# Old straw for bedding?



## CarrieC (Mar 31, 2011)

A friend has some wheat straw that been sitting in the field from this Summer and wants to give it away. It's now dry, but I'm sure it got wet at some point and is now dry. Is it OK to use as bedding?? I pulled it apart and I see no black but it seems dusty, of course it's been sitting out in the field for a couple of months now. Sure would save me some money!

Thanks,
Carrie


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I would doubt you would have any of the mold problems we have in the south. Perhaps bust open the bales and fluff them really well with a pitch fork and then bed the barns, getting rid of most of the dust, mice homes, snakes  I use straw, I love straw! V


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## CarrieC (Mar 31, 2011)

Yay! Thanks Vicki. Those bales of shavings are getting mighty expensive these days. Maybe now the kids will get Christmas presents 

Carrie


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Hey Carrie, do you know about the "Mini Nubian Goats for Sale" group on facebook? You might want to check it out.

Straw is awesome, goes so much farther than shavings. Heading out to muck stalls right now


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## CarrieC (Mar 31, 2011)

Thanks Angie!


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I love straw, but it's so expensive up here, almost 10.00 a bale. My goats will leave their hay to eat the straw. sigh.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

My pony did that too. Went to town on the straw! But we are getting it for $3 a bale, so I guess it is cheap feed for us!


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I thought $2.50 a bale was expensive for straw here. Heck, it's just a waste product from grain growing. I've got barley straw, it is so soft and fluffy and nice...took a nap in it last year while waiting on a doe to kid (just make sure to wear coveralls, it does have pokey ends, or maybe last years was wheat...). My goats like to eat it too...doesn't bother me any, not like I'm going to replace their hay with it, but if it makes them eat a little less, that's okay by me, 'cus that stuff is really expensive!

Straw from the same year is not old anyway...it's not like they're going to grow grains multiple times in a year, so right before the next harvest, straw is always at least a year old. I used some last year that was probably 2-3 years old with no problems. There was a little bit of mold in it, but I just tossed the moldy parts on the compost pile. My goats seem to avoid anything with mold, so they weren't real interested in eating it.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Give it a good sniff, and if it doesn't smell moldy, you're probably good to go.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

Yea, I would smell it, it doesn't have to be black.


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

I bought some straw from the feed store and it was nice and dry but I opened it and a green dust cloud of mold spores filled the air. I put it on the garden.


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## Dorit (Apr 20, 2011)

where do you get straw? Around here you say straw and get pine straw


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I had never seen straw around here either until a friend told me a store in the town over carried it. Yep pinestraw is all anyone even thinks of when you say straw. Someone brings it in, you just have to find out who  V


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

LOL! What is "pine straw"? When I think of pine, all I can think of is pine needles and can't imagine "straw".


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

What is "pine straw"? Never heard of it. It sounds pokey. What do they use it for? Is it just fallen pine needles raked up?


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Haha, Cindy, we were posting the same thing basically!


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

fmg said:


> Haha, Cindy, we were posting the same thing basically!


Maybe it's just us "northerners" that just don't get it.


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## Dorit (Apr 20, 2011)

Actually you are right. When I lived up north straw was common, but here in MS its dried pine needles. They even bale it and sell it. People use it for their gardens as mulch.


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

The guy that we get hay from has straw....its years old, not sure how old it is but its been kept up in the barn, not getting wet and it's perfectly ok for bedding....since they pee/poop and sleep on it.  Plus its at a terrific price of $1 a bale.  Can't beat that. lol


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

No pine straw around here. I only know about it from watching YouTube videos of all the neat little balers that put it up.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Yup, when we lived in GA, a guy would come by with big bales of pine straw practically falling off the bed of his truck. They just raked up and baled fallen pine needles and we mulched our flower beds with it. I like it better for that than wood chips, but you can't get it here in KS!


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I wonder why that is? I mean we have a LOT of pine here, and anywhere in the North is going to be primarily pine than deciduous trees, but I have never seen anyone baling up pine needles!


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## happyhedgehog (Nov 4, 2010)

Bet you couldn't sell pine needles here if you tried. :rofl Instead of raking up pine needles we buy straw... It sounds like quite the racket to me. I actually did put some pine needles down in the barn last month, the crazy girls started eating them like they were candy.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

We have more deciduous trees here, but we are pretty much in the middle. Hardly any real pines at all (we have lots of cedars though...they are weeds here).


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Cedars? Weeds?? Much too dry in most places here, they are rarely in some areas. Man a cedar forest is the best smell, isn't it?! Goats love pine, especially when that's pretty much the only green thing in the winter. I give them my Christmas tree when I'm done with it-yum yum. I was looking up this pine straw thing, and it's used for a mulch/for landscaping, kind of like wood chips like what a lot of businesses have.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Pine is really good for you. Full of vit C. I make extracts of it for cough syrup and face toner. I bet it sure smells good to put down, but is it that absorbent?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

It's not for bedding  It's for foundation plants, in the south most love acidity, azaelas, rhododendrons etc...so pine straw it is, and it's very pretty in the beds. We use them, we rake them ourselves though, and fill our dog beds for the winter with them (cedar shavings from the sawmill for summer). Smell really nice and they are cushy for the dogs, also if they rip them up you don't have fluff all over the kennels and porch and yard! Just more pine needles! V


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Ah, gotcha


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## happyhedgehog (Nov 4, 2010)

The goats always eat pine needles fresh, ( I can taste them in the milk sometimes, although the rest of the fam never picks up on it.) it just surprised me that they'd like them dry. I was hoping that a layer of pine needles under the straw would function a little like wood chips and help with the smell. 
The soil acid thing makes sense, our soil here is too acid, lime works wonders.


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

We have extremely alkaline soils here...pH of around 8 or 9!! It's funny because everything you read about plants says, this plant likes neutral pH, lime the soil to make it that way. Which, if we did that, it would only make the problem worse. Must be most of the country is acidic?


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

That means you most likely have the coveted alkaline water for health as well! Congrats!
Our daughter lives on the limestone cliffs west of Austin and has the most perfect water but cannot grow a thing except cedars....


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