How to store hay
In simple terms, off the floor, out of the weather and in the dark. Keeping hay dry and away from sunlight will keep hay fresh for a long time. I’ll use Boridgeree as an example of how we store hay to deliver premium hay throughout the year.
Quality Hay Sheds
For our premium small bales we have two 32x21m fully enclosed sheds with sliding doors and concrete floors. The roof is insulated to prevent any condensation and keep the sheds cool during Summer. Between the hay and concrete, we spread straw which will absorb any moisture that comes from the concrete (yes, it happens). The sheds are weatherproof and dark which means the hay we deliver in September is as close to the fresh hay we baled the previous Summer. Good gutters and drainage around the shed yard are important for those heavy rain events.
If you haven’t got concrete floors, store you hay on pallets or on builders plastic with on a floor that doesn’t flood during heavy rain.
Making and monitoring hay
When making hay we use our self-propelled mower conditioner, tedder rake and rotary rakes as required to condition, dry down and cure the hay. When we are baling hay, we ensure our hay is under 16% moisture using Gazeeka moisture monitors on our balers and handheld moisture probes.
Once hay is stored in our shed, we take regular readings of temperature and moisture during the first week, then weekly for the first month. We do this with manual probes and IoT sensors in the roof of the sheds. This ensures we can identify if the hay is increasing in temperature and poses a risk. If you don’t have this stuff, you can drive a crowbar into the bales and leave it for two hours. If it’s too hot to handle when you pull it out, you have a problem! Pull the hay out of the shed immediately and spread it out.
In some instances, our clients have limited hay storage so we offer them the HayBox. Ideal for metropolitan racehorse trainers, the HayBox is a portable, weatherproof hay storage solution which can be scaled up or down depending on how much hay you need.
Click here for more information on HayBoxes.
