What's the Difference Between Straw and Hay?

 

One of my pet peeves is when straw is called hay, or hay is called straw. While I won't get mad if that mistake is made, internally I can't help but try to make the correction. 

Straw (pictured to the left) is a "byproduct" of cereal grains (wheat, barley, oats, rye, triticale, ect...). 

Straw is the entire plant (minus the grain) that is dead and dry, which, after going through the combine is deposited in windrows behind the combine. It's then baled by a baler into either small bales, or ton bales. Most straw is used for animal bedding. Nutritionally speaking, straw has little to no nutritional value in it, except for fiber. Straw is used in small amounts in beef and dairy cow rations for fiber because they are ruminant animals, and need fiber to "scrub" their stomachs and intestinal walls to maintain a healthy gut. The same idea applies to other animals, and people as well. In other words, eat your vegetables! 

Hay (pictured to the left) can made from a huge variety of plants. The difference between hay and straw is that straw is a byproduct and hay isn't. Hay is made for its nutritional value, whereas straw is used mostly for animal bedding. Crops that are commonly used for hay include: alfalfa, perennial grasses, clover, and cereal grains (cut while green and growing). At each stage of growth, each plant has a varying nutritional profile. Typically, the younger the plant, the higher leaf-to-stem ratio is (more protein, less fiber), and consequently, there are more nutrients that are easily digestible. The older the plant is before cutting, the higher it will be in fiber, and if left too long, that fiber can become indigestible by animals. Protein amounts in hay vary from 10% to 30% protein, and if the field that hay is being taken off of contains several varieties of grasses, clovers, alfalfa, ect... the more protein/fiber/energy increases per bale versus a single crop bale. But, timing of the cutting has the most influence on the nutritional quality. 

If you ever find yourself next to a stack of hay (or is it straw?), your first indicator that it's hay is if the bales are green (depending on age, the outside of a hay bale may turn yellow like straw, so you may have to look inside the bale to tell). If the bales are golden yellow, you're standing next to a straw stack. 

On a fun note, both hay and straw stacks are fun to climb around on, and in the fall, straw and hay stacks hold heat from the sun, so it can be a pretty nice place to take a break on a nice fall day.