I have seen good hay in sheds with NO ventalation get dusty in Feb/march. I belive it was because the hay would warm up in the daytime & then draw moisture out of the night air causing the hay to get "Dusty" inside the bales. This is something that takes weeks to cause. 1 time yrs ago I got a new costomer that stated that every yr that in the spring the hay that they had been feeding all winter would go "bad". It was about a 95 degree day out, but when I walked into his hay shed it was about 120-130 degrees. I told him there was NO WAY I was going to put hay in that shed unless he got some air flow. I had him take 2 sheets of tin off the back, & vent the roof. The hay I took him had gotten baled on a good dew, felt wet. I let it sit for 2 weeks outside BEFOR I put it into the shed. He KNEW that that hay was going to be spoiled befor spring. The next yr when he called for new hay I asked "how was the hay?". He said "we NEVER found a bad bale out of 4000". & couldn't belive that the "wet" hay had kept that well. IMHO Hay needs some air flow & you don't want it getting warmer than the outside air. Kinda like running the fans on grain to cool grain. On my 3 sided 60x95 shed I pulled 2 sheets of tin off the back to keep some air flow going through. On the 2 new 80x125 sheds I'm putting up I'm going to leave 3 sheets of tin off the back. I don't want the sheds to be much warmer than the outside air, perferably cooler. I also have 2 open sided sheds. But your in a differant area, so what works for me in Montana might not work in your area. High Humiditys I belive can cause hay to get dusty. Esp if the hay gets WARMER than it needs to during the day. Heat will draw moisture out of the air. |