
Straw is an agricultural
byproduct consisting of the dry
stalks of
cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...
plants after the
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...
and
chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the
yield by weight of cereal crops such as
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
,
oats,
rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
,
rye and
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
. It has a number of different uses, including
fuel
A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work (physics), work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chem ...
,
livestock bedding and
fodder,
thatching and
basket making.
Straw is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a
bale, or bundle, of straw tightly bound with twine, wire, or string. Straw bales may be square, rectangular, star shaped or round, and can be very large, depending on the type of
baler used.
Uses
Current and historic uses of straw include:
Animal feed

Straw may be fed as part of the
roughage component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has a low digestible energy and nutrient content (as opposed to
hay, which is much more nutritious). 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. It may be fed as it is, or chopped into short lengths, known as
chaff.
Basketry
Bee skeps and linen
baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique is known as lip work.
Bedding
Straw 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.
The straw-filled mattress, also known as a
palliasse, is still used by people in many parts of the world.
Bioplastic
Rice straw, an agricultural waste which is not usually recovered, can be turned into
bioplastic with mechanical properties akin to
polystyrene in its dry state.
Chemicals
Straw is being investigated as a source of
fine chemicals including
alkaloid
Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids.
Alkaloids are produced by a large varie ...
s,
flavonoids,
lignins,
phenols
In organic chemistry, phenols, sometimes called phenolics, are a class of chemical compounds consisting of one or more hydroxyl groups (− O H) bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon group. The simplest is phenol, . Phenolic compounds ar ...
, and
steroid
A steroid is an organic compound with four fused compound, fused rings (designated A, B, C, and D) arranged in a specific molecular configuration.
Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes t ...
s.
Construction material
In many parts of the world, straw is used to bind clay and
concrete. A mixture of clay and straw, known as
cob, can be used as a building material. There are many recipes for making cob.
When
baled, straw has moderate insulation characteristics (about R-1.5/inch according to Oak Ridge National Lab and Forest Product Lab testing). It can be used, alone or in a post-and-beam construction, to build
straw bale houses. When bales are used to
build or
insulate buildings, the straw bales are commonly finished with
earthen plaster. The plastered walls provide some
thermal mass, compressive and ductile structural strength, and acceptable fire resistance as well as thermal resistance (insulation), somewhat in excess of North American
building code. Straw is an abundant agricultural waste product, and requires little energy to bale and transport for construction. For these reasons, straw bale construction is gaining popularity as part of
passive solar and other
renewable energy
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
projects.
Wheat straw can be used as a fibrous filler combined with polymers to produce
composite lumber.
Enviroboard can be made from straw.
Strawblocks are strawbales that have been recompressed to the density of woodblocks, for compact
cargo container shipment, or for
straw-bale construction of
load-bearing walls that support roof-loads, such as a "living" or
green roofs.
Crafts

Craft usages of straw include:
*
Corn dollies
*
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.
To mimic the varying sh ...
*
Straw mobile (straw art)
*
Straw painting
*
Straw plaiting
Straw plaiting is a method of manufacturing textiles by braiding straw and the industry that surrounds the craft of producing these straw manufactures. Straw is plaited to produce products including straw hats and ornaments, and the process is u ...
*
Scarecrows
*
Japanese Traditional Cat's House
*Japanese
wara art
Construction site sediment control
Straw bales are sometimes used for
sediment control at
construction
Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...
sites. However, bales are often ineffective in protecting
water quality and are maintenance-intensive. For these reasons the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and various state agencies recommend use of alternative sediment control practices where possible, such as
silt fences,
fiber rolls and
geotextiles.
They can also be used as
burned area emergency response, as ground cover or as in-stream check dams.
Fuel source
The use of straw as a carbon-neutral energy source is increasing rapidly, especially for
biobutanol. Straw or hay briquettes are a
biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...
substitute to coal.
Straw, processed first as
briquettes, has been fed into a
biogas plant in
Aarhus University, Denmark, in a test to see if higher
gas yields could be attained.
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.
Gardening
Straw bale gardening is also popular among gardeners who do not have enough space for soil gardening. When properly conditioned, straw bales can be used as a perfect
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...
substitute.
Hats
There are several styles of
straw hats that are made of woven straw.
Many thousands of women and children in England (primarily in the
Luton district of Bedfordshire),
and large numbers in the United States (mostly
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
), were employed in
plaiting straw for making hats. By the late 19th century, vast quantities of plaits were being imported to England from Canton in China,
and in the United States most of the straw plait was imported.
A fiber analogous to straw is obtained from the plant ''
Carludovica palmata'', and is used to make
Panama hats.
Traditional Japanese rain protection consisted of a straw hat and a
mino cape.
Horticulture
Straw is used in
cucumber houses and for
mushroom
A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom.
The standard for the n ...
growing.
In
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, 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. (see
Komomaki)
It is also used in ponds to reduce
algae by changing the nutrient ratios in the water.
The soil under
strawberries 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.
Music
In areas of pastoral Europe, straw may be used to create a type of simple, reeded
wind instrument known to English speakers as the
oaten pipe, although similar
instruments are known to be made in Turkey and the Middle east, and north Africa.
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.
Wheat straw is also used in compostable
food packaging such as compostable plates. Packaging made from wheat straw can be certified compostable and will biodegrade in a commercial composting environment.
[Viv Biz Club]
Compostable Plates
Paper
Straw can be pulped to make
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
.
Rope
Rope made from straw was used by thatchers, in the packaging industry and even in iron foundries.
Saekki is a traditional Korean rope made of woven straw.
Shoes
The Chinese wore
cailu or
caixie, shoes and sandals made of straw, well into modernity.
Koreans wear
jipsin, sandals made of straw.
Several types of traditional Japanese shoes, such as
waraji and
zōri, are made of straw.
In some parts of Germany like
Black Forest
The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...
and
Hunsrück people wear straw shoes at home or at carnival.
Targets
Heavy-gauge straw rope is coiled and sewn tightly together to make
archery
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...
targets. This is no longer done entirely by hand, but is partially mechanised. Sometimes a paper or plastic target is set up in front of straw bales, which serve to support the target and provide a safe backdrop.
Thatching
Thatching uses straw,
reed or similar materials to make a waterproof, lightweight roof with good insulation properties. Straw for this purpose (often
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
straw) is grown specially and harvested using a
reaper-binder.
Health and safety
Dried straw presents a fire hazard that can ignite easily if exposed to sparks or an open flame. It can also trigger
allergic rhinitis in people who are hypersensitive to airborne allergens such as straw dust.
See also
*
Corn stover (corn straw)
*
Crop residue
*
Drinking straw
*
Hay
*
Straw (colour)
*
Sheaf (agriculture), a bundle of straw
*
Stook, a stack of straw
*
Straw dog
*
Wood wool
*
Yule Goat
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Biodegradable materials
Biomass
Packaging materials
Building insulation materials
Soil erosion
Natural materials
By-products