Now, on the used-to-be-anything, now-it-is-much-less-than-anything goes board, I will share something I just learned.
Wikipedia defines hay this way:
Hay is dried grass or legumes cut, stored, and used for animal feed, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, goats and sheep. It is fed when or where there is not enough pasture or rangeland on which to graze an animal, or when lush pasture by itself is too rich for easy digestion by the animal. Pigs may be fed hay, but they do not digest plant fiber very efficiently.
Commonly used plants for hay include mixtures of grasses such as rye grass (Italian rye grass, Lolium multiflorum), timothy, brome, fescue, coastal bermuda, orchard grass and other native species, depending on region. Many types of hay may also include legumes such as Alfalfa (lucerne) and clovers (red, white and subterraneum). Pasture flowers are also frequently a part of the mix, though other than legumes, which ideally are cut pre-bloom, flowers are not necessarily desired.
Oat, barley and wheat are occasionally seen in hay products, though more often only the stems are dried and baled after the grain is harvested, making a product called straw that is used for animal bedding and generally is considered poor animal fodder.
Wikipedia defines hay this way:
Hay is dried grass or legumes cut, stored, and used for animal feed, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, goats and sheep. It is fed when or where there is not enough pasture or rangeland on which to graze an animal, or when lush pasture by itself is too rich for easy digestion by the animal. Pigs may be fed hay, but they do not digest plant fiber very efficiently.
Commonly used plants for hay include mixtures of grasses such as rye grass (Italian rye grass, Lolium multiflorum), timothy, brome, fescue, coastal bermuda, orchard grass and other native species, depending on region. Many types of hay may also include legumes such as Alfalfa (lucerne) and clovers (red, white and subterraneum). Pasture flowers are also frequently a part of the mix, though other than legumes, which ideally are cut pre-bloom, flowers are not necessarily desired.
Oat, barley and wheat are occasionally seen in hay products, though more often only the stems are dried and baled after the grain is harvested, making a product called straw that is used for animal bedding and generally is considered poor animal fodder.