Hay and Straw A Cow-lossal Guide to Their Nutritional Value

Since straw is cheaper, dried, and therefore less likely to mold or attract moisture, we buy straw for the backyard chicken coop and nesting ... Straw is the stalk of a cereal grain crop such as oats, barley, rye or wheat. Straw must be seeded annually while hay is a perennial grass crop. Hay is used as food for ruminant and plant eating animals. Straw on the other hand is not incredibly edible and is used for non-food reasons. (Straw has an almost exclusively yellow color when it is baled, and just a hint of a smell.) Hay bales can look like a greenish coarse grass, ... Straw is lighter in weight, fluffs up more, and because the stems are hollow, is more absorbent than hay, so makes a good bedding. Horse, livestock and pet owners also use the term “straw.” Straw is not hay and hay is not straw. Straw is an agricultural by-product consisting of the dry ... Choose straw for bedding, erosion control, building and insulating purposes. Step 3: Straw is great for mulching garden paths and is the product ... Straw is the opposite. Not only is it from grains—and not crops specifically grown for nutritional quality as forage—but, because the straw ... While hay is a common feed for farm animals, straw is the preferred choice for vegetable gardens due to its seedless nature. Straw, a byproduct ... Hay and straw are the exact same thing, only harvested at different times (hay was cut when green and then dried; straw was cut when the plant had already ...