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Straw is an agricultural by-product
By-product

A by-product is a secondary or incidental product deriving from a manufacturing process, a chemical reaction or a biochemical pathway, and is not the primary product or service being produced....
, the dry stalk of a cereal
Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
 plant, after the grain
GRAIN

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, which works toward sustainable agriculture. It was formed upon the realization that the genetic diversity of the world's food crops are being drastically eliminated....
 or seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
 has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley
Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
, oat
Oat

The common oat is a species of Cereal Agriculture for its seed, which is known by the same name . While oats are suitable for human consumption as oatmeal and rolled oats, one of the most common uses is as livestock feed....
s, rice
Rice

Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
, rye
Rye

Rye is a Poaceae grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some rye whiskey, some vodkas, and animal fodder....
 and wheat
Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
. In times gone by, it was regarded as a useful by-product of the harvest
Harvest

In agriculture, the harvest is the process of gathering mature crop from the field s. Reaping is the cutting of grain or Pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper....
, but with the advent of the combine harvester
Combine harvester

The combine harvester, or simply combine, also known as a thresher is a machine that combines the tasks of harvesting, threshing, and cleaning cereal crops....
, straw has become more burdensome to agriculture.

However, straw can be put to many uses, old and new.








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Pile of Straw
Straw is an agricultural by-product
By-product

A by-product is a secondary or incidental product deriving from a manufacturing process, a chemical reaction or a biochemical pathway, and is not the primary product or service being produced....
, the dry stalk of a cereal
Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
 plant, after the grain
GRAIN

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, which works toward sustainable agriculture. It was formed upon the realization that the genetic diversity of the world's food crops are being drastically eliminated....
 or seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
 has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley
Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
, oat
Oat

The common oat is a species of Cereal Agriculture for its seed, which is known by the same name . While oats are suitable for human consumption as oatmeal and rolled oats, one of the most common uses is as livestock feed....
s, rice
Rice

Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
, rye
Rye

Rye is a Poaceae grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some rye whiskey, some vodkas, and animal fodder....
 and wheat
Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
. In times gone by, it was regarded as a useful by-product of the harvest
Harvest

In agriculture, the harvest is the process of gathering mature crop from the field s. Reaping is the cutting of grain or Pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper....
, but with the advent of the combine harvester
Combine harvester

The combine harvester, or simply combine, also known as a thresher is a machine that combines the tasks of harvesting, threshing, and cleaning cereal crops....
, straw has become more burdensome to agriculture.

However, straw can be put to many uses, old and new.

Uses


  • Biofuel
    Biofuel

    Biofuel is defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuel derived from relatively recently dead biological material and is distinguished from fossil fuels, which are petroleum#formation....
    s
    • The use of straw as a carbon-neutral energy source is increasing rapidly, especially for biobutanol.


  • Biomass
    Biomass

    Biomass, as a renewable energy source, refers to living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production....
    • The use of straw in large-scale biomass power plants is becoming mainstream in the EU, with several facilities already online. The straw is either used directly in the form of bales, or densified into pellets which allows for the feedstock to be transported over longer distances. Finally, torrefaction of straw with pelletisation is gaining attention, because it increases the energy density of the resource, making it possible to transport it still further. This processing step also makes storage much easier, because torrefied straw pellets are hydrophobic. Torrefied straw in the form of pellets can be directly co-fired with coal or natural gas at very high rates and make use of the processing infrastructures at existing coal and gas plants. Because the torrefied straw pellets have superior structural, chemical and combustion properties to coal, they can replace all coal and turn a coal plant into an entirely biomass-fed power station. First generation pellets are limited to a co-firing rate of 15% in modern IGCC plants.


  • Bedding humans or livestock
    Livestock

    Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fibre, or for its labour....
    • The straw-filled mattress, also known as palliasse, is still used in many parts of the world.
    • It is commonly used as bedding for ruminants and horses. It may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this often leads to injuries to mouth, nose and eyes as straw is quite sharp.


  • Animal feed
    Fodder

    In agriculture, fodder or animal feed is any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs....
    • Straw may be fed as part of the roughage component of the diet to cattle that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has a low digestible energy and nutrient content. The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivore's gut digest straw can be useful in maintaining body temperature in cold climates. Due to the risk of impaction and its poor nutrient profile, it should always be restricted to part of the diet.


  • Hats
    • There are several styles of straw hat
      Straw hat

      A straw hat can refer to any brimmed hat that is woven out of straw. This hat is designed to protect the head from the sun, as well as protect against heatstroke....
      s that are made of woven straw.
    • Until about 100 years ago, thousands of women and children in England were employed in plaiting straw for making hats. These days the straw plait is imported.


  • Thatching
    Thatching

    Thatching is the craft of covering a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, Cyperaceae, Juncus and heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof....
    • Thatched roofs are becoming increasingly popular, and the skills of a master thatcher are once again in demand.
  • Packaging
    • Straw is resistant to being crushed and therefore makes a good packing material. A company in France makes a straw mat sealed in thin plastic sheets.
    • Straw envelopes for wine bottles have become rarer, but are still to be found at some wine merchants.


  • Paper
    • Straw can be pulped to make paper.


  • Archery
    Archery

    Archery is the art, practice or skill of shooting with Bow and arrow. Archery has historically been used in hunting and combat and has become a precision sport....
     targets
    • Heavy gauge straw rope is coiled and sewn tightly together. This is no longer done entirely by hand, but is partially mechanised.


  • Horse collars
    • Working horses are making a comeback, and there is a need for horse collar
      Horse collar

      A horse collar is a part of a horse harness device used to distribute load around a horse's neck and shoulders when pulling a wagon or plow. The collar often supports a pair of curved metal or wood pieces, called hames, to which the trace of the horse harness are attached....
      s stuffed with good quality rye straw. Being a "long straw filler" is a highly skilled job.


  • Construction material: bricks / cob
    • In many parts of the world, straw is used to bind clay and concrete
      Concrete

      Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
      . This mixture of clay and straw, known as cob
      Cob (building)

      Cob is a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and soil, similar to adobe. Cob is fireproof, resistant to seismic activity, and inexpensive....
      , can be used as a building material. There are many recipes for making cob.
    • When baled
      Baler

      A baler is a piece of farm machinery that is used to compress a cut and raked agriculture into bales and bind the bales with twine. There are several different types of balers that are commonly used....
      , straw has excellent insulation characteristics. It can be used, alone or in a post-and-beam construction, to build straw bale houses
      Straw-bale construction

      Straw-bale construction is a Building construction method that uses straw bales as structural elements, Building insulation, or both. It is commonly used in natural building....
      .
    • Enviroboard
      Enviroboard

      Enviroboard is a construction panel, generally manufactured using compressed ecologically safe sourced material. Most often this means employing the use of agricultural waste fibres, such as the post-harvest straw of rice, barley, wheat, and elephant grass or alternatively, a more urban waste stream such as newspaper fibre....
       can be made from straw.


  • Rope
    • Rope made from straw was used by thatchers, in the packaging industry and even in iron foundries.


  • Basketry
    • Bee skeps
      Beehive (beekeeping)

      A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the genus Apis live and raise their young. Natural beehives are naturally-occurring structures occupied by honey bee colonies, while domesticated honey bees live in man-made beehives, often in an apiary....
       and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique is known as lip work.


  • Sandals
    • Koreans wear Jipsin
      Jipsin

      Jipsin are Korean traditional Sandal made from straw. Koreans have worn straw sandals since ancient times. They are categorized as yi , shoes with a short height, and the specific name can vary according to the ingredients, as with samsin, wanggolsin, cheongol jisin, and budeulsin. In the Joseon period, jipsin were worn m...
      , sandals made of straws.


  • Horticulture
    Horticulture

    'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, Crop , plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology....
    • Straw is used in cucumber
      Cucumber

      The cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash , and in the same genus as the muskmelon....
       houses and for mushroom
      Mushroom

      A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, hence the word mushroom is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem , a cap , and gills on the unde...
       growing.
    • In Japan
      Japan

      Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
      , certain trees are wrapped with straw to protect them from the effects of a hard winter as well as to use them as a trap for parasite insects.
    • It is also used in ponds to reduce algae by changing the nutrient ratios in the water.
    • The soil under strawberries
      Strawberry

      Fragaria is the name of a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits....
       is covered with straw to protect the ripe berries from dirt, and straw is also used to cover the plants during winter to prevent the cold from killing them.
    • Straw also makes an excellent mulch
      Mulch

      In agriculture and gardening, is a protective cover placed over the soil, primarily to modify the effects of the local climate. A wide variety of nature and Synthetic fiber materials are used....
      .


  • Decoration
    Arts and crafts

    Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's own hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"....
    • Corn dollies
      Corn dolly

      Corn dollies are a form of straw work made for, and associated with, harvest customs of Europe before mechanisation.Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the "corn" lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless....
    • Straw marquetry
      Straw marquetry

      Straw marquetry is a craft very similar to that of wood marquetry, except that straw replaces the wood veneer. It is thought to have first been practised in the East; examples were brought to England in the 17th century....
    • Harvest crosses


  • Erosion control
    Erosion control

    Erosion control is the practice of preventing or controlling wind or water erosion in agriculture, land development and construction. This usually involves the creation of some sort of physical barrier, such as vegetation or rock, to absorb some of the energy of the wind or water that is causing the erosion....
    • Burned area emergency response
      Burned area emergency response

      Burned area emergency response is an emergency risk management reaction to post wildfire conditions that pose risks to human life and property or could further destabilize or degrade the burned lands....
    • Ground cover
    • In-stream check dams


See also

  • Drinking straw
    Drinking straw

    A drinking straw is a short tube used for transferring a liquid - usually a drink from one location to another . The earliest drinking straws were hollow stems of grass, literally made of straw....
  • Hay
    Hay

    Hay is a generic term for Poaceae or legumes that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, domestic goat, and sheep....