The Hay Biome - Newly published study confirms and expands on benefits of hay steaming over soaking.
Groundbreaking research related to equine nutrition began with the premise that bacterial diversity would not differ dramatically between dry hay and hay soaked in water or steamed at high temperatures.
Researchers at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, U.K., were wrong about that. It turns out the hay biome is affected differently by soaking and steaming, significantly more so than by hay type or where the hay came from. In the course of disproving one of the study s hypothesis, however, much was learned about the treatments effect on the good and bad bacteria that constitute the hay biome.