The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Hillview Farm on May 12, 2014, 09:39:56 am
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Can anyone surgest any way we can store our hay outside? I have no indoor storage so I must do it outside untill next year.
Pallet floor on a concrete base, thinking of silage sheet as it's more water tight than a tarpauline. Pallets on top under the sheet to allow air flow?
Sound any good?
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Might work as long as there are no gales. Up here some still build the old fashioned hay stacks. Cover with what looks like fishing netting with tyres weighing it down. I have tried to store round bales of straw covered over but with up to 100 mile an hour winds some winters I gave up.
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In the south on the whole it's not too bad with wind but we would tie it down anyway and put Tyres on top also
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at the farm we use lorry cargo nets, with tarp underneath
tarp covers the top with a small amount of overhang, as the rain runs off the sides but overhang helps it run off whilst keeping it a little bit dryer.
Lorry cargo net goes over the whole lot and is either strapped down or half weighted down with hanging tyres (1 metre off ground) and half is tied to stakes wich are banged into the hay, use from the hanging tyre end first and when you roll it back each time replace a metal stake with a tyre :thumbsup:
We use this method for the barley and wheat straw and the round hay bales :thumbsup:
We dont cover the tarp with tyres anymore since I had an accident last year when a tyre fell off the top of large stack of hessian straw bales (as high as the jcb arm fully extended could reach) and landed on my head/face, lots of blood everywhere and concussion for a whilst but im still here :)
Just very weary now pulling back the sheet on the maize clamp, im always worried a tyre may come to pay a visit, they tend to stay put more on the grass clamp
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Our first attempt at storing hay outside was a complete disaster.
We put a layer of pallets on the ground, then stacked the bales, then tarped over the top and tied down all round.
The tarps we used were not heavy duty - total waste of time.
As the tarps weren't tied taut enough we got sagggy pockets of water, which then seeped into the stack.
We didn't separate the tarp from the top of the stack - definitely should have had another layer of pallets or something.
We ended up with 80 piles of rotting, soggy hay with, I'm sure, some new species of fungus :-J
We split the bales up and have spread them along the edge of the field - 2 years later they are still rotting down.....
I would recommend investing in a decent tarp and allow lots of air flow around the stack.
Good luck :fc: