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Is our buns hay organic?

katie2000

Alpha Buck
I was reading an article on pesticide use on horse hay today and it got me thinking about whether our buns hay had been sprayed with pesticides / herbicides / fertilisers. The article I was reading was talking about the use of anti rotting and mould sprays but it's got me worried.

Does anyone know?? I give them ings, willow warren and dfh. I'm pretty sure the
Ings has hasn't been treated but wasn't sure about the other too. Oh an readigrass too.

xxx
 
I would assume that most hay isn't organic. We have now started producing our own so that we know exactly what goes into the field. Hay will definitely have had some fertilisers added but these may be artificial or may be 'muck' from cattle/horses. Our field had a large amount of dock in it which has long roots and was a nuisance so we had to get teams of volunteers pulling them out. We also had ragwort in places that we hand pulled (with gloves). These 2 weeds would of ordinarily be sprayed with herbicides. This year we are planning to add more herbs to our hay to encourage bees and wildlife and make a better forage for our rescue animals. I would see no reason to spray a hay crop with insecticides as insects aren't generally a problem. Last years rainfall was a complete nightmare so a lot of our hay was mouldy! I don't know of any chemicals that could of prevented this though. The only way to my mind to prevent mould is to keep turning it in the field. The use of herbicides and pesticides is something that bothered me when I fed hay to animals and also that I was constantly handling it and breathing hay dust in!
 
I can't answer that but bearing in mind a big hay field is likely to be very tempting for (disease carrying) wild rabbits, and insects carry many of these diseases, I think I'd rather my rabbits hay had been treated with insecticides :lol:
 
If it doesn't say it's organic it won't be. Some of the Hay 4 Pets hay is and some isn't. It's not something I'm too bothered about. We don't buy organic veg for them (or us) either.
 
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