What is the best hay or straw to use and what is the average price per bale?
Use straw and not hay. I’m told that rice straw is excellent, but because we’re all about a light footprint on the planet, you should use whatever is grown locally. Wheat, oat, barley, etc.. Straw bales’ strength is really in numbers — numbers of square inches that bear the load of your roof. Just think, your straw bale walls share the weight of the roof with nearly three times the area of a standard stick-frame house. Most importantly, make sure the bales are nice and tight. Go to the barn and inspect the bales before you have them delivered. If you don’t know what a tight bale looks or feels like, go to several farms, distribution warehouses, feed stores, or what have you and inspect bales until you educate yourself about the tightest bales in the county. A good bale should keep it’s cubical form (when tossed out of a truck, for example) and it should be difficult for you to get your gloved fingers under the strings. Smell them and make sure they’re not moldy. Work your hand into on
