When you buy hay, you're not just buying dried grass: you're buying a whole year's work and the guarantee that the forage is safe for your animal. And there, the difference between buying it from a middleman or directly from the producer is enormous.
What you gain by buying direct from the producer
With no middlemen, the hay arrives sooner and fresher — from the hayloft to your door — and doesn't spend months stored in third-party warehouses. The price is fairer, because it isn't marked up by several hands along the way. And, above all, you know where it comes from: the meadow, the month it was cut and who made it. If something doesn't add up, you have a person on the other end of the phone who stands behind their product, not an anonymous barcode.
That closeness is also information: a producer can explain to you why their hay has that color, that smell or that ratio of stem to leaf, and can adapt to what your stable or your rabbits need.
Our meadows in Lles de Cerdanya, at 1,500 metres, during mowing.
PIRIHENO PRODUCER No: ESP25990001
The manufacturer number: who stands behind the hay
A legal producer is registered in the records that apply to them and has a number that identifies them. For animal feed, that means being registered as an operator in the animal feed sector, with a registration number —at Piriheno, ESP25990001—. It's not bureaucracy: it's what makes a sale traceable.
That number means there's a real business behind it, subject to inspection, that stands behind what it sells and can trace every batch back to the meadow it came from. When you buy hay "loose," with no invoice or registration, none of that exists: no traceability, no one responsible, no guarantee.
The quality controls behind it
Producing hay with guarantees means controlling the product at every stage. Here are the ones that matter most:
Moisture, control number one
Hay is baled dry, with moisture below 15-20%. If it's baled wet, it ferments inside the bale: it loses nutritional value, grows mold and stops being fit for the animal. Measuring moisture before baling — with a probe or through experience with the grass itself — is what separates a good hay from a ruined bale.
Bale temperature
The work doesn't end at baling. In the first weeks in the hayloft, a bale heating up inside is a warning that it held too much moisture: it ferments, grows moldy and, in extreme cases, that heating can even trigger spontaneous combustion. That's why the temperature of freshly made bales is monitored and they're stored so air can circulate between them.
Sight, smell and touch
A quality hay is easy to recognize: green color, a dry-grass smell — never damp or musty —, a fine stem, little dust and no mold at all. It's the oldest control there is and it's still essential for every batch.
Traceability by meadow and cut
Knowing which meadow and which month of cutting each bale comes from closes the loop: if something goes wrong, it can be traced; and if a hay works especially well, it can be repeated.
How we do it at Piriheno
Our hay is our own production, mown on our meadows in Lles de Cerdanya, deep in the Pyrenees, at around 1,500 meters, and comes from a registered operation, with invoicing and traceability. The same moisture, temperature and condition checks we apply to the hay our own horses eat are the ones we apply to what we send you: there's no second-rate quality.
