Is hay energy or poison in the stable?

This article is written by Viktor Kvachan, the father of horse engineering, innovator and founder of EHOSS.

Fact! Dust = cancer + chronic lung disease!

This is a fact proven by doctors, scientists and many studies. There are two sources of dust in stables. The first is hay, the second is bedding. These two sourses create 95% of all dust in stables. Today we will talk about hay.

The problem of dust and hay for the farm.

The problem starts in the field where the hay is stored.

EHOSS has been carefully studying the storage of hay bales in European fields. Below are photos of hay bales storage in Austria and Slovakia. Unfortunately, by our statistic, only 1 out of 10 hay bales storage locations is acceptable in both countries.

Poor storage means dust, dirt, mould and vermin, rot and excessive moisture, sunburn and many other problems. Poor storage is the biggest problem. Farms or stables have no control over the storage conditions of hay bales in the field and are forced to buy a pig in a poke. It is impossible to check every bale of hay.

Today, stables are engineering facilities with a lot of electronics. Dust is a poison that destroys all electronics, gradually and permanently disabling them. This means additional investment in the repair and replacement of lighting and electronics, to do extra service equipment etc.

The problem of dust and hay for the stable staff.

The worst is further on, on the last mile of hay to the horse's stall.

The stable handler works with this bale of hay and inhales at least 500 litres of air in 5 minutes while loading the hay into the wheelbarrows. The process of loading hay is always associated with manual labour with a pitchfork, meaning that the groom directly inhales air with a lot of dust. This is an accumulative problem, and the stable staff is more likely to get sick. For the stable owner in particular, this in turn leads to a loss of staff and does not create favourable working conditions. Sure, In addition to the staff, visitors and horse owners breathe polluted air to a lesser extent.

Here are some studies on dust concentration and its impact on animals and people:

https://smw.ch/index.php/smw/article/view/157/154 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7485321_Agricultural_Dust_Exposure_and_Respiratory_Symptoms_Among_California_Farm_Operators

The problem of dust and hay for horses.

As you know, a horse breathes only through its nose. At rest, a horse makes 10-18 breaths per minute. With each breath, up to 8 litres of air enters the lungs, which is up to 100 litres of air per minute. According to the requirements in stables, the ventilation rate per horse should be at least 150 m3/hour. But whatever the ventilation system, the horse is in direct contact with the hay with huge amount of dust. Todays technological solutions do not allow getting rid of dust. The existing technology of steaming hay has many limitations and does not solve the problem of dust in stables. The consequences are natural - chronic respiratory diseases of the horse and other health complications, loss of productivity, sports results, etc.

Is there a solution to this problem?

Yes, there is. But this is another story.

The story of the creation of EHOSS FORAGE PLATFORM, a must-have technology for every stable.