I remember when we quit putting up loose hay, we went right to twine tied square bales. There were some wire ties for the oats straw from before that. We were always able to put all our hay and straw under a roof. The big barn had ground to rail of 40', and could hold 10,000 bales, the cow barn somewhat less, and then the hog barn got straw in the overhead. That got real wicked in the peak, if it was hot at all. When I was a jonker I spent more time on the rack behind the baler than up on the stack; got pretty good with a hook in those days . We never really did all that much really, just what was needed for the stock on the place. My old man never sold a bale, straw or hay, IIRC, and never had to buy any either.

The smell of fresh cut alfalfa is about as sweet as it gets, too. Oats dust and straw is just about all the way on the other end of the spectrum.