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Donate to a plant nursery – Even if you don’t have your own garden, donating your leftover hay bales to a local plant nursery is a great way to get rid of them. Also, most places are happy to accept your donations free of charge.
How do you get rid of straw bales?
A large straw bale is too heavy to throw in the trash bin and should be broken down into smaller chunks. These smaller sections can be appropriately bagged and put out for pick-up on trash day. Check the specific requirements for yard waste disposal in your area.
What do you do with decorative straw bales?
The best answer is: grow things! Use the straw in your garden as mulch. Use it to plant potatoes. Use it to make compost, especially if you have chickens.
What can I do with leftover hay bales?
Uses for Spoiled Hay Mulch. Spread spoiled hay under your flowers and vegetables as an organic mulch. Soil Amendments. Chop or shred spoiled hay and add it to your garden soil in the fall as an organic soil amendment. Compost. Spoiled hay is a natural for adding to the compost bin. Make A Garden Bed.
Can you save straw bales for next year?
If you keep your bales out of the elements, especially moisture, they can last for years. However, if allowed to absorb moisture and heat, as would happen with a straw bale garden or planter, for example, hay bales will begin to break down and only last for one growing season.
What do farmers do with straw?
Straw…it’s more than just the leftover from wheat harvest. This agricultural byproduct has a huge number of uses. While some are quite traditional like the bedding for animals and mulch in the garden, it can also be used as a quality cattle forage, heating fuel, ethanol production, or even as a building material.
Does straw get moldy?
But because straw is packed so tightly, the cores and bottoms do collect a lot of moisture that they can’t get rid of and tend to mold up—especially in a wet year.
What happens when straw gets wet?
Damp straw can heat and cause internal combustion ie fires. The biggest risk is perhaps where damp straw is chopped and stacked. Letting air in when it starts being used is the most dangerous point.
Can straw be composted?
Straw is also in this “brown” category. It will release carbon for a healthy compost situation. Making compost from straw alone is not recommended, as it will not break down quickly enough without nitrogen and can result in a moldy mess.
Can you reuse straw bales?
You can reuse straw bales for up to two years depending on how it decomposed over the first year. Bales are turned on their sides for planting (so the straw is perpendicular with the ground and the roots can easily grow into the bale).
What can I do with straw bales fs19?
Straw Bales can be loaded into a Bale Shredder or Mixer Wagon, which can then be driven up to the cow shed to unload. If using a Mixer Wagon, make sure to empty it first, and load only Straw!.
Does straw rot down?
Straw will decompose like any other organic material but they’ll decompose a lot slower. As straw rots, it releases nutrients, feeding the plants growing in it. Straw actually makes your garden better.
Can I use old straw for mulch?
Don’t use your leftover straw bale as mulch; it will only present you with nasty weeds next planting season. Instead, use them to actually grow a garden. It is better to compost them first, in a nice, hot compost bin, to kill the weed seeds. Dec 13, 2017.
How long does straw bales last?
Straw bales are 100% biodegradable—when the time comes. Straw Bale homes can last over 100 years if properly maintained. At some point, all structures will eventually be replaced. When the time comes, the straw bales can be plowed back into the earth.
What’s the difference between straw and hay?
Hay is a crop that is grown and harvested as a feed crop for cattle, horses and other farm animals. Straw on the other hand is a byproduct of a grain crop; in our area it’s usually usually wheat straw that we see. Hay often is made up of a combination of different plants growing in a field or meadow.
What do you do with straw after harvesting?
Left in the fields, wheat straw residue can protect soils from wind and water erosion, add organic matter to soils, and return nutrients such as N, P, K, S, and Cl to soils. When harvested, the residue can be sold as feedstock for mushroom, fiberboard, and paper production, or as feed and bedding for livestock.
How long does it take straw to decompose?
How long does it take a plastic straw to decompose? What was once the most convenient tool is now going through a shift for being one of the most hated plastic products – plastic straws. It will take approximately 200 years for a plastic straw to decompose.
Where do we use straw?
It has a number of different uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket making. Straw is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bale, or bundle, of straw tightly bound with twine, wire, or string.
Does straw have pesticides?
HERBICIDES IN STRAW: It is possible for persistent herbicides to be in straw bales that will inhibit plant growth. Every individual in the supply chain of products treated with herbicides should provide information to the buyer on any herbicides used on the product.
