Barn Design for NH Bale Wagons

Sorry for all of the questions, but bale wagons are pretty much nonexistent here in CT. Thanks for the help.

• stack wagon forks

As to barns.... all my barns were conversions or shed add ons. Were I building from scratch I'd think 3 or 5 bent wide if its a pole barn on 14 foot centers. That way you could use sliding doors. Just have to double track them. I've dumped in some 12.5 foot wide holes before and its tight, even with 36 inch bales. The 14 foot holes work a LOT better. Best two places I had to dump were 1. a 14 foot driveway on on 3 bent wide 60 foot long barn. Side sheds were too narrow for the bale wagon so I stacked in there by hand at night or (later) put rolled hay in there. Other was a shed I added to a 72 foot long barn. Made it 28 feet deep and had 5 bents that went in from the side. Held 2000 bales. Never had doors on it as it was open to the east. Had one set of posts in the middle and used 16 foot rafters. Not much fall too the roof, 1 foot over the 28 foot span but havent had any problem in 10 years from snow load though 100 mph straight line wind out of the east one time let me redo about half the roof. Sheeting pulled off the rafters (8d coated nails are NOT enough). I buit the building out of locally cut cedar posts, rough 2x6 lumber, and odd length and color metal roofing. Then shot a coat of black on it. Cost me under 3500 including labor 10 yrs ago. Got one long shed that I go in from the end I like even better but it only can hold one dump in a line and the rest of the space for rolled hay.

Overhead, I never restacked anything. When hay needs to go to the barn it needs to go. If you put 500 or more bales in it just wasnt cost effective to me to try to build stacks higher. No use getting up there and getting someone hurt. Machine wise with a front grapple, it just took time I thought was better used elsewhere.

Floors... dirt floors are not the answer. A lot of my barns had them and I accepted that the bottom bales got fed to my cows. On concrete the bales were ok about half the time. Wood floor in one barn was great but Im not sure it would ever be economical to put in a polished wood barn floor for what hay you save. I was pretty satisfied in one barn with 6 inches of sewer rock covered with 4 inches of dense grade and compacted. Didnt drag too bad but really ate up the backside of the bale wagon, worse than anything else.

I was thinking of backing into the building from the gable end - that fits best with the site where I want to put the barn. If each stack is 10.5' wide (42" bales), then three stacks would need 31.5'. Would a 36' wide barn be enough, or too wide and lets the stacks fall over? If I went wider and tried for 4 stacks, that's 42' of hay, so I would probably need a 46' barn? I'm thinking 72' long. The opening would face the east, but we get some pretty heavy driving rain from the east so I'll need some sort of door.

Based on your comments, I'm still up in the air on the floor. We have dirt in our old loft barn, but we usually left the 50 or so bales on the bottom layer intact for several years so there wasn't much loss. I won't have that option now. It's a lot of money for concrete, and if it isn't 100% effective then it's a waste.

I would strongly recommend shortening your bale length or at least keep that in mind. I had to add 20 turns of the compression springs on my JD 336 to get the kind of bale tightness a bale wagon wants over what I was putting up by hand. With adding that much compression if you dont shrink your package or raise your price you come out in the hole on sales. The local standard is a 38 inch bale and thats what I had been doing.

I wouldnt spend the coin to put in concrete floor. You can start with dirt and always add crushed stone later.

Width, you physically need 8 inches on either side of the stack for the wagon. With a 10 foot 6 inch stack that leaves you with about a 12.5 foot hole with 0 side clearence. After backing them for a decade I could handle 1.5 feet on each side ok, but I sure liked having 2 feet on both sides. The end of that thing is LONG way from the drivers seat and when loaded its blocked from view by the hay. If you use a trussed roof its not as big an issue. My barns are all with posts lining each hole so an error is a disaster.

Stack falls are really a non issue. I ran with one tie tier and two stack poles to steady the corners for a long time (104 bales to the load). Changed 5-6 years ago and went to a tie tier and then capped the stack 2 wide instead of 3 and was able to quit using stack poles completely. It cuts a load to 99 bales but time is money when it threatens rain.

Your first year, you will probably have a LOT of stacks fall, I sure did. Tightening up baler compression helps a lot, getting bale length consistant helps more. Only took me 8000-9000 bales to get it right, lol. I had to relearn how to rake, and how to lay off a field but it paid off. Last year I used mine (2006) I had 4 loads out of 16,000 bales that acted stupid because of long or short bales.

Doors, I'd just use a double or triple track sliding door system. I can get you some pictures if you want of what I've got, may be a few days as its cold and muddy here and I dont particularly want to get out on the atv until I finish getting over this surgery. My email is open here too.