# Moldy Hay



## Hollybrook (Jul 17, 2009)

It's been wet year had some hay fall behind a table I was able to see the white mold on it so I discarded it, today I bought some 09 hay it looked fine a little yellow but no visable mold but on the drive back i smelt something musty when I unloaded it in the dark I could see like dust/mpld spores did I just buy 10 bales of compost? how do you tell if hay is bad it was stored dry in a 100 yr old Ga Barn what do you all think?


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I wouldn't feed it, but you can wait to see what others say. I always smell hay before I buy it, if I have to buy hay. Some people think I'm weird (which is probably true) but you can tell a lot about the hay by the smell.


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## Bernice (Apr 2, 2009)

The only way to really tell is to check each bale. And sometimes the mold can be inside where you can't easily see it. I always smell the hay too, so guess Stacey I'm weird too!  But, we have a friend who is in his 90's and he tastes the hay! I wouldn't risk it, but thats me.


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## Hollybrook (Jul 17, 2009)

No no your not who wants a bunch of sick goats. I feel like a ding dong I just went out and looked at it. it looks good it smells well it smells ok not as good as what I usually get but when I bang it real hard i get a fine fine dust I dont know?


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Well, dust can be just that. Dust. Not necessarily mold. (Though if there is mold, you will get spores, which look a lot like dust when they fly up into the air.) It's very windy here and we live on a dirt road, so in the summer, we do get a lot of dust. Even in the house, which is much more sealed than the barn. But dusty hay doesn't smell like moldy hay. And Bernice is right...they can look fine on the outside and moldy inside. Take the worst smelling bale and open it up, in the sunlight so you can really see it, and smell it, too.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

I thought everyone smelled hay? hummm. We can smell ours from a long way off and it smells great. 
Thank you Brent Coddle. A professional in a difficult climate. I don't feed it if it dusts up when I open it.
My girls will just snarffle it and walk off anyway. The trick is to make sure they are never so hungry that they will eat something moldy. My goats have lots better noses than I do and they just refuse. If you get a nose full when you flake the bale don't feed it. Nothing is worth what moldy hay does to a goat.

Lee


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Agree with Lee on the "dusting up" when you open it. I just sometimes will get a bale that has some dust that comes up when I toss it down from the top of the stack.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

With my asthma I am a very good 'smeller' of mold  Vicki


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

This is a timely post. A couple days ago I had a guy call me and offer me some hay as he had seen my request on craigslist. He said he had just untarped a huge mound of round bales for a lady coming to get hay for her horses. I asked about the quality, and he assured me it was "horse quality". He lives not far away, and he offered to bring me four bales. I said sure since I was running low on hay. I explained to him that I had about 30 unusable square bales left in the barn that had been baled wet and were moldy, so he knew I did not want moldy hay. When they got to the house they unloaded them and they looked like "xxxx". But, sometimes the outer layer on round bales looks bad and the inside is beautiful. Had it happen plenty of times. I showed him my garden full of round bales I had that had ruined under a tarp in the early spring...they were wonderful hay, but tarping hay in the heat we have hear does NOT work. 
I asked him if the bales were moldy, and they assured me they were fine, and pulled some out and showed it to me...NOBODY is smelling the hay at this moment, and I didn't want to seem "werid", so I didn't smell it either. Well, I paid the guy, he left and I opened up a bale and pulled off the first layer, then the second layer, and kept going and couldn't find any good hay. Now, I just gave the guy the last $100 I had to my name, seriously, and knew that I could not feed that hay..so I actually called the dude up and told him the problem, and he and his dad and 3 kids came back and rolled 3 of those bales back up into two pickups. (they couldn't roll the one I had taken apart) Then he asked if I'd like to come look at some more hay on another farm, and started yelling to his dad to toss all those round bales into HIS horse pasture. I went to the farm, he untarped the hay while his dad was feeding my moldy hay to his horses. The hay was a mess and I said forget it. Well, seems like he had about 50 bales in a rented barn somewhere else and if I wanted them he'd bring them to me. By this time I was exhausted and said just said "okay". (this guy, by the way, is my UPS man, guess he didn't want a bad reputation.) Anyway, he ended up bringing me back 4 nice bales of orchard grass hay, and said he'd bring me more if I liked them, which I do. I guess the moral of the story is to not try to buy tarped hay and always SMELL the hay BEFORE you buy or BEFORE the truck is unloaded. (Lesson learned that I thought I already knew).


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

I will never buy tarped hay again! Did that once and all that hay went to the cow! Yup I always check out the hay before we buy it. And I am not afraid to say No Thank You...lol I really like the guy we get our hay from now. He's super nice. And he ALWAYS asks us was the hay good the last time? Every single time we go back to get hay he makes sure to ask about the last load. He lost 1 cutting of hay last year so it made him short on hay for his customers. He dropped one of his other customers for us. And I am ok with the price of the hay considering the quality. Its nice alfalfa with a wonderful smell. We had 130 bales in our barn last summer/fall and it smelled soooooo good. He has hay saved for us. Which I thought was very nice of him! He coulda sold it all and had his money before we need the hay...

I sure hope he doesn't lose ANY of his cutting this year. My goats love his hay and thrive on it. Milk well, grow well.  I'm very pleased! I don't want to have to switch and buy hay from anyone else!


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## Bernice (Apr 2, 2009)

EEK Anita! What a story! Glad it turned out OK fior you. I hate round bales and fuss at DH when he brings them home. I much prefer the square bales as they are so much easier to work with. Plus......yrs ago I got burned on some round bales, they were nasty!


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

I've had a tough time finding good alfalfa that isn't dusty. I just got 10 bales of decent stuff given to me, but the first 2 bales I ever bought were beautiful, green, dust free... wish I could find more of that!


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

IF IN DOUBT THROW IT OUT!! tis my moto just not worth taking a chance.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

That is why we go through our hay guy. He has alot of the hay growers here in an uproar because he orders LARGE amounts from Southern Idaho and keeps it in a controlled building. Our hay is the best that is around and I don't have to worry about mold or mildew. The money we spend on pure alfalfa hay is well spent, and we get bales for $5 a piece. The only time we've ever had moldy hay was from our previous supplier.
Tam


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## stacy adams (Oct 29, 2007)

If I could get good alfalfa at that price, I'd fill the barn.


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

No kidding!


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

Me too!

That's why it's great to have cattle, it doesn't hurt so bad to reject it. Just give it to the cow, it's no longer such a waste!


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Okay, can cows REALLY eat moldy hay without getting sick? Everyone I know feeds their cows really horrible hay, but I've seen people feed goats and horses really bad hay too, and they don't usually get sick from it either...but there is the one once in a while that succumbs, and I won't take that chance with my own. How is it that cows can eat that stuff? My neighbors thought goats could also eat moldy hay and saved theirs for me! (they have four stomachs, they can handle it!)


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

I don't go giving her horrible hay all the time, but I'll throw some moldy in with better hay. I've not had a problem. I had one whole bale that was off, not horrible, but didn't smell nice and a bit "smoky". The cow just got done with that. 

With cattle being a common livestock and very valuable, and people feeding soso hay to them all the time, I think it's pretty safe. People would stop if it was problematic.


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## Hollybrook (Jul 17, 2009)

Our farmer is out in fact everyone I called was out of square bails except for this I opened a few bails up no mold no smell but if I pick it up and dropped it I see what looks like mold spores? I feed alfalfa cubes I like $3.50 horse hay b/c I dont feel bad using it bedding/garden,chickens and it gives the goats a vareity.

Anita I hear ya I felt wore down from it adding insult to injury same day TCS was out of alfalfa cubes I feel like the day was a total waste. Lesson learned dont buy round or tarped hay and next year were gonna stock up on hay ya never know how the growing season/market may unfold.

happy new year ya'll

Dave


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

:twisted Hay people really can tick me off !
I went to get hay from a man I bought from last year,he knows I dont want crappy hay and yet he had his guy show up with a big round bale that was falling apart from being outside and turned brown :mad ..... I let him take that nice big crappy bale back home !!!!!!
***** I would take that crappy hay back to the guy you bought it from OR compost it and lesson learned to never buy hay until you really inspect it and .... be there for when it's being loaded up to go home .

I would love to have alfalfa for $5.00 a bale :lol


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