Design the ultimate hay shed with shed designer.

What is a hay shed?

A hay shed is a tall, mostly open-front rural building used to keep round or square bales dry, ventilated and away from UV. Most are built from 100% Australian-made BlueScope steel, clad in Colorbond® on the roof and prevailing weather wall, and engineered to AS/NZS 1170.2 wind loading. The shape is simple: wide span, high eaves, a roof that sheds rain, and enough open face to drive a tractor or telehandler in with a loader raised.

ShedDesigner's hay shed templates are sized around the bale. Pick the closest template, set your span, eave height, bay count and which sides you want walled, then submit your design once for free comparable quotes from ShedSafe accredited dealers in your region.

How to size a hay shed

Three numbers decide whether the shed earns its keep.

Bale type and stack height

Most Australian hay buyers run 1.2 m wide × 1.5 m diameter round bales (~270-350 kg) or 2.4 × 1.2 × 0.9 m jumbo squares (Feed Central). The rule of thumb is that maximum stack height should not exceed 1.5 times the shortest base dimension, otherwise the stack becomes unstable. Square bales stack flatter and tighter than rounds. Plan your eave height from the stack you want, not the stack you've got.

Eave height

Eave height is the single most-undersized dimension on first hay shed builds. The working benchmarks (Action Steel, 2025):

• 5.25 m eave to stack 4 high in round bales
• 6.0 m eave for 6 high
• 6.75 m eave for 7 high
• 7.5 m eave for 8 high
• 8.25 to 9.0 m eave when a telehandler is doing the loading

If your tractor cannot back in with the loader raised, you lose minutes every day for the next 30 years.

Bay span and width

Standard bay span is 8.0 to 8.5 m, which lines up with three jumbo bales between columns and gives a tractor room to swing. Wider bays at 9 to 10 m suit telehandler operations. Standard widths run 15, 18, 21, 24, 27 and 30 m. The 24 m and 27 m envelopes are the cost-efficient sweet spot before custom engineering kicks in.

If you also need machinery cover and workshop space, see also our machinery sheds page or the broader farm designs category.

Open-front, slab and engineering

Three trade-offs worth getting right at design time.

Open-front or walled. Most hay sheds are open-front on the long side and walled on the prevailing weather side, because hay needs airflow to stop heating from the inside. NSW Government flood-recovery guidance is blunt about it: ensure air can move through and around stacks (NSW Department of Primary Industries, Hay shed fires and self-heating). Fully walled hay sheds are rare and only suited to dry, finished hay in lower-rainfall zones.

Concrete slab or compacted hardstand. Walled and dual-use hay sheds get a concrete slab. Open-front hay sheds usually sit on engineered piers with a compacted gravel or limestone hardstand, which is cheaper, faster, and lets moisture drain away from the stack. Decide at quote stage so the dealer prices both options if needed.

Wind region. Open-front structures take significant wind uplift on the open face. AS/NZS 1170.2:2021 splits Australia into Regions A through D, with Region B further split into B1 and B2. Higher region equals heavier portal frames, deeper footings and tighter bay spacing. Coastal and northern blocks need to be engineered to the actual region for that paddock, not a national average.

Hay safety: self-heating and moisture

Worth knowing before you bale.

Hay self-heats when bales are stored above safe moisture. The published thresholds (NSW Department of Primary Industries, Primefact 716, Hay storage and fire prevention):

• Below 14% moisture: safe baling target.
• 16-18%: mould and heating risk begins.
• Above 20%: high risk.
• Above 25%: significant spontaneous combustion risk.
• Internal temperatures above 55 °C: chemical reactions release flammable gases. Ignition possible.

A high-eave, well-ventilated hay shed with airflow on at least one open side is part of the prevention. A walled-up box of damp hay is the failure case.

Before you get quotes

A hay shed sits in the weather for 30 years. Four things worth knowing before quotes go out.

100% Australian-made BlueScope Steel. Across structural framing and Colorbond® cladding. BlueScope's COLORBOND® steel cladding for sheds and garages carries a warranty of up to 15 years against corrosion to perforation, with the exact period set by location and application (BlueScope, *Garages & Sheds Warranty*). Check your build on BlueScope's online warranty estimator.

Fodder storage write-off. Under section 40-548 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, primary producers can fully deduct the cost of a fodder storage asset in the year it is installed, with no dollar cap. Hay sheds, silos and grain bins all qualify when used primarily for storing fodder on Australian primary production land (Australian Taxation Office, *Fencing and fodder storage assets*). Talk to your accountant before signing your build.

ShedSafe accredited dealers, no exceptions. Every dealer on ShedDesigner is ShedSafe accredited under the Australian Steel Institute programme.

One design, multiple quotes. Your hay shed design goes out to dealers in your region. Every dealer prices the same shed, in the same steel, to the same engineering, so the quotes you get back are directly comparable.

Browse the broader category at Farm Designs.