Hay and humidity levels

greychins · May 9, 2011

So... little back story....one of my friends has a horse and swears by this place that she buys her horse hay from - it's a grass hay mixture - timothy, orchard, rye, and a little alfalfa mixed in. The people selling the hay said they would give me a sample to try without purchasing a bale, but here's my concern - I have never had a problem storing the little bags of hay that you get at the pet store. We go through them so fast, they wouldn't have time to get moldy or have any issues.

Well, I just bought a digital temperature and humidity monitor for the chin room (basement). Today, the humidity was 50-51% all day (see pic taken few mins ago - top numbers are humidity, bottom are temp).

How would that affect storing a bale (approx 50 lbs) of hay? I wouldn't want to buy a bale of hay, only for it to get moldy because of high humidity. We have a dehumidifier which could be on 24/7 if needed - if the hay worked out, getting that much at once would definitely be a good thing, especially right now with all the rescues we have - but I wouldn't want to go through the trouble of getting it, only to find my storage methods (including humidity levels) would be problematic.

Any thoughts on this?

Or if I was to get a bale - any thoughts on whether it should be left baled and just pull off hay as needed, or open up the bale and put it in something to help it breathe better? Any thoughts are appreciated.

Essentia · May 9, 2011

The humidity in my home is usually around 50% and I have never had a problem storing a bale of hay. I leave mine baled and just pull off flakes as I need them.

Spoof · May 9, 2011

Mine too, it gets a lot higher at night when my a/c doesn't have to work as hard. Humidity isn't really the culprit or everything in every barn outside in the states would be moldy. Hay molds due to it being up against something that moisture can condense against. That's why people store it on pallets in barns. I keep mine in a box so it won't do that. You can keep it on or in wood, cardboard or paper material. No plastics or tile or dirt.

The north has just as high of humidity as the south does, higher in some cases because many don't have a/c's. It's just cooler so you don't notice.

)

edited to add: humidity in almost every area of the U.S. is very high during a certain time in the morning when the dew point is close to the relative temperature. If you watch the weather sites, you can see when that is for your area. That is when dew forms on the grass - even in the driest deserts.

greychins · May 9, 2011

Thanks!

Spoof said:
Mine too, it gets a lot higher at night when my a/c doesn't have to work as hard. Humidity isn't really the culprit or everything in every barn outside in the states would be moldy. Hay molds due to it being up against something that moisture can condense against. That's why people store it on pallets in barns. I keep mine in a box so it won't do that. You can keep it on or in wood, cardboard or paper material. No plastics or tile or dirt.

What about keeping it directly on a cement floor?

Kansas City Chinchillas · May 9, 2011

Don't store hay or feed directly on a cement floor.

greychins · May 9, 2011

The feed is in a rolling container, no worries about it being directly on the floor.

Ok, so what do you all do about keeping the hay off the floor? It would be more than difficult to get a wooden pallet (if I even had one) downstairs (those bales were hard enough!), and I don't have a piece of cardboard anywhere near the size of a bale of hay.

Though, I might be able to get a large box from work that I could break down, I could try to get one anyway. Would a piece of cardboard between the hay and the floor really make that much of a difference?

Thoughts?

I have some spare bricks... what about making a row or two of them to raise the hay bale up off the ground a few inches?

Sorry for all the questions, I just want to do this the right way so I don't ruin the hay.

Spoof · May 9, 2011

Go find a box and break it down and use it under the hay, or the best option is to pick up some cheap 1" or 2" thick pine boards, you'd only need two for an entire bale, they don't have to be very wide, just so the hay is suspended. Then cut them up into shelves when you are done. Just so long as the bale is not touching the floor.