# Plastic under small bales.



## ekinkade (Jan 22, 2010)

Has anyone ever heard of putting 6mil black plastic on the ground and then stacking on top of to prevent bottom bale loss. I have lots of horse customers that don't want the bottom bales when they have the moisture from the ground and in turn lose some money.


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## thebonepile (Sep 18, 2009)

I used a dirt floor shed a few years ago because I was out of room......
put some on the dirt, put some on white plastic, some on black, and added a few last year on pallets - now this is a very wet shed (right now ground water is probably 6" below ground)

the pallet bales are as good as when I put them there... the ones on plastic (probably been there 4 plus years now are not good, not contaminated with dirt but probably the bottom 1/3 of each bale has turned into manure.... the ones on bare dirt (also 4 plus years now) are probably half turned to manure on the bottom layer.......

so the plastic is a little better than nothing but very little - now plastic on sand that might be different...... but you have to get those bales up off the floor.....atleast in my wet shed


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## hayliner270 (May 21, 2010)

i vote for the pallets my self
i have seen alot of people do that and no spoilage what so ever on the bottom bales and also promotes air circulation


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## Feed Hay (May 30, 2008)

Pallets is best way in my shed. It used to be dirt, but I finally put some rock and then limestone down over that. I have plastic down with pallets on top of that. I think there is some airflow through the pallets as well. I just stack kthem to the side as I use the hay. Works good for me.


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## enos (Dec 6, 2009)

Pave it with asphalt, pay for it first year. Never waste another bottom bale


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

It really helps to know your part of the country if you want a good reply to your questions. Edit your profile to include this. Putting plastic down is a complete waste of effort, money, and time. Depending on your area, (arid southwest, humid and wet southeast, etc.) moisture may move up or down in the hay. If your barn floor is dry as it should be, moisture should not come up out of the ground. Unless you bale hay really dry, hay will always have moisture "FALL" out of the hay due to gravity. When this moisture comes in contact with your floor, it must have somewhere to go or it will cause a bottom bale. I know several people in the midwest with pavement and it appears to work decent. BUT: good ventilation and pallets are the only thing I have seen work well in the southeast.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

[quote name='Production Acres']It really helps to know your part of the country if you want a good reply to your questions. Edit your profile to include this.

Ageed with PA.Why can't everyone put their location in profile.At least your State.It makes a BIG difference to the people replying what part of the country you are in.Big difference across the country from the types of hay grown to the weather.

JEEZE whats the big deal.Is everyone hiding from someone???


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

You may want to check with your local redimix concrete company and see if you can get "washout". It's what they get when they clean out their trucks between runs. I get the stuff with a little cement mixed in and have used it for driveways, parking areas, and the floors of my hay sheds. It's got a lot of fines and it's very cheap. If you get it "wet" you have to spread it pretty quick, and it sets up like concrete.


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## David in Georgia (Aug 30, 2009)

We put the black mil plastic down and then pallets with osb on top of the pallets. We have been doing it this way for the last 3 years and haven't had any mold or spoilage issues on the bottom layer or anywhere in the stack. I'd put the plastic down and get pallets, most places will give pallets away since they don't want to deal with them. Even if you have to buy pallets it's money well spent, around here we can buy good used pallets all day long for $3 each.


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## Dolphin (May 21, 2010)

What's osb?


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## rank (Apr 15, 2009)

We have 1 barn that is on low ground with a dirt floor. We have used pallets with good luck in that barn for over a decade. All the new barns we've built since then we built the floor up to the proper elevation, then put in sand, then 3" minus on top of that. That works good.

Dirt floor + low elevation = pallets.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Dolphin said:


> What's osb?


 oriented strand board. Cheap plywood basically.

Have always had good luck with pallets myself. I seriously think the way to go in our climate would be the pavement, and still use pallets. pavement should keep it dry enough to never rot the pallets out and yet you'll have plenty of circulation under the hay and cleanup would be super easy. Only thing that would be the determining factor, in my county if you laid asphalt down, I'm sure they would no longer consider my hoop buildings a temporary structure and therefor would be taxed. My County has the third highest property tax rate in the state.


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## ekinkade (Jan 22, 2010)

I am talking about trying to stack with my 1032 on to plastic. I have heard of one farmer laying strips down sideways than stacking on and tacking the excess plastic up on the bottom bales. To me it seems like the rain would come in between the hay and plastic.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I'm betting that the load rack and rolling rack would make a mess of the plastic. I'd try it on a few stacks to se how it works, but I would not have my hopes very high. Without a hydraulic rolling rack you're very limited with what you can do - the wagon weighs too much to go on top of pallets, unless you devise some sort of ramp system. I think I'd try that, on top of pallets, on top of plastic covered with loose hay. That method sounds like a lot of work..... Not sure if the hay is worth the effort? Best thing would be to pave it, or to have a good crushed stone base. I have heard of a lot of guys having good luck spraying their floor with proprionic acid, right before a stack is set on it..... I can tell you in a few months.

Rodney


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## Haymike56 (May 3, 2010)

OSB Is that stuff that looks like plywood but it is made of large wood chips. It is fine but if it gets wet forget it it will fall apart. It would wok for this application as long as you store it inside.


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## CantonHayGuy (Sep 25, 2008)

My barn has a gravel floor and it does stay damp quite a bit. Since my very first cutting a few years ago I've put the bales on pallets. The very first time it was only one layer of pallets and my bottom layer of bales still picked up moisture on the bottom sides. So the next year I went to two layers of pallets; the results were a little better, but I was still getting slight moisture on those bottom bales. Last year I put down 30# roofing paper, then the two layers of pallets; still had minor moisture issues, but then I didn't sell any of that hay until this spring. This year my first cutting was done in rounds but I decided to put plywood down on top of the dbl layer of pallets; I'm hoping this eliminates the moisture altogether.


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