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  Discussion on Hay steamers
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Member:
nikky19

Posted on Thursday, Jul 15, 2010 - 12:51 am:

Any input on hay steamers for use with horses with inflammatory airway disease? Could find nothing since 1999. The independent research they show says that they reduce spores down to zero - looks very hopeful though expensive initially.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jul 15, 2010 - 6:50 pm:

(This message has been updated to provide new information ~ DrO)
Hello Nikkers,
We have a section on hay steamers in the article on Moldy Hay, Heaves, and Horses associated with this discussion area. You can access it off the navigation bar at the very top of this page.
DrO
Member:
nikky19

Posted on Monday, Jul 19, 2010 - 8:47 pm:

Dr. O: Sorry for the delay in responding - I've been organizing a dressage clinic over the weekend.
Thanks for answering. This is some of the information I've found - I couldn't copy statements directly off the sites so I've posted the links here.
As you know it is difficult to find independent research but the Haygain models do seem to have been tested at an independent lab at the University of Cirencester in England - I think they have only just been introduced to this country at Rolex. The Happy Horse company claims to have done independent research on page 3 of the pdf on their web site but they don't say where it was done! I would love it if steaming hay could help my horse. Nikkers
www.haygain.com/haygain_international//index.php
Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Monday, Jul 19, 2010 - 10:01 pm:

Hi Nikkers,

I must say your post intrigued me, I have racehorses and I am always looking for ways to keep their airways functioning properly to maintain their performance levels. Also, I have a really hard time getting consistent hay, I have to buy small loads, by the time I go back for more of the same hay, they are mostly sold out. I think this might help with that problem.

I almost passed out though when I saw the prices these were selling for. I then did a search on making one myself.

Seems pretty easy. Even I can do this and I am not mechanically inclined at all.

1) Wallpaper Steamer
2) Large container that seals tightly( I saw one person that used an old refrigerator laid on its back)put the wallpaper steamer in the freezer section, drilled a hole from the freezer section into the fridge section fed the steamer hose through the hole, laid the hay on a rack in the fridge section closed the door, put some concrete blocks on to keep the lid tight and steamed away. There were other ideas but this one seemed clever to me.
3) Rack
4) Timer

Total cost was less then $100.

To steam hay properly, steam must be at at least 100 degrees, for 80 minutes. Best if hay is broken up before steaming.

Now I have to go figure out what a water butt is. It was suggested to use one of those.

Happy hay steaming
Rachelle
Member:
nikky19

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 20, 2010 - 12:54 am:

Hi Rachelle: Yes, they are certainly expensive. I've thought about making one myself with a butt (water barrel - usually wooden) and a wallpaper steamer, but I like the spikes on the haygain ones through which I presume the steam travels more easily to the center of the flake - I like the idea of the research and findings and wonder if I could emulate those results, keep the temp up for the required amount of time to deal with dust, spores, microbes and all that sort of thing on my own. If the research holds up, it would be worth swinging for one rather than paying for the meds all the time - also expensive. Another idea I've read about is putting the hay into a plastic garbage bag and pouring a kettle of hot water over to have it steam through, but that seems less likely to be effective.
Thanks for chiming in though and I'll see if Dr.O can find out anything through those sites (as he's more clout as a vet for having questions answered I should think) otherwise I'll try calling the Uni in England myself to find out!!! Persistence usually works (I hope). Nikkers
Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 20, 2010 - 7:18 am:

I don't think the effect would be the same with the kettle of hot water, the idea is to have a constant temperature over a period of time. Using a kettle would not suffice.

Using a rack and breaking up the hay would give the same benefits, but I guess it really depends on how many horses you are dealing with and how much hay is being fed. I think its the circulation of the steam that's important.

I wonder if I could do something with a large ( 100 gallon) rubber maid water tank if I took out the drain plug and used a weighted down piece of plywood for the top. I would reduce my costs even more since I already have the tank and the wood.

Makes one think about the possibilities.

Rachelle
Member:
nikky19

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 20, 2010 - 2:29 pm:

No I agree the effect wouldn't be the same with the kettle as it would only dampen the hay, moisten it, which might make it more pleasant and soft for the horses but not deal with the dust, mites, microbe thing we want to eliminate.

The rubbermaid idea might be a possibility, but my understanding is that you would need a sealed type of situation. At our local recycling company they have white, sealed, rubber-type water barrels for around $25 which might be a better situation if you could find something similar, but I'd love for you to experiment and see how you do with your rubbermaid too. Do let me know how it works. Also I wonder how a large picnic cooler might work. You could seal the top more easily though not put so much hay in as in the Rubbermaid.

I'm off to query the people on the Haygain website to see if I can find any paper on their research to view !

Nikkers
Member:
dsibley

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 20, 2010 - 11:21 pm:

I think the old refrige or an old chest freezer would work well. S rack with a well-designed hole in the bottom for a steamer hose...hmmm...!
I have about 20 horses to feed on a daily basis, but there are one or two who have a minor allergy problem that might benefit from this.
Thanks for the idea! I'll let you know if we come up with anything!
Member:
nikky19

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 21, 2010 - 10:45 pm:

Well I did write to the site and he sent me a number of articles - I've copied and pasted some of it below. I would send the pdfs but have no success downloading them to you. If you write to their email address on their site a Clint Joiner will reply with the articles. Nikkers

1. "Meriel Moore-Colyer and Rebecca James [2009] Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL 7 6JS Email: Meriel-moore-colyer@rac.ac.uk

Introduction. Respiratory disorders in horses, such as recurrent airways obstruction, and persistent coughing are known to be caused by dust in the stable environment. While dust extracted straw and shavings can be used to minimize dust from bedding, it is more difficult to reduce the dust levels in fodder without negatively affecting the nutrient quality of the feed. Many owners soak hay to reduce airborne particles, but soaking hay nets leaches nutrients (Moore-Colyer, 1996), is messy and heavy to handle and results in waste water that has a very high BOD (War and Petch, 1992). Steaming hay has previously been shown by Blackman and Moore- Colyer (1998) to have none of the above disadvantages and is very effective at reducing the air born respirable particle numbers. Although plastic containers with boilers are currently sold in the UK as hay steamers, there has been no published data on their efficacy and they are thus not widely used by horse owners. The objective of the current study was to test how well the Haygain hay steamer reduced bacteria, fungi and yeast numbers when complete bales of hay were steamed for 80 minutes.

Materials and Methods. Five bales of good quality rye grass mix meadow hay were randomly selected from hay purchased from a ‘horse hay’ merchant in Gloucestershire. Each bale was subjected to the following treatment. Dry samples were taken from five areas of the bale using large tongs and temporarily stored in a sterile glass beaker. The bale was then placed onto the spiked manifold in the steamer and the boiler (containing approximately 7 litres of water) turned on. The bale was left in the steamer for 80 minutes, where upon the boiler was switched off and the lid was carefully removed. Tongs were then used to take samples from another five areas of the bale and also placed into a sterile glass beaker. The dry and steamed samples were then separately prepared using the following procedure. 1 g hay was roughly chopped with scissors into a stomacher bag and 79 ml of MRD added. The mixture was then ‘stomached’ for 2 minutes. 1ml of the sample was then taken and put into 9ml of MRD in a sterile screw-top tube. Sequential dilutions were then prepared down to 10 -4 . 1 ml was taken from each of 10-1, 10-2, 10-3 10-4 dilutions and placed onto pertifilms for TVC, mold and yeast, two replicates were prepared for each dilution. TVC films were then incubated at 33oC for 3 days and mold and yeast films incubated at 20oC for 5 days. Colony numbers were then recorded and differences between dry and steamed hay analysed using Mann- Whitney U test.

Results. Steamed bales were fed to horses within 12 hours of being steamed and the palatability of the hay was good. Table 1 below shows the colony numbers present per gram of hay in the dry and steamed samples. Significantly (P<0.008) more colonies were recorded in the dry hay than the steamed hay for total bacterial, mold and yeast when samples were incubated on petrifilms at 33oC and 20oC respectively.

Conclusions. Steaming hay in the Haygain Hay Steamer reduced viable bacteria, mold and yeast numbers by 5000, 10 million and 6 million fold respectively. Pathogenic challenge to both the respiratory and digestive systems is therefore all but eliminated making the steamed hay an excellent feed for all performance horses.

Table 1. Total colony forming units (CFU/g) from dry hay and hay steamed for 80 minutes in the Haygain Hay Steamer.

Parameter Dry Steamed Probability

TVC 4261600 800 0.008

Mold 10173333 0 0.008

Yeast 6893333 0 0.008


References. Warr, E., and Petch, J (1992) Effects of soaking hay on its nutritional quality. Equine Veterinary Education 5: 169-171 Moore-Colyer, M.J.S. (1996) The effects of soaking hay fodder for horses on dust and mineral content. Animal Science. 63. 337-342. Blackman, M. and Moore-Colyer, M.J.S. (1998) Hay for horses: the effects of three different wetting treatments on dust and mineral content. Animal Science. 66. 745- 750. "

2.""Hay for horses: the effects of three different wetting treatments on dust and nutrient content M. Blackman1, and M. J. S. Moore-Colyer2 lBrackenhurst College, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, NG25 OQF 2Welsh Institute of Rural Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 SEE Abstract Five bales were randomly chosenfrom a stack of 6-month-old barn-stored hay. Four 2.5-kg sections were takenfrom each bale and subjected to one of four different water wetting treatments, 0-min soak, 10-min soak, 30-min soak and 80-min steaming. Post wetting, the sections were shaken for 9 min under a Negretti LS45F personal dust sampler which sucked-in any particles released into the surrounding air. The sampler contents were then analysed for respirable particle numbers (particles < Spm), and the hay subsampled and analysed for water-soluable carbohydrate, N, Na, K, Ca, P, Mg, Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu. The steaming and soaking treatments all proportionately reduced respirable particle numbers by more than 0.93 of those present in the dry hay. Soaking for 10 rnin and 30 min significantly reduced levels of P, K, Mg, Na and Cu, whereas the steamed samples showed no loss of nutrients from the levels present in the dry hay. Thus in terms of reducing respirable particle numbers and conserving nutrient levels, steaming for 80 rnin is the most effective treatment when preparing hay fodder for horses.""
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 6:56 pm:

These reports seem very encouraging. We have included a section on hay steamers in the article on Moldy Hay, Heaves, and Horses associated with this discussion area. You can access it off the navigation aid at the top of this page.
DrO
Member:
nikky19

Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 7:29 pm:

I think so too, but am pleased to get your input. Thanks. I am going to a fairly local representative who is going to show me the large and small unit. I'll report back after a week as I'm heading out of town and viewing them en route. Nikkers
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