Did you know that according to research conducted by UGA, you can lose up to sixty percent of your hay by storing it uncovered outside? While choosing a site for your hay barns can be a challenge, these four main components can assist in making your decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first component is drainage. One of the biggest quality killers in hay is moisture and water. Choosing a location in a hole or lower area can result in damage to your barn, hay loss, and expensive drainage work. Build your barn with a flooring system above ground level, ideally six to eight inches. The ground around the barn should also have at least a two percent slope away from the walls of your structure. If runoff proves to be a problem following the construction of your barn, adding gutters or ditches may help remove water from the area. In addition to the drainage from the barn, you should have a well-drained area for loading and unloading in order to protect your vehicles and equipment from significant mud damage and ruts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next component of siting your hay\nbarn should be accessibility. Conveniently placing your barn to road access\nalong with adequate space to load and unload hay is important. Planning to have\nan area of at least 75 ft. x 125 ft. for vehicle maneuvering will allow\nsufficient space for unloading hay. If your hay barn is on the same farm as\nyour livestock, a more centralized location would reduce equipment costs and\nstorage needs, however; one centralized location could result in a potential\ntotal loss in the event of a fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third component of choosing a site\nfor your barn is expansion as spacing is often a compromise between safety and\npracticality. Allowing adequate space for future expansion could reduce the\nchance of fire damage and would allow assistance in preventing fire spread from\none barn to the next should the situation arise while also allowing for plenty\nof space for storage in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A fourth consideration when siting your\nbarn would include air movement. Your barn will need proper ventilation to\nreduce moisture and to increase air exchange. The ideal orientation for air\nmovement would include the sidewall being perpendicular to the main wind\ndirection in the area. For enclosed barns, eave openings and capped ridge vents\nare critical for ventilation. Proper airflow will not only reduce fire risk and\nremove moisture but can also reduce the chance of damage from severe weather\nevents like hurricanes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While a hay barn can be costly to build,\nstoring hay under a well-planned out barn can result in up to a $4,264 net\nannual savings according to research conducted by the UGA Extension\nAgricultural Economics team. In addition to the savings from utilizing a hay\nbarn, you will keep better overall forage quality for your livestock and hay\nproducers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did you know that according to research conducted by UGA, you can lose up to sixty percent of your hay by storing it uncovered outside? While choosing a site for your hay barns can be a challenge, these four main components can assist in making your decisions. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,115],"tags":[22,116],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hay","category-hay-storage","tag-hay","tag-hay-storage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}