Flax straw is essentially made up of two parts:

Fiber – the long, fibrous strands within the plant stem
Shive – the woody, non-fibrous part of the plant stem

In order to extract the fiber from flax straw, it needs to decompose or “ret” slightly so that the flax and shive begin naturally to separate. For flax straw to begin retting, it needs to come in contact with the soil to allow microbes to get in and start decomposing the straw.

SaskFlax is researching several ways to bring flax straw in contact with the soil, including rolling and mowing techniques. Whatever technique is used, there is a simple test that can be used to determine if the flax straw has retted enough to allow for the fiber to be extracted from the straw.

In this video, Alvin Ulrich demonstrates how producers can test their straw in the field to see if it is ready to rake and bale. For a close-up view of the test, click here.