I'd missed the rack!

 

[Sharpy]

I agree, but stacking say 8 metres high will the weight compact the lower layers. Defeating the object if too packed of course.

An old neighbour of mine told me his father filled two adjacent dashes of hay, one baled, one loose and weighed it coming back out. Both more or less equal at 10t per dash.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I'm sure it would be a better system than machine drying bales

 

[puppet]

There was a drying "barn" on one place I worked. It was a long narrow barn with horizontal wires stretched lengthways that the hay was apparently meant to be hung on. I never saw it used and I suspect it never was. Probably the bright idea of a former landowner who'd seen something similar in use in Eastern Europe and had not realised the only practical way to get hay onto the 'washing lines' was to pitch it up with a fork using peasant labour!

On the other hand, I have seen tripodded hay in the west of Ireland and that system produces beautiful hay in a wet climate. I know some on here have seen/used the system in Scotland. Now, if only that could be mechanised, it might be the nswer for top quality horse hay. The Irish stuff was made from natural wild flower meadows and my friends were buying hay for top grade show jumpers.

We had the remains of a tripod and the tipping horse trailer rot away years ago. The trailer had a ratchet and winch so the hay would slide off the back. There was also the platform where the hay was thrown up in the shed. Never saw it in action bug must be plenty film about. According to my mother not every horse would reverse the cart under the suspended stack.

 

[Dry Rot]

I'm sure it would be a better system than machine drying bales

I've been having a look at kiln drying logs recently and was surprised how little heat was required and how quickly they dried. Damn all with saving the planet though!

 

[Dry Rot]

We had the remains of a tripod and the tipping horse trailer rot away years ago. The trailer had a ratchet and winch so the hay would slide off the back. There was also the platform where the hay was thrown up in the shed. Never saw it in action bug must be plenty film about. According to my mother not every horse would reverse the cart under the suspended stack.

One of the lecturers at college was very keen on the idea of tripods, much to the amusement of farmers' sons. I think he used a grey fergie with a buck rake on the back and took the tripod to the baler where it was forked in. 1950s? Ye gods, that dates me! I saw some film on a FB group about farming in Ireland. I'll see if I can find it.

Here you go....

 

[Wisconsonian]

In the American midwest, dairy barns all had a hay track down the peak, and either a bank barn with a ramp to the second floor to back the hay wagon into, or the track extended past the end and the wagon was parked at the end. Originally horses and a long rope were used to hoist the hay, when it got to the top it released and rolled inside, where it hit another stop on the track and released. Louden, Myers and probably dozens of others made the trolleys, they're popular for kitsch decorations lately. Also was an additional two tracks half way down the rafters that carried a slide to divert the hay to either side, to save forking labor in the hay mow, that was always the hottest, stickiest dustiest job.

Loose hay could be put up a few percentage points wetter than small square bales. I've seen limp alfalfa/lucerne put into an Amish hay mow, that I thought would be about right for wrapping, they said it would be fine? must have been spread out in the mow.

In the interior West, where it's much drier climate, hay was/is still stacked with various contraptions, beaver slide, overshot, cable carriers.

Self loading forage wagons never caught on here like over there. The closest thing we have is a Hesston Stakhand or copy, a flail pickup with a box behind. Works good in the West if they don't blow away, too much rot in the East. Mostly round bales or big square bales now, much easier to move.