Hay. Not straw. Hay. Yes, I have had some trouble with the difference between straw and hay in the past. WHAT?! They aren’t the same?! Yes, I am such a country girl. I totally know the difference now. Except, not really. What IS straw? No idea. But you don’t feed straw to animals. Straw is bedding. Hay is food. Used to, in my olden suburban days, I would get a bale of hay, straw, whatever to set out in front of the house to decorate for fall. Put pumpkins and scarecrows on top of it. Have no idea whether it was straw or hay. It looked pretty. WHATEVER.
But when you have animals, you have to figure out the difference. At least long enough to know what to put where for bedding and what to put where for food.
You don’t even want to see me trying to get into a bale of hay. Or straw, for that matter. I usually start with an ax, hacking at the bale. Because I forget to bring a knife or scissors with me to cut the twine that holds the bale so tightly together it’s like it’s glued. After I hack at it for a few days running, I remember to bring something to cut the twine with me the next time I go out.
No, really, I’m this stupid. It comes naturally.
Luckily, there is rarely anyone around to watch me hacking at a bale of hay, straw, or whatever with an ax because I do most of the animal tending around here. Princess helps, sometimes, but the boys? They barely give the goats the time of day. They have so many teenagerish things to do! Which is just as well because I don’t need anybody making fun of me. I have enough trouble with goats staring at me while I’m hacking at their whatever. I’m sure they know better and they wonder why I’m such a dimwit and if they will possibly survive under my caretaking.
However, there’s nothing like some fresh hay to take their minds off the matter.
With snow on the ground and little growing, they are eager for their hay. They bury their faces in their food tray.
And let hay hang out of their mouths like they’re toddlers plowing into a spaghetti dinner.
I restuffed the manger full of hay yesterday. They were soooo excited.
Like they’d never seen hay before.
And then I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. Look at that! NUTMEG!!!!!
She is not watching her girlish figure.
That’s Nutmeg on the left here, Clover on the right. Nutmeg is still, stature-wise, quite a bit smaller than Clover and yet–
“CLOVER!! Pay attention! Nutmeg is getting…..er….PLUMP!”
“Okay, okay, I know. You’re busy. Munching. SOME KIND OF EXAMPLE YOU ARE.”
They make so much noise when they are munching hay. Which seems a little odd. It doesn’t look that crunchy….
It is kinda moving, though…..
HONEY!
He does this. Abruptly. Without notice. He’s sneaky.
Nutmeg and Clover? They may be, er, plump, but they are demure. They eat their hay at the manger like they are pulled up to a linen-draped table at the Waldorf-Astoria. Okay, like spaghetti-plowing toddlers at the Waldorf-Astoria.
But Honey?
He manger-dives.
Suddenly the hay will be moving and it’s Honey.
In the middle of the manger. Like he just jumped into his giant bowl of spaghetti. What toddler wouldn’t want to do that?
Then he sneaks back out. Possibly ashamed of his greediness. Or not. Probably not.
Animals are so basic.
Everything’s right there on the surface, for all to see. They shout to the world, I LOVE HAY. They’d have a bumper sticker if they could drive. It’s their favorite thing. At least today. Tomorrow it might be another molasses cookie, but on a snow day, the grass covered and unfit to eat, it was hay.
And, you know, my shirt.
No matter how much hay they eat, they can always fit in a bite of my shirt………..
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on November 21, 2008
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Straw is the stems of Oats after they have been ‘gleaned’ that are then bailed for bedding….
Dont kid yourself, people do use straw as food because they dont always get all of the oats off of the stem. So when they are bailed there is a good chance that the oat is in the bail – some people bail ’straw’ without ever gleaning it and make oat hay.
How confused are you now!!!! LOL I love Honey, he makes me want to kiss him.
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Cathy J…thanks for the Case site. I’ll be getting son#1 and son #2 these for Christmas. and maybe myself.
stay warm..it’s cold in Iowa, but sunny!
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Anyway, I use a piece of old twine and pull it under one of the lengths of twine holding the bale together. Grab each end of the old twine in each hand and “saw” back and forth. Cuts right through the binding twine. Yes, a knife is faster, but it works well in a pinch. (which is most of the time I’m getting hay)
As soon as the holidays are over, I’m getting out to the barn and building a stall for some ND goats!
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Suzanne – you need to start carrying a knife! Here I am – living the city life
and I carry one by habit. If I get dressed up, I still have a knife on me – it’s such a habit – but can come in handy.
Hey Santa – Suzanne needs a knife!
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Love your blog. With all the baking and the animal care, children, when do you find time to write? Great food pictures, by the way.
Susanne
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I have and had no idea between Hay and straw either. :mrgreen:
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Honey knows what he wants and he goes after it. He’s very alpha-goat, except for, you know, not having doodles anymore.
BTW, how are Coco’s paws?
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The ones of HONEY in the manger are adorable.
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One thing that I noticed in one of your pics was that there was cords of bailing twine near the manger. I’ve read on a goat list-serve that I’m subscribed to of one farmers unfortunate experience with a goatie that ate a short length of the nylon stuff and ended up having to be put down. Plastic bags can also block up their rumens and send them into distress. Since reading his story I’ve been watching like a hawk for the twine that I had never really paid attention to before.
Please keep up the good work!
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