And does it really matter. For the purposes of the question, the options are stacking rectangular bales of cured hay on the cut side or the tied side. (Stacking them erect is a possibility, but I think most people don’t do that.)
I’ve heard various reasons why hay should be stacked either on the cut side (allows easier drainage if water happens to seep in) or the tied side (water has a harder time penetrating)–but it all comes down to "that’s what my father, grandfather, old barn manager, etc. said. I’ve also heard the counter arguments: Stacking cut side up allows more water in, and stacking tied side up makes it harder to drain. Cursory Internet searches show the same barn lore and folk wisdom.
I’ve also
But is there anything factually supported by research to indicate that either way makes a difference a) *if it is inside a presumably dry barn that is subject to leaking, or b) it’s inside a pretty watertight barn?
I’m curious as well. We always do it tie side up to facilitate grabbing one when you need it, with occasional cut side up if that is the better tight fit.
Aside: I HATE it when our hay delivery shows up. Usually the hottest day of the year, yadda yadda whine.
Cut side down isn’t going to give you better drainage. A leak in a roof won’t result in water passing all the way through a stack of hay if the bales are stacked cut side down any more than if they’re tie side down. In both cases the top bale will absorb all the water and you’ll end up with a bit of spoiled hay right at the leak. If the stack is outside, my experience is that rain will penetrate and spoil the top couple inches of the top layer of bales if they’re tie side down, and rather more but still not the whole bale if they’re cut side down. But if this is a significant concern, you tarp the stack or put a layer of straw bales on top.
We always stacked tie side down and I never really thought about why, but two things come to mind. One is that it’s easier to walk on bales that are stacked that way, which is an essential part of the activity of stacking bales. Another is that it’s just easier to pick them up and put them down in that orientation.
IIRC, the auto stackers stack cut side down, most likely for reasons of technical feasibility.
If your barn is leaky some of your hay will be ruined, period. So fix your gurldanged hay barn. Hay don’t grow on trees.
Every barn I’ve ever worked in has stacked “tie-side-up.”
Other than that, its important not to stack too tight – if no air circulation you can get a buildup of heat-generating fermentation, and from thence, spontaneous combustion. Although you said your hay is dry and cured, it only takes a couple bad bales. Plus good air circulation helps against botulism, even though that’s fairly rare in square bales.
In my part of the country, where the climate is semi-desert, hay is usually stacked outside. Different rules may apply to stacking in a barn, where space is more limited and the bales need to be stacked as compactly as possible. Bales stacked tie-side up are more stable, because that surface is more tightly compacted and because that dimension is several inches wider than the cut side. They are also handier to reach and lift.
In the days before auto-stackers the rule of thumb was to build the bottom tier - the one in contact with the ground - of bales laying on the cut edge; successive tiers were laid on the tie side for more stability and ease of handling (the strings on top were easier to grab). The reason for laying the bottom bales on edge was that bales were mostly tied with the old-style sisal (hemp) twine, which would rot and break when exposed to ground moisture. Today nearly all baling twine is plastic which is less prone to fail, but the habit of placing bottom bales on edge still prevails.
SS
I am hardly an expert. But the guy one of my uncles used for stacking waaay back in the day used a system of alternating direction on each layer. First layer on edge, next layer string side, etc. Everybody seemed to concede he was the master of haystack building in the area. Said it interlocked the layers better. He had a lot of particulars on where he wanted bales put.
This was outside, in a very dry climate. But still hay did rot due to being too wet when baled, not stacked right, etc.
Storing hay inside in bales generally isn’t done by my relatives. One uncle built a huge mega hay barn by himself (!) for cut hay. Filling that was an entirely different sort of thing.
(We used bale conveyors to lift the bales to the top. A whole lot easier than the derricks used before that. And safer, too. A great uncle cut his hand using a derrick, went out and picked potatoes, got lockjaw and died.
A few years after my turn bucking bales they went to automatic stackers which really, really suck at producing a stable stack.)
Needless to say, there’s a web site for everything! This page shows illustrations of various stacking patterns. (Scroll down the page a ways to see it.) That’s true, this sort of criss-cross stacking produces a very stable stack that is unlikely to tip over (especially when you’re climbing around on top of it).
The modern stacking mochines let you configure the stacking patterns you would like. You can configure how you want each layer arranged. See, e.g., this New Holland sales brochure.
Contrary to a remark up-thread, an auto stacker (at least the New Holland one) can place bales either face up. The standard pattern I’ve most often seen used, was to put the bottom layer with the smaller face (the “cut” side) on the ground, and all the upper layers with the “tie” side up. One result was that the bales of the bottom had an inch or so of space between them, where the upper layer bales did not. This allegedly allowed for better air flow (or better drainage, in case of rain) between the bales.
We always put down a layer of wood pallets to allow air to pass and reduce moisture. We then put down a layer of bales cut side up. After the first layer we would stack the bales string side up alternating direction for each layer. If the bales were even slightly moist we would salt each layer with rock salt.
Similar to what sitchensis, first row on pallets, cut side all running lengthwise. Rest of the layers string side but instead of a complete layer one direction it would be two lengthwise and three sideways all the way across, and then the opposite on top of those. No salt though, our hay guys are primo and would never bring us damp hay for our horses.
