3 Reasons To Consider Steel Buildings for Hay Storage
Steel buildings are a great way to safeguard the investment of time and energy farmers put into growing hay and other crops.
Ensuring you have sufficient winter feed for your livestock is critical to farmers. Not only does that mean having enough of it, it also means having suitable storage, such as steel buildings, to protect it and keep it from spoiling.
There’s a lot of time and energy that goes into producing quality hay. Whether you’re growing it for your own livestock, or you’re producing it to sell to other farmers, you want to make sure all of that hard work pays off. That’s why many modern agriculturalists are turning to prefab metal buildings to meet their needs.
1. Better than Outdoor Storage
Some farmers still store their hay out in the elements, covering their bales with nothing but a tarp and some tie-downs. This might work as a temporary stopgap, but in the long term, steel buildings will offer way more protection for your crops.
Tarps can easily tear, especially in wet or snowy conditions, and once water infiltrates your bales, they’ll start to rot. And when exposed to direct sunlight, hay will start to bleach, causing it to lose nutritional value, especially vitamin A and protein. This applies to any type of grasses or legumes you grow for animal fodder:
- Alfalfa
- Bermuda grass
- Clover
- Oats
- Orchardgrass
- Tall fescue
- Timothy
2. Animals Are Picky (and so Are Their Owners)
Well, horses are picky. Cows, sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas tend to be less so, but they’d still prefer hay that’s been properly cured and stored in steel buildings to something that’s wet, moldy or full of dust and dirt.
In fact, some animals can be quite sensitive to substandard hay, which can lead to health implications and hefty vet bills.
If you’re selling to local farmers, you want to make sure your hay is of the highest standard. Word of mouth travels fast around the agricultural community and having a solid reputation matters. If you’ve got a load of hay to move, you want to be first in line when someone picks up the phone to place an order.
3. The Perfect Storage Environment
In order to properly store hay—whether it’s small or large square bales, or large round bales—you need to provide the right conditions:
Weatherproof: Metal storage buildings stand up to the elements and keep the storage contents clean and dry. They’ll stand up to heavy winds and snow loads, while requiring far less maintenance than traditional buildings.
Ventilation: With a pre-engineered metal building, it’s easy to design an open-sided structure or incorporate large bay doors to provide your hay with the ventilation it needs to keep from going moldy.
Access: It’s a good idea to provide easy access to your steel storage buildings for your customers. They’ll likely be towing trailers and you also need room for your tractor and other loading equipment.
If you own a livestock operation, be sure to read our post: Reasons Prefab Metal Buildings Are Ideal for Livestock.
Do you need safe and sturdy steel buildings to store your hay? Metal Structure Concepts offers complete design-and-erect services to create cost-effective metal buildings quickly and professionally. Call us to discuss your next project.