Need Ideas...

Super-H-Mike · Oct 7, 2014

I have access to an old gambrel roof barn that I would like to use for extra hay storage. The problem is it has old hay in the loft now which has been there maybe 25 years. It is mostly chaff with very few complete bales still left intact, and it is packed down kinda tight by now and dusty. It does have a den on one end which I can pull a wagon or manure spreader into and throw the old hay down into to haul away and burn or let rot. I am looking for ideas on how to mechanize this operation as it will be very difficult and slow by hand with forks and such. Any ideas ?

jon f mn · Oct 7, 2014

Go rent one of those small stand behind track type skid loaders. They fit through most barn doors. They wouldn't hurt or over load the floor. Make sure you get a fork, grapple fork if posible.

Super-H-Mike · Oct 7, 2014

I was thinking along that line also, but I am not coming up with how to get it into the loft, 10 feet up. I do not have a forklift, but do have a skidsteer and tractor with loader. Doesnt seem to be an area to set up ramps either.

gtractorfan · Oct 7, 2014

When I was just out of high school I worked at a large grain elevator. To clean out the cement grain silos they had a winch system that pulled a board that with handles for an operator. Maybe you could use something like that with a rope and small tractor.

WI Dan · Oct 7, 2014

My parents have the same issue with their barn - piles of old hay, fallen over haymows, etc.
Their solution: tear down the barn.

A word of caution - wear a mask or respirator when handling that material.

WI Dan · Oct 7, 2014

A friend had some pitchforks with the tines bent a 90 degrees to the handle. They worked well for dragging bedding across the loft and letting it fall down through the trapdoor hole in the floor.

I wonder if you had a couple of those, bungie-corded to a 2x4, then run a chain from the 2x4 out to your tractor. One person upstairs lifts, carries the forks to the pile, drop them into the load. Other person drives the tractor away, pulling a mound across the floor to the door.
Like a field drag or spring-tooth harrow.

Super-H-Mike · Oct 7, 2014

Kinda like a false front on a wagon, that might work !

notjustair · Oct 7, 2014

Get something up there like a piece of telephone pole or railroad track. Tie a chain on both ends and make a drag out of it. Raise the loader on your tractor up to the mow door and hook the chains to the bucket. The chains will pull straight so they will pull easier. Back the tractor up and drag it all toward the door. You will still have to fork it out the door but at least it will be very close. Kind of like the board someone mentioned or the false front on a wagon. This way you don't have to get a machine into the loft.

Mike M · Oct 7, 2014

What part of the country are you from ? Got any Amish you can give the hay to and maybe work out a deal ? Any illegals in the area that will work for a few pesos ?

Ken Macfarlane · Oct 7, 2014

We have a barn like that. We remove a bit per year. It takes a lot of work to get the hay that was loose hay out as it is so long and layered. We have cleared out 40 ft wide by 14 ft high by nearly 30 ft wide in 10 years. Its slow because we have to store our baled hay on top several months per year.

The first batch was taken out by hired help pitching out the door into a manure spreader. As we got further from the door its gotten slower. Last year we loaded tarps and pulled them to the door down the stack.

Next year going to remove a section of siding on side farthest from the door and send it outside.

Contemplated building a box with a hopper and a furnace fan on the end with a yellow construction hose to blow it outside but haven't made it that far yet. Did that years ago to blow sawdust out of somewhere.

Heat Houser · Oct 7, 2014

Got any cows? They will eat the old chaff and hay. Mine did anyway.

JMS/.MN · Oct 7, 2014

Does the hay barn have a hay rope system? Might lift a small garden tractor with loader. Make sure it has a good exhaust system with spark arrestor! Your tractor loader might raise high enough to put it in, as well.

steve_in_mo · Oct 7, 2014

Two possibilities. First one is to rent or buy a conveyor to move stuff from wherever it is to the bay with the wagon. The second is a garden tractor with a front blade; hoist it up there with a winch or forklift.

Roger in Iowa · Oct 7, 2014

Can you use a hay knife to cut off chunks instead of trying to pull apart? Would also minimize the dust too.

Geo-TH,In · Oct 7, 2014

Grain elevators go BOOM because of dust. I would be worried that any gas engine may cause a fire or a spark from exhaust cause hay dust to go BOOM.

I remember just how dusty our loft was, wouldn't want the job of cleaning it out. Definitely would invest in a respirator.

mazemeister · Oct 7, 2014

get a bale chopper up in the mow with a long discharge tube to get outside. and a respirator.
it will work even quicker with loose hay forked into the hopper than it would with bales.

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wisbaker · Oct 7, 2014

Could use a drag (like a piece of cyclone fence) layed out flat, shovel or fork the hay onto it the pull the drag with a tractor to the side to dump into a wagon or spreader. Or possibly use a blower you put the chaff in and it blows it our to a waiting wagon.

Super-H-Mike · Oct 7, 2014

It still has the track and pulleys but no rope, I am thinking a rope would be very expensive , would need about 400 feet worth I estimate.

Super-H-Mike · Oct 7, 2014

I do have a hay knife and I did try that. It wasnt working well for me because although the old hay is packed down, it doesnt seem to be packed tightly enough for the hay knife to saw it.

Super-H-Mike · Oct 7, 2014

Minnesota. No Amish around that I am aware of !

Brown Swiss · Oct 7, 2014

put an ad up, free chaff, might get the Amish to come and clean it up!

SW3 · Oct 7, 2014

So, being from Minnesota (me too) you would have access to a walk behind - self propelled - snow blower. Now my first thought would be to try run the straw right through the snow blower....just for fun. That probably would clog up. So next I would mount a piece of wood on the front as a pusher, maybe maker some small sides like a snowplow has, and start pushing. Once you got a central path started I think it might work. Good Luck!

2510Paul · Oct 7, 2014

Now days they have those suction machines they hook to a tractor pto and pull grain out of grain bens and drop it into a truck. Is the hay loose enough that one of those might work? Just a thought. Paul

ih_bug · Oct 7, 2014

what I done on one mow was tied a baler twine to my little dog and she ran around the mow under the beams where the coons had a tunnel. I then tied a rope to the twine and pulled it through. then tied a 1/2 inch cable to the rope pulled it through. then hooked the cable to a winch and pulled over half the mow outside where the cows cleaned it up . what was left was loosened up and much easier to fork out.

JMS/.MN · Oct 8, 2014

GOATS!- they eat anything.

hrRoss · Oct 8, 2014

after i got rid of the cows, i made a point to clean out the mow of the 3-4 ft of chaff, mixed in the mixer for the heifers i kept, took about a year, at 6 large forksfull a day. my other barn on the other farm had hay in mow for20+ years. we pitched it outside into the hay baler, sold to landscapper for seeding alongside a highway, atleast i got paid a $1 a bale. wasnt fun tho, it was hot, windy and dusty, but got done. job i dont wanna do again

Roger in Iowa · Oct 8, 2014

Try sharpening the knife.

Have someone stand on the hay with feet apart and cut between (this will draw some comments). Holding the hay down may help, just and idea.

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