Storing hay in a loft

[Simkie]

I’ve never lived in an area where hay is stored in lofts, but we’re moving to CT where it seems like that’s all there is, and the barn at our new place has a loft.

Any tip/tricks/things to know about keeping hay in the loft? Should it be kept on pallets? How tightly should the loft be packed? Should the outside doors be left open for ventilation, or kept closed?

Can I expect to fill the loft with hay and have it keep indefinitely, as long as the roof is sound and not leaking, or does hay in a loft have a lifespan different from hay stored in a different way?

The loft in the barn is relatively large (I think the building is 48 x 34) and we should be able to fit enough hay for the horses in there for the winter/spring. Is there any reason I shouldn’t fill it up to the brim in the summer?

We also have a very nice set of stairs and a drop hole down to the aisle, so access is good.

Figure we’ll get an elevator eventually, but I think the hay guy people keep telling me to use will bring his own…

[ElementFarm]

the farm we rented for a year had a loft.

pros: semi-convenient to get down, insulated the barn interior well.
cons: not-at-all convenient to get up, dusty, dark

We had to pay a fair about more for delivery for a loft than we do now (same provider) with a ground-floor storage shed. Once it was up there, it was okay, though I was always worried about fire, and the lightbulbs always burned out when I was the far back corner–necessitating a scary stumble/sleepwalk stance trying to find the opening down. I also found my barn ended up being dustier when the hay was stored above. We did not use pallets. We just stacked on the wood floor, tightly, as high as we could. We left doors closed.

The biggest issue was sometimes it was just exhausting climbing up several times a day. Easier to just keep a few bales on ground level to make it easy to throw a flake – especially since when throwing down hay, even one bale will bounce and spray hay chaff, requiring you sweep the entire aisle again.

[Simkie]

Thanks, Element. I’m not super keen on the loft thing, but it seems like that’s all we saw when we were house hunting. I will have two extra stalls for hay (for HAY. NOT HORSES :lol:) so the plan is to drop a bunch of bales at once, feed from ground level and repeat as necessary.

Did you have any problems with manky bottom bales without pallets? Realize there’s not really any ground moisture in a loft, but we’ve always stored hay on pallets and I have some really, really nice ones that I am loath to leave behind. I guess I can use them in the hay stalls if they’re not needed upstairs…

Can you give me a ballpark on your additional delivery costs with the loft? Feel free to PM, or no worries if you’re not comfortable sharing. I’ve already got sticker shock about hay. MN is the land where hay is SO good and SO cheap!

[jawa]

Never stored on pallets when hay was in the loft.

It is great to have an area below to store a few bales so you don’t have to go up and down very often.

Depending on how you stack your hay in your loft and your prevailing winds, you can leave the loft door open to help the barn ventilate in the summer.

I’m not in CT, but delivery is delivery, no extra charge for a loft from any I’ve gotten hay from.

[ryansgirl]

I’ve always stored hay in a loft and it’s never a problem. I put the first layer edge down (right on the wood floor so no pallets) and stack on top as high as I can go. I leave the end doors open (both sides) after its delivered to clear out the dust. It does tend to get hot up there so I may leave the doors open during the summer (I don’t stack hay right near the doors in case it rains). My hay guy just throws in in from the hay wagon but I have used an elevator in the past.

I buy enough hay in the summer to last for a year - it’s always been perfectly fine a year (even two years later). My hay guy knows how to cut hay properly so that helps. He only charges 15 cents more per bale to deliver it and to help stack it - well worth it.

I do drop down enough hay for a week or so into the feed room - there is a hole right there so it’s super easy.

Of course there’s always a fire risk of storing that much hay in a loft and not in a separate building so just keep that in mind.

[cutter99]

As long as your hay is dry when you put it into the loft, you should have no problems with mold. When we put freshly cut hay into a loft we stack it cut side down, so the strings are on the side. You will want to make sure there is ventilation while it cures. Many lofts have doors at each end. We have always left the doors open for a few weeks while the hay initially cures. As long as you have no water leaks and your hay is put up dry, you should have no issues with hay going bad. It will lose some nutritional value over time though.

I try to put away as much gave as possible as early in the growing season as possible. I also try to feed it all out yearly and not hold any over from year to year.

[JeanM]

love my loft! I get my year’s worth of 1st & 2nd cut hay during the hay season, because I have all that lovely storage. I do pay more for delivery and stacking in my loft, but it’s so worth it. They put it cut-end down, and stack 4 bales high (I only have one horse, so it’s not as though the hayloft is getting stuffed). My hay guy is good about curing his hay well, so having moist hay delivered has not been an issue for me. I drop enough hay for the week every weekend the main floor and stack it in a corner. Very convenient setup all in all.

I bet you are going to end up LOVING your hayloft!

[Chief2]

If you only have a few horses you should be fine. If you are storing several thousand bales throughout the summer, the heat and humidity that remains in the barn after it is unloaded and stacked can be oppressive. The flip side is that it keeps the barn warmer through the winter. We use pallets to allow the air to circulate underneath the stacks, and load in 5,000 bales of first cut each summer. It is easier to get first cut. In a drought year, like this one was, second cut can come through sparse. Keep the hay holes in the floor open through the summer for better ventilation in the barn, if you have them. Otherwise it’s going to get hot and muggy upstairs as the hay sweats.

If you are on FB, Connecticut Horsey Folk can give you help finding a supplier and answering questions. There are a few other FB CT horse boards. One is a tack for sale board.

[horsepoor]

I have a loft and we do what others are describing – store the bulk of the hay up there, and throw down bales as needed to work from on the ground floor (I usually have a week’s worth or so down). We can store 5 to 7 tons up there, depending how it is baled. No pallets and we don’t keep it open but I also don’t buy anything straight from the field – typically it has been cured elsewhere before getting to us. We have our own elevator but have also had deliveries where they preferred to use their own. Never paid extra because of the loft, but perhaps that is because we are here to help, have our own elevator, and we already usually pay a good delivery charge just because we are kind of out of the way.

It is nice to have the hay all up there out of the way. The fire risk bothers me, but a separate hay building wasn’t in the cards when we built.

[ejm]

One little trick that is counter-intuitive to neat, clean barnkeeping is to leave a thin layer of hay chaff on the loft floor. Then as others have said, stack hay on edge. The dry hay on the floor will help avoid mustiness or mold on the bottom layer of bales.

[S1969]

I wish I had a loft. The ones I’ve seen locally are great - dry, spacious, airy. Obviously need a good hay elevator to load the hay up there, but once up, it keeps well assuming that the roof is in good shape.

[Simkie]

Thanks, all! Glad to hear people like their lofts This one really is pretty nice–large and airy with a nice solid floor and stairs to get up there. We saw others with a ladder into the loft and one barn with a pull down set of stair things, like an attic…I prefer the real stairwell! This barn even has the stairs inside, which certainly seems like a plus.

Why cut side down for the bottom row?

Chief, just four horses so well shy of 1000 bales. We’ll see how much we really wind up going through as pasture just isn’t the same there as we have here in MN. Figure we’ll be feeding hay the majority of the year, with grass in the field as entertainment more than anything. I am a member of the CT Horsey Folks page and they gave me good leads on who to ping for hay. Looking forward to NEXT year when I’m not buying in the middle of winter!!

[ElementFarm]

[QUOTE=Simkie;8959349]
I will have two extra stalls for hay (for HAY. NOT HORSES :lol:) so the plan is to drop a bunch of bales at once, feed from ground level and repeat as necessary.

Did you have any problems with manky bottom bales without pallets? Realize there’s not really any ground moisture in a loft, but we’ve always stored hay on pallets

Can you give me a ballpark on your additional delivery costs with the loft? I’ve already got sticker shock about hay. MN is the land where hay is SO good and SO cheap![/QUOTE]

we had NO issues with “manky bottom bales” the whole loft stayed very dry. We didn’t do cut side down on the bottom layer either, though I have read some people recommend that. We tried once, (ground level storage) and didn’t notice any difference, and it wasn’t worth the trouble.
For delivery, we paid almost a dollar a bale for the hay to be unloaded into the loft (using their elevator). It’s half that for ground level delivery. And at $15/bale, I’m already broke feeding the herd, and the extra charge adds up over time.

One thing that I did like about the hay loft overhead was it helped insulate the barn interior quite well.

If you keep daily-use hay in a spare stall, I think you’ll be just fine with the loft. You can just throw down a week or two’s worth at a time. I would recommend low heat /LED bulbs for the hay loft, perhaps some battery-powered smoke detectors, and a plan to keep wildlife out – I had a friend with recurring problems with raccoons moving into the hay loft.

and KEEP the pallets! They are always useful for something (in hay stall, to put roundbales on, to paint jump standards on, we’ve even used them as temporary fencing on occasion when the mini found/created a new gap to exploit.)

can’t wait to see pictures of the new place! Where in CT is it?

[mht]

I put my round bales in my loft! Had the end doors made wider, so they can be put in with the bale spear on the front end loader. I don’t have anywhere dry enough outside to store them. Barn is 32 x 40, so can get about 30 in. Just roll them out the door when needed, and pick up with the tractor.
When these get low, my hay guy brings me the rest, usually end of January.

And remember, all that hay up top provides good ceiling insulation!

[gumtree]

“We didn’t do cut side down on the bottom layer either, though I have read some people recommend that. We tried once, (ground level storage) and didn’t notice any difference, and it wasn’t worth the trouble”

Putting up hay on its side isn’t really necessary when buying from a re-seller. The majority of their supply has been stored and has gone through a compete dry down.

Hay that is pretty much straight out of the field should be stacked on its side to help wick (sweat) moisture and speed the curing time.

IME as a producer in my neck of the humid woods. Once hay has dried down to around 8-10-12+% moisture content. It doesn’t change much there after. Even in a hot humid loft. The bales do not act like a sponge.

IMO and experience storing hay in a loft is superior to any other way. It is on wood with a big flowing air space below. Which keeps excessive floor moisture in check.

Barn fires are rare as it is. Few if any can be directly attributed to stored hay in a loft. Yes, it can be considered an “accelerant” but by the time a fire has gotten that far along to burn through the ceiling/loft flooring the building is a total loss anyway.

Once fires have started how fast they spread depends on a number of things. And preventive measures that have been taken. Loft “trap doors” hay/straw drops should have reasonably tight closing hatches that are kept closed when the barn is unoccupied.

Left open and god forbid there is a fire they will act as a chimney. Speeding up the fire below and allowing sparks, fire to quickly ignite things in the loft.

In this day an age all barn lighting should be with cool low voltage bulbs only. Saves quite a bit on electrical cost. More importantly they never get hot enough to ignite, dust, cobwebs etc that can and does collect on them.

If broken unlike incandescent bulbs they won’t spark and potentially ignite anything.

I grew up with “loft barns”. Every barn I was ever in in those days, new or an old barn, hay and straw was stored in the loft. I wouldn’t own or build a barn without a loft.

To each their own on this.

[SMF11]

Very exciting news (the move to CT, that is). I have a loft and throw down a week’s worth of hay at a time. Like everyone else I do not store on pallets in the loft, but I do on the concrete barn aisle where I keep the week’s supply.

Welcome!

[DiamondJubilee]

Loft storage is very common around here as well. We have an old bank barn and store a years worth in our loft every year (about 600 small bales) and use the chute to drop a weeks worth of hay down into the feed room.

We have a good foot of hay down on our loft floor which we never clean up, we just stack the hay right on top of it (also helps keep the lower part of the barn warm) and we have never stacked the hay on its side. I’ve worked in barns that stack 5,000 + bales in it and they also have not stored their hay this way. The bottom layer is also perfect once we get down to it, never had a problem with mould. We do leave our loft doors open for a day or two after we stack our hay to help with a bit of air flow. The boards all along the sides also have a few inches between each other so this helps with air flow as well.

We get really neat budles where they are able to tie 21 small bales together to make one large bale that our tractor can pick up with forks. We are able to drive into the barn and do cut open the first few “bales” so we can stack all of our 600 bales into the loft (we also store carriages, wood, jumps for the winter etc, so we only use about 1/4 of our loft for hay). But the last few bundles we leave closed and just open when needed. This helps us with stacking and we can do all of our hay in a few hours -less man handling of the bales. Not too many farmers have the proper equipment to do this and we have used elevators in the past. This is so much easier and way less dusty. Love this method!

[EquineJunky]

I live near a lake which seems to play a part in generating moist humid air. On days with perpetual rain with extremely high humidity, the aisle, walls, floor, etc. in my barn will be damp which has lead to my hay slightly molding on the outside even in the loft (even with the main aisle doors closed but stall doors left open). My hay loft is open over the stalls (no wall or floor - can see right down into the stalls) and my stall doors to the outside are only ever closed on super cold/snowy/windy days (maybe 2-3 days a year here). I could open the loft door for airflow/circulation but am afraid the wind would blow even more moisture in there (loft door faces south and a lot of our weather comes from SW). I’ve not had any problem with the bottoms of bales on the loft floor, it seems to be the sides exposed to the humid air and allowing moisture to condensate. I would say your climate and how your barn is situated would help factor into it.

[merrygoround]

Have grown up with lofts, and have used lofts all my life. The main criteria with hay and stacking is being sure it is dry in the first place. This can be a a problem with the legume hays, but grass hay such as timothy, and orchard are seldom a problem.

And on cold winter days it is certainly handy.

BTW, I prefer a solid loft floor. It keeps dust, etc from sifting down.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

You’re leaving Mayo-Land?! I feel like you just got there!

I’m a little jealous I think.

I have boarded in several barns with lofts and I agree with the solid floor. You can have a drop hatch for hay to go down, but otherwise the dust can be pretty bad.