Dusty hay?

[taylorelaine]

For the past few weeks, we’ve been getting hay from one supplier, and the hay has been great—my horses love it, and it always looks like good quality. However, the recent batch this week was a little different. The hay was dusty, and when I separated the flakes, there was a cloud of dust. When I picked up the hay from their stall, there was a layer of grey powder on top of the shavings.

It doesn’t smell off or look bad—it’s just dusty. My horses have been eating it, but is that okay? I need to get more hay dropped off tomorrow, and I’m just worried about getting more dusty bales, especially since the other hay suppliers aren’t ideal. One supplier’s hay my horses won’t eat, and the other offers compressed bales that are expensive, don’t last as long, and are also dusty—but more of a green kind of dusty, not grey like the ones I have now.

Is it normal to get some dusty bales? And is it okay to feed them to my horses?

[Simkie]

“Dusty” that hangs in the air like you’re describing is MOLDY.

No, it’s not great. It’s not always a hard stop, but at the very least, can you toss these flakes in a muck bucket and soak them down before feeding?

Tell your supplier that what he’s brought is moldy and you want hay that’s not moldy. Can you arrange any sort of storage so you’re buying more than a week’s worth of hay at time? Buying a week at a time leaves you so few options.

[Bogey2]

Moldy! Don’t feed unless you can pick out the obvious and wet the rest down. Mold and dust can cause respiratory problems

[luvmyhackney]

Moldy. Toss the hay, stop feeding it.

[islgrl]

I’m going to be the controversial person on this thread. I don’t think the dust is always mold. We get dusty bales now and then, I absolutely know what a moldy bale smells and looks like. These aren’t really moldy. We shake them out before feeding and they are fine. Odds are legit that these bales have mold but they may not… Hay is expensive, I’d want to be sure before I tossed it…

[Marla_000]

I believe OP is in Fl. As am I, and we have to limit how long we store hay due to humidity and sometimes mold.
Some of my bales have been dry and dusty lately also. But it’s not mold. The condition of hay we get here changes weekly but it’s usually pretty good. Should be for $25. For small squares.

[NaturallyHappy]

@Marla_000

Should be for $25. For small squares.

WOW!

[SusanO]

Sometimes when I get big bales of western hay there is a little dust when you shake out the flakes. Not mold - I rarely get mold on bales from out west unless they have been stored incorrectly. I know what mold smells like - I think I live in the mold capital of the world next to Florida. These bales are generally baled at very low moisture levels, but even they can get musty/moldy if they sit in this climate too long. So it could be dust, but more likely mold if it is in the center of the flake/bale. You can usually tell by the smell.

[taylorelaine]

Thank you for all the responses! I contacted the hay supplier and he came out today to replace the hay bales and said that it wasn’t mold, which was my concern too, but dirt picked up on the edge of the bale and he has seen it on bales from other deliveries too recently. I guess the hay guys cut it short and too much dirt and even rocks are in it, and I actually did notice some rocks in it too, which I thought was weird. He also said new season hay will be coming down here also, but if I see that agin to let him know and he’ll replace them.

[Aussie_2020]

Yeah there are times the baler will pick up dirt, especially if the ground is really uneven and the cutter clipped the dirt. It always seems like it happens to a few bales. But I would shake them out and spray water over the flakes in ready to feed so my horses didn’t get noses full of dust. If they were so bad I’d need to soak them I just put them aside and fed them to the cows.

When you get moldy hay, you’ll know. It has almost a sweet odor and the particles don’t shake off as easily as dust. Moldy hay goes directly to the cows, I wouldn’t try to soak it clean.