Keeping Hay

The best why to keep your hay clean and dry. If it is out side, is to have it coverd. We used a camping tent to store the hay in. Keeps things out and is easy to get the hay out from. You can use a camping tarp as well. Put two layers of camping tarps on top of the hay and keep it tied down.

We just got one of those tarp garages, put pallets underneath and our hay stays nice and dry, holds about 50 bales.

I tarp mine even in the barn. In the dry season, it gets dusty/dirty and in the winter/spring, it gets moldy around the outsides because of the constant dampness (even though it's not rained or leaked on). The joys of the "Great Northwest".

Living in coastal WA and western OR, tarping hay causes it to mold where the tarp and hay make contact, so that has never worked for me.   In drier climates it is more effective.  Use a canvas style tarp if you must tarp it - something that 'breathes'.

The best way to keep hay is to have a large quantity stored in a shelter with walls, roof, and cement floor.  Two layers of pallets with vapor barrier (tarp or plastic) on the bottom side of both layers will help prevent ground moisture from molding the hay regardless of whether the floor is cement or dirt.  The larger the hay stack, the less moisture damage to the hay.

Stored in a dry building, the bottom layer is the only one that gets affected; I have 'cheated' this principle by buying cheap straw for my bottom run, which can be used as bedding as it is unburied from the haystack.

In the last place I lived, I eventually stopped trying to load all 4 to 6 tons into my barn at once.   I found a reliable local hay dealer with a big hay barn and bought about 15 to 20 bales at a time - it was always clean and dry from being stored in the hay barn, and didn't sit around long enough at my place to get moldy.  It was a pain to have to load and unload hay every few weeks (I was only feeding 3 horses then) but better than throwing out expensive hay.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that we put a tarp down, then the pallets and then the hay, haven't had moldy hay yet and we had a really wet winter.  The tarp garages run around $200 which works out well for me, I get about 30 bales at a time, lasts me about a month and it's nice to have a dry, windbreak on those blustery days too.

Living in coastal WA and western OR, tarping hay causes it to mold where the tarp and hay make contact, so that has never worked for me.   In drier climates it is more effective.  Use a canvas style tarp if you must tarp it - something that 'breathes'.


Difference in experience here in the Willamette Valley. My hay molds around the outsides in a barn without the tarps around it. I have a cement floor with one layer of pallets and no mold on the bottom layer. I guess we each need to find what works for our own situations.

Howdy yall,
what I do is put a pallet down next to our storage shed and tarp of the hay. the only time it goes bad is if I don't give it to the horses because my horses can't always eat hay but now I got three goats so I got get my hay hauler truck running to get lots of hay.
Trav

Keep your hay cover with hay tarps. hay tarp is effectively used to protect crops and hay from the outside harsh weather calamities. If you have truck tarps you can use it for temporary.