# Help! Husband wants to store small squares in the kicker wagon



## Miraboo (May 27, 2017)

Hi, we have a large three sided hay shed where we stack and store 300 small square bales for two horses. My husband wants to buy two hay wagons, drive them into the shed and grab the bales out of them during the year. His plan is to stack the other 100 or so between the shed and barn.

Will this ruin the hay quality? It will definitely mess with the bale shape, right?, making them a mess to grab? He thinks this is the answer to our stacking problems. I think we should stack them but can't say why. Who is right? Thanks!


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

Tell him this.....
Happy wife= happy life


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## Miraboo (May 27, 2017)

Ha ha. If that worked, we'd be living in Seattle. He's Scandinavian stubborn and bought hay when we first moved here from a cow farmer who stored hsy in the wagons. So he thinks why not? I just feel like they'll dry unevenly, lose nutrients more rspidly but I might be worrying over nothing?


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

I wouldn't worry about degradation of anything stacked inside. The 100 that would be stacked outside is another matter. 
It wouldn't look right to me sitting in wagons, but that is me.


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## Miraboo (May 27, 2017)

Oh, to clarify, he only has room for two wagons, so we'd stack the rest either in the shed or in the horse barn, but all inside.

I guess I'm worried they won't cure, dry properly all jumbled together.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

Welcome to HayTalk.

The "headline" gave me a chuckle as it read "help husband wants to store small squares in the kic..." it wasn't 'til I clicked on it that I was able to read the rest of the title...kicker wagon. My mind already had painted a picture of a frazzled wife trying to talk her husband out of storing small squares in the KITCHEN.

I know...I know, there's a "t" in kitchen....but that's where my mind went.

Wish I could help you with your dilemma, but I can't. Best I can do is welcome you and thank you for the chuckle.

Mark

PS, being half-Scandinavian myself and having read and told my fair-share of Ole and Lena yokes, the "kitchen" thing is even funnier.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Why not stack them on the two wagons? Wouldn't you both end up happy? And that way you'd easily have space for all 300 on the wagons.

Anyway, I don't usually worry about hay left on wagons but you don't want to do it if you have wagons with solid floors or if the hay has borderline moisture when baled. The random nature of bales kicked into wagons won't affect curing much but there will be a few bales under the most pressure that may not cure completely properly if not baled dry enough. If you (I mean he) stacks them you'll eliminate that chance of a pinched bale being damaged and you'll gain the storage space.

Edit re: bale shape. 
Leaving bales loose instead of stacked has some negative result on bale shape but if the bales are well made it's negligible and as you're feeding them yourself that wouldn't be much of an issue. Now if they're 25 pound puff balls, they would be extremely negatively affected by long term storage in loose conditions.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

If you stack the two kicker wagons full you should have room for 400 to 500 bales on the 2 wagons.


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## Miraboo (May 27, 2017)

Thanks all! I already store hay and shavings in my kitchen, and everywhere else in the house, every time I walk back from thd barn!

Could you explain what you mean by 'solid floor'? The wagons have wood slats 
floors as I recall.

(We'd need to be on the wagon as it's baled to stack them on the kicker wagon, right? We don't do the baling.)


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Some kicker wagons I've seen have tongue and groove floors instead of slotted floors. I can't explain why anyone would do this now but older wagons may have had them that way to make them dual purpose for something like picking corn. If you're shopping for old ones (which I assumed you would be for a total of two loads per year) I wanted to point out that some floors are less conducive to drying.

Yes, someone would either have to ride the wagon or if operating the baler stop every 20 or so bales and stack. Seeing as someone else is doing the baling, that probably isn't happening.

What is your husband's goal? To avoid having to stack 300 bales in the shed?


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## Miraboo (May 27, 2017)

Got it, thanks.

Yup, that's his goal. Plus, he has a really busy work schedule this summer and will be away a lot, so was thinking he'd pull them in and forget about it.

This has been really helpful. We'll keep thinking about it.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

I don't know what it might end up costing you for two wagons but if it's a labor issue, why not just pay someone to stack them in the shed? That won't cost much provided you can find someone.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Why not ask the cow farmer, who stores bales In wagons, all these questions? I doubt that the bales will lose nutrients when stored on wagons. The bales definitely will bleach differently depending on whether parts of a bale is touching another bale or not. As far as the bales becoming mis-shaped while sitting in the wagons, it's my opinion that the horses won't care about the bale shape. If the bales are wire tied, this wouldn't be as much of a problem as if twine tied and more loose. Where I see the biggest problem is the person who has to feed the horses has to climb into the wagon each time a new bale is needed. That may get old rather quickly and should be the deciding factor in this "discussion."


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

vhaby said:


> Where I see the biggest problem is the person who has to feed the horses has to climb into the wagon each time a new bale is needed. That may get old rather quickly and should be the deciding factor in this "discussion."


If the person doing the feeding has any common sense and/or and aversion to climbing into the wagon, he or she will throw five or ten off each time he climbs onto the wagon.


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## muffntuf (May 1, 2017)

TO me there is no issue if they are on a wagon or on the ground. On the wagon - no moisture coming up into the bottom bales.

As long as they are dry, and can get air - on the wagons is no biggie. We always pulled our hay wagons in if we were waiting for rain to roll through. One or two always got left at the end of the year in the hay shed. We just used those up first.


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## Miraboo (May 27, 2017)

We did manage to find two young guys to stack last summer so it is just a matter of finding somebody. I called the local 4H last summer but that bright idea didn't pan out.

I didn't ask the cow guy how his herd did on the hay because even if they thrived, horse nutrition and hay quality issues are pretty different. I tried a million google searches and I didn't find a single post suggesting you should leave hay bales on the wagon. I figured it'd be out there if horse owners were doing this. I did get a lot of reassurance that we're stacking correctly.

With twine, I WAS leery of burst bales and that hot mess. And although I do the feeding, my dear husband will be the wagon climber. I feel like you all gave us a better handle on the likely results of wagon storage. If it buys us some time to get the stacking done when it works for my husband or we can kidnap somebody to help, I feel better about it. Thanks again.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

I would say that the most important part is keeping the moisture out of the hay. I am feeding some hay to my cows that was never covered all winter; none of the bales are very good, and I would not feed it to horses. I am surprised by the number of farmers around that don't cover their hay; of course those hay tarps are not cheap and they only last about two years.


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## Wcbr1025 (May 1, 2015)

Miraboo said:


> We did manage to find two young guys to stack last summer so it is just a matter of finding somebody. I called the local 4H last summer but that bright idea didn't pan out.
> I didn't ask the cow guy how his herd did on the hay because even if they thrived, horse nutrition and hay quality issues are pretty different. I tried a million google searches and I didn't find a single post suggesting you should leave hay bales on the wagon. I figured it'd be out there if horse owners were doing this. I did get a lot of reassurance that we're stacking correctly.
> With twine, I WAS leery of burst bales and that hot mess. And although I do the feeding, my dear husband will be the wagon climber. I feel like you all gave us a better handle on the likely results of wagon storage. If it buys us some time to get the stacking done when it works for my husband or we can kidnap somebody to help, I feel better about it. Thanks again.


If it is good hay when it was put in the wagons and it doesn't get wet the horses will never be able to tell where it was stored or how it was stacked.


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## Cmm (Jun 5, 2016)

As long as hay is 16-18% or less y'all are good to go
The bales uniformity and quality would not be effected

I leave hay stacked on trailers every time i cut
But my trailers have wood board slats

I simply won't lay down more hay than I can trailer

1200 bales

We very rarely unload as we leave on trailer in a barn til delivery date

If you had 2 20ft equipment trailers (hold 300ez)you could pick up Park in barn and feed

I buy these trailers used for 1500 approx ,nice and used w decent tires and they last for ever

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

equipment trailers are very easy to re sale as most hay trailers are hard to move here

Also you never know when you need to move a piece of equipment

Take a load of trash
Help move a family member
Pick up a broke down car

You never know

Mine are much nicer than this one but just an example of what I find to move hay

https://knoxville.craigslist.org/tro/6144109838.html


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Cmm said:


> As long as hay is 16-18% or less y'all are good to go
> The bales uniformity and quality would not be effected
> 
> I leave hay stacked on trailers every time i cut
> ...


Except you can't hitch the equipment trailer behind a baler with a thrower.


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## Cmm (Jun 5, 2016)

Good pt

Missed that

I forget people deal w those

I am pretty sure dealing w hay in a basket would lead me to getting out

I'm pretty OCD and not into dealing w it again after we leave the field


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

We regularly leave the last four loads on the kicker wagons over winter with no real problems. I do leave a small layer of loose hay on the wagon floors so the bales aren't touching the wood or metal, more out of habit then anything else (I do the same in the hay mow).

The bales will lose some shape, and they are a pain to unload. Also you may get racoons living in the wagons.


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## MrLuggs (Dec 14, 2015)

I left two kicker wagons loaded for a couple of months after my daughter was born and I didn't have time to unload it, and they were fine - a little bent out of shape, but no problems with spoilage. If you're doing it, I'd advocate making them as tight as you can, as spongy bales will just smush together.


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## weatherman (Dec 5, 2008)

I used bale baskets years ago. If hay was left in baskets over night bales a lot of bales become mis-formed. To keep my hay wagons from winter weather I would stack 150 bales/wagon. Not only this would keep the wagons out of the weather but it provided opportunity to transport the wagon to the horse barns as needed. Job is not done until hay is stored right (whatever you perceive that to be). ????????


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## Miraboo (May 27, 2017)

You guys are the best! Thanks so much for your help.


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