Windows Make Hay Storage Easier

Windows Make Hay Storage Easier BUILDINGS New Techniques 27-6-27 Setting up the elevator to put bales in the barn is easier since commercial hay producer John Barnosky, Windham, Ohio put in a line of windows that go from the hayloft floor up about 22 ft. to the peak of the barn roof. Since the windows start at the floor, the elevator can be set low, so the first bales don't have to drop 15 or 20 ft. to the floor. "I have a lot fewer broken bales now," he says. Barnosky's barn had vertical wood siding. "I removed six of the siding boards to make an opening about 32 in. wide from top to bottom," he says. "Then I welded together a 1 by 1-in. angle iron frame that fit into the opening. Inside the frame, I welded 1-in. long pieces of mini-channel iron to make brackets to hold pieces of 4-ft. plexiglas cut the width of the frame." The mini channel iron is roll-formed 12 or 14-gauge steel, 1/2 in. deep by 3/8 in. wide. Barnosky found it in a salvage yard. "I cut it into short lengths and welded pieces to hold the plexiglas panes at the top and the bottom. It's positioned inside the frame so the top of each pane tips in slightly and each pane overlaps the one below it slightly, so rain runs down them rather than into the barn." The channels holding the bottom of the pane are closed at the bottom, while the ones at the top are open, allowing him to remove any pane separately. "When I start filling the barn, I remove the bottom panes and back in the elevator. As the barn fills, I remove panes above the elevator, raise it up, and then replace panes below it. I don't have to reset the elevator. By raising it, I can keep the hay coming off of it at the level I'm stacking," he says. The old barn has four bays in the upper level. He put windows in each of the two outside bays, which he uses to store about 3,800 of the 4,000 to 6,000 square bales he makes every year. "The windows let in light, but keep out the weather," he says. "They rattle a little bit in a strong wind, but because they're not hinged, they don't flap and clatter." Barnosky worked six or eight evenings welding together the scrap angle and channel iron he used to make the frames. The expensive part was the plexiglas. Aside from that, he says he had hardly any expense in the project. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Barnosky, 9846 Nichols Rd., Windham, Ohio 44288 (ph 330 527-2547).

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