straw

[dondons]

what happens to all the strw that is left over after harvest. The farmers used to burn it but now can't and huge rolls of the stuff can be seen stored in the fields and in barns. Can it be put to any use?

[gilf]

I guess they can feed it to animals or use it for horse bedding etc.

[TRINITY]

Another idea is thatched roofs on cottages, once it's dried out.

[FredPuli]

It is used for bedding for cattle though some straw is usable as feed. Barley straw fetches between �30 and �40 a tonne. Straw is even imported sometimes from abroad to make up shortages. The . burning was old agricultural practice. It was thought that it avoided any disease developing, there was far too much to plough in with good effect and that , in any case, it was time consuming to send out a baler to stack it all. If it was burned the remaining stubble and ash could be ploughed back in though and there was some residual nutrient in it. A lot of the stuff you see in plastic bags is simply material, usually grass, which is to be prepared as silage that is it is stored under pressure to make it into digestible winter feed.

[Oleanda]

Straw is indeed used for thatching. I was born and raised in a Suffolk farmhouse with straw thatch.

[FredPuli]

Most thatching is done with straw, wheat straw being preferred. The roof may lasts 20 year overall but may well require attention after 10 because some parts get more exposure to the elements and wear out sooner. A reed thatch roof is much thinner; reed has better water resistance; but much more expensive. The demand for Norfolk reed is such that thatchers here ( East Anglia) commonly use imported reed instead. The reed roof may prove a better investment. It lasts 70 years.

[Toglet]

Straw that has been cut by a combine and baled can't be used for thatching, as the straw is then too short and damaged. It needs to be long and straight. In fact many of the new varieties of grain grow too short for the straw to be any good for thatching anyway.