Hay Loft Chute?

[longlanefarm]

We bought an 1850’s farm back in July and I’ve got a HUGE hay loft area upstairs in the old bank barn. The 600 bales I had delivered took up barely a quarter of the space available for hay. So that part is wonderful!! I moved from a tiny 2 stall barn with a third stall area as my only hay storage.
Of course, it seemed simple enough and easy to just toss down 6 or so bales at a time and stack them for easy access. I’m not usually a type A personality but the mess made by dropping the hay drives me nuts! :eek: Not to mention the dust it stirs up when dropped on screenings and the fact that so much good hay is wasted. I do rake it up but because it’s on screenings it’s tedious to pick through it before feeding it to the horses. And I really don’t need another task at the barn!

I would like to find/make some kind of hay chute or slide and I’m looking for ideas. I haven’t found much online. I’d like something that could send down about 6 bales without them hitting the ground. Then they could be unloaded and stacked without the KABOOM mess I’m currently dealing with.
Anyone build such a contraption? Any advice would be appreciated!

[clanter]

if you build a slide use Masonite for the slide surface…that stuff is slick

[Simkie]

That sounds like FUN If you manage to put it together, post pics!!! :yes:

When I drop hay from the loft, I rake up the loose stuff that falls and feed it to the horses loose in the field. They are very good at picking through it! Might be an option for you? I also HATE hay waste!

[moving_to_dc]

Easiest solution would be to drop the hay onto a tarp. Doesn’t solve the dust issue, but it will keep the hay chaff clean from debris.

[SonnysMom]

Can you put an access hatch directly into one of the horse stalls or into the hay stall? Or put rubber mats under where you currently drop the hay?
Short term fix idea: spread out a big tarp, drop on tarp, dump crumbs from tarp into stall/field, fold tarp. You can never have too many tarps.

The current barn I am at we can drop into the aisle or into one of the stalls. I prefer to drop into the stall if there isn’t a horse in there due to the mess and the aisle is concrete. I imagine that dropping on screenings is way worse.

[longlanefarm]

@moving to dc

Easiest solution would be to drop the hay onto a tarp. Doesn’t solve the dust issue, but it will keep the hay chaff clean from debris.

and @SonnysMom “Short term fix idea: spread out a big tarp, drop on tarp, dump crumbs from tarp into stall/field, fold tarp. You can never have too many tarps.”

Good short term idea while I ponder this chute/slide. I can do that tonight. Plenty of tarps around and it makes it easy to carry out into the paddock with no mess to clean up. Thanks!

[Long_amp_Short_Ears]

@moving to dc

Easiest solution would be to drop the hay onto a tarp. Doesn’t solve the dust issue, but it will keep the hay chaff clean from debris.

Exactly whatI was gonna say.
We have a hay elevator and it makes a mess cause their is not bottom its on bars and chain drove and the loose hay shakes free.
I had a friend who cut hays over the stalls and the feeders. She opened the hay in the barn and loft and dropped in to the feeders in their appropriate holes.

[FraggleRock]

I used to work at a barn that had an awesome set up, I only wish I had thought to take pictures!
so basically at one end of the loft a little hatch was built with springs/chains so it always stayed closed unless there was weight on it. It was angled down and when the weight of a bale was set on it it slid down into the “hay room”. Said hay room was wood, with concrete floor and hip height metal racks/bars. So we could easily throw down two dozen bales, stack them up off the ground for easy access (and underneath too sometimes). All the mess stayed in the room, there was a little mesh/screen but otherwise it was all closed in so the dust was controlled. When it needed to be cleaned the loose hay was all still edible of course so no waste

​​​​​​My own barn however is a different story, traditional loft with a door that opens to the front of the barn. I throw the hay out the front and scrape up the loose stuff and chuck it out. Doesn’t bother me at all, but I do rake up and feed at the loose stuff in the summer when it’s going up off the elevator.
​​​

[longlanefarm]

@FraggleRock Wow! Now that sounds awesome! Much bigger scale than I was thinking BUT we’ve only retrofitted stalls on one side so far. The rest of the barn renovation plan (first floor) is yet to be decided. Could certainly come up with a way to incorporate something like that in the future. Thanks!

[Palm_Beach]

Since you are in a bank barn, can you load a bunch onto a pickup or small wagon and drive it around to the bottom and stack it that way? If you can do enough in one load to only do it once or twice a week it may save time.

[LookmaNohands]

If you cut holes above each stall, you will need either a lid with a handle to close them up or you will need a waist high railing to keep yourself safe so you do not fall through the openings. Cause falling through would not end well!

[Bluey]

In one stable in Europe we had a platform that we put the hay on, then let the platform down, unload at the bottom and winch the platform back up.

We used that to put hay up in the loft and to let it down, as high or low as we wanted, to the floor or high enough that we could just scoot it into a wheelbarrow, wagon or pickup if we had one.

[mmeqcenter]

@Bluey

In one stable in Europe we had a platform that we put the hay on, then let the platform down, unload at the bottom and winch the platform back up.

We used that to put hay up in the loft and to let it down, as high or low as we wanted, to the floor or high enough that we could just scoot it into a wheelbarrow, wagon or pickup if we had one.

THAT is a great idea! A freight elevator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKZPJ8HxT24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMVO5n5DsVo

[hosspuller]

I used to strain my back throwing bales from a hay wagon to the doorway of the barn. The throwing threw up a lot of dust too. A simple slide …2 foot wide x 8 feet long plywood lined with plastic (poly) made the task much simpler. You don’t say how much a drop and run is available.

[SugarCubes]

I know nothing about bank barns, but the loft isn’t directly over your stalls is it? If it is, I worked at a barn that had chutes to each stall in the loft. Instead of having to throw down entire bales, you’d open a bale in the loft, and drop a couple of flakes into each horse’s stall via their own chute. The chutes were just a square cut out of the loft floor with a board directing the hay into a corner hay feeder in the stalls. No mess whatsoever, no entering a stall to hay, it was awesome!

[OneTwoMany]

@LookmaNohands

If you cut holes above each stall, you will need either a lid with a handle to close them up or you will need a waist high railing to keep yourself safe so you do not fall through the openings. Cause falling through would not end well!

In our loft, we have a hay door above the divider wall for every two stalls. The hay door is cut into the loft floor toward the back of each stall. Each hole straddles the stall divider wall below. In the winter, you lift up the hinged lid (we have cords on our lids, but handles would work too), flakes are thrown into each stall and the lid is closed. The lids can be left open in the summer for added ventilation. Our holes are large enough that a whole bale can be dropped which is convenient when you need to feed hay outside. Just drop a bale into an empty stall, put it into a wheelbarrow and wheel it outside to the paddock. No hay in the aisle or on the screenings outside.

[longlanefarm]

The part of the loft we’re using for hay storage currently is only a few steps to the stalls. We could make a new drop door (or 2-4) to drop hay directly into the stalls. However, I prefer to keep the horses out unless the weather is bad. That means the hay needs to go out in the paddock or field.
Now, it just came to me that I could make a door on that side of the barn, throw bales directly into the paddock and then net them up and any scraps left on the ground can be eaten up. The down side to that is during MUD season… Maybe not a great idea.

We could also load a weeks supply into the truck or UTV and drive it around to the ground level. It just seems like more trouble as we have to access the loft from the back of the barn and then walk to the front and around a half wall to get to the hay. Easier to just drop them down a hole a few steps away then carry 10 bales around obstacles. The freight elevators are awesome! But too complicated for me!

Ideally, I’d like a simple way to drop or slide bales down from the loft.
I’m thinking more along the lines of a 3-4’ wide slide that has a stop at the end to prevent the bales from flying off onto the ground. Load about 5-6 bales at a time and then unload at ground level. I like the idea of adding hinges and a pulley in order to pull it up flush to the ceiling?

I still like the idea of a hay room that’s “sealed off” from the barn. That could be a future addition.

[Bluey]

You could add a slide that fits against the wall with hinges.
It opens sideways to drop bales down it.
Then pull back against the wall.

I really don’t like to have hay in lofts, but in a separate building and haul whatever is needed for a few days to the stables where the horses live.

Less dust and fire danger and not needing to lift the hay up there to store it.

There are places that hay in lofts make sense, old barns one of those.
In today’s new barns, not really.

[Equibrit]

My old barn with a hay loft had the area over the stalls closest to the barn wall left open. That way you dropped the hay straight down on to the matted stall floor for the horse to eat. The thing I hated was getting the hay into the loft. It wasn’t a bank barn!

[longlanefarm]

@Bluey

You could add a slide that fits against the wall with hinges.
It opens sideways to drop bales down it.
Then pull back against the wall.

I really don’t like to have hay in lofts, but in a separate building and haul whatever is needed for a few days to the stables where the horses live.

Less dust and fire danger and not needing to lift the hay up there to store it.

There are places that hay in lofts make sense, old barns one of those.
In today’s new barns, not really.

I like the folding ladder/slide idea the best. The chute into the stall net looks nice but I would prefer a lower net or on the mats. I agree, it looks like it could be a literal pain to eat.
Thanks for the photo reference Bluey!

I am constantly nervous about the fire hazard with the hay in the barn but we don’t have another choice at this time. The barn is HUGE and the upstairs was made just for the purpose of storing hay…since 1857. Luckily it is a bank barn and we just drive the hay wagon right into the barn and unload. The dust is also a serious issue. I keep the horses out for the most part and never toss bales down when they’re inside. A separate building would be ideal but it’s what we have to work with at the moment.
Thanks for the ideas!