[SallyintNorth]

There used to be some talk about barn-drying hay, but even with the very wet summers we now have up here in the north of England I cannot find out any information about what such a system would comprise.

Anyone know anything?

(And sorry to rub in our drownedness when I know you in the south east are still parched)

[Fleecewife]

At (I think) Trondra croft in Shetland we saw a tower, like a wide chimney for drying something - mesh high up, fire beneath, but it was a while back and I can't remember if it was grain or hay on the mesh rack.  In Scandinavia they use A frames in the field, which I think will be the same as we see further north here, with a little white hankie on top  , or they use long racks across the fields.  I have wondered if the hay stays on these until it's used or if it eventually gets dry enough to store.  I wonder if you could set up racks in the barn and dry the hay by the through draft? But if the atmosphere was damp it would never dry crisply. Or you could use one of those expensive space heaters which kicks out hot air.
Fingers crossed we get the few days of high pressure we need to make it the usual way in the fields this year.

[robert waddell]

barn dried hay was at one time big     but with round balers it is no longer viable        first you need a drying shed with closed walls the floor lined with pallets or a frame with weldmesh on it then you need a fan A BIG BLOODY FAN some were driven with electricity some were driven with a tractor an it depended on the atmospheric moisture content if it dried quick or not   the hay had to be cut at the leafy stage and baled when green the british weather realy stopped its use        it was fantastic hay if you could get the initial weather         better just round baling and wrapping

[VSS]

You are probably better off making silage or perhaps haylage.

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks all.

Thing is, BH pretty much lives for making hay.  I say to everyone, "His favourite things are hay-making, hunting [following a foot pack], football and me.  I'm pretty confident I am in the top 3 but I absolutely know that hay-making comes first!"

For us, since he loves doing it (and I mean small rectangular bales if at all possible, so we can do it all ourselves with our own kit), it's cheaper than paying the contractors to do it all.  Of course we make silage too, but the heavy contractors gear damages the ground (unless it's very dry - which has not been seen for five years), the wrap and net is environmentally unfriendly, and it's more difficult for us to use.  Furthermore, we have a lot of smallholding and horsey friends who come to us for a few bales of hay to meet their needs over the winter.  And, probably not finally but finally for now, baling, stooking, leading-in and mewing the hay is one time when we do need help from friends and relations - and a field full of sweaty helpers getting in the crop is a deeply satisfying sight - something very primal about it.

Last summer (not so wet as the three before, but too wet, not sunny enough and far too cold) we did nonetheless make quite a bit of hay.  One field we got some mini-hestons made, the hay was too wet really and the bales got soaked the night they were baled (we brought as much in under cover as we could, and spread tarps over as much of the rest as we could.)  BH worked those bales over the next couple of weeks and saved that hay.  It didn't look particularly nice but the cattle liked it nearly best of all the hay we made last year.

So, whilst on a purely practical level you may be right that we should, like pretty much everyone else around here, sell the haybob, baler, sledge and carrier and make row upon row of shiny black plastic wrapped silage, we would so much prefer to find ways to carry on making hay.  Our cattle cum hay shed is closed and we do mew the hay on pallets, so if we could just track down the type of fan that was used we could give it a go.  You don't know any more about the fans, do you Robert?

[robert waddell]

they were made by nu-way benson also lister made one     you will just have to try to make one of your own         any that are left will be junk it is all to do with the CFPM capacity of the fan          from what you have said you would be better getting a wrapper  a tarp only increases the mould growth

[shep53]

Must be 25 yrs since i last had anything to do with barn drying, as ROBERT says you need a floor of pallets, a centre tunnel about 3 bales flat high and  width about 75% of a bales length , roughly 75% length of the shed. DUTCH barns were popular for the job with a tunnel in each bay, sometimes front left open 1 farm used ply board, 1used a big tarp to close the front. THE hay was baled 1 0r 2 days early with the density turned back to allow air to circulate,it had to be baled stacked and drying as fast as possible. I wonder if you could hire a fan like you see used in films, it could take weeks to dry and the fuel costs killed it for most farmers.  I wonder if an addative like BALERS CHOICE would work

[SallyintNorth]

That's brilliant shep53.  BH was just saying today that we'd need someone to tell us exactly what to do, how to set it up.

If you have time and interest, have a look for 'teagle fan' on eBay and tell me if that kind of fan would work?  The seller is 12cherish. 

[robert waddell]

thats the one  good luck and many sweaty days ahead

[shep53]

Whats the odds of finding a suitable fan straight away, looks okay both parts p.t.o. all belts etc. Have you thought about the logistics the system i outlined means making hay every couple of weeks to move the fan to another drying bay, never seen it but batch dryers can dry in 48hrs according to sites on google.

[robert waddell]

the biggest problem with this system  was to get any advantage the hay had to be cut at the leafy stage   not latter when ther stem was courser it takes longer than 48 hrs to dry it and not having it reheat and spoil        do enough to fill the drying system and leave it there                                                          it was never intended to be a substitute for good hay making weather       far better with a wrapper and round baler

[SallyintNorth]

Aye, that is the point, Robert - we no longer get good haymaking weather hereabouts. 

The difficulty for us in cuttting and baling it green is that the bales will, being still very damp, be super-heavy - and we struggle to convince helpers to stook in 17s (5-4-4-4) as it is!  Not to mention the old elevator would probably give up when we come to mew the heavy bales.

If that fan was in my part of the country I might just have bought it anyway, just in case...  But it's nearly the other end of the country.

Don't suppose anyone's heading up Carlisle-wards from Gatwick - with a trailer that'd carry it...? 

[VSS]

Perhaps you could take the "flexible" approach.

Get a weather forecast and if it is good for a few days, then mow. Plan to make hay, but if the weather turns, then get it baled and wrapped. We have done this on a number of occassion when the hay as been nearly ready but not quite. I beleive it is better to bale and wrap it as haylage than it is to get it rained on.If you do get the weather, then you will get your hay.

[SallyintNorth]

Well, yes VSS that's what we do every year; we're just looking into alternatives where we get better hay earlier in the season. 

We made our last lot of hay in September last year - it was ok but it's better made earlier. 

The crop we got end of May was clearly the bees knees according to the stock, even though it was a very thin crop from a relatively poor meadow. 

We did get some more hay in June but it was touch and go and we did have to wrap some of it.  We would've preferred that as hay, it was very good grass.

[Mikeburton2000]

I know this is a very very old topic, but if it's of any use I have Nu-Way Benson TractaFan sat in my barn looking for a new home.