Shelf life of hay

[eednasnaus]

Hi guys! I wanted to ask if how long is the shelf life of an Oxbow Timothy hay, hay blends or orchard hay or any hay in general.

Since we have no fresh hay available here in the Philippines, I want to ask a relative to buy some for me from the US and have it shipped to me via sea cargo because it's the cheapest shipping option. But the problem is that the shipping would take at most 2 months. Although the hay would remain to be sealed and will be in a box, will the hay still be good? And until how long would it be good? Would it last for like a year? Because I wanted to buy a lot so that the shipping fee would be worth it.

Thank you!

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

Hi, if it is of any help, I have just had a delivery of Oxbow Orchard Hay, and the bag says "Freshest by July 2020" which is over a year away. And i don't know how long the retailer had had it in their stock, or whether it came via air or sea freight US-UK. So it looks as though you would ok buying it as you suggested. Especially if you asked the retailer to supply you its longest-dated stock.

 

[cavylover2002]

Hello!
Unlike most members here, I don't buy my hay online AT ALL as I've had terrible experience with it (I tried four times, the first time it was all brown, the second time it smelled bad and they wouldn't eat it, the third time I was given the wrong "cutting," and it was past the expiration date the fourth time). And all those times happened with fast 2 day shipping! For this reason I require myself to actually go to a feed store (they also sell it at my grocery store) and actually look at the hay because of my bad luck with online buying (I was getting it from different websites too, like amazon etc...). That being said, I would just make sure the retailer can guarantee it's fresh and then yeah, it should be fine...

 

[PigglePuggle]

I think well prepped well packaged hay probably keeps over a year, I bought some Supreme Selective timothy hay recently that has a best before date of December 2020. And the Burgess Excel had a date of March 2021, so did the Rosewood haycube toys I just bought (thats an edible cardboard box house covered with hay and stuffed with hay if you can't get them in the Philippines... well worth shipping a few of those over too if you can!)

 

[eednasnaus]

Hi, if it is of any help, I have just had a delivery of Oxbow Orchard Hay, and the bag says "Freshest by July 2020" which is over a year away. And i don't know how long the retailer had had it in their stock, or whether it came via air or sea freight US-UK. So it looks as though you would ok buying it as you suggested. Especially if you asked the retailer to supply you its longest-dated stock.

I guess it will be fine then since the expiry date's over a year. Thank you so much!

Hello!
Unlike most members here, I don't buy my hay online AT ALL as I've had terrible experience with it (I tried four times, the first time it was all brown, the second time it smelled bad and they wouldn't eat it, the third time I was given the wrong "cutting," and it was past the expiration date the fourth time). And all those times happened with fast 2 day shipping! For this reason I require myself to actually go to a feed store (they also sell it at my grocery store) and actually look at the hay because of my bad luck with online buying (I was getting it from different websites too, like amazon etc...). That being said, I would just make sure the retailer can guarantee it's fresh and then yeah, it should be fine...

Oh no! That's too bad! Maybe the gave out the bad ones? Or is it possibly because of the shipping?

I think well prepped well packaged hay probably keeps over a year, I bought some Supreme Selective timothy hay recently that has a best before date of December 2020. And the Burgess Excel had a date of March 2021, so did the Rosewood haycube toys I just bought (thats an edible cardboard box house covered with hay and stuffed with hay if you can't get them in the Philippines... well worth shipping a few of those over too if you can!)

I just searched the rosewood haycube toy and it looks cool! I will try to buy that too and add that to the list of things to be shipped. Thank you so much!