Hay supply, how much extra do you keep?

[Herefordcross]

How much hay do you keep in stock, one winter two winters or more? We have two years barely. We are feeding a little now and in a month it will be full bore hay feeding time. I have tried to take the advice of our friends down in TX/OK area by getting a reserve built up.We can only store one years supply inside! Question is when do you use what you have stored inside to put more hay in there. No matter how you look at it you almost have to have hay sitting outside for at least nine months from harvest to the point you get the barn emptied to put the "new" hay inside so what are your thoughts on this?

 

[LibertyIIE]

We keep a years worth inside and a years worth outside. We don't rotate. Just keep the hay inside dry and out of the weather and it will keep for years. This past winter we had to go into our inside storage for the first time in 9 years. The hay looked good and the cattle did good.

 

[Herefordcross]

NINE YEARS? and it was still good? Humidity must not be a problem for you. Here we have a fair amount of humidity and we even run ceiling fans in the barn and one whole side is open to the air gable vents and ridge vent. And it starts to go down after just a couple of years.

 

[Rocket1121]

We keep 2 years worth Inside and out. Still have some sudan round bales from 3 years ago with around 200 alfalfa small squares in the barn that has been there for at least 10 years. Our hay barn has 2 spinning vents on top and double sliding doors on the south and thats it.
We try to feed whats outside first due to direct contact with the weather. Every now and then I will get a small square bale of alfalfa and give a flake or 2 with the prarie hay to some weaning calves. It is brown on the outside but the inside still looks good just not bright green like fresh. I was told also that if it never directly gets wet it will keep for along time.
I would rather have more than enough just for peace of mind. Who knows what Mother Nature will throw at you next in Oklahoma.

 

[hapifestivus]

how many animals are you feeding in order to have a years supply of hay stored inside?

 

[Herefordcross]

On a 30' wide building I figure I can get roughly 1.5 tons per building foot in length at 14' high. This is squares and rounds mixed. I would love to be able to put two years inside but, buildings aren't getting any cheaper. That's for sure

 

[LibertyIIE]

Humidity is terrible here 125 miles inland from the gulf coast. We do not have vents on the barn and the hay does not suffer. A&M which is just 20 miles from me did a study on some hay that was stored for 30 years and found only minor differences in the before and after analysis. Thats when I quite rotating my stored hay.

 

[Herefordcross]

That is absolutely amazing. They always taught me two to three years was the max, I guess they were wrong huh?

 

[Wewild]

We try to keep 15% more than we think we'll need.

We cant get more than 400 round 5x4 inside. So alot still is outside.

We always try to feed the inside in in a manner that it never see's it's third winter. We always feed the outside first.

 

[C & C Land & Catt]

At least 50% over what I would need for a hard winter.

 

[stocky]

How much over the amount needed for a hard winter I keep depends on the price. I normally feed 1200-1500 large round bales at normal prices. If hay is higher, I buy less cows, if it is cheaper, I buy more cows. I will buy all the hay I can in March that is net wrapped when hay is cheap. It keeps until the next year and most years I can buy it for 10 dollars or less per bale. This year is different, hay is scarce, I have 700 large round bales and that will feed my permanent cows and I will not cows to have to feed more than that unless hay gets cheaper. I will wait and hope for a better hay year next year.