canoetrpr
Well-known member
We had a hay delivery today of 42 round 4x5s. We are going through about 60 per year. It is much cheaper for us to purchase from a supplier who is a couple of hours away so we must buy 42 at a time.
Unfortunately we don't have a building to store it in so we line item up in rows with the bale ends packed tightly and space between the rows of hay. I've only got 20 pallets so the other 20 are currently sitting on the snow covered gravel drive.
My wife and me got to thinking what the payback period would be for a basic hay shelter. I don't currently have an idea of how much hay I am losing to outside storage. I suspect that most of the losses are occurring when a thaw starts happening. I'm spending about $3k on hay per year. I'm wondering whether it can actually be worthwhile to spend the money on a very basic building (coverall type tarp covered building or pole barn with a roof but open on all sides). I plan to collect more pallets to keep as many bales as I can off the ground. That said the 20 or so that are not on pallets will be fed first and I expect will be gone before a thaw hits.
Just wondering if anyone has done much thinking about this. I am not quite sure what a basic hay storage building costs but I am looking at a local small farm magazine that lists a 30x60 hay storage structure with steel arches for $5k. I imagine once all done (grading, installation, etc.) one would be looking at $10k at least.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Unfortunately we don't have a building to store it in so we line item up in rows with the bale ends packed tightly and space between the rows of hay. I've only got 20 pallets so the other 20 are currently sitting on the snow covered gravel drive.
My wife and me got to thinking what the payback period would be for a basic hay shelter. I don't currently have an idea of how much hay I am losing to outside storage. I suspect that most of the losses are occurring when a thaw starts happening. I'm spending about $3k on hay per year. I'm wondering whether it can actually be worthwhile to spend the money on a very basic building (coverall type tarp covered building or pole barn with a roof but open on all sides). I plan to collect more pallets to keep as many bales as I can off the ground. That said the 20 or so that are not on pallets will be fed first and I expect will be gone before a thaw hits.
Just wondering if anyone has done much thinking about this. I am not quite sure what a basic hay storage building costs but I am looking at a local small farm magazine that lists a 30x60 hay storage structure with steel arches for $5k. I imagine once all done (grading, installation, etc.) one would be looking at $10k at least.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.