| It goes without saying that you want to feed | | | | in it. Sniff, (From an arm's distance if you're like |
| good hay, with little or no dust. That's a given. But | | | | me). If it smells musty, open it up and look. Mold |
| it's rare to find totally 100% dust-free hay, simply | | | | is obvious and so is mildew. If it's even slightly |
| because of the process of how hay grows and is | | | | iffy, don't feed it. Better safe than sorry. If hay |
| baled. It's vegetation growing in dirt! Dry dirt is | | | | has a significant amount of dust in it and does not |
| dust. It gets dustier if there has been a rain within | | | | smell musty or moldy, you can choose to soak it, |
| a few days before bailing. It gets moldy if it rains | | | | hose it down, or return it. If it's just a light |
| just before and is too damp or got rained on | | | | amount of dust, shake it out and wet it down. In |
| after it was cut and lay in the field and was then | | | | a perfect world, all hay would be dust-free. This |
| baled. I can smell mold and mildew a mile away, I | | | | isn't a perfect world. If it were, all hay would be |
| am allergic to it. But even if I wasn't, mold and | | | | cut a week or so after a good rain; it would lay |
| mildew shows up in other ways, no pun intended. | | | | row after row curing in a sunny field for days |
| If you pick up a flake or two of hay and it's | | | | before being baled. And it would smell like fresh |
| heavier than the others, chances are it has mold | | | | green grass. |