Very true, many people don’t realize that.

I’m using free hay from a chemically happy neighbor without any visible bad effects but it goes through a long metamorphosis cycle first – he cuts the hay and it sits in his field for a year – he gives the rotting hay to me – I use it as a bedding for sheep and chickens, so it stays on the barn floor for another year – I clean the barn and it sits in a pile for another couple of years – I use stuff from the pile as potting soil. So, 4 years is probably safe but then again – I don’t grow potatoes and other stuff sensitive to aminopyralid.

Isn’t there a law now, something to the effect that hay destined to be sold can’t be treated with Grazon?

David, I ask this because I have a HUGE pile of hay from my two donkeys, 3 goats, 30 plus chickens and more quail… I have pondered the 18 month window of Grazon etc, and wondered if you established a crop rotation based on it, using the compost in Corn and other tolerant plants, adding ash and then testing to make sure your broad leaf crops are not effected by it? I am unsure what the heck I can do with my huge pile of hay and manure…and looking for some ideas to use it. I have also just contemplated spreading it over my pastures and just buying compost..but we have huge gardens, and that becomes expensive.

I am going to start looking at alfalfa hay…its 385 a ton for 3 x 8 bales in J’ville. Worth the trouble to haul it, we use 2-3 bales of coastal a week and have been working on a storage area to go to rounds, may as well go this route.

If it wasn’t for a Backwoods Home article you wrote, we would have spread compost into a 90′ x 40′ garden this year.

Isn’t alfalfa genetically modified to resist Glyphosate? The longer they use Glyphosate the more they have to spray to control weeds. Prior to harvest they spray with an other herbicide to consistently kill the field for easy harvest at a preselected time. Unless you grow it your self it’s no doubt chemically ladened, thats my rule.

I totally concur! I became the first certified organic hay supplier in Georgia in 2015. A lot of people said “why bother”. I wasn’t sure myself but I knew I had really clean hay, I wanted to encourage small herd ruminants to get certified, I wanted to support Georgia Organics 100 Organic Farms campaign and it just felt like the right thing to do. It took me a year or so of schlepping around these heavy hay bales as I searched for customers. I kept hearing stories of peoples gardens getting wiped out – poor seed germination, stunted plants, etc. The common thread was they got horse manure from a neighbor down the way. Hmmmm. Slowly I started to put it together as stories such as these began to surface. I only produce 200 square bales a year on my 7 acres and could sell 5 times the amount of hay if I had it. I hope others will pursue organic certification as there is a large demand. Thanks for posting this article!

Environment is so contaminated … what can you avoid ? even water needs to be filtered. Any backyard gardeners use filtered water to water their garden ? Even if you do, water filter contains food preservatives. My bottom line is : best I can do given what I can do. I use rotten hay or hay sit out for a few years. I tilt them in Fall, so, it will sit another few months in the soil. And I also compost whatever around from my yard, and kitchen. I debated it for a while should I use straw to compost as I was using peat moss. Then the scary thought .. what if the forest was on fire earlier, and have fire retardant sprayed ? How can I know. Bottom line, I will freak myself out completely if trying to get the ‘cleanest’ things on earth – as there is no such thing anymore. I am sure that even if I use my own pee and pooh, they are BPA contaminated, plus a few I do not know.

Hi David, I have had a hay bale garden for many years now using Bahia grass hay bales. I have been fortunate to live in an area where it is grown in large quantities as feed hay for a horses and livestock. This has allowed me to purchase directly from the producer so that I am able to verify that the bales I’m purchasing are “clean”. I have heard that there are some folks who have experienced issues what they believed to be contaminated hay. I suppose this may well be the case although without some formal analysis to determine exactly what was in the composted material there may also be some cause and effect assumptions that could be attributed to something else. Either way, if you can source your hay/straw directly from a reputable grower, you can enjoy this method of gardening and it’s many benefits with peace of mind.

As a side note, anyone who lives in an area where Bahia hay is grown and sold I would highly recommend it for Bale Gardening. One of it’s advantages is that most Bahia grass grown for hay nowadays is a sterile hybrid. It is grown because it produces nearly twice as many tillers with the distinctive Y shaped seed heads on them. it is these tillers that are cut and baled. The fact that the seed heads are sterile means no pesky grass seeds germinating in or on your bales turning them into Chia Pets like sometimes happens with straw bales, LOL. They can also be less expensive that straw hay bales. Anyone interested in Bahia bales should ask for the season old stuff. These are the bales that didn’t sell as feed hay before they dried out sitting in the barns over the winter. They are significantly lighter than green feed quality bales and significantly lower in price. These bales are usually sold for $3-$5 a bale as “bedding hay”.

I hope this information helps :-)

The truth is that there are really chemicals that are sprayed in fields all across the US to help keep weeds down so animals can safely graze on the grass that grows. Hence names like Graze On. So any plant that is a grass will grow. Any plant that’s not, won’t. If you are unlucky enough to put down compost or manure from animals that ate this kind of grass, you’re in for years of not being able to grow anything but maybe corn in your garden. This is not an exaggeration. Many of us know or are someone who’s had this happen to them. It’s very frustrating. The only way that the straw or hay bales would be part of this equation is if they were grown with one of these chemicals. And you may not know it until you’ve spent hundreds of dollars and at least two good weeks getting your bales and conditioning them, not to mention any seeds, starts, or transplants you’ve gotten. Different regions of the country might offer better solutions, and it pays to know your bales source. But that’s not always possible. We’re trying the straw bales garden because our location has very poor, rocky soil. It’s a risk we’re willing to take because our local farm store said they were told their straw is wheat straw and not sprayed with any herbicides. I guess we’re going to find out very soon if all this work has been for naught. Hands folded and heads bowed.