Has anyone done this? I am going to try it this year as a preventative of that bottom bale funk. Yes, I store my hay cut side down and on pallets in a loft with a wooden floor.
Thanks!
So I’ve tried this and it didn’t help. But here’s my thing- the rock salt is going to attract moisture. So it’s going to make the area perpetually more damp than if there was no salt.
I think the idea of salting hay to prevent moisture must have originated in a low humidity climate.
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I am in a higher humidity environment. I wondered the same thing…where does the wet go?
I didn’t have a problem until I was sold wet hay one year.
I wonder if doing a quick 10% bleach of the wood floors would help? I am anxiously waiting my hay and have the time for once…
I did this on the advice if my 1st hayguy - an oldtimer - some 20yrs ago.
After I ran out of the first 40# bag of salt, I never bothered again.
I store 300+ small squares on pallets in my barn, over compacted limestone.
I can recall losing only a couple bales to funk/mold in all that time.
If a bottom bale seems suspect, generally leaving it dampside up until it’s dry is all that’s needed.
I’m in the Midwest, Summer can get humid.
And if we get torrential rain, sometimes it will get wet beneath the pallets.
I lift them annually, sweep out the fines & let the ground dry before putting them back down.
Just did that last week & ground is still damp.
But bales that sat on those pallets are fine.
The theory is that salt between bales pulls excess moisture out of the most compacted parts of the bales and into the area where there’s more likely to have some air flow and it can be evaporated. That makes the hay less likely to mould and burn your barn down. In my area, it’s always been feed grade (fine) salt, not rock salt that gets used. Not sure it would make a huge difference though, I’ve just never known anyone to use rock salt for this purpose.
Last time I did it was at a place we knew we were getting hay that had been sprayed - for a few bucks we got double insurance (spray and salt) that the hay would be more likely to stay safe.
FWIW, no salt under the bottom layer of hay. If you have access to pallets, putting the bottom layer of hay on top of pallets is helpful.
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I am in a hot humid climate. I just use old bales for my bottom layer because it is going to be bad no matter what I have under it. I can’t keep hay mold free here much longer than 6 months in the summer time so I usually get my summer hay purchase on my flatbed trailer and park the trailer under the barn. There is airflow under the wood bottom of the trailer and the bottom bales are fine. Except for last summer. Even those didn’t smell great when I used them. That really surprised me.
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From the original posts, it appears the OP is already using pallets.
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You might want to put plastic on the ground or floor, then pallets on the plastic and pile hay on the pallets. We have a cement floor which can hold moisture or pull it in from surrounding wet soil. We laid the plastic, then husband put chipboard on cleats to totally cover the plastic layer. Chipboard pieces can be totally lifted up to clean under when needed. This has worked very well for a number of years now. We no longer use pallets, just stack on the chipboard. No broken slats to put your leg thru when walking on them, no pallets to get rid of when past their use. We used to throw away most of the bales on pallets because of mold from always-damp cement floor. Was expensive wasting all those bales!
We might still get a moldy bale or two on the west wall floor area where it gets a lot of hot sun and moisture comes up the metal siding. Putting up a four foot layer of plastic from under the chipboard against the metal siding inside has fixed most of that area’s moldy bale issue. We also try to feed off the west end of hay pile first, so there is no hay touching the wall.
In previous posts abouts damp or moldy bottom hay layers, some have suggested checking with roofing companies for smaller runs of leftover rubber roofing as the floor or dirt covering layer. They said it was not very expensive and very tough.
We only salted some wet bales we got free as a kid. Had an old red barn with a big loft for air movement. Took the wagon load of bales in, cut the strings and spread, fluffed the hay, adding loose salt by hand each layer. Covered most of the loft floor! We let it sit a day, then tossed the loose hay to keep it fluffed for better drying about every second day for a week. Then Grampa did some kind of twist-test on the hay stalks, checking for dryness. Then he had us pile it at one end of the loft for storage. He put bales at the other end. Horses ate the salted hay well, saved on feed money that winter.
Taught me about WHY a person needs to know the difference in their pitchfork styles! Grampa got the 3 tine fork (hay fork) while us kids had to make do with the other forks with 4-6-10 tine forks that weighed a LOT more and were harder to get into and under the loose hay!! Our arms were killing us when we finished fluffing that hay! The single, 3-tine hay fork got a lot of use that winter moving the loose hay. Other years it had scarcely been touched because we fed with bales.
I am pretty sure it was loose salt, like coarse kosher salt, in 50# bags, not rock salt.
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We have a version of this set-up. Our hay is not in a wood floored loft on pallets, as described by the OP, but on pallets on top of a plywood floor that is over a layer of thick plastic inside a portable metal building. Originally (we didn’t build it), the plywood floor was directly on the building’s “foundation,” which consists of metal struts that run wall to wall, and we lost a bale or two on the bottom in extremely wet/humid years. Our climate gets hot in the summer, and can be quite humid at times.
Pulled all the plywood out, heavily applied lime, covered it with the thick plastic (overlapped quite a bit where necessary), and re-installed the floor and pallets. It’s been many years since, and we’ve yet to lose another bale, not even any of the bales stacked directly on the plywood floor. I’m another who hates walking on pallets – my feet can fit right through the gaps, even when wearing boots.
Is there a way for the OP to try the heavy-duty plastic sheeting, on top of the wood floor, underneath the pallets?
Do you have adequate airflow in the loft? Is hay going in still damp? Is it leaking anywhere?
A loft is kind of like a giant pallet already, with all that air space beneath. Not like there’s ground moisture coming up from under the hay.
I look at the puddles my salt licks sit in every summer, and don’t get salting hay. It’ll pull moisture out of the air and just make the hay more damp?
No. It’s put between layers of bales, not on the bottom or the top. It’s not pulling moisture from the air, it’s pulling moisture from the bales.
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This!
When my barn was built - in 2004 - one of the workmen, who was redoing his roof, offered me this product. Used, leftover from his project.
IIRC, he called it Ice Dam.
Very thin rubber, about 12’ wide.
I used it in my stalls, over compacted limestone, but barefoot horses wore through it in around 5yrs.
That, and it caught on the metal fork I was using then.
I have it under 1/2 the pallets my hay is on & they do seem to stay dryer.
I have 2 pieces - roughly 12X12 - in my aisle that are also 20yo. Laid over the same limestone.
One has a ripped patch in the center, but the other shows no wear.
Gives my vet & shoer clean, dry places to work.
The only problem I’ve had is wind lifting it & folding it back on itself. It’s light enough so I can easily put it back, just annoying.
Happens only when wind is very strong & I have the big sliding door opened.
I tried landscape pins to hold down the corners. Nope.
Now I’ve got bricks at the front corners & sometimes they get moved along with the mats.
Next step will be the heavier 6X12 pavers.
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Okay and where then does that moisture go, but back into the bale?
The salt draws it out from within the bales where airflow does not reach. What airflow their is between layers gradually dries the salt back out.
Think of an Epsom salt poultice. It draws (pus/swelling out of tissues) and then, if left on a long time under a somewhat porous bandage, it will gradually dry out.
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I have never had any square bales with moisture problems when stored in my loft? I have had issues with the bottom layer anytime I’ve stored them at ground level no matter what I put them on.
I think your bales are too high in moisture when baled. I live in a very high humidity state myself.
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So there’s no airflow to bring humid air to the salt between the bales, but there is airflow to evaporate moisture that the salt accumulates? I mean, that really makes no sense.
I could see that the salt changes the environment in the edge of the bale to make mold growth less likely. But it’s not magically drying anything.
I agree with @candyappy above, there’s something weird here, either bales going into the loft too wet, or water coming into the loft somehow.
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Yes, because perfectly baled and dry squares will be a moldy mess when in contact with gravel, dirt or concrete at ground level even when on pallets that are covered with something else.They just draw moisture like crazy. I always found that amazing .
Moisture at the edge of bales is not a concern. They start moulding and burning from the inside out. I won’t soon forget opening a bale of straw that was about to combust. It was one of the most frightening moments of my career. The bale appeared and felt totally normal outside. And then I opened it and was hit with a wall of smoke and steam. It was a big bale and I use it to illustrate that the outside edges of bales are not where the concern is.
I’m sorry I can’t make it make more sense, but it’s definitely a thing for small bales.
Quite likely. Is salt going to fix really wet bales - maybe. Is it going to help with moisture coming into the loft somehow? Absolutely not.
I’m not discounting that wet bales are a thing, or a huge problem. I have also dealt with hot, steaming, smoking bales. I hope to never see that again.
But a sprinkle of salt between rows isn’t going to mitigate that, and will draw moisture from the ambient air just as well as it’ll draw moisture from the edge of the bale. It’s not like it’s going to dry out a wet bale of hay. Maybe it’ll do something to prevent a minor amount of moldyness by changing the local environment.
Btw, a sweat wrap is also not drawing fluid through the skin. It creates heat, which increases circulation, which reduces fluid. Unless you’re saying salting hay kicks in an internal circulatory system in the bale, that analogy doesn’t work here 
(But wouldn’t that be cool! Or weird, I’m not sure 
)
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Did I say sweat wrap? No.
However I’m way too far away from science classes at this point to talk confidently about things like capillary action and the other weird things that salts can do, so I’ll leave it to you to look all that stuff up.
