Hay Smelling A Bit 'off'

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Tomsmum

Tomsmum

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This could have gone in bedding too but..

So I buy a bale of hay for the GP's every few months and use it for feed and bedding. I bought a new one last week and started using it yesterday. Hay normally smells grassy and quite pleasant but this smells a bit wrong - not quite mouldy but old maybe. It doesn't look any different from normal and it from the same place as I always use.. Might it just be due to having been stored for a while? I will keep an eye on whether the girls munch it as usual as I suspect they will left me know if its not up to their exacting standards. But if it is a bit off will it still be ok?
 
Well I went back with a bag full and the people looked at it. There are no black or white bits and still clearly bits of green and the lady said she would be happy give it to her animals. So am somewhat reassured but I think I will use it mainly for bedding and give them an alternative meadow hay (bought somewhere else) for munching (it's too expensive to use for bedding too.
 
well they have voted with their feet, they hate it and won't munch it and just mess it around for their bedding just kicking it out of their house! So i will cut my losses and get rid and start with some new. Shame when a bale makes so much more sense - luckily its not too expensive, though the smaller sacks they prefer definitely are!
 
I also had a bag like this recently - it actually looked gorgeous - very green and soft.
But it felt wrong - sort of gritty.
It's very hard to explain but it just didn't feel right.
I did offer one small pile to the pigs, and none of them touched it - I ended up throwing the lot away, because it just didn't seem worth it.
 
Sounds like musty hay. Mustiness is mould spores, rather than mould itself. Some species are happy and digestively fine to eat hay like this (cattle, and sheep to a lesser extent), but most aren't. This is how/why agriculturally speaking there are several grades of hay (and why I love it when the farm I work on gets horse hay in, as it's s much nicer to handle!). So the seller could be perfectly correct that it would be fine to give to her animals, but unless hers are the same species as yours that's not enough of a qualifier!

Gritty/ powdering feeling is likely to be mildew (fungus), which in low densities doesn't always produce a perceivable colour change.
 
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