Hay shed on the cheap.

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Biggkidd

Biggkidd

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I spent around $150 on this so far tell me what you think. The roof is 16x30 those are 4x6 hay bales and my 35hp 4x4 tractor under there for size comparison. I can get 9 of those bales on the one side.

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Spikedriver said:
For 150, it'll do nicely. I assume, as funds and/or materials become available, that you'll put a back wall on it and maybe side walls?
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Yes in a way. What I'm hoping to do is get a sawmill built and cut my own lumber for it.
 
Spikedriver said:
Hay can do well on pallets or something like that for the time being.
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Yeah it's on plastic pallets now but I don't have anymore of the plastic ones. So the rest of it will have to go on wooden pallets. Did you notice the way I set the posts so each row of bales hits on a post? I've got 5 more bales to pickup this coming week and then that side will be full.
 
Good job on the shed… thought I should mention pallets. I use to stack about 150 rolls of hay in the open on pallets each year. Large numbers of pallets can be hard to come by. I always had an eye out for more. I scored most of mine at buildings that had a lot of truck traffic, like grocery stores and wood product companies.

I even called up a food supplier in Birmingham and found out where they were delivering in my area. Once I talked to truckers at the truck stop by the interstate. They had more than a few ideas where to find pallets.

My best supply was in small numbers but monthly. Most were hard plastic pallets from a guy who delivered for a big printing company. They printed up dozens of different items like local sale papers for dozens of small town newspapers. They shipped all these on industrial grade plastic pallets, some even had a soft rubber surface. I still keep one in the bed of my old truck.

See the orange pallet this calf is standing on? It’s about 20yrs old and still solid enough to carry an 800lb roll of hay. Most are black, some orange. They are worth their weight in gold. Over a couple years I collected about 30 of them, still have every single one.

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I would look into old garage door panels to use as walls to close in to protect your hay. We use them to make barns for animal shelters. Can get them for $25 dollars a panel. Not sure what kind of animals you are trying to feed. Right now, our hay gets stored on a couple old telephone poles and get tarped. We use it for both the cows and goats. Cows are not a problem, but with goats, you have to keep it out of the weather or it will kill them.
 
Just another thought, the railroads tried out some plastic railroad ties a few years ago, which for whatever reason didn't work out and went back to wooden. When that happened we got a bunch for free that we used when we made our pig pen. Those would be great to put hay on. Not sure if they would still be available or not though.
 
Dani said:
Just another thought, the railroads tried out some plastic railroad ties a few years ago, which for whatever reason didn't work out and went back to wooden. When that happened we got a bunch for free that we used when we made our pig pen. Those would be great to put hay on. Not sure if they would still be available or not though.
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Gah! gaah Composite railroad ties!!!

They're made for wet climates. In wet climates the tracks tend to get mud in them. Mud is the mortal enemy of the railroad. Not only does it cause wood ties to rot, it causes "mud holes" which cause the tracks to bounce up and down underneath the weight of the train. This flexing causes concrete ties to shatter.

Of course the solution is Composite, or plastic, ties. Ever try putting a spike into a composite tie? Good luck. Bring some drill bits, because you're going to make a pilot hole for every spike. Drill bits wear out quickly in dense plastic. You'll use a bunch. The spiking machines won't hold up to the pounding of putting the spikes into the plastic. More down time for equipment, yay!

Yeah, we don't use them much. They're just too much hassle. But you're right, they'd probably make a good base to stack hay on. Or anything else you need to get up off the ground, really...
 
Dani said:
I would look into old garage door panels to use as walls to close in to protect your hay. We use them to make barns for animal shelters. Can get them for $25 dollars a panel. Not sure what kind of animals you are trying to feed. Right now, our hay gets stored on a couple old telephone poles and get tarped. We use it for both the cows and goats. Cows are not a problem, but with goats, you have to keep it out of the weather or it will kill them.
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Feeding cows, goats, pigs plus turkeys and chickens use some for bedding. I have some roll up door panels with the rollers & springs and hope to use them as doors one day. lol
 
I had an old hay shed on this property when we bought it. It was about 36×48 with a gable roof. I gave it to a young rancher down the road in exchange for labor drilling holes in rock for fence posts. It took him about a week to take it down and haul it off to his ranch. I store about 40 ton of hay in our new barn and about 60 ton outside covered with a tarp. When I built the new barn I put in a wooden floor. I used 2×8 fir/larch screwed down to pressure treated 4×6's at 18" on center. I put the 4×6's on 18×18 inch concrete pads by 6" thick and 24" on center. I wired it for lights, plus I built some stalls and a loft. I've got about $65k in to this barn so far.
I like the price of Biggkids better. It'll do the job that it was designed for. Putting sides up and a floor will be a bug improvement too.
 
Mountain trapper said:
I had an old hay shed on this property when we bought it. It was about 36×48 with a gable roof. I gave it to a young rancher down the road in exchange for labor drilling holes in rock for fence posts. It took him about a week to take it down and haul it off to his ranch. I store about 40 ton of hay in our new barn and about 60 ton outside covered with a tarp. When I built the new barn I put in a wooden floor. I used 2×8 fir/larch screwed down to pressure treated 4×6's at 18" on center. I put the 4×6's on 18×18 inch concrete pads by 6" thick and 24" on center. I wired it for lights, plus I built some stalls and a loft. I've got about $65k in to this barn so far.
I like the price of Biggkids better. It'll do the job that it was designed for. Putting sides up and a floor will be a bug improvement too.
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That sounds like it will be super nice! We are small taters compared to your operation. All total we might have 30-35 animals. That sounds like a lot in some ways but if we put that in cow units we have 4 maybe 5. All of our stock is heritage type stuff and small in stature.
 
Biggkidd said:
That sounds like it will be super nice! We are small taters compared to your operation. All total we might have 30-35 animals. That sounds like a lot in some ways but if we put that in cow units we have 4 maybe 5. All of our stock is heritage type stuff and small in stature.
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We're in the process of scaling down big time here. We sold off all of our non-contigous land, since the kids didn't want any of it. We only have a few hundred acres left. We recently sold our herd of registered red Angus cattle. We'll get a few commercial quality feeder calves this spring, possibly up to 50 head that we'll sell in the fall. We get 4 - 6 feet of snow here that lasts through April, so feeding a lot of cows is quite a chore.
 
Mountain trapper said:
We're in the process of scaling down big time here. We sold off all of our non-contigous land, since the kids didn't want any of it. We only have a few hundred acres left. We recently sold our herd of registered red Angus cattle. We'll get a few commercial quality feeder calves this spring, possibly up to 50 head that we'll sell in the fall. We get 4 - 6 feet of snow here that lasts through April, so feeding a lot of cows is quite a chore.
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Only a few hundred acres, in my dreams. lol We are only on 36 acres. But it was also worn out farm land turned timberland for 70+ years when I started here. Plus a fair portion is pretty steep and therefor will never be tillable. I'm leaving all steep areas wooded.
 
While I was out doing things today I counted up what metal roofing I have left. There’s enough to add about 10 more feet on one 1/2 of the building making that 1/2 roughly 13×24 that could be enclosed with a roof size of about 15×27. That would be about 12×23 open space inside a great size for a single bay workshop. The celling is even high enough to to get the deuce inside. What do you guys think? Oh and it won’t add a cent in cash to the cost, I already have everything to add that much more roof. Enclosing it is another story, I don’t have anything for that yet.
 
Biggkidd said:
While I was out doing things today I counted up what metal roofing I have left. There’s enough to add about 10 more feet on one 1/2 of the building making that 1/2 roughly 13×24 that could be enclosed with a roof size of about 15×27. That would be about 12×23 open space inside a great size for a single bay workshop. The celling is even high enough to to get the deuce inside. What do you guys think? Oh and it won’t add a cent in cash to the cost, I already have everything to add that much more roof. Enclosing it is another story, I don’t have anything for that yet.
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What do I think?

Is there enough room to store a Harbor Freight sawmill?

Saw your own wood to close in the sides?

Ben
 
Well I'm sure there is but my pockets are far to empty to buy a sawmill. I need to build the one I have all the parts on hand for! No B.S. I have damn near every single piece to build a nice sawmill. I just need to get off my lazy ass and get it done! Of course having some help would make it a lot easier to get done.
 
Biggkidd said:
Well I'm sure there is but my pockets are far to empty to buy a sawmill. I need to build the one I have all the parts on hand for! No B.S. I have damn near every single piece to build a nice sawmill. I just need to get off my lazy ass and get it done! Of course having some help would make it a lot easier to get done.
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In that case let me share this playlist to inspire you.



Ben
 
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