# Outside storing of rd bales.



## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

I thought I would post this article sent to me from a newsletter from the TSCRA outlining correct procedures for storing rd bales outside. It amazes me when I see the incorrect methods my neighbors utilize for storing rd bales. Rows of bales with round sides touching & then the bales that are pyramided or stored under trees.

Several yrs back my well to do horse owner customer was storing rd bales while I was baling. He was laying 1st bales on flat side with rd parts touching then double stacking in rows end to end with rd sides touching. I stopped him & explained that the bottom bales would ROT. He stated his friend told him that was correct way to stack hay so he continued stacking his way. That was the ONE & ONLY yr he stacked bales in a that fashion.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Only thing I would add is that depending on your soil, ground moisture can be a bigger enemy of the round bale than rain.


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## KS John (Aug 6, 2018)

My outside job has wooden pallets, which I can get for free. I use these under my round bales. A 4X5 baled fits perfect on a pallet.

And they are reusable!


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Plastic pallets even better! The wood pallets are good but absorb and hold moisture in the wood. They eventually rot and fall apart. 
I find plastic pallets on CL for $6-$8 a piece. I have some that are 5 years old and still going strong


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## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

I remember reading the correct way to store rounds, that was over 30 years ago, I've never seen ANYONE follow it though.

It came from Guelph University Agriculture dept:

Select an area according to need and lay down ties 18" thick, fill this with crushed stones, set bales thereon leaving 12" space between them.

This would take care of drainage and allow snow not to accumulate between bales allowing air to dry bales.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Trillium Farm said:


> I remember reading the correct way to store rounds, that was over 30 years ago, I've never seen ANYONE follow it though.
> It came from Guelph University Agriculture dept:
> Select an area according to need and lay down ties 18" thick, fill this with crushed stones, set bales thereon leaving 12" space between them.
> 
> This would take care of drainage and allow snow not to accumulate between bales allowing air to dry bales.


Probably because leaving space between each bale is a waste of time.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

If you’re gonna invest that much in a pad, buy a tarp.


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## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

So there we have the reasons then!


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I agree with much of the article with the exceptions (for me):

I leave about 8-10" between rows. IMO, this is adequate, in most case, for drying and air flow. 3' is excessive.

I run my rows east-west because that is the direction of the crown of my storage area. It slopes away to the north, south, and east. I believe that this gives me the best run-off drainage.

I store on a 3"+ rock bed, 6" thick. I believe this gives me the be under-bale drainage.

Ralph


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

KS John said:


> My outside job has wooden pallets, which I can get for free. I use these under my round bales. A 4X5 baled fits perfect on a pallet.
> 
> And they are reusable!





JD3430 said:


> Plastic pallets even better! The wood pallets are good but absorb and hold moisture in the wood. They eventually rot and fall apart.
> I find plastic pallets on CL for $6-$8 a piece. I have some that are 5 years old and still going strong


Pallets are great, even if storing under cover. Our barn has a gravel floor where we store the round bales, so the moisture is always there.

Plastic pallets sound great, but I wasn't able to find any in our area and there were plenty of wooden pallets to be had cheap. If you can only find beat up and useless pallets on CL, check with any local store that carries bulk bags of mulch, wood pellets, water softener salt, etc. Our local hardware store gladly sold us all the pallets we wanted for $1 a pallet. They have piles of them from all the stuff that gets delivered on pallets.


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## haoyou110 (Sep 22, 2019)

RockmartGA said:


> Only thing I would add is that depending on your soil, ground moisture can be a bigger enemy of the round bale than rain.


hi,friend,i want to know what you mean,now many net wraps used in Texas and AOklahoma and Nebraska,but every year, the bale in Texas and Oklahoma will be bursting,but in Nebraska and Kansas also are good,not bursting. can you tell me the reason,maybe the soil in Texas and Oklahoma is moisture than Nebraska.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

haoyou110 said:


> hi,friend,i want to know what you mean,now many net wraps used in Texas and AOklahoma and Nebraska,but every year, the bale in Texas and Oklahoma will be bursting,but in Nebraska and Kansas also are good,not bursting. can you tell me the reason,maybe the soil in Texas and Oklahoma is moisture than Nebraska.


The sun breaks down the netwrap.The farther south you go the stronger the sun is and quicker it effects the plastic.UV is added to the plastic to keep it from breaking down as fast.Also some manufacturers cheapen up netwrap by useing recycled plastic and its much weaker then virgin HDPE,any impurities in it will create a weak spot that will degrade and break sooner.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Josh in WNY said:


> Pallets are great, even if storing under cover. Our barn has a gravel floor where we store the round bales, so the moisture is always there.
> 
> Plastic pallets sound great, but I wasn't able to find any in our area and there were plenty of wooden pallets to be had cheap. If you can only find beat up and useless pallets on CL, check with any local store that carries bulk bags of mulch, wood pellets, water softener salt, etc. Our local hardware store gladly sold us all the pallets we wanted for $1 a pallet. They have piles of them from all the stuff that gets delivered on pallets.


I have had success finding them on CL and at a few local companies that deal in products shipped in barrels or large boxes. Another great thing about plastic pallets is they are really light.

Earlier in my hay farming career, I put wood pallets on the ground, then bales on top and was surprised to find bottom spoilage because the wood wicked up moisture and transferred it to the bale bottom. Still better than sitting directly on the ground, of course.

Even a thin layer of stone on the ground makes a big difference. One of my customers property has a long, straight stone driveway. It gets snowplowed and the plow always throws a little driveway stone onto the grass along it. Over the years, the stone has accumulated to the point where the grass still grows nicely, but the stone makes for a perfect outside "storage" spot for hundreds of bales. Really cuts down on bottom spoilage.

The floor of one of my storage barns consists of a heavy plastic tarp, (formerly used for covering construction projects like roofing) to repel ground moisture vapor, with pallets on top. Haven't had a bad bottom bale. The owner of the barn doesnt want me to stone the floor, so I went with the plastic tarp and plastic pallets.

Try some plastic pallets if you can find them, they work great, they're light and they last quite a long time!

One other thing- plastic pallets come in light, medium and heavy grades. The lightweight ones will work and you can throw em around like frisbees, but they don't last as long.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

haoyou110 said:


> hi,friend,i want to know what you mean,now many net wraps used in Texas and AOklahoma and Nebraska,but every year, the bale in Texas and Oklahoma will be bursting,but in Nebraska and Kansas also are good,not bursting. can you tell me the reason,maybe the soil in Texas and Oklahoma is moisture than Nebraska.


I've had a few bales with 2 wraps of net that were stored outside in the Texas sun starting on their 3rd Winter that Tama netwrap was still good.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Tx Jim said:


> I've had a few bales with 2 wraps of net that were stored outside in the Texas sun starting on their 3rd Winter that Tama netwrap was still good.


Tama netwrap is great stuff. $275 for 12,500' roll delivered!


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## haoyou110 (Sep 22, 2019)

swmnhay said:


> The sun breaks down the netwrap.The farther south you go the stronger the sun is and quicker it effects the plastic.UV is added to the plastic to keep it from breaking down as fast.Also some manufacturers cheapen up netwrap by useing recycled plastic and its much weaker then virgin HDPE,any impurities in it will create a weak spot that will degrade and break sooner.


 the netwrap is used virgin HDPE resin not recycle plastic,and add the better uv additives in the HDPE(the uv additives is produced by BASF), and we choose Q-LAB aging machine to test the ability of anti-UV, the test result is very good,and this netwrap use in South Dakota, Missouri and Nebraska and Kansas is good,and the netwrap use in Australia and New zealand is ok,but in Texas and Oklahoma would happend to burst.If some farmers add weedkillers or pesticide in soil ,and the netwrap will absorb it then led to break.


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## haoyou110 (Sep 22, 2019)

Tama



JD3430 said:


> Tama netwrap is great stuff. $275 for 12,500' roll delivered!


some Tama's netwrap bursting in some areas ,the netwrap breaked have many factors ,in Tama's website,it introduece many break questions.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

haoyou110

May I ask with what company is your employer?? I'll guess a testing lab or a net manufacturer?

Many yrs back I baled several 100 rd bales of oat hay that the net touching the soil deteriorated but the sun didn't affect the net. After several moths storage when customer picked up bales the bottoms would fall out. Bales were stored on edge of field in black soil. Tama compensated the hay owner for his lose.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

haoyou110 said:


> Tama
> 
> some Tama's netwrap bursting in some areas ,the netwrap breaked have many factors ,in Tama's website,it introduece many break questions.


Maybe it's because TAMA sells so much net wrap at such a fair price compared to others? 
More Chevys break down than Ferrari's
There's more of them.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

haoyou110 said:


> the netwrap is used virgin HDPE resin not recycle plastic,and add the better uv additives in the HDPE(the uv additives is produced by BASF), and we choose Q-LAB aging machine to test the ability of anti-UV, the test result is very good,and this netwrap use in South Dakota, Missouri and Nebraska and Kansas is good,and the netwrap use in Australia and New zealand is ok,but in Texas and Oklahoma would happend to burst.If some farmers add weedkillers or pesticide in soil ,and the netwrap will absorb it then led to break.


weed killers are stored in plastic jugs so I highly doubt what you are saying blaming that for YOUR netwrap breaking


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

haoyou110 said:


> the netwrap is used virgin HDPE resin not recycle plastic,and add the better uv additives in the HDPE(the uv additives is produced by BASF), and we choose Q-LAB aging machine to test the ability of anti-UV, the test result is very good,and this netwrap use in South Dakota, Missouri and Nebraska and Kansas is good,and the netwrap use in Australia and New zealand is ok,but in Texas and Oklahoma would happend to burst.If some farmers add weedkillers or pesticide in soil ,and the netwrap will absorb it then led to break.


I'm might be one of the worst students my English teachers ever had (and I'm still not the best today). But I'm having a hard time reading/understanding this post. It almost confuses me (would this be a run on sentence? :huh, am I alone with this problem?

I'll apologize in advance for my short slightness, with the OP usage of the English language and UV rays being stronger in Dakotas than Texas. Maybe I just had some poorly informed teachers.  I will got back to eating popcorn, now.

Larry


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

swmnhay said:


> weed killers are stored in plastic jugs so I highly doubt what you are saying blaming that for YOUR netwrap breaking


I took care of spraying in a vineyard for years,lots of sulfur used as a fungicide but sulfur burns leave if the temperature is much over 70 degrees. So lots of midnight spraying and nothing but tractor lights in the loading area for the sprayer. So I liked pre measuring chemicals rather than fuse around in the dark. One evening the witches brew had a insecticide besides fertilizer and fungicide and I ran out triple rinsed jugs to put things in. But I had a large plastic drink cup from a fast food place I had used for scooping sulfur to weight. Measured insecticide and poured into cup, set it in a bucket containing the sulfur for one load. Got a spot dug out and banked cup so it could not tip. All locked in a sea-train container. Came back at midnight got the bucket out,all that was left was a clump of sulfur that had soaked up the insecticide.

Lesson learned plastic is not all the same by a long shot. This was over 10 years ago and the cup was a thicker stiffer plastic than today's cups still have several of the same type in my shop holding bits and pieces of things.

I will not say anything about chemicals applied to fields and net wrap as I have no experience. But I do believe there could be a connection.

For the rest of the story. Enough bugs died or moved on to somebody else's crop I never got any complaints about a poor job on the bugs. And I have no idea anymore what bug killer it was.


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## haoyou110 (Sep 22, 2019)

Tx Jim said:


> haoyou110
> May I ask with what company is your employer?? I'll guess a testing lab or a net manufacturer?
> 
> Many yrs back I baled several 100 rd bales of oat hay that the net touching the soil deteriorated but the sun didn't affect the net. After several moths storage when customer picked up bales the bottoms would fall out. Bales were stored on edge of field in black soil. Tama compensated the hay owner for his lose.


hi,friend,our company supply BASF (CIBA) anti-uv additives to our customers,we have lab and natural solar exposure filed,many customers export their products to Australia ,USA,Mexico and some South America,including netwrap,PP non-woven fabrics and so on. BASF is NO.1 anti-uv additives company in Germany.


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

r82230 said:


> I'm might be one of the worst students my English teachers ever had (and I'm still not the best today). But I'm having a hard time reading/understanding this post. It almost confuses me (would this be a run on sentence? :huh, am I alone with this problem?
> 
> I'll apologize in advance for my short slightness, with the OP usage of the English language and UV rays being stronger in Dakotas than Texas. Maybe I just had some poorly informed teachers.  I will got back to eating popcorn, now.
> 
> Larry


I work in global corporation so I'm pretty used to it...non-native English speaker so you have to try to interpret what they might be trying to say.


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