We sell the haying rights to our 52 acres to a dairy farmer who lives about 12 miles from our land. When he finished making haylage of the third cutting of alfalfa last week, he left about a dozen rows of cut hay laying in the hayfield. He doesn't want to drag his round baler and wagon that far for what may only be a couple of one ton bales of alfalfa (he has hundreds of one ton bales that he took off our land this year).

Since we're finally moving out to our land later this fall, we may get some small livestock. My questions are these: Can I just rake up the hay and store it loose in the barn? Does this present an increased fire hazard over tight bales? Does it lose nutrients if not baled tightly?

-- Steve in So. WI (Alpine1@prodigy.net), October 05, 2001

Answers

By all means, get it in the barn right away. Hay stored loose is almost always superior to baled hay, because the air can circulate through it. Without this circulation, moisture can be trapped inside hay bales, causing it to mold. The only purpose for baling is for ease of handling and storing.

-- Dan G/N Fla (stagecoach@hotmail.com), October 05, 2001.

Loose hay is how it always used to be stored. Nothing wrong with it and it's easy to take out and feed with a hay fork. Ever wonder what the big forks called hay forks (like giant manure forks) are for? They are for loose hay! Go to it and get it in fast. That's pretty good--- you sell the hay and then get to keep some of it! :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), October 05, 2001.

If you store it loose, be sure to have good air flow from the bottom also, such as putting it on wood pallets. You need good air flow from outside also, which is why many hay barns were built out of green wood, so when the wood shrank it would provide air flow. I would put the pallets up on 8"x8"x16" blocks also to help keep the pallets from sitting on the ground and to give the barn cat easier access to the mice who may find the pile a very nice nesting area.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 05, 2001.