Hay
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Hay is grass and other plants that have been cut, dried and collected. It can then be stored in piles (called hay stacks), or tied into blocks called bales. Bales can be round or box shaped (usually called square bales).
Hay is mostly used to feed animals. Some animals that eat hay are horses, cattle, goats, donkeys, and rabbits. Hay is fed when there is not enough pasture or rangeland on which an animal can graze or they can't graze year round. Farmers and ranchers often need to use hay in the winter when grass is not available.
Hay is different than straw. Hay is made from leafy grass and other plants (such as alfalfa) and is good for feeding animals. Straw comes from the stems of cereal grains, and is not very nutritious. Straw is normally used for bedding to keep animals warm and dry.
Hay Media
Good quality hay is green, not too coarse, and includes plant heads, leaves, as well as stems.
Poor-quality hay is dry, bleached out and coarse-stemmed. Sometimes, hay stored outdoors will look like this on the outside but still be green inside the bale. A dried, bleached or coarse bale is still edible and provides some nutritional value as long as it is dry and not moldy, dusty, or rotting.
A tractor mowing a hay field, with the cut hay lying in the foreground
A round baler dumping a freshly rolled hay bale
Modern small-scale transport. Pickup truck loaded with "large square" bales
Harvesting hay on the Swiss Alps
Different balers can produce hay bales in different sizes and shapes. Here two different balers were used to create both large round bales and small square bales.
Baling hay
When possible, hay, especially small square bales like these, should be stored under cover and protected from precipitation.
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Other websites
Media related to Hay at Wikimedia Commons
