What is hay dust?

[Boondox]

Yeah, you're right. The wife and I go around about things like this all the time. I want to do it right, with a hay loft and ventilation to keep mold spores at bay. She wants to do it cheap, and usually I pay the price in illness or injuries. Ahem.

Pete

 

[deerefan]

What are you feeding the hay to? Moldy hay can easily make a horse colic. Cows love it though!

 

[riptides]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( She wants to do it cheap, and usually I pay the price in illness or injuries. Ahem. )</font>

Trust me, I feel your pain. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Still have broken fingers from her horse move a few months ago.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Boondox]

Sheep, and they don't seem to notice. It's not every bale. Last weekend, out of the twenty bales I moved from one shed to the other, only a couple were dusty, but with those two it was like someone set off a fogger for a few seconds!

Pete

 

[dmccarty]

Pete,

I had to clean up a house that had some mold in the shower walls in my old house. The mold was not at all extensive but I was being very careful since one of our kids has ashma. I had also been exposed to heavy amounts of mold in houses that had been flooded by Floyd. Very ugly and lots of mold.

The lesson I learned from Floyd was that the little N95 masks are better than nothing but they really ain't worth a hoot. I bought a good, $25-30, twin canister mask to clean up the batchroom. One of the first things I noticed with the mask is how much more comfortable the mask was compared to the N95 throw away filters. With the N95s I would easily get out of breath. With the real mask I could work hard and still breath. And I'm sure it filtered a whole lot more than the N95. It was well worth the money.

I use the real mask when I mow in the spring. If I don't I will cough up black and green goo for a couple of days from all of the pollen. With the mask I'm just fine. My neighbors may think I look goofy but my lungs thank me. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Later,
Dan

 

[JimR]

That could very well be an allergy to hay. That same thing will do me in too. I have mild asthma and hay makes me really bad if it is dusty.

 

[Buckcreek]

The chronic problems can be bad from what ive seen . A farmer friend of mine had whatever it is you get from chickens, it really messed up his lungs, i dont think he really ever got over it. Now my brother in law has somting in his lungs and they think its from chickens also . there going to a bi-opsy on a mass they found in his lungs, he has raised chickens for years but hasnt had them in awhile now.

 

[JimR]

What is is that you get from Chickens?

 

[beenthere]

Not necessarily mold causing the problem. As JimR stated, I too have 'hay fever' and grew up on the farm never being able to get a good breath of air in my lungs. Hay dust was bad, but straw dust and oats was really bad.

Now I stay out of hay and usually don't have problems breathing. But just get near a bag of niger seed for the birds, and my lungs just 'plug' up and I can't get a breath.
I think some of it is phsycological too, as I could go to a movie and see people rolling in the hay or threshing oats or wheat, and immediately get plugged and swollen lungs.

Its not a pleasant feeling, but one which certainly kept me far away from cigarette smoke. Respirators helped a little bit, but the smell and odor of hay and oats will shut my lungs down, and that smell isn't stopped by a mask or repirator.

You may want to make some decisions about working in hay, and they may not be ones you choose to do willingly. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[JimR]

I have an idea. Let the wife do the hay. You can cook supper instead. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif