I am in the mid-Atlantic and feed hay year round. When I’m feeding small squares, my guys average around 20-25lbs per day, approximately half a bale.
We have 12 horses at the farm and I feed rounds as much as I can because it’s far cheaper and way less work.
One thing to think about when getting a years worth of hay in this area- it’s wet here, like all the time (unless we’re having a weird drought like this past fall). Sometimes hay I get in still needs drying space or sometimes it’s so damp, I want to make sure not to stack it touching the barn walls. Also at least a double layer of pallets under your stacks is very important
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Yes, when I lived out in more western states, it was common to get 2 string bales that were upwards of 50lbs.
But locally grown hay in the mid-Atlantic? Unless they are HUGE two string bales, I’d be instantly suspicious of mold if I got bales that heavy.
I just picked up a load of really nice, dense, larger than average (for this area) orchard grass bales yesterday and they are maybe 45lbs. I only have a hanging scale in my barn to weigh nets, but maybe I’ll drag out the bathroom scale tonight to see how much they weigh.
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I get 50# bales from one guy who used the spray to prevent mold. His bales are very green and soft and lovely. My others are more like 35. Surprisingly my horses actually prefer the other, but will eat both. The 35# bales were 8.50/bale in the summer (1st cutting), and the larger $10/bale (3rd). In VA for reference.
My horses eat about a bale to a bale and a half a day depending on which hay - so probably 70#/day together when there is no grass, but they are also 1600# + each (easy keepers too).
In my part of the Midwest hay is either baled in 500# rounds or small 2-string squares.
That’s what the hay farmers have the equipment to put up.
A friend about 150mi East of me gets 4-wire squares that weigh 100#+
Neighbors gave me a small - 300# - round, they got it into my barn with their tractor, I have nothing that could move anything that size/weight.
I hated feeding from it, too hard to gauge weight of the “flakes” I pulled off.
But I’ll admit it lasted around 3mos - July thru September.
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I’m mid Atlantic, I buy my hay 1-2x a year from one fabulous supplier. They stack it beautifully and fit 250ish bales in a 11’x22’ area with room for me to walk. 40-45 lbs per goat first cut orchard grass bales and solid 50 lbs alfalfa bales.
My pony eats 12-15 lbs a day, 5-10 lbs per goat, large horse 20ish lbs summer up to 40 lbs in winter.
Don’t forget they eat more in the winter to stay warm.
It’s a math equation I try to figure out every year.
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Two thoughts about packing maximum hay in minimum space. The storage space would need to be reliably dry and not subject to high humidity. You will want to leave some space for air to circulate. Also consider who will be stacking and unstacking. I admire endlessclimb’s 7 high bales but my old shoulders only stack 4 high or unstack 5 high these days. Admirable forethought on your farm!
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You might need to re-calculate slightly once you find a supplier and get an idea of their bale dimensions and weight because as others have said it can vary! 
Most small square baler models are 14" x 18" so that dimension is set. (There are some balers that are 16x18).
The operator can vary the bale length and density, which factor into the weight.
One of my suppliers makes 32" long bales because that works better for their operation that uses a bale thrower into a wagon to handle the hay. They supply a lot of large local boarding barns. These bales (grass) tend to be 40 lbs, because that’s a lot easier for people to stack/handle and the barns have been requesting lighter bales.
My other supplier makes 36" long bales because he uses a accumulator and grapple to pick up/handle the hay and 36" bales fit in his equipment better. These tend to be 50 lbs because of the length and it’s mixed grass/alfalfa hay. One load I got was in the 60 lb range and he laughed and said that his son did that field and is just learning and wasn’t good at monitoring things yet so they ended up heavy. Those were super fun to stack! 
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If you are building, make the roof higher. Height is cheaper than building a bigger footprint for a building. Over the years we have come to regret only building 12ft sidewalls on the barn. We would have so much more room with 14ft sidewalls! We stack from the ground up thru the rafters to the ceiling to get as many bales in as possible.
Something my BIL the barn builder told us is that you ALWAYS need more floor space than originally planned!! Everyone thinks they have accounted for all the things they plan to have in the barn, how they will use the barn, before building. Then along the way “something” changes and everything does not fit anymore!
For us it was going from mostly riding horses to driving horses, plus needed “accessories!” I had laughed when he commented about building bigger, “Why would we ever need more than four horses?” But we did indeed add footage in length, going from 36’ x 40’ up to 36’ x 60ft, with it 12ft high because he recommended more length. We are certainly glad we did, with us taking up carriage driving in a serious way a couple years later! Husband wanted to drive Pairs, then Fours, so obviously we needed more horses and stalls to house them! Midwest here, with lots of wet, cold, snow, so they needed to come in to dry out DAILY. All those horses needed more hay, usually feeding from Sept to June before we bought more land and improved the pastures.
We don’t measure by tons locally, hay is usually bought and sold by the bale. We now put up our own hay and find bales (grass hay, fertilized yearly) get lighter, continuing to dry, in storage. So putting them away, they can be 50+ pounds, but be lighter when it is pulled down to be fed. HOWEVER, light or heavy, they take up the same amount of space on the floor and in the stack!
We use a small, 16ft elevator to get hay up, with a 2nd person on the stack moving bales to the walls, up between the rafters to complete the stacking. Investment in a small elevator saves a LOT of wear and tear on your body. I sure can’t throw bales 10 ft high! With having 8-9 horses now, we need all the space possible for hay storage! We put up almost 1200 bales last year, which will be more than we usually need. But if the cold gets down in the low 20Fs or below and stays there, we will need a lot more hay than usual to keep them warm outside in the weather. No blankets, no shelters, stalled at night, we fill them up on hay. For big sport horses, 1200-1400 pounds they surprisingly economical to feed and keep in good shape with very minimal grain. If they don’t clean up the hay, it is reduced because they don’t need it. Not bedding the paddocks! No porkers here.
So these are some ideas to add to your calculations for the new barn dimensions. With the need for additional horses, we needed more room to house a bigger horse trailer, various carriages and misc. Put two “lean-to’s” on the big barn side for that. When we got into the hay business to feed those horses, I had to build a hoop barn with tarp cover to store hay machinery, bigger tractors in. So do allow enough barn floor space for changes. Tractor upgrade will mean a bigger space with a loader and more horsepower. Keeping the manure spreader out of the weather for less repairs, is taking up floor space too. Our center aisle design works well, but using the 12ft aisle daily means nothing can be stored there because we have to drive thru daily.
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On a tangent, a decent platform scale for weighing hay bales and hay servings can be had for under $100. The one below is $62 and is what I use. There are many brands and prices of this same scale on Amazon , but all seem to be manufactured in the same factory.
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And plan for this to change once you design it for this size bale…
Because it does change.
Your supplier might stop doing hay, or they might switch from small squares to only doing large squares, etc.
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For the stacking, it’s all about planning as you stack so you end up with a set of stairs of sorts. The final 10 or so end up with many curse words getting them up there.
Unstacking, I just chuck a 6 foot ladder against it and yank the high ones down, let them hit the ground. Sweep up later.
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Unstacking was made much easier when a very old farmer gave me a great tool.
An old four tine fork, that one middle tines had broken off. The remaining three tines were bent at 90deg. It allows me to snag a high bale and pull it off the pile. Like Endless said above, let it hit the ground and sweep up the mess.
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Great idea!
This is cool but takes up floor space. I just use a hanging scale. This isn’t the exact one I have, but looks pretty identical.
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I can fit about 750 bales in an area of about 10 x 40 x 10. I stack right up to and between the trusses when I want to really pack it. For stacking, the floor is actually 3’ below ground level (the barn was built on the foundation of a bank barn that had collapsed) and I have access at ground level, so the upper rows aren’t as hard to get on the stack. In 2021 I did build a nice, solid floor after dealing with pallets for several years.
This is the full area right after I finished the floor. The plywood keeps the hay off the concrete foundation wall.
This shows the access door in daylight. I can back or pull right up to that door to unload in nice weather (in winter it’s blocked by a snowbank from the snow off the roof)
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I have average sized sport horses, approx 1200lbs each. During the winter when I am feeding all hay, I estimate an average of 22-23 lbs per horse per day. We bale our own hay and the bales when dry are super light, closer to 30 lbs, so I feed 3 per day for 4 horses. I don’t love it because it means we have to keep more hay and have more room for storage, but it certainly makes picking up out of the field and stacking a lot easier on me and my over 70 year old dad. We tend to stack 5 rows high, sometimes can go up to 6 if we have teen boys to help throw the top bales up, but they can be a PITA to get down without a ladder. We end up up using a lot of floor space to store ours since we prefer not to stack super high. We’ve also had issues with the bales being too loose, which can make stacking hard.
I will say that I love being able to store a full year’s or more hay. I watch friends who don’t have sufficient storage space struggle to find suppliers or get hay deliveries during bad weather and I would not want to be dealing with that. Always overestimate what you need, with 4+ horses I like to get 50 bales above what I estimate I will need for the year.
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I buy my hay from right across the street, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s stored in my barn or his. That said, it’s always nice to know you’re all set for hay and don’t need to keep track of when you need more. Right now, I have enough through the end of January or so, and will need to restock.
I keep it in a 12 x 24’ area. I stack it to the rafters if I’m getting a lot, using the stair step method to get the higher ones up to the top. It’s also how I unstack them. I could keep a year’s worth of hay in that area for my two horses and one pony, which comes out to around 260 bales/year. I’ve started keeping track of how much I’m feeding by accumulating baling twine one week at a time. Right now, I’m feeding about 8 bales per week of small square Mid-Atlantic orchard grass, with really no grass left in the field to make any difference. In the grassier parts of the year, I still feed 3 or 4 bales per week. My horses are a 15.3 hand elderly warmblood, 14.3 hands, and 12 hands, all generally easy keepers. My bales are probably 40 pounds, but maybe I’ll go weigh one.
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Storage also depends on your climate. I have plenty of space to store a year’s worth of hay and generally have access to really nice Tennessee hay at the start of the summer. But it is so humid here that 6 months is about the maximum I can store hay without it becoming musty because of the humidity. I think if I had a hay loft my storage ability would be better. Years ago I was co-oping in a barn with a hay loft and we never had musty hay problems that I remember. I do have more success with hay in bundles and the large 3x3x8 bales because there is less surface area to hay mass.
This summer was humid, but really dry and I was able to keep hay in good shape that I bought in June on into December. I usually leave the hay on the flatbed trailer under the barn and last year I had musty bales on the bottom of the stack. If I unload the hay and stack it inside the main barn it gets musty too. I wish I was in a drier climate. It sucks when you get no rain but the hay is going bad because you still have high humidity.
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Not picking on you but a very important note - was any of the hay netted? If not, you’ll be very surprised how much hay is wasted by 99% of horses (the other 1% are Hoovers). No net? My horse would “eat” a bale a day. With a 2in hole net? Half a bale, max and that’s parked in front of that net 24/7. I imagine the other posters who are in the same 20-25lbs/ day range as me feed in nets as well. The 2in hole sounds small but IME it doesn’t limit them in any way it just keeps them from picking all the tasty bits out and leaving the rest. I had horses gain weight with the net, it’s nothing to be worried about with horses who need groceries (depending on the situation).
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Well my one mare “fixed” her hay nets. They were getting on her nerves, so she ripped the bottoms out, thus allowing her to pull the hay out and spread it around. I rake it up in the AM and serve it to the equine garbage can who pretty much cleans it up. Some horses are problem solvers when they face a hurdle to their hay buffet.
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