# Dust in hay



## Teresa Tilley (Feb 11, 2009)

Last spring I baled clean dry fescue hay in May. The bales some were not tight others were not. As I have fed the bales I have noticed that the dust is less prevalent in the loose bales than in the ones that were tightly baled. I am wondering if the tightness of the bale is directly related to level of dust.


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## BCFENCE (Jul 26, 2008)

This is just a guess but the dust could be a little mold dust, The loose bales let the bales breath and had no mold, The tighter bales cut the air off and could not breath and therefore you had a little mold . Stacking bales on edge also will help the bales breath and keep their shape better so its allways a good idea to place on edge no matter the conditon of the hay , just my two cents THOMAS


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## patriotfarm (Feb 2, 2009)

My two cents...how dry was it when you baled. If it was very dry then the baler will pull up some soil dust. The loose bales will let the dust sift out a bit and the tight will hold it. No problems with the hay but you may spray the bales with water right before feeding so the dust doesn't get into the respiratory tract.

Do you smell mold? If not, this is probably the answer...loose soil. We had the same issues with our bales last year and soaked the hay before feeding it to our horses.


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## CherryBlosson (Mar 27, 2009)

patriotfarm said:


> My two cents...how dry was it when you baled. If it was very dry then the baler will pull up some soil dust. The loose bales will let the dust sift out a bit and the tight will hold it. No problems with the hay but you may spray the bales with water right before feeding so the dust doesn't get into the respiratory tract.
> 
> Do you smell mold? If not, this is probably the answer...loose soil. We had the same issues with our bales last year and soaked the hay before feeding it to our horses.


Would soaking the Hay get the mold out? I heard hat it ain't that good for the horses using this method. How did your Horses fair after soaking the Hay?


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## wildseed (Mar 27, 2009)

Here is where you can get some organic dust free hay if it is any consolation but it is in England so I don't know how many of you are from the U.K and want to give it a go.









Dust Free Hay


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## wildseed (Mar 27, 2009)

My Grandad always used to make sure there was a good storage facility for the Hay because it rains a lot up North so that was one of his paramount and important ideas. He always stressed on the quality even back then as he kept a coupe of horses too.


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## CantonHayGuy (Sep 25, 2008)

CherryBlosson said:


> Would soaking the Hay get the mold out? I heard hat it ain't that good for the horses using this method. How did your Horses fair after soaking the Hay?


Nope, if there's mold you just need to get rid of it. I've never had to get rid of an entire bale, but I do make sure I treat it like cancer.... remove the mold and then some.

Soaking the hay (only what you are feeding at the time) is to contain the dust from dirt and/or plant stuff so the animals don't breath it in.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

The most common source of dust is raking the hay with the teeth striking the ground.

The other culprit is baling the hay while there is still some stem moisture. In this case tight bales will have more "dust" than the loose ones, for reasons mentioned. 
Anther way to introduce a little mold into the hay is to start baling just a little to soon, and there is still too much humidity inside the windrow


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