Unstacked Hay

Bill VA · Nov 5, 2020

Probably not a good question - but here I go...

Anyone NOT stack their square bales of hay? For example, conveyered up into the loft of an old bank barn and dropped in from the top.

As my kids get older and older and along with that become less available for haying, labor handling squares is a potential issue going forward.

The thought has crossed my mind to set a conveyor, unload bales into my barn unstacked and just leave them. I get it some bale shape will suffer, but thinking out loud here.

Not interested in a payroll, accumulator/grapple system, a bale wagon or round bales.

Anyone NOT stack their square bales in their barn?

Just curious.

Thanks!
Bill

SVcummins · Nov 5, 2020

That use to be the thing John Deere had an elevator that would dump piles of bales every so far across the loft

Farmer Rock · Nov 5, 2020

Well,lets start with how much room you have in the barn at the end of haying season.If your barn is half full at the end of the season when it's neatly stacked,then you would probably get by,but it will take up way more room,and more importantly,what will happen,when you have to get the hay out?You will remove 1 bale,and then the rest of them will fall down on you.Think of what it's like unloading a loaded kicker wagon,when everthing is packed so tight,and then when you finally move a bale,you get hit in the head with 10 others.Now picture that but 50x as much.

Rock

730virgil · Nov 5, 2020

i have not stacked hay for several years , will have some crooked bales a few break, the cows don't care why should i?
walking on bales is not easy on knees, both of them have been replaced.

WellWorn · Nov 5, 2020

If space isn't an issue and labor is, just let them drop. As a kid we'd always let the last load drop, unstacked. As long as there is room in the mow, I still let as many bales as will fit just drop from the last load in. I'm too old to be concerned with making the mow pretty. I'm the only one who sees it, who has to unload it, and the critters don't care.

jon f mn · Nov 5, 2020

That's how we did it in our barn my entire life. Some will break and get deformed and taking them out will be a lot harder. They do get tangled up.

showcrop · Nov 5, 2020

My customers stack them on their trailers and trucks and in their barns.

BarnyardEngineering · Nov 5, 2020

Until I was about 18 years old, we only stacked hay around the chutes and across openings to contain the piles. The rest we let fall in a pile. We stacked for a few years, but after we all graduated college, the lack of help forced Dad back into letting it fall on a pile again.

Now just because you don't stack the hay doesn't mean you don't get up there and level the pile off so you can fill the mow. After a few loads someone has to go up there and throw hay around, the difference being one person can stand in one place and throw the hay, versus having to drag bales across the top of a stack to stack them neatly. One person can easily handle mow duties vs. having to have 2-3 up there to stack them neatly.

We always got just as many bales in the mow dumped in there randomly as stacking neatly.

The pile only falls on you if you're stupid and let it. You just need to recognize when the hay is coming and get out of the way, or climb up there and knock them down before they can fall down on you. It was our job as kids to climb the pile and knock bales off the top.

You can also dig straight into the side of a random pile where you have to pull the bales off a neat stack one layer at a time. Digging into the side of a neat stack makes it much harder to restack the next year because the old bales are compressed and the new ones aren't, so the layers don't match up.

SHALER · Nov 5, 2020

Well Bill, wonder if there is a way you can test run this theory on a wagonload of bales. As most here have already pointed out, some bales will be beat up and a cow does not care what the bale looks like. BUT, of course you sell all your hay so customers DO care what it looks like. You will need to somehow see how your 348 bales withstand a simple pile-up and how they will look to your customers. Brilliant insight im sure.....

SHALER · Nov 5, 2020

additionally, I am a one man band now like you may be in the future, and in my set up, I can unload a wagon with my skeleton bale elevator and leave it unstacked in order to free up a wagon. However, I get to it later and it never stays unstacked for more than 2 or 3 days.

Bruce from Can. · Nov 5, 2020

We put in 7-800 bales and always stacked them like bricks. We had a mow dryer and wanted the air to pass evenly through all of the hay. I absolutely hated trying to work with a tumble mow. And bales can fall against the side walls and the weight of the hay pushing on the barn walls will pop boards off. Seemed to me the tumble mow system was only employed by old guys that only had a 1000-1500 bales, and were way past giving a darn if boards fell of the the barn anyway.

Ken Macfarlane · Nov 5, 2020

I do this when working alone. Get 600 bales in the barn before they all piled up, my cross conveyor and kickoff aren't working at the moment.

ford1956tractor · Nov 5, 2020

I help to fill 3 barn lofts with unstacked bales until 1982. All of the barns had hay forks with rope and pully systems. We put up about 15,000 bales annually. Dad said we could dig the twisted bales out in the winter when we didn't have anything else to do :}
Hay avalanches were common when getting started on the sides where feed ways were.

flying belgian · Nov 5, 2020

We had room for about 4 loads to fall off the end of the elevator so at end of season we always left the last 4 loads unstacked.

JayinNY · Nov 5, 2020

His 348 will be fine, a NH baler, id worry! My father in law or ex fil used a jd 336, ran the bales up the elevator went around the turn onto an elevator suspended from the ridge of the barn, i think there were three different places to knock the bale off, fill the back first and keep moving forward.

1370pwr in ne · Nov 5, 2020

I really did'nt know this was an option!

Traditional Farmer · Nov 5, 2020

We used to do it in a couple barns with the small round bales made with an Allis Chalmers Roto Baler worked good,tried it with square bales not so good.

Hockeygoon · Nov 5, 2020

Your bales will be in horrible condition when you move them. Expect broken strings and bales you can't stack on the back of a pickup.

Northvale PA · Nov 5, 2020

I agree that you don’t want to sell mis-shapened bales. Even if you send them up the elevator into a pile, try to stack them over the next several days.

paul · Nov 5, 2020

I stack 3 or 4 high, and then dump the rest in through a hole in the wall with a bale elevator, just like you say. Probably dump 600+ in with the elevator and leave them piled.

A very few bales are a little twisted, but I’ve sold most at a hay auction and the bales flatten out fine, 95% anyhow.

Paul

Tony in SD · Nov 5, 2020

We use to do that. Guess Dad figured we had more time in the winter to dig them out than to stack them in the summer. They will be fine for feed to drop down a manger. But probably not to sell as some bales will be mis shaped.

mtny · Nov 5, 2020

I was usually a one man show . Had a setup I could drop 6-700 in without stopping . I'd go in and stack the next day or whenever had time . The last year I did it a couple neighbor kids would come in and stack when they had a chance . Worked out good . I did run a new Holland bale wagon .

sammydwm · Nov 6, 2020

When I was a boy, our neighbor put it up like that .

MoMike · Nov 6, 2020

When I was in PA, dirt was new then,
the biggest issue with doing that was
raccoons seemed to love the hidey holes. Don't know if that maybe an iss
issue for you in your area.

JK-NY · Nov 6, 2020

When I was a kid I worked for a neighbor and we put in 20,000 or more square bales a year, stacking only around the places where you climbed up into the hay mow and threw the hay down. The barns had mow elevators across the length of them and Occasionally you would have to go up and throw hay back away from the elevator. It was fine for hay that is fed on site but not so good for selling hay . You end up with a lot of misshaped bales that are hard to stack , especially if they are a little bit loose. When I started farming for myself I rented one of those barns for a few years and I tried to stack most of the bales as I was selling the hay. Sometimes I would let a little go unstacked if it was on top and I was nearly done. Now in my pole barn I always stack all of it. If you want a sample of what the unstacked hay is like, bale a full load of hay on one of your wagons and leave it unloaded for a couple months. I am assuming you can get the loaded wagon under cover of course. I would add that stacked hay cures out better than piled hay. so if you bale hay on the heavy side that may affect your quality.

Bill(Wis) · Nov 6, 2020

Hayrite elevators were designed to drop the bales along the same path as the old loose hay grapple fork systems. Hung right under the barn ridgeline. They Still have a website. Roth systems.

Bill VA · Nov 7, 2020

Thanks for the replies everyone - much appreciated!

fixerupper · Nov 7, 2020

It will work if you plan to feed straight out of the mow. Just keep a four tine loose hay type pitch fork in the haymow to handle the broken bales and all will be fine. You can carry about a half bale with a fork like that.

Unstacked Hay

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