what should steamed hay look like?

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parsley

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I have made a steamer for my boys hay from a dustbin and a wallpaper stripper - I steamed it for 20 mins and have left it about an hour. Very little steam escaped and I have just had a peak inside - the outside of the hay is visibly wet but the inside isn't - its just sort of more flexible. Does this mean the steaming has done its job? My boy starts coughing if I feed him dry hay and I have already had people poo pooing the idea of steaming it so I don't want to feed it to him only to have him start coughing because its not done properly!
 
Sounds right to me if you give it a shake, you should notice it's quite damp and there is little or no dust spores coming off.
we do ours exactly the same way
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Thanks - I'll give it a good shake and see - I've only ever soaked it so I was expecting ti to look wet! Do you soak it in slices? I can only cram 2 shaken out slices and a whole one in the dustbin and I don't think hell think its enough - I could get more in if I could leave it all in chunks
 
no we have round bales, so it's big fat haynets
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might take longer to reach the middle of a slice as it's quite dense packed if you know what i mean - so would probably be better shaken out.
you can easy fit a night time net in a wheelie bin, our yo, just upgraded the wheelie bin steamer to a grit bin one (like the huge council grit bins at the side of the road!!). it fits 3 or 4 houmungus haynets in!!
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out of interest, why don't you just feed haylage instead ?

I know that years ago My Dad's horse had to have her hay soaked or steamed, but then the only haylage you could buy was very expensive.

if I had the same horse now, I wouldn't hesitate to feed haylage to save the hassle of soaking and steaming.
 
I wondered the same as I had my first go at steaming tonight. I used 2 kettles of water on well shaken hay. I sealed it inside a thick plastic Dengie bag. I thought it looked too dry.

Out of interest how did you make your steamer - how did you seal the hose into the dustbin?
 
we steam for one of ours- only takes a few minutes, as kettle boils whislt we are doing other things.
Two x 2 litre kettles of boiling water, in the morning, lid back on dustbin, which seal it all in, and leave it
By the time they come in at teatime, nearly all the wet had been absorbed and its steamed through.
Haylage is too rich for him, and works out more expensive as a bag of haylage is more than twice the price we pay for a bale of hay.
 
I have been steaming, and agree that it doesn't look "done" enough! With soaking there is a lot of dirt that comes out and sinks to the bottom, but it does get through lots of water.
 
i steam mine, agree it doesn't look as wet as soaked hay, but my mare seems fine on it, and she was hobdayed so really mustn't have dry hay... i'd know about it if she did.
i put 2-3 flaps of small-bale hay in a small-hole haynet with the string cut off (easier to fill and empty!) in a galvanised bin. the steamer attachment pipe is fitted to a hose attachment in a hole my boyf drilled in the bin, fits perfectly.
hope that helps!
 
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out of interest, why don't you just feed haylage instead ?

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Just because its still expensive really - he can get through a bale a day
 
Out of interest how did you make your steamer - how did you seal the hose into the dustbin?

I am using an old black plastic dustbin at the momment - I just drilled some holes about the size of the hose and cut through them with a stanley knife. its a bit bigger than the hose but only a tiny bit of steam escapes. I am going to upgrade to a water butt though as I can only get 1 haynet in the dustbin and he needs two. I have had an experiment with times and think that 20 mins steaming seems to produce the wilted tobbaco effect
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