# What are the "giant marshmallow" things I saw laying out in farm fields? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2014, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993 "2014-06-30T12:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/21 "2014-06-30T19:19:35Z")
Grass silage was common in PA where I grew up. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/22 "2014-06-30T20:32:10Z")
Previous two posts are both correct. Locally haylage is grass based and silage is corn based. Around here the local mega farms no longer bother with silos. They either blow the product into giant plastic bags looking like huge white french bread loaves or into bunkers. Two of my sons were covering bunkers full of haylage yesterday for a neighbor. They usually hire jr high or high schoolers to drag the plastic sheets over the top of the concrete bunkers and to toss the tires on to hold the plastic in place. Bunkers are 3 sided concrete bins about 20’ wide and up to 100’ or more long with 10-15’ foot walls. Product is dumped in the entrance and dozed into as large a pile as possible with a compactor on top pressing it down. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/23 "2014-06-30T21:39:21Z")
It may be that the process of directly acidifying silage is a practice more common in colder climates, where an early onset of cold weather might inhibit natural fermentation. I know it is practiced here in the UK - and had no reason to suspect it would be different elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/24 "2014-06-30T22:03:48Z")
So silage is for preservation, huh? I always thought it made better feed (either because it was partially “digested” or because it released more nutrients into the food or whatever), but Wikipedia says that’s a lesser consideration. Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/25 "2014-07-01T01:34:32Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Tractor eggs. Although there’s no point in stealing one if you’re looking to get a free tractor. Like the banana, tractors have been so altered by selective breeding they’re now incapable of fertilising their eggs/fruits, and have to be produced by cloning. Under the right conditions (kept a secret by the manufacturers) as little as a single bolt can grow into a new tractor in months. That is the silliest thing I’ve heard all evening. I mean yeah, on the bolts and cloning, but tractors used on farms are the larvae; the big things in the field are the pupal stage of the creature. Several variants of the adult forms are shown [on this site](http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/extreme-machines/4299670). Not all survive the metamorphosis, however, and I really don’t want to think about what they do with the ones that don’t. Sausages, I suppose :eek:. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/26 "2014-07-01T06:58:10Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > So silage is for preservation, huh? I always thought it made better feed (either because it was partially “digested” or because it released more nutrients into the food or whatever), but Wikipedia says that’s a lesser consideration. Ignorance fought. I think it’s a bit of both - it’s for preservation, but the fermentation process does also improve the digestibility and some nutritional aspects of the fodder. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/27 "2014-07-01T08:32:50Z")
Here in Oz, we use bright green plastic - exactly the same shade as pumpkins. Many people have been fooled into thinking ‘Wow. This giant pumpkin-growing craze is really getting out of hand’! (Okay, that was just me…) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/28 "2014-07-01T08:40:06Z")
I think those actually are marshmallows, the way they grow, before they are cut into the bite-size pieces seen neatly packed in stores. They are a type of fungus, similar to mushrooms. Like mushrooms, those are just the fruiting bodies you see above ground, as opposed to the mycelium underground. They’ve been bred by marshmallow farmers for several centuries to become that large; feral ones are much smaller. In the farmland area where I once lived ([See this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17493665&postcount=49)), farmers made bales that size and shape but didn’t wrap them in anything. One farmhouse about a mile down the road had one in front of his house with two legs sticking out the end of it. > [@Cities With No Upscale Restaurants](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-no-upscale-restaurants/691481/63): > > San Miguel: joke. The large population referred to are cows. Does San Miguel even have one restaurant? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/29 "2014-07-01T08:44:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > What can I say? I’m a city boy and I rarely venture into the parts of the world where fat elderly men drive tractors down the highway at their leisure. Where I grew up, [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yagpy2t_xA) kind of event was very common. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/30 "2014-07-01T09:33:05Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > Here in Oz, we use bright green plastic - exactly the same shade as pumpkins. In _this_ hemisphere we have orange pumpkins. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/31 "2014-07-01T11:44:32Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > [Hay!](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Round_bale_3066.jpg). Those were outlawed here in Virginia. The cows weren’t getting a square meal ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/32 "2014-07-01T11:46:56Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > In _this_ hemisphere we have orange pumpkins. 😛 It’s like they’re doing everything the opposite on purpose. They live upside down, their pumpkins are green. Their chickens probably lay cube-shaped eggs… ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/33 "2014-07-01T14:04:23Z")
They bale cotton the same way, here in cotton country. Although for some reason the outer wraps on cotton bales are usually yellow. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/34 "2014-07-01T14:14:02Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think it’s a bit of both - it’s for preservation, but the fermentation process does also improve the digestibility and some nutritional aspects of the fodder. It’s also vital in producing that authentic “country” smell, so city folks know where they are. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/35 "2014-07-01T23:54:26Z")
It could be bundles of rolled up field tile…except it’s the wrong time of the year for that. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/36 "2014-07-02T00:52:32Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > It’s also vital in producing that authentic “country” smell, so city folks know where they are. It doesn’t produce _that_ smell until the livestock are _finished_ digesting it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/37 "2014-07-02T01:13:36Z")
Yes…exactly…those are hay bales…nothing else…they are most definitely not alien hive larval pods preparing to hatch and launch a second wave of mind control attacks against the people living in towns and cities after their first scouting wave took over rural areas last March…because that didn’t happen… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/38 "2014-07-02T02:34:29Z")
The were giant [Quaaludes,](http://www.drugs.com/quaaludes.html) specifically Rorer 714’s as most long time Kiss and Def Leppard fans will attest. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/39 "2014-07-02T17:50:12Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > They bale cotton the same way, here in cotton country. Although for some reason the outer wraps on cotton bales are usually yellow. Around here, most of the cotton farms are still using the giant rectangular bales. I assume because they’re the right size to easily fit on a flatbed to go to the processing plant and maybe because they’re too cheap to go the round bales (which are supposedly more efficient - but require newer equipment). You’re right about the yellow plastic. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993/40 "2014-07-02T19:28:56Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Around here, most of the cotton farms are still using the giant rectangular bales. I assume because they’re the right size to easily fit on a flatbed to go to the processing plant and maybe because they’re too cheap to go the round bales (which are supposedly more efficient - but require newer equipment). You’re right about the yellow plastic. Nitpick: those “giant rectangular bales” are called modules. Made by a module builder. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-giant-marshmallow-things-i-saw-laying-out-in-farm-fields/691993.md?page=3)