Export hay is hay that is produced for export markets. In

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and other countries around the world, hay needs to meet a number of quality standards before it can be exported. Because hay in standard round and large square bales is not dense enough to be economically exported to overseas markets, export hay is normally processed to increase the density of the product and improve its suitability for

containerization Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the p ...

. This form of processing was pioneered by

ACX Pacific Northwest ACX may refer to: * Audiobook Creation Exchange, an Audible.com audiobook service * Atlantic City Expressway * ACX Technologies, Inc, a holding company wholly owned by CoorsTek *Xingyi Wanfenglin Airport, China (IATA airport code ACX) * Air Cargo G ...

, and is often referred to as double compression. This process allows forage and roughage exporters to inspect and package the hay prior to shipping. In Australia,

Oat The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...

en hay is the most common type of export hay.

Alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as ...

(also known as lucerne in Australia) is also grown for export hay, often under irrigation, and is the most common type of export hay in the U.S.

References

External links

RIRDC Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation
Fodder Export Foreign trade of Australia {{Agri-stub