How can you tell if hay is bad?

Signs that your horse hay may be bad include a lack of color or dried-out appearance, a moldy smell, excessive dust, visible mold, or excessive heat towards the center of the hay bale. Because hay provides your horse with so many essential nutrients, you must provide your horse with the best quality hay available.

How do you know if hay is good?

Look for the following characteristics:

1. Maturity - High quality hay will have a high proportion of leaves in the bale, with few or no coarse stems or seed heads.
2. Condition - High quality hay will contain little dust or mold.
3. Color & odor - High quality hay generally has a bright green color and a sweet, fresh odor.

How long does it take for hay to go bad?

Hay doesn't come stamped with an expiration date, so sometimes it's hard to know when to use it and when to toss it. Consider these points: If the hay was of good-quality when harvested and stored in a dry place with sufficient airflow, hay is likely suitable for consumption for two to three years.

What does bad hay smell like?

Smell the Hay

Pull out a fistful of hay and smell it. Good hay should smell somewhat sweet. Make sure that the hay doesn't smell like mold or mildew – if it does, refuse the hay.

What does rotten hay look like?

The best way to know if your hay is going bad is to learn how to identify high-quality horse hay! Signs that your horse hay may be bad include a lack of color or dried-out appearance, a moldy smell, excessive dust, visible mold, or excessive heat towards the center of the hay bale.

How To Visually Tell If Your Horse Hay Is Good Or Bad

Can you wash mold off of hay?

To eliminate mold commonly found in hay bales, West Chester, Pa., equine veterinarian Frank Reilly suggests “flash soaking” — tearing pieces of hay off of the bale, putting them in a hay net and then under a heavy rock in a bucket of water for 10 minutes. Studies have shown this reduces the organic dust count, he says.

What can you do with bad hay?

The best way to use moldy hay is to spread out the bales and let the animals pick through, with a second source of clean hay for them to select from as well. Mold often reduces palatability and animals will avoid especially bad chunks.

What should good hay smell like?

The smell of typical fresh cut hay is desirable. Hay that smells of mildew, mustiness or rotten odors indicates low quality. Odor should be always inspected regardless of the animal that will be consuming the hay. However extra importance should be given to hay odors if horses will be consumers.

Can old hay make horses sick?

Moldy hay can kill a horse. It's a cause of colic that can be fatal, and some types of mold are toxic to horses. And inhaled mold spores enter horses' respiratory systems when they eat, causing heaves or other chronic respiratory diseases.

Is year old hay OK for horses?

It might actually be completely fine to feed to your horse. You'll have to thoroughly check it over, but it's not as bad as you might think. Surprisingly, old hay can hold onto its value fairly well if stored correctly. It should have been kept dry and out of direct sunlight.

Do hay bales go bad?

With too much moisture, hay can spoil while baled hay can experience thermal expansion—causing it to combust and creating a severe hazard. Because of this, checking the moisture content of hay with a hay moisture meter before baling begins is an integral part of harvesting.

What does fresh hay smell like?

Color and aroma.

Good hay smells fresh and slightly sweet. Acrid or musty smells usually indicate the presence of mold.

Should hay be yellow?

In most cases, green hay has a large amount of keratins, which is a precursor to vitamins A and E. On the other hand, if the hay has a yellow coloration, it may have been over mature when harvested or could have been rained on in the field before baling.

What is moldy hay?

Mold will grow on hay without preservative at moisture levels above 14% to 15%. The mold growth produces heat and can result in large amounts of dry matter and TDN (total digestible nutrient) loss – a loss of carbohydrates and binding of proteins.

What is the most important indicator of hay quality?

The nutritional value of hay is the most important factor when determining its quality. This begins with the stage of plant maturity at time of harvest. Young, immature plants contain more nutrients than older, stemmier plants.

Why does my hay smell like vinegar?

A strong vinegar odor, usually accompanied by a yellow color, indicates the silage contains more acetic than lactic acid. This is due to low numbers of lactic acid-producing bacteria and can occur when the crop had low sugar levels or was put up wet.

Why is some hay green and some brown?

Hay that was cured quickly and stored properly is usually a bright green color while hay that was cured slowly or damaged by rain after partial drying may be pale yellow or brown because of bleaching and/or leaching.

What is the white stuff on hay?

In hay, the white mold in the bale is the mycelium and dustiness is from the tiny spores. The potential for hay molding starts even with the standing hay crop where bacteria protects the plant from fungal and yeast infections.

What is spoiled hay?

Spoiled hay is just older bales of hay that were baled too wet. As a result the center of the bale has soured (turned anaerobic and the livestock won't eat it. Once the bale is cracked open and exposed to the air and allowed to dry out a bit it is fine to use as mulch.

Can hay get wet and still be good?

If rained-on hay is not again dried fully, mold and mycotoxin growth can occur which can put livestock health at risk. Furthermore, baled wet hay can combust due to the temperature increase caused by microbial growth - putting a producer at risk of barn fire.

Do bales of hay rot?

Even if the heat doesn't cause a fire the build-up of temperature will cause nutrient loss. Even at temperatures of 45 to 55 degrees hay can lose up to 30% of its nutrient content. Mouldy hay can be attributed to stock going off their feed.

Why does hay go black?

Hay that was bone dry in the field has, in many cases, developed mold problems in the barn. This later issue has been problematic for us in 2015, resulting in a large number of square and round bales covered with black sooty mold.

Can you get sick from moldy hay?

Farmer's Lung is an allergic disease usually caused by breathing in the dust from moldy hay. However, dust from any moldy crop - straw, corn, silage, grain, or even tobacco - can also cause Farmer's Lung.