# questions on storing hay



## BryanM (Sep 20, 2009)

I am somewhat new at growing hay. I am located in NW ohio, I grow an orchard/alfalfa mix, when I store it in my pole barn my hay turns a brown not dark brown but a tan. I think its sun bleached! My barn has a clear ridge windows.

Do you usually store your hay in dark barns or tarp them, although I see lots of hay barns with no sides on them. now I am wondering if it might be carmelizing? If I break a small bale open should it be green on inside if its sun bleached?

I am in need of more storage does anybody store their hay in tempoary car ports or farm tek barns.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

If it's just turning colors on the outside, it's bleaching, if it changed colors thru the whole bale, it carmelized. Carmelizing happens when the hay is still a little too wet to bale. 16-18% for small squares, it can be baled a little wetter than that if a preservative is used.

I have four Farmtek hoop buildings. Three for storing hay and one for equipment. For the most part the hoop buildings are less trouble than our pole barns. But our newest pole barn is over 25 years old. Have a few posts to replace in that one already and all the pole barns used nails instead of screws in the sheetmetal so even on the newer one once a year we are up on the roof either pounding nails in or yanking them out and replacing with roofing screws.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

I store hay under a pole barn and a lean-to shed. In general, I think it best to store hay with minimal exposure to sunlight but most importantly, you've got to control the moisture - which means good air circulation. Especially true here in GA, with our high humidity, it is important to have air circulation around the hay or we will experience problems with mold/mildew.

In general, for small squares, I have observed the following:
1. If hay contacts concrete, it will wick moisture and mildew. I have a concrete block foundation knee wall and I have found that I need to leave a few inches air gap between the hay and the concrete wall.
2. The pole barn has a gravel floor. I put heavy plastic down and then stack the hay on wooden pallets on top of the plastic. This prevents moisture from evaporating up from the ground and into the hay.
3. Hay against wood is okay. However, hay against a tin/sheet metal wall will absorb any condensation formed on the metal and may mildew.
4. One year, I had more hay than storage and had to stack outside. I had concerns that my tarps would leak so I covered the hay with heavy plastic and then put the tarps on top of that where I could tie them down. The plastic trapped condensation which wicked onto the hay. I probably would have been okay if I had somehow formed an air gap between the hay and the plastic.


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## covenanthay (Oct 2, 2009)

I store hay in open front (to the south) pole barns. I have pallets that I place on the bale wagon with a layer of plastic. No moisture problems at all. The bleaching from the sun is very shallow and does not effect saleability.


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## Montana Red (Jul 24, 2011)

Id say the outside is sun bleached, we stack all of our hay outside and the outside inch is always a lite tan color but the rest is always as green as the day we put it up. O


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