Only straw in the straw
„With us there is only straw in the straw!“ What sounds self-evident at first is, in practice, a rarity.
The raw material is cleaned so that there are no foreign objects in the final material. Here are a few examples of what we have already „fished out“ of our straw:
No metals
Every straw goes through a metal detector. Often it is „only“ beer cans, which presumably a thirsty farmer or a non-environmentally-conscious cyclist or motorist left lying at the field's edge, without being aware of the possible consequences. During the straw harvest these cans are often pressed into the bales and not infrequently end up in the cow or horse stable. The sharp-edged, sometimes cut-open cans can cause serious injuries to the animals if they are stepped on or – even worse – if the straw is nibbled at. If you search the internet on this topic, you find countless tragic cases in which perfectly healthy, sometimes even pregnant animals unfortunately died because of metals in the straw.
But other metals are also no rarity in straw bales: several times a year we process straw bales that contain broken-off front loader tines. Our largest find so far: an entire rake arm – how it got unnoticed through the baler still baffles us today.
No carcasses
Another important advantage is that non-metallic objects are also filtered out at our place. For example, carcasses of animals that were pressed in (hares, mice, rats, deer, martens, …) are sorted out fully automatically. Anyone who has ever had a dead animal in a straw or hay bale knows how unpleasant such a partly decayed animal can smell. But such carcasses are not only unpleasant for the nose, they also produce toxins as they decompose, which can often be fatal for cattle and other farm animals.
No stones & co.
Besides metallic objects and animal carcasses, stones and woody material above all are filtered out by our filtering process. At first glance these are not very dangerous for the animals. Even so, stones in connection with a bedding system, for example, can cause sparks and fires. Even if this danger is rather low, it is at least easier for the farmer not to have to dispose of large stones when mucking out – and woody material is of course also unwanted in a high-quality bedding. Our sorting out of foreign objects goes so far that even the tiniest foreign objects such as grain residues are separated out during the production process.
As you can see, it is anything but the rule that there is only straw in the straw – with us, however, it is.
