Research -- Haystacks

[alfreda89]

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/07/30/territory/ter10.txt

Bill McIntosh uses a pitchfork to level the last few loads of hay on one of his stacks last week on the family ranch near Avon. “A loose haystack can sit here for 10 years and the quality of the hay will be the same, but you get any moisture in the baled hay and it will rot,” says McIntosh.

Not the best newspaper grammar, but worth visiting. I've also heard that there are ways of layering hay so rodents don't get into the stack. And a platform under the stack is even better.

Comments

[incandragon.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'd heard a farmer say just the opposite. He liked rolled hay bales, because less hay touched the ground. He lost more hay to a hay "pile" because so much more was spread to the ground to rot.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Maybe what the soil type and annual rainfall are makes a difference?

I do remember something in a reference book about having a platform or such for the haystack, but not sure on it.