How do I tell difference between a bale of hay or straw.

take a good look :straw is very coarse and yellowish used for putting down grass seed, bedding etc. Hay will usually have a sweet smell be greenish inside the bail and look finer like tall grass used for feed, may have a lot of weed seeds so don't use it for landscaping.

Hay is usually green then ages. Straw is golden color and has no green to it. Turns dark with moisture or rain

Straw is yellow and comes from wheat. Hay is green and comes from grass. Also, if you look at a piece of straw, it is hollow. Hope this helps!

Wow that's a hard ?...For me, usually straw has no seeds nothing in the bale looks like it would have nourishment for live stock. Hay has more seeds and clover. I'm sorry hope this helps a bit. You can leave bales of straw outside but hay bales will rot, can't feed it to stock it could make them sick.

That answer is from Barbara D. not Garry

Hay is greenish in color and has small leaves attached to the stems. Straw is yellowish/brownish in color and is the stems only of a stalk of wheat (the wheat heads have been removed). Also, hay bale is much heavier than a bale of straw.

hay is grassy and green and straw is hard and yellow (think scarecrow)

Straw is a paler golden yellow color and lighter in weight. Usually you can pick up or move a straw bale with not too much effort. The stems look hollow, like straws, and the seed heads look grassy, like wheat. Hay is more of a greenish tan, as I recall. Hay may be a mixture of plants, but often has legumes in it like clover or alfalfa, so you can see branched stems and remnants of little green leaves.

This post might help https://chascrazycreations.com/garden-101/