Stacking hay outside

[Lewis]

Best practice for stacking hay outside please?
Short on shed space so went rounds over squares to stack outside.
Got a stone hard standing very open to all prevailing wind best way to do it?
Sheet ?no sheet?
Pallets?
Will be built like a pyramid. It's only 50bales so far.

Tia

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Pallet will save your bottom bale , , sheet works if you can keep it on and it don't get holes in ,
Most will say wrap it but that's not what your asking

 

[B R C]

Best type of sheet? I have a customer who has asked to quote for making hay but doesn’t have any sheds……I told her there will be losses….

 

[Dry Rot]

Yes, I know it's not the OP's question, but, hey, it's a discussion!

I have been stacking mine on pallets in a long line, tight together, with a strip of builders' damp proof membrane along the top half tied down with thin rope. The line should ideally be north-south. Uncovered the bales don't deteriorate much before Christmas and it is tedious tying down the sheet single handed in the slightest breeze and obviously you've to continually to move from one side to the other. But it does work.

I am in the Highlands and I don't think pyramid with a sheet would work for me (strong winds). Having said that, there's a farm that usually has at least two very large covered stacks of straw bales for cattle within sight of the A9 just north of Alness. They are covered with those fancy purpose made sheets and it seems to work there. I've always meant to photograph them.

I am quite keen on the idea of wrapping just the outside circumference of bales (open ends), just can't work out a cheap way to do it. Rotating bale spike? Modified normal wrapper? If you wrap the bales (like haylage or silage), how many layers will stop water entry? There is also tube lining as an idea.

There is an American study by one of the universities on this and one recommendation was several layers of net wrap which were reckoned to shed water like a tweed coat. Something went wrong last year and I got one bale with about 9 layers of net wrap. I left it on a pallet as an experiment until spring. But it still lost a fair layer of the outside.

Watching this thread with interest.

 

[delilah]

Short on shed space

As in no shed space once stock come inside but shed space now ? There's alot to be said for getting them all in a shed now and only bringing them outside the day before stock come in.

 

[Skintagain]

Personally if it’s decent stuff it better off wrapping especially only 50

 

[Lewis]

As in no shed space once stock come inside but shed space now ? There's alot to be said for getting them all in a shed now and only bringing them outside the day before stock come in.

yeh can make space now, just thought easier to make the stack outside now while its dry and save double handling, can likely get a few in the straw shed before that gets filled but some will need to be outside.

 

[goodevans]

Yes, I know it's not the OP's question, but, hey, it's a discussion!

I have been stacking mine on pallets in a long line, tight together, with a strip of builders' damp proof membrane along the top half tied down with thin rope. The line should ideally be north-south. Uncovered the bales don't deteriorate much before Christmas and it is tedious tying down the sheet single handed in the slightest breeze and obviously you've to continually to move from one side to the other. But it does work.

I am in the Highlands and I don't think pyramid with a sheet would work for me (strong winds). Having said that, there's a farm that usually has at least two very large covered stacks of straw bales for cattle within sight of the A9 just north of Alness. They are covered with those fancy purpose made sheets and it seems to work there. I've always meant to photograph them.

I am quite keen on the idea of wrapping just the outside circumference of bales (open ends), just can't work out a cheap way to do it. Rotating bale spike? Modified normal wrapper? If you wrap the bales (like haylage or silage), how many layers will stop water entry? There is also tube lining as an idea.

There is an American study by one of the universities on this and one recommendation was several layers of net wrap which were reckoned to shed water like a tweed coat. Something went wrong last year and I got one bale with about 9 layers of net wrap. I left it on a pallet as an experiment until spring. But it still lost a fair layer of the outside.

Watching this thread with interest.

I think some balers tie with cling film not net nowadays ,sure McHale do

 

[betweenthelines]

Couple of layers of wrap imo. Or on their sides, not touching & with no covering/sheet.

Trouble with sheeting is that all the rain runs off at the same places. So you get some parts of the stack totally fudged rather than a bit of weathering all over the stack.

 

[egbert]

Don't is the simple answer.
Wrap em if they have to live out

 

[Will 1594]

6 ft bale 4 layers of net
The put 6 laps of bale wrap film on them like a tube liner does and stand on pallets
Or single rows with a gap row them north south so sun can go over them
Don’t pyramid them will be too much waste as middle bales never dry

 

[Exfarmer]

It is a must to have a sheet on top if you leave them outside in the UK.
I would stack crossways as high as you can , in a line on pallets.
Then a sheet hanging at least a metre over all edges tied to stakes pushed well into stack.
Ideally a net over the top.
If you can, a tarpaulin is far superior to a plastic sheet.
You will nearly always get somemould under a plastic sheet, but it should not be too bad

 

[Dry Rot]

I think some balers tie with cling film not net nowadays ,sure McHale do

I've seen the service advertised, but not around here.

 

[Sid]

Leave them not touching
Use first
Extra net to aid run off
It's a grassy year you'll hardly notice the waste.

 

[ajcc]

Site in shelter of wood or sheds or hedge/wall. Stack them on end, cover with sheet. Held down with wrapped silage bales. All compromises and damage limitation but needs must.

 

[coniser]

I have put them in rows touching on the flat end and leaving a gap between rows very little waste