Could someone PLEASE tell me the difference between straw and hay??

[ChickensAreSweet]

What I was always told was that straw has no seeds and hay does. So they cut the tops off for the straw.

So if you want to add some to cover your potatoes, straw would be better so as not to introduce weed seeds in your garden bed.

 

[Trish44]

Because of the drought & heat wave this summer hay is very precious in the midwest this year & very expensive. I have seen a lot of people around here selling their animals because they can't afford to feed them.

 

[Ole rooster]

Most all straw I know of comes from dried wheat or oat stalks. It is dry when it's cut. The grain is removed and the straw is what's left. From the machine the straw is flung back out on the ground. Then it's raked up in a furrow and baled. Hay is green when it's cut, and left it's in the field the dry. Most hay for horses around here is Coastal Bermuda. Most Common Bermuda grows to short to cut for hay. The experiment station of the UGA has all kinds of varients nowdays. Anyways the hay is left in the field to dry. Then it's turned and put in a row for bailing. The machine that does that is called a conditioner.

If you see the large round bails, most times that would be cow hay. Although some folks will feed it to horses it lacks the protein of Coastal. The majority of horse hay is put up in square bales. Coastal straw I don't know, unless it's the hay gone bad. That is it got wet and moulded.

Now, that's all I know so now you know.

 

[Moogie]

Quote:
yeah - here's an article about that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/us/hay-shortage-compounds-woe-in-drought-stricken-texas.html

 

[1muttsfan]

Straw is the dried stems of cut cereal grains such as wheat, rice and oats. The plants are allowed to dry while standing, cut, the grain is winnowed out, and the stems are baled. Straw has hollow stems, making it a good insulator, and absorbs moisture well. It is also smoother then hay. It does not have much food value, although there may be stray grains left in it. It trends to have less weed seeds as the stands of grain are closely sown.
Hay is made from green, growing grasses, clovers,alfalfa, and other plants (and weeds) mixed in. The living green plants are cut, then allowed to dry and are baled. Hay has a much higher food value (for grass-eating animals such a horses) depending on the plants, their stage of growth, and how well the hay was put up. Hay baled with too high a moisture content molds inside, and the hay becomes "dusty" - the dust is actually mold spores. Hay is not as good an insulator, nor as good at absorbing moisture. It is also usually more expensive than straw.

Hope that helps. WOW $12 for a bale of hay?!

 

[Ksane]

Quote:
Yes - we've had a horrible drought here in Texas that's lasted all year - we're down 13" in rain for the year, and we don't get that much to begin with.

I've read that they're now shipping in hay to Texas from Louisiana and Oklahoma, which is perhaps why that hay looked so strange. I've never seen any that looked like tall grass and never seen seeds in it before. Weird. Those big round bales of hay are now going for $175 each. We used to buy the small rectangular bales of hay for $3 when we had horses in the 70's - this year, as I said, it's $12 or more. And the biggest problem is that people are stealing hay from stores - I've read several local stories on how the hay just disappeared from different store lots and represented a huge loss (tens of thousands $) for the store owners. And it's even being stolen out of the fields where it's baled - people just load up in the middle of the night.

Adding a link about hay theft:
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/09/22/hay-the-latest-target-for-thieves-as-prices-skyrocket/

I don't think they're shipping it from Oklahoma because we can't find it here either. Straw is almost $8/bale (yes, straw) and hay is $12/bale. Alfalfa is $28 for a full sized bale. Outrageous. Good thing I only have 1 pet sheep and the chickens now.

 

[1muttsfan]

 

[AR]

I can’t believe the price of hay. I saw an ad on Craigslist for hay at $10.00 a bale and $10.50 a bale delivered. Just a year ago we could get it for between $6.00 and $7.00 a bale depending on quality.

 

[spiritdance]

Quote:
Actually, straw lacks seeds because the seed has been harvested as grain. Straw is a byproduct of grain production (wheat, oats, rice, etc.). Hay is grown as a crop in itself and is either grass, legume, or clover, and CAN have seeds depending on what stage of growth it's harvested at. Seedy hay tends to have more tough stems and lower digestibility, but since the OP says this hay has very fine strands, it could possibly be that it contains a high percentage of late season clover, which doesn't "bulk up" before seeding and is often interplanted with coastal bermuda grass to boost protein levels. Coastal Bermuda also keeps a nice, small stem if it's irrigated well and regularly harvested, so if it's imported from an area that's escaped the drought, this is probably why it looks different than local hay. I'd check the hay for an excess of tough, multi-branched stems (not desirable) and for soft, semi-green stems (desirable). A good hay should have more of the second and little of the first. Also be sure you don't detect any musty odor or see an excess of dust when you open it. It takes very little mold to make a horse or a chicken very sick, and with the recent drought, some unscrupulous out of state sellers have been offloading some pretty crappy hay that I wouldn't use for compost, much less to feed my animals.

 

[OkChickens]

Quote:
Hay here is $75+ for 4x5 or 5x6 bales for prairie hay and $100+ for alfalfa. Square bale are $10-$12 each. The drought only allowed one cutting instead of the 2 or sometimes 3 in a year.

Nate