The Difference Between Hay And Straw

When talking to a farmer one thing that is guaranteed to make them laugh is when someone calls hay straw, or straw hay.
There is a difference.
Hay is dried grass used to feed animals in the winter.
The grass is mown in the summer & spread all over the field to dry it in the sunshine. You will see the farmer move the grass probably twice a day, this is to make sure that all the grass is dried evenly.
This process we call tedding, when the grass is ready to be baled another machine is used to rake the scattered grass into long rows ready for baling.
The expert hay maker can tell when the hay is ready to be baled by its sound (very similar to rice crispies when milk is poured onto them) it usually takes about a week to make hay from start to finish, but it all depends on the weather & how large a crop of grass that you have.
Because our weather can be unpredictable in the summer the more common way of preserving grass for winter animal feed is to make silage which can be done in a couple of days.
The grass is mowed & left to wilt for 12/24 hours then it is chopped into short lengths with a forage harvester & the chopped grass is Transported back to the farm in trailers pulled by tractors, where it is put into a silage clamp.
The chopped grass is compacted in the clamp to get as much air out of it as possible, when all the grass has been harvested & the clamp filled a plastic sheet is placed over the clamp so that it is sealed & no air can get into it. Then the fermentation process or pickling process starts & after a couple of weeks it could be ready to use.
Another way of making silage is to bale the grass up into round bales & wrap them with a plastic film (a mini silage clamp.) The film ensures there is no air in the bale for the pickling process.
Farmers can get very upset if people or kids jump & climb on these plastic wrapped bales as the film is very thin & can be easily damaged. If air gets into the bale through a hole or tear in the film, the pickling process stops & the grass starts to rot & is useless as winter feed.
Straw is what is left after a cereal crop has been harvested.
The standing crop is cut with a combine harvester, the grain sieved out into a holding tank on the combine & transferred to a trailer. The straw passes out of the back of the combine & is left in golden rows.
Depending on the weather & how dry the straw is, it is then baled into round bales or big square bales. These bales are stored at the farm usually in a barn & are used to bed the animals with in the winter to keep them clean & warm.
So Hay is used to feed animals in the winter  & straw is used to bed them down, although some people do feed some straw but there is not much nutritional value in it.
I hope that is a simple explanation of the difference between hay & straw.

By David Thomas, 25/05/23