Dusty hay or spoiled?

[Wheels]

I've been getting hay a bale or two at a time from the small local feed store. It's not great stuff - considering the dry season last year it's okay. Kept dry and clean stored in an old tractor trailer. I needed more hay over the holidays and they were closed so I went to another place. The hay was kept on an open trailer covered with a tarp, same kind of hay though. I broke it open today and a cloud of fine 'dust' came out. I pulled a lot of it apart and didn't see mold (looking for white gray and black spots) but tons of white-ish dust? Can't decide what it might be - road dirt maybe- from being stored on that trailer near a gravel drive? I haven't used any of it yet - wondering if it's a loss - which burns the tight-wad in me up.

Honestly I have had some trouble finding alright hay in small amounts for a ok price. Thinking cubes might be a better option but I haven't ever used them with any animal.

 

[3mina]

I'd consider white dust to be mold spores, don't touch it with someone else's 10 foot pole.
I feed alfalfa/timothy cubes along with my pellets and I haven't had any problems. Some rabbits look at cubes like toys and will throw them around, a bit problematic if you use crocks and the cubes land in it.
I get 50 lbs of cubes for $13 and they last my 20 odd rabbits a month.

 

[Secuono]

Did it smell like mold or anything other than dry grass?

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I'd consider white dust to be mold spores, don't touch it with someone else's 10 foot pole.
I feed alfalfa/timothy cubes along with my pellets and I haven't had any problems. Some rabbits look at cubes like toys and will throw them around, a bit problematic if you use crocks and the cubes land in it.
I get 50 lbs of cubes for $13 and they last my 20 odd rabbits a month.

Yup, whitish dusty hay is usually mold spores....

 

[Wheels]

It doesn't smell like much of anything - grass or otherwise- makes me sneeze like the dickens though! I guess I'll end up tossing it the more I look at it the more I don't like it

 

[OneAcreFarm]

It doesn't smell like much of anything - grass or otherwise- makes me sneeze like the dickens though! I guess I'll end up tossing it the more I look at it the more I don't like it

When in doubt, throw it out! That is what we used to say in Surgery...