mama24
Ridin' The Range
I haven't seen any anywhere around here. Do you just call everyone who advertises hay for sale ans ask if they've sprayed?
How do you find hay that hasn't been sprayed?
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The person we use for hay tries to live organically so I trust his hay, we actually did ask around some. The people we were considering first used lots of sprays so we looked until we found our hay guy now. When you find a good hay person stick with them 
DonnaBelle
True BYH Addict
What do you mean "sprayed"?
People here "fertilize" with nitrogen, if they can afford it.
Sprayed with what??
DonnaBelle
People here "fertilize" with nitrogen, if they can afford it.
Sprayed with what??
DonnaBelle
WhiteMountainsRanch
Loving the herd life
Probably pesticides/ fertilizers and other chemicals... I have no idea where to find organic hay, I don't really think it's commercially available yet.
that's*satyrical
Loving the herd life
Just wondering why would hay need pesticides??? I have never seen grass eaten by bugs to the point where it would affect it negatively at all... It really wouldn't need nitrogen either since there is always a little bit of hay left behind after they bale it to go back into the soil & add nitrogen.
secuono
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Spraying hay, that's different. Never seen that being done. A neighbor has lots of land and he hays it just to get it out of the way...or something. Maybe he sells it, but there's so much packed in the hay barn and old. I guess it's sold as cow hay.
I wouldn't see why someone would spend the extra cash on pesticides for hay, seems like a waste unless the area has bad problems.
Just call and ask, doesn't hurt any.
I wouldn't see why someone would spend the extra cash on pesticides for hay, seems like a waste unless the area has bad problems.
Just call and ask, doesn't hurt any.
Royd Wood
New Member
The op I think is refering to a form of acid which is used to prevent mould. This is used when the weather is changing (rain coming) and the hay is not quite ready so by using the acid it allows the hay to be bailed. You can smell it in the hay and animals tend to drink more water when fed treated hay. No expert here but I think they claim its all natural ???????DonnaBelle said:
aggieterpkatie
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The hay that's sprayed to prevent mold is sprayed with propionic acid. Different people have different opinions on it, but propionic acid is produced in the rumens of animals, so I personally wouldn't have a problem feeding it.
The only way to know is to ask the seller. Some insect pests can damage hay fields, especially alfalfa. Others may spray herbicides for broad leaf weed control. You'll just have to keep calling around and asking.
The only way to know is to ask the seller. Some insect pests can damage hay fields, especially alfalfa. Others may spray herbicides for broad leaf weed control. You'll just have to keep calling around and asking.
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mama24
Ridin' The Range
Most of the hay I see for sale around here says it's been sprayed for weeds. Don't really want that going into my goats, and then into their milk and into my kids. Please don't try to argue with me that it's perfectly safe, that's all propaganda by the advertising side of the producers of these chemicals, not from the people who actually work in the lab. I am a chemist, I worked in the herbicides group at one of the top 3 agrochemical companies for a while. I know how toxic this stuff is. It's not nearly as benign as the marketing people would like everyone to believe.
Please don't try to argue with me that it's perfectly safe, that's all propaganda by the advertising side of the producers of these chemicals, not from the people who actually work in the lab. I am a chemist, I worked in the herbicides group at one of the top 3 agrochemical companies for a while. I know how toxic this stuff is. It's not nearly as benign as the marketing people would like everyone to believe.We have fed the proprionic acid sprayed hay, horses loved it. Lambs got a tiny bit in the spring after purchase.
Husband says the barn smells like pickles, but I don't have his sharp nose for sniffing things.
We found that the hay stayed MUCH greener, we needed to feed less quantity, to keep the animals at their
same weight over winter.
So our times using this kind of hay were very good, and I would recommend it as a good animal feed. The
end of the pile looked as good as when we brought it into the barn. We didn't have a single moldy bale from
those loads of hay. Talking about at least 1200 bales during a couple years.
Downsides are the acid (plus the well preserved vitamins! Ha Ha) make the bales weigh A LOT. So make sure
the farmer is baling them in smaller sizes, so you can manage them. We bought from that guy for years, with
those bale sizes weighing about 50#. With the spray, most were at LEAST 70#. Guess the value with feeding
less, heavier bales is a plus, since the hay does last longer. And there was very little wasted, horses hunted down
all the good tasting leaves outside.
The other thing is that you CANNOT store the acid cured hay so it touches plain hay. The acid will make the other
stuff mold. We hung a big tarp down from beam to floor, between the two kinds of hay in our pole barn. The
tarp prevented the "touching" of hay bales, so we had no mold issues in either kind of hay while stored.
I would absolutely buy acid cured hay again if it was offered to us.
Our farmer said he could only have gotten his hay crop up using the spray. There wasn't time enough between
rain storms those years, to let it dry well. Other farmers just didn't get their hay up at all. Bad years for hay suppliers.
Except for costing a bit more to cover costs, half killing ourselves to move the stuff, there were no downsides to using the
acid cured hay for us.
Husband says the barn smells like pickles, but I don't have his sharp nose for sniffing things.
We found that the hay stayed MUCH greener, we needed to feed less quantity, to keep the animals at their
same weight over winter.
So our times using this kind of hay were very good, and I would recommend it as a good animal feed. The
end of the pile looked as good as when we brought it into the barn. We didn't have a single moldy bale from
those loads of hay. Talking about at least 1200 bales during a couple years.
Downsides are the acid (plus the well preserved vitamins! Ha Ha) make the bales weigh A LOT. So make sure
the farmer is baling them in smaller sizes, so you can manage them. We bought from that guy for years, with
those bale sizes weighing about 50#. With the spray, most were at LEAST 70#. Guess the value with feeding
less, heavier bales is a plus, since the hay does last longer. And there was very little wasted, horses hunted down
all the good tasting leaves outside.
The other thing is that you CANNOT store the acid cured hay so it touches plain hay. The acid will make the other
stuff mold. We hung a big tarp down from beam to floor, between the two kinds of hay in our pole barn. The
tarp prevented the "touching" of hay bales, so we had no mold issues in either kind of hay while stored.
I would absolutely buy acid cured hay again if it was offered to us.
Our farmer said he could only have gotten his hay crop up using the spray. There wasn't time enough between
rain storms those years, to let it dry well. Other farmers just didn't get their hay up at all. Bad years for hay suppliers.
Except for costing a bit more to cover costs, half killing ourselves to move the stuff, there were no downsides to using the
acid cured hay for us.
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