How To Store Hay Properly - 4 Best Hay Storing Practices

 How To Store Hay Properly

If you are an animal farmer then you must have experience bad feeding days. This is usually due to lack of hay to feed the animals. But the problem isn't just that you are not buying or producing enough hay. On the other hand, the problem stems from your methods of storing hay. There is nothing that does not get bad in the world. Even the earth get loose which is not good for some trees. Thus, hay too will not be in it's best condition if you don't properly take care of it. Also, scarcity of hay during Winter is something we can fight by learning these techniques of storing hay. By so doing we will not keep googling hay for sale in times of need. We will also be able to save a lot more money.

 4 Best Hay Storing Prictices

1) Store them indoors if possible. Nobody knows that better than Jerrold Siemens, who operates Siefor Farms, Ltd., with his sons, Adrian and Chris, near Morris, Manitoba. Together they produce approximately 900 acres of commercial alfalfa and nearly 50,000 bales of straw with five Hesston® by Massey Ferguson Model 2170 3 x 3 large square balers. As a general rule, the Siemens bale their alfalfa as soon as it starts into the bud stage, then store the bales in two giant storage sheds to preserve color and quality.

2) Bale at the right moisture level. “Each of our balers has a moisture sensor in the bale chamber that is monitored from the tractor cab,” says Adrian Siemens, noting that they try to bale at moisture levels below 15%. “But we carry a moisture probe in each tractor as well. Once we manually probe a bale, we know where it’s at in relationship to the monitor and can keep an eye on it the rest of the day.”

3) Leave space for bales to breathe. “Generally, we start adding preservative when moisture levels get much above 15 to 16%,” says Chris. “In addition, we try to leave a space between each stack of bales when we put them in the shed. That allows the air to move around the bales so they maintain their green color. Obviously, if we used preservative, they were baled a little damp, so they need space to breathe.”

University Extension specialists also recommend leaving a minimum of 2 feet of space between the roof of a building and the top surface of stacked round or square bales for added circulation.

4) Keep a log of inventory. Even bales stored indoors suffer some dry matter loss due to humidity and microbial action. So it’s important to separate cuttings and to know which hay is the oldest … and be able to get to it, rather than having it trapped in the back of the barn. Also making separate room for alfalf, Timothy hay, bermuda and so on is good practice.

Lawrence Drost, who owns a commercial hay operation near Hartley, Texas, tests every cutting and sells the crop based on relative feed value. He also marks each stack by field number and cutting; hence, a stack marked D32 would be from the second cutting on field D3.

“I also store everything in a barn,” he says. “I’ve tried tarps in the field, but tarps don’t last long with our winds. We were constantly fighting the elements until we went to enclosed storage.”

 If you can practice these 4 ideas then you will be the best hay keeper the universe will ever have.