Temporary Straw Bale Horse Run-in's

[lupinfarm]

Does anyone have one they have a picture of? I saw one a few months ago at a local farm where they had made three walls out of straw bales and it served as a run-in/wind-break for their two horses.

At $2.50 and under a bale this is cheaper AT THE MOMENT than building a wood run-in.

 

[Beekissed]

How did they brace the walls? I can just see a horse backing into a wall and it all come tumbling down! If I hadn't had a coop here I was going to build one from hay bales covered with heavy guage plastic and chicken wire. It would be self-insulating and a cheap structure to make, compared to other building materials. AND it would be kinda neat!

If you do it, will you post pics?

 

[enjoy the ride]

With my girls, it would have given truth to the statement about eating their way out of house and home. In fact, they would really have fun pulling it down.

 

[Farmfresh]

Good grief ....$2.50 and less for a bale of straw! Wow! Straw around here is going for about $5.00 a bale and hard to come by.

My sister makes a hay/straw dog house each winter. Never anything bigger.

I have never done this before or even seen a shelter like you are describing, but I have a few ideas about how you might attempt it.

I think horses might try to eat your straw shelter, but if you put plastic inside and out that may help. You could also anchor the bales by driving T-posts through the bales. If you anchor the lower bales to the ground you could then anchor the upper bales to the lower ones. I would also probably try to use a double bale wall then at the top you could use some cattle panels arched from wall to wall and with their ends secured within the walls to function as the roof trusses then tarp the top as well and anchor that tarp to the ground to provide some extra stability.

What do you think?

 

[Beekissed]

I've never known horses to eat straw and I, too, have never heard of straw that cheap! Maybe the OP meant hay? I know older hay can sometimes go that cheap.

 

[lupinfarm]

I've never known horses to eat straw and I, too, have never heard of straw that cheap! Maybe the OP meant hay? I know older hay can sometimes go that cheap.

Nope, definitely straw! ... Straw is really cheap around here, it's the hay that gets expensive.

 

[patandchickens]

Oh, horses certainly WILL eat straw if they are bored, same as they chew wood etcetera. (Actually some eat straw bedding in stalls as well and have to be bedded in shavings or whatever else so they don't get too porky )

You can use straw for shelter, although I personally do not think well of it except in extreme emergency because it becomes a mold farm (it really does) and can make problems for a heavey horse or *start* heaves in a previously OK horse.

You pretty much MUST however use LARGE SQUARES, not small squares. Like the 600+ lb ones. Meaning, you need a tractor with a bale spear (and ground frozen enough to run it on), both to assemble the structure and then next year or the year after to get rid of the composting mouldering remains. And it cannot be safely roofed -- you are making a windbreak, really, not a shed. Unless you WANT to find out where that roof will land (and on what or whom) when we get a monster windy day like we had last weekend :>

The only other use I've seen for straw, and this I've only seen once and never been up-close around, is to use small square bales for infill of a wall-less shelter (the kind people build more for summer use, just a roof up on posts). I am highly skeptical of the wisdom of doing this, because in addition to I can't see why it wouldn't mold just as much as a big-bale windbreak and the horses may still try to eat it come March, there is also no way of stabilizing it so that a horse could push or pull the whole thing down. And horses DO of course do things like that, usually at the worst possible moment.

If I were really desperate for a windbreak type shelter, and had use of a tractor, I would certainly consider a roofless big-square-bale bunker to be an option. (I would not even try to roof it, because no matter what someone else gets away with, I just KNOW that MY roof would sail off some fine blizzardy day and land on either a) my car, b) my kitchen window, or c) my horses.) I would never in a million years try to build one out of small squares -- I can think of no horse-safe way to tie the stack together, so even if you made it 6 bales thick, it would STILL be unstable -- nor would I consider them for infilling a shade shed (which doesn't sound like it's an option for you anyhow).

JME from having worked, both recreationally and professionally, with horses for nearly all my life,

Pat

 

[FarmerChick]

the way I do things arouind when building, I do not do anything temporary. that is double work. I never do double work. To build a temporary straw run-in shed, not be sure of what you are doing, and roof it?? and then build another later?

Nah, too much work...LOL

Yes a horse will chew straw when bored. They do everything when bored...we horse people all know that one.....and they will certainly turn and scratch their butts on that straw bale. My pony took the bark off a small tree....constant rubbing...LOL....yes the sucker was wormed out well....just that Pony loved to do it.

If you can wait, then wait. If you can find anything else to build with then I would. If you want to proceed with the straw building, then google "straw construction" and it shows you what steps are involved. It is not simple cause you do need to build something very stable.

let us know what you decide to do.

 

[Farmfresh]

I do agree with Farmerchick about NOT doing temporary things.

According to several (text) books on farm economics I have around here (most of them pretty old) any out building on a farm should be made to withstand 10 years of use. That does not sound like very long, but (according to the text books) that is approximately the term that most farm cycles last. After ten years time the vast majority of farms have changing needs. If you replace structures every ten years (like they say) you have the option of changing locations, size and use for the new structures. Additionally they note that a structure built to last ten to fifteen years, will cost significantly less than a long term structure. Along this thought vein there is a company called FarmTEK www.farmtek.com/ that sells tarp buildings, greenhouses etc. for relatively low cost. Most of their products are warrantied ten years.

All of that said. There is nothing quite as good, in my opinion, as a big old barn built like they used to 100 years ago. Of course in this day and age a person would go broke building a mortise and tenon timber framed barn like one of those!

As far as the stability of a bale building - people use straw bale construction for permanent houses for themselves! There is a lot of information about straw bale construction out there. It will certainly cost more to do it correctly than to simply pile up some unstable bales, but that is a definite possibility, and you would have a permanent structure not just some thrown together temporary mess. By the way the straw bale homes that people build to live in themselves - all have a roof!

 

[FarmerChick]

I agree with FarmFresh on straw construction. It is done to wonderful standards and homes are georgeous. BUT it is done the correct way. There is true construction standards that must be followed.....the straw run-in shed you saw was probably meant to be a permanent structure and therefore done to higher standards then if you just attempt to make a temp and take it down later.

So one thing I live by---build it once, build it strong, build it to last and build it a little bigger than you thought...HA HA

Near me, we have Southern States stores and others that sell the metal framing for stalls. I have 24 of them in my one barn. They supply the metal frame, the sliding door, you can buy a permanet fixed roof also.....but I don't have the roof on them cause I lined them up in my barn........they cost me $900 each and I supply the wood to finish off the framing. It was very reasonable actually cause they are built to last. BUT many people put up 2 or 3 and roof them and boom, you are done with stalls and have a great strong shelter. Just an option to remember.