Effects of soaking hay fodder for horses on dust and mineral content

Abstract

Four bales of hay were chosen from a stack of hay, barn-stored for 6 months. Each bale was subdivided into four 2-5 kg sections and one section from each bale was subjected to one of four water soaking treatments: 0, 0-5, 3 or 12 h. Post treatment, the samples were shaken for 9 min under a Negretti LS45F personal dust sampler which sampled the surrounding air. The samples were than analysed for levels of respirable particules < 5 jxm in size and for amounts of sodium (Na), potassium (K), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca) and nitrogen (N). Soaking for 30 min reduced the number of respirable particles by about 90% but also reduced the Na, K and P content of the hay. Soaking for a longer period, at least up to 12 h, did not give a significant further reduction in number of respirable particles but there was loss of Mg and further losses in Na, K, and P. These results clearly indicate that soaking for 30 min is sufficient to reduce the respirable challenge with minimum nutrient loss.

The Effect of Soaking on Protein and Mineral Loss in Orchardgrass and Alfalfa Hay

“…Warr and Petch [5] found a decrease in CP concentration after 12 hours of soaking undescribed hay type, but no effect was observed with 5 minutes-8 hours of soaking. Other studies [4,14,18] have found no effect on CP leaching from a variety of legume, cool season grass, and mixed hays after 20 minutes-16 hours of soaking. In the present study, there was no effect (P < .05) on CP concentration, compared with the control, when flowering orchardgrass and alfalfa-bud hays were soaked (Table 3).…”

“…Soaking hay for 30 minutes reduced the respirable particle number by 88%; however, longer soaking periods did not further reduce particle numbers [18].…”

“…Previous hay soaking studies [14,18] have shown no effect on Ca concentrations after soaking mature meadow grass hay for up to 12 hours. However, Collins [20] observed a loss of Ca after legume hay was wetted in the field.…”

The Effect of Management Regime on Airborne Respirable Dust Concentrations in Two Different Types of Horse Stable Design

“…Horses on the steamed hay and shavings regime were also fed a variety of ways but as previous work has shown [24,25] steaming consistently reduces ARD levels by 99% from hay regardless of contamination level. Moreover, dust-extracted shavings are also uniformly low dust thus less dust will be released into the environment from the forage and bedding so a cleaner environment is ensured if these materials are used.…”

“…Slides were stored in a dust-free incubator and left for a minimum of 3 days so that the filter paper could dissolve and counting could be done. Airborne respirable dust was counted at Â40 magnification using a standard laboratory binocular microscope using the procedure detailed by Moore-Colyer [24].…”