Hay steaming

This has been scientifically proven to kill the bacteria, mould and fungal spores thereby improving the hygienic quality of hay and dramatically reducing airborne respirable dust by up to 98%.

Importantly, studies[vague] have shown homemade hay steamers to have some beneficial effect in reducing dust and mould spores and, when normally acceptable n-values are used to process the results data, the difference is material but not extreme.

A prolonged soak has been shown to produce a post-soak liquid 9 times more polluting than raw sewage[7] and should not be put down storm drains.

Moore-Colyer and Payne (2012) studied the palatability of dry, steamed and soaked hay in a group of polo ponies who were normally fed haylage.

[citation needed] Dust in hay consists of a collection of naturally occurring dust particles which include organic plant and soil particles and potentially allergenic mould, fungi, bacteria, mite faeces, endotoxins and beta glucans, all of which have the potential to contribute to the development of airway inflammation and equine asthma.

This is due to the fact horses are highly sensitive to respirable dust in hay especially to the mould, fungal spores and bacteria fraction.

At this point, most high performance horses in Europe, and increasingly America, are already being fed steamed hay on a daily basis.

At the same time, the general horse population in the UK, Germany, and other European countries are increasingly being fed steamed hay.