Let's find out how hay differs from straw

Many city dwellers who rarely visited the village do not know what hay is different from straw. The similarity between them, of course, is: both are aboveground part of grassy plants, which goes to animal feed. But on this all the similarities between them, perhaps, ends. We will try to explain how hay differs from straw. Let's start with the main difference.

How hay differs from straw

Straw is the stalks of cereals and legumes, after they were harvested. It has a tubular structure and is characterized by rigidity and brittleness. Straw is, rather, a waste from the harvest of different crops: wheat, oats, barley, etc. It is not grown specifically for feed. Many modern combines have cutting machines that chop straw. But farmers use it for feed animals, and as a litter material.

Hay is a beveled and dried under the sun grass, which preserves the nutritional properties of plants in the cold season. It is purposefully harvested as animal feed. Intended for hay for rabbits, large and small cattle, horses, that is for those animals that graze in summer meadows and fields. In winter, of course, mowing the grass is not possible, so farmers harvested hay.

Difference in color

The difference can be traced in color. Rye straw is grayish-yellow, wheat - golden-honey, barley - a darker shade. But it is never green, since chlorophyll is not stored in dried stems, but it is responsible for this color.

Difference in nutritional properties

Dry straw is used mainly as a litter for animals and does not have a nutritional value. To save longer, it is stacked, giving the compressed mass an elongated shape of the rectangle. But many farmers harvested it in round bales, wrapping waterproof material.

In the hay, on the contrary, all the nutritional properties of plants are preserved. Mow the grass in the summer, when it is in optimal condition - maximally grown on the root and not yellowed. An example of this effect is known to many housewives in the kitchen, buying in the store or pharmacy dried medicinal herbs or seasonings, dill, onions, etc. By their properties they have all the nutrients that live plants, if you observe a simple technology.

Nutrients of straw

Straw, as mentioned above, is formed by threshing cereals and legumes. It has a lot of fiber (up to 45%), little protein and fat, and vitamins are absent altogether. Nutrients are contained in a strong lignin-cellulose complex, which is poorly digested in the intestines of animals. Horses, for example, digest the organic matter of this feed only by 20-30 percent. But a good grade of straw from the spring is approaching nutrient to low-quality hay.

The richest nutrients are the food from legumes. Of course, everything depends on the weather and human factors when harvesting. But if all the technological requirements are met, the straw of legumes according to nutritional content may correspond to a good meadow hay. It has a high protein content. From the minuses - such a food is not stored for a long time and is vulnerable to various fungi, and this will lead to digestion in animals.

Features of straw feeding

However, some farmers use straw in ration of ruminants. But for this it is necessary to observe several conditions:

• You need to feed mainly oatmeal, barley and millet straw. Feed from these crops can reach half the total diet, but before feeding it must be steamed and mixed with juicy herbs, oil cakes, bran, etc.
• Straw of winter crops is completely unsuitable for animal feed.

• Feeds from legumes can be given to animals without prior preparation. It is believed that straw from these crops is nutritious than other species. However, you can not feed animals only with such food, since it lacks vitamins and beneficial microelements.

The role of hay for animals

Unlike straw, which can be given as additional food, hay is mandatory for some species of animals in the winter. The best food is prepared from clover, sainfoin, alfalfa. Hay is recommended to be stored under a canopy in an attic or in a barn. When open, it is covered with a polyethylene film. In addition, hay can not be dried, the optimum humidity should be 15 percent.

On the high quality of hay can say its color - green and the stems, and the leaves. The weight of a mash in 1 cubic meter of meadow grasses is about 50 kg, of legumes and grasses - slightly more, about 66 kg.

conclusions

So, let's sum up, than hay differs from straw:

• The purpose of harvesting. Straw is more of a waste material after harvesting, which is used for various purposes, mainly as a bedding layer, but is sometimes added to the ration of animals. Hay - purposefully harvested in the summer as a feed for cows, horses, small cattle, rabbits and so on.
• Nutrients. Straw does not contain all the necessary elements that are in the hay.
• By color. Good hay should be green due to chlorophyll. The straw is dried on the stem, it has a yellow color with different shades, depending on the culture.
• In form. Straw consists of round stems from various spring, leguminous and winter crops that break easily. The composition of the hay includes dry grass.