Locally here in Michigan, a common practice is using straw bales as the base layer. Any dampness gets the straw, not the hay. This is even over plastic sheeting or tarps. They never disturb the straw bales, just put new hay on them every year. I have not done this myself, but learned about it when I complained about finding moldy bales at the bottom of our stack in the cement floored pole barn.
We have since gone to plywood sheeting over 1"x 2" strips to keep plywood slightly up off the cement. Plastic layer on cement, then these 12â long by 4ft wide panels over plastic, then hay on plywood. Works quite well, no moldy bales. The exception was the west front wall, metal, that sun shone on, creating moisture rising up inside the metal. Hot and cold got some mold going on bales touching that wall along the bottom couple layers. These days there is a plastic sheet layer against the front wall so hay canât absorb any moisture.
We lift those plywood floor panels each year when hay is all gone, sweep floor clean, make sure underlying plastic is not torn or holey, no wet spots, then put the panels back down for the new hay. System works pretty good for us. Been doing hay that way for quite a while now.
Pallets just didnât do the job here, always got moisture up from the cement, plus hard to walk on putting hay in or removing it.
Right now my final load of hay is sitting on a trailer in the hoop barn. No barn room for it yet. I think the bales we put up are more solid, maybe bigger at a true 50+ pounds, than most bales we bought in the past. So my number count is slightly less than in the past, but they take up LOTS more room! As a âhay hoarderâ I never want to get caught short of hay!! Too awful of weather to go get hay in winter. So we will see how much the horses eat, of this yearâs hay compared to bale counts of past years.
