?Wheat Straw vs Oat Straw

[Roger/OH]

I have always used wheat straw and order a load from the neighbor. He just informed me that he will not be making any wheat straw. To much rain on it. He will be making oat straw in the morning. Will the oat straw be more dusty? Which is better as far asorption when used for bedding? My hay supplier has wheat straw, but at a higher price. I did order half of my yearly need in oat straw from him. If there is not much difference between the 2 I will use all oat this year and increase the order. I get out of the field price on the oat straw and they stack it in my barn.

 

[certherfbeef]

Roger,
My experience is that oat straw is indeed dustier. It is also less absorbant than the wheat straw. Oat straw has a "glossy" coating that makes the moisture kind of slide off. The glossy part of the oat straw also is why folk use it to bed down the show string, cause it is "prettier" than the dull looking wheat straw.

No wheat straw here either, had to chase the grain and not bothering with the straw.

 

[Chuck]

Agree with Cert. Wheat straw is preferrable, less dust and more absorbent, but hard to find in this corner of the world. Oat straw getting harder to find too, now that I think about it. Not a lot of small grain put in here anymore. Over the years we have used probably 90% oat straw- it will work fine. If there is very much price difference, I would stay with the oats.

 

[Roger/OH]

Agree with Cert Over the years we have used probably 90% oat straw- it will work fine. If there is very much price difference, I would stay with the oats.

My neighbor lets his wheat straw get rained on before it is bailed. His theory is it gets rid of the gloss and is more asorbent. I tend to find his true, but this year we have had an unually wet summer and the straw has gone bad.
I can buy wheat straw at $1.50/bale from hay provider. The neighbor is a grain farmer and doesn't make straw except by order and then you pay his 2 teenage sons. They do all the manual work $1/bale. Looks like I will see how oat straw will work.