Do you keep your haylage outside

[carthorse]

Been offered some large bale haylage , we have been using small bale which is lovely but at £7.50 a bale it will be rather expensive in the winter feeding 5 on it. The large bales won't go into my hay stable through the door, does anyone store it outside?

 

[mrdarcy]

Me!

I got some pallets so the bales weren't sitting directly on the ground, plus a large tarpualin from B&Q (cost me a fiver) and some bungie ties from Halfords to lash the tarpaulin down with. Worked fine all last winter - as long as you don't forget to pull the tarp back over and fasten it down when you leave!

 

[Puppy]

Yep, I have done. I also use pallets and tarpualin- works fine

 

[Angua2]

I just use tarpaulin over it, as the ground it is on is a little uneven and pallet unfriendly and it seems to be fine.

 

[NeilM]

Pallets and tarps, in a secure enclosure that the dobbins can't get in. Otherwise they bite through the wrap to try a little taste of each bale (don't ask how I know this).

 

[henryhorn]

We store over 250 bales outside every year, and it's fine. If you get bother with crows just cover with a net, though properly wrapped haylage should have had one and a half times the thickness on it anyway. If you keep one bale out stand it on a plastic sheet and cover loosely to keep the rain off, it keeps for around 10 days in the winter.

 

[cptrayes]

I don't use pallets or tarpaulin and I have no trouble at all. Sometimes you get rain inside the bottom of the bale, but they love it when it's wet like that. I've had no trouble feeding big bale for a fortnight after it is opened.

 

[carthorse]

Thank you