Farm Layout and Hay Storage

[NaturalSelection]

Building a new farm and thinking about barns, hay storage, and run-in sheds.

Do most people have their hay storage within the horse barn (stalls)? I have heard that this can be a problem with insurance, due to fire hazard. Does it matter if my horses are almost never stalled?

If you don’t have the majority of your hay storage within the horse barn are you constantly moving hay from hay shed to horse barn? Any tips/suggestions/layouts that would make this more convenient?

What about hay loft? Is it inconvenient to get the hay up there? How much do the conveyors cost?

I’d like to have enough storage capacity for 1000 small square bales.

[SidesaddleRider]

We have a separate shed next to the barn (1/2 the length of the barn on the far side) in which we store the hay (and the big tractor, small lawn tractor, and the small trailer). With the equipment in there too, we can usually fit about 500 bales, but if it was just used for hay could probably do 1500 bales. This works well for us.

We have a big wheelbarrow into which we can fit 3 bales of hay (75# bales), and we just wheel it over to the shed, load it up, and wheel it back to the barn. There is probably about a 50’ distance from the front of the barn to the front of the shed, so not a big deal, even in winter. I usually keep one bale in the wheelbarrow in the barn at all times. My hay guy appreciates the shed, as he can just back up into it, and unload right off the trailer/truck.

I don’t particularly like hay lofts above, as they seem to create more dust in the barn, and are usually a pain to get into and you need a hay elevator to load the hay. But, if you do not have room for separate hay storage, they are a good option.

Some people have a stall-sized area in the barn in which they put their hay, if they don’t have that many horses.

[Bluey]

First, make your hay storage universal, you never know which kind of bales you may use next.

Second, you will have to move hay around anyway, so think about unloading and stacking a whole load at once to store it, then how you will be feeding it.

Most that buy hay in volume, if hand feeding, have a hay shed/barn and take so many bales to a spot inside the horse barn itself to feed flakes from.

We have a quonset barn where the hay is stored.
We can put about 2000+ small bales on one 80’ long side, 4 bales end to end back to front, easily.

We built our small barn attached to the quonset barn, as a large overhang to it.
We take bales over in a dolly and feed off them, or put the needed flakes in a manure cart with a rubber feed pan, stacked on it and feed flakes directly off the main stack in the quonset barn with it.

I would say, how you arrange your hay barn will depend on how many times you will have to go there for hay.
How often will you get a dozen bales to store in your horse barn, once a day, a week, a month, in what kind of weather, how hard to access with whatever you use to take hay over, a pickup, a gator?

All that will make a difference in deciding where to store the hay.

Where you are, you probably have a closed barn, so storing large volumes of hay in another barn makes sense, to keep any fire in the hay confined to a different structure.

Here, where so many barns are metal and open, to have one end designated for hay storage is not as much of a concern.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

My hay is probably 200’ from where I feed it–mainly because I’m using an existing building. I move a week’s worth of hay over to the pasture each weekend and store it on two stacked pallets and then tarp it. I don’t have a barn, just a run-in. It has worked well for me. I think if I were building a barn at the turnout, I would want to store at least two weeks of hay in the barn, or I could see just turning one stall into hay storage.

I’ve boarded at barns with the hay overhead or stored on the main level and it is very dusty. Also, stacking hay with an elevator in the loft seems to only work out on 100 degree days, which means it’s like 120 degrees in the loft, so make sure you have access to burly youngsters if you go that route.

I pretty much agree with everything already said. Good advice. I wish my storage building could accommodate other types of hay (only works with small squares). It would be nice to have greater flexibility.

[Nestor]

Like Bluey says, it depends on how you want to operate.

Myself, I have a small 3-stall barn with a large storage room that can hold about 200 45-50# bales, plus a small shed that holds another 100. That gets me through 6-8 months depending on what horses I have/how much they eat.

Fire is a concern, sort of… but our insurance didn’t care about the hay and we’re insured for exactly what it would cost to totally replace the barn. The stalls are all open to sand paddocks, and I would hope that since the horses prefer to be out that they’d be smart enough to go outside, should the worst happen.

I set up my barn so that my non-horsey parents could do the basics (water and hay) without much effort, because my mom has MS and isn’t good on her feet. So having everything as accessible as possible was key. My parents really can’t move hay bales around. It would be a rare situation where they’d be doing the horses, but sh*t happens so if I ever couldn’t do it on short notice (where there may not be hay brought into the barn ready for them, if it was stored elsewhere), they could manage.

Having been in barns where we have to move hay regularly, I’m not a fan. The only set-up I could deal with was an attached storage area that was 100’+ from the two barns, with covered areas or walkways between the barns and the storage area (so not crossing ice or being out in the rain - miserable). So it doesn’t really help with the fire concern.

I think for me, good management takes care of any design changes I would otherwise make for fire.

[kdreger]

If you don’t have the majority of your hay storage within the horse barn are you constantly moving hay from hay shed to horse barn?

Our hay barn was 300 feet from the horse barn. We used a hand cart or if the mud/snow was really bad a tractor. Moving the hay twice a day was just a part of feeding. I did not want the dust nor the fire hazard having the hay in the horse barn would cause.

[Calvincrowe]

My hay is in my barn (3 stalls in a 40x60 metal pole barn)–I can store 5 tons (roughly 120 bales) of 120lb bales in a 14x14 space. Sure, hay in a barn is fire hazard…but so are shavings and dust and the barn itself. I do not have the option to store it elsewhere, so it works for me. Most small farms locally do what I do.

At bigger/boarding barns I’ve been in, hay is stored in a separate building and brought to the horses via large carts or Gator vehicles. Some bring in enough for a few days/a week and store it in a spare stall or feed/hay room.

[ElementFarm]

we have a 3-stall center-aisle barn with a loft over it. Currently we have about 3 tons up there (2 months’ worth) and there’s room for another 1-2 tons. We get it delivered by folks with a conveyer, so they unload it for us. We go up and throw down about 4 bales at a time, so that last ~2 days. I don’t feel there’s any loft dust in the barn (well constructed, with insulation between horses and loft) and I do think it helps keep the barn warmer in the winter (as the hay acts as insulation). A ground-level storage shed might be slightly more convenient, but our current setup has the barn surrounded by attached paddocks, house, and yard – there’s no room for an additional outbuilding large enough for hay storage, unless I wanted to walk a lot – and I don’t.

[ayrabz]

Well, I think your advice so far is VERY helpful! Now, I will say? my only difference is: my property is small enough? I will not be able to feed roundbales (1 - 3 horses max, very small pastures/turnouts) so, that variable doesn’t affect me. But with most farms its a good consideration. I am awaiting construction of my 24 x 26 ‘hay barn’…I planned it on a huge deck, (because our property really had nowhere to position it? except over this ravine that would work at the ‘front’ end as a loading height)…so, I have a raised deck I’m putting a ‘metal garage’ type building on…I added 6 ft of deck to the ‘front’ so I’d have a loading dock kind of approach for larger trucks. I set the deck height at my pick up’s bed level…so, once loaded with hay, I can toss em into the truck bed, and drive over 10 or so to the small pallet area I keep hay. I’ll letcha know how it works !

[Flash44]

A bank barn is the best way to store hay. You can drive right into it to unload, and drop it down to the horses when you need it. As long as a bank barn fits into your plan for a barn. You can do a “bank” barn where essentially a ramp is constructed into the upper part and the barn is not actually built into a steep bank. So maybe it’s not actually a bank barn after all.

Here is one
http://www.precisebuildings.com/exteriors/view/gray-shingled-roof/50