[jaykay]

Well not only mouldy.
Last year's hay is a disaster.

If you remember, the grass didn't grow well. The chap who made our hay cut it when quite short - and also baled it very loosely, trying to get a bit more out of a poor crop! So the bales fall apart because they're too loose and the actual hay is short. Add to that a mouse infestation, bent on chewing through the baler twine and you can see I have a lot of bales falling apart.

Now add to that a lazy (now-ex!) DH who let the sheep into the hay barn but couldn't be bothered to tie up a hurdle barrier, so the sheep ran all over and peed on the hay.

I'm now feeding this stuff and unsurprisingly it's hard to deal with and mouldy in places. I feel like I'm risking my sheep and goats health with it and probably ought not to be. I do actually have enough of this year's hay, though normally I wouldn't be feeding it yet. 

But what on earth do I do with about 50 bales of collapsed, mouldy hay - how can I get rid of it?

[robert waddell]

BE VERY CAREFULL WHEN HANDLING YOU WILL GET FARMERS LUNG 
use a breathing mask when handling it
if it is as bad as that  matches

[jaykay]

Yeh, I thought about burning it but i will still have to cart it out of the wooden lean-to barn to do so.

Talk to me about farmers lung.....I got a lung full of the mould last evening and have felt lousy today!

[robert waddell]

get to your doctor ASAP

[jaykay]

farmers lung
Right, if still ropey in the morning, I'll do that. Trouble with me is I'm also a teacher and kids are full of bugs at this time of year, so it's hard to tell if it's just a cold or if it was the hay 

[jaykay]

And will the hay burn?

[robert waddell]

smoulder maybe   as long as it is not wet

[jaykay]

Ok, went to the docs as still feeling rotten. Felt a bit of a fraud, 98% oxygen in blood and he just laughed when i blew the peak flow meter and said he'd never seen a woman with 6 litre lungs before....
Anyway, he took lots of blood to get antibody tests done but basically thought i was fine.

I've started feeding the new hay, which of course everyone is very impressed by 

Now I've just got to deal with the old stuff - it's a heart-sinking size of a job 

[sabrina]

wear a mask and burn

[jaykay]

I think that'll have to be it Sabrina. Have ordered some masks - will have to do it some at a time.

[SallyintNorth]

BH says if it's only a small number of bales, let it rot somewhere in a corner of a field.  Burning it will make a lot of smoke and the smell will linger a long while, he says.

I did wonder whether it could be used as plant protection / mulch, as you would straw?

[jaykay]

There's a lot  Maybe I can clear the top and side stuff and perhaps it'll be ok underneath (she says hopefully)

[SallyintNorth]

It might be worth getting one of your local farmers (not the one who made it!) to look at it - even if nothing he/she says can make you want to feed it to your stock, he/she might take it off your hands to use on, for instance, older dry cows. 

If you haven't got rid of it before BH visits, we'll get an expert opinion then   

[bazzais]

'Farmers lung' is gradual in its onset and is a physical and medical problem - not just feeling a bit rough the next day after getting dusty. So dont worry about that - you aint gona get farmers lung the next week if you've lifted a few bails the previous, but it may contribute over the years.

I wouldn't feed anything mouldy to animals - I might try and pick through it, but its normally the OH that says to me 'throw it out!!' (but guess who pays for it?) - always worth trying IMO if it dont look that bad.

We all know what a shitter is is to see feed goto waste - I normally take a little longer to be convinced that my misses.

She is normally right - they dont eat 's**t' - that is unless they are starving.

Hope your next crop looks better going into winter - its always a worry trying to get everything together for the little blighters.

Baz

[deepinthewoods]

following on from what sally said, could it not be stacked, watered, covered and composted, some sulphate of ammonia would get it going and you would at least get some benefit?