Alpacas can be kind of picky eaters and will eat the hay they like, then cast off the stalks they don't want. During the winter months, we let this cast off hay lay on the ground for them to use as bedding. We find they love to cush on top of this hay, and actually seem to stay warm by doing so. I've read that if the hay piles get deep enough, and it is warm enough deep inside the pile, it will start to compost, creating even more warmth.
This winter was longer than usual, with really no thaws in between big snow storms. We also have had a very cool spring. This means that we didn't clean up these cast off hay piles until this past week. J spent the better part of last week and I spent some time this weekend digging up these piles to move them away from the main pasture area. While it would be possible to leave them where they are, I'd worry once the weather warms up the piles will attract bugs and start to smell as they decompose more.
We had two big mountains of cast off hay in our girls area. It took several days of work for us to move all of it to the back area.
I think of this as farm "spring cleaning."
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