Can you steam straw for feeding?

loz9

loz9

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Pretty much as the title asks!

The reasoning behind this is I have an RAO horse who I have managed to get down to an ok weight but would like to shift a few more kilos over winter, so trying to decide if its better to soak hay for 12hrs or if you can steam straw to remove dust/microbes.

Thank you!
 
I feed clean dry oat/barley straw to all my horses-mix it in nets with hay or haylage. This includes my RAO mare-she has never had a problem with it (unsoaked and unsteamed). I find the straw to be cleaner in terms of dust and moulds than some hay to be honest!
 
I can't see why not but I would think soaking hay would be better as straw isn't as easily digested and can cause impactions in some horses (although others seem to be able to gorge huge quantities without ill effect)... I have only ever soaked for 30 mins as I read somewhere that longer than this doesnt actually remove more sugar unless you were to keep changing the water and then was only marginally better... works for me :)
 
Mine eat straw (we usually have wheat and sometimes barley). I find it is generally fairly dust free but don't see why you couldn't steam it if you wished.
 
I have a mare who is prone to overweight and unfortunately also gets colic if she eats long straw. I feed her dust-free oat straw chaff, from either Halley's or Honeychop.
 
Sorry for not replying sooner & thank you for your replies.

Sadly I used to feed straw to her dry, but she coughed on this despite it being very clean :( She is very sensitive with her airway & at present is on a nebuliser as we can't seem to pin point what she is reacting to.
Pearlasinger - I have being feeding her the chopped straw (I use efeed as despite their high delivery charge its still cheaper than Halleys as long as I get 10+ bags, & I can't get Honeychop near me!) but I still have to wet it as she likes to push it around & snort in it!!

Will give it a go steaming & see how I get on. Thanks again.
 
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