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Hay is mowed from a meadow. It’s fine natural dried long grass with occasional herbs and flowers. It’s still greenish.
Straw is the rough homogenous stalk leftovers of mowing agricrultural plants like rye or wheat.
This is correct. Hay can be used as fodder for animals, whereas straw cannot. It can be used for many other purposes, however, like animal bedding, building material, decorating your suburban yard in fall…
Hay is cut from any sort of cereal plant early in it’s lifecycle, specifically before the plant starts concentrating it’s energy into the seeds. At this stage the plant stalk is sweeter (even to a human - give it a bite). After flowering, the plant is concentrating it’s energy into the seeds. By the time it’s fully done this (which takes a number of weeks), there is very little protein in the stalk, and it’s far less palatable (or nutritious) to animals. The plant stalk is now essentially ‘straw’.
Commercial hay can be mowed from a meadow (in Australia usually ryegrass) in which case it will have all sorts mixed in, or from crops intended for making good hay (in Australia usually oats or wheat). Commercial straw (which has a tiny market) is cut after the grain has been harvested from the top of the plant. In commercial broadacre cropping in poor soil areas (the bulk of Australia’s grain areas) it’s usually better economics to keep your crop residue including straw since the cost to replace the carbon would be higher that what you’d get for the straw after the cost of harvesting it.
Source: I play a lot of Minecraft
the cost to replace the carbon would be higher that what you’d get for the straw after the cost of harvesting it
The cost to replace what carbon? Plants don’t take carbon in from the soil
Great question (and we are reaching the outside edge of my knowledge here). Something like 3-5% of carbon in plants is taken up from the soil by plant roots. I don’t fully understand the mechanism, but the organic carbon percentage is an important competent in the calculation of how much artificial nitrogen a crop is going to need, so I guess it’s probably some biochemical process for making the nitrogen available.
The organic carbon percentage is closely watched by farmers and is something of an indication of soil health. ie if your crop rotation is reducing the OC% over time then you probably need to reconsider it. It’s one of the reasons burning crop stubbles is a much rarer practice now.
Can cows eat straw? Or can they only eat Hay & enjoy that more?
Hay is generally cut from fallow fields in late summer/early fall. It contains sugars in the stalks as well as the seeds/grain of whatever grasses it is cut from. It is used to feed livestock year round and is the primary feed in winter. It is often supplemented by grain or feed.
Straw is basically an industrial byproduct and is the leftover stalk from grain harvesting. Usually produced from wheat after harvest. Used as bedding.
Hay is for fodder; straw is for bedding and thatching.
hay is for horses, straw is for hats
Hay’s the best.
A for horses, B for lamb, C for miles, D for Kate etc. etc. The cockney alphabet.
hay is for horses
And cows like you!
Hay is basically cut grass, straw is the part leftover from harvesting wheat and taking the seeds. Both are baled, but they’re used for different things. Hay is food for any animals that eat grass like horses and cows, buy straw is not edible so it’s used as bedding.
Call me a hippie all you want, but I usually go back to Pink Floyd lyrics when I get confused which one to use.
“Straw you, out there in the cold…” Just doesn’t sound right.
There was a Beatles song about the straw man logical fallacy, wasn’t there?
Straw Jude
I usually go with hayberry fields.
Getting lonely, getting old
Man. Love Pink Floyd.
Getting lonely getting old, can you feel me?
Hay is for horses.
Straw is for soda.
I remember being told even horses can’t get nourishment from straw. But it has other uses. Mixed with mud it can make bricks, it can be burned for ash, it absorbs gross fluids, it can provide padding and insulation.
Hay is food, especially in winter.
Straw is shaped like a straw…
Hay is like grass, it basically is grass really.
Yea, hay is a generic term for grasses used as feed.
Ok, so if you pull up the entire plant, you get the roots, stem and leaves. I guess straw would be another word for the stem and hay for the leaves.
From different plants. Straw is from, I think, cereals (wheat, barley, etc) whereas hay is from grass(es?).
Different plants. Got it.
Hay is for horses, and straw is for mcdonalds cups…which apperently now employs slave labor.
I know everyone that follows this link is guna be like:
“wtf, who posts an entire hour long comedy special in a thread about being uninformed about faming? You couldn’t time stamp the relevant joke?!?!”
To which I will reply:
“I did time stamp the relevant part of the special. Jokes on you cuz it’s a whole fucking hour long joke about not knowing anything about farming!”
Its so funny by itself but its better when you know it was all done in front of an audience chalk full of local farmers. I found it getting ready for a road trip with my 3 y/o niece in the car and was shocked at how laugh out loud funny it was while also being completely G rated. Dude doesn’t even say the Simpson’s swear words: shit, damn or crap.
Hay is for hoses, straw is for turtles
Hay is green, livestock eat it. Straw is yellow, livestock sleep in it.
