What's the Price of Hay In Your Area?
 

Here in mid-Missouri the hay for the first cutting seems to be thick and plentiful. Lots of rain in the spring has been kind to the hay fields. Farmers are bailing every where you look. We're already looking for our winter hay...we've learned to buy the first cutting and store it away so we don't have to worry if there is a summer drought. Prices for 4x5 large round bales here are running $45 to $90. Some are net wrapped...some are good mixed grasses..some are more weeds than grass. We were hoping with the hay being plentiful this spring that the prices would drop back to $25-$35 per bale. Just wondering what hay is selling for where you live?

We have been fortunate with timely rains. Hay is very easy to find right now.
I have put 161 small squares of 1st cutting alfalfa/grass mix in the barn so far. I'll need about 400 of hay and about 50 to 75 of straw for this coming winter.
The hay cost me $2.10 per bale for the first 95 and $2.75 for the rest. It's average in quality with the stems that are normal in 1st cutting hay.
The straw will be 1.75 each with us picking it out of the field.

The rest of the hay will be 2nd or 3rd cutting alfalfa. It will cost somewhere around 2.50 to 3.25 per.

I'm hearing about people selling 6 and 7 dollar small squares around here. They generally go around 3. Yikes.

Straight alfalfa here is 225 a ton undelivered...the main kinds of hay around here are alfalfa, alfalfa/grass, and grass. Local grass hay isn't that much cheaper. Alfalfa is the cheapest, and it's brought in from other parts of California, no major alfalfa grown around here.

5'x6' round hay was $90 dollars here last year during our drought. This year, it's ranging from 35 to 55 depending upon quality.

Paying $80/ton for grass hay wrapped and delivered.

You can buy last year's grass hay for $1.25-2.00/sq. bale (if you look around) and last year's 4'X5's for $12-15... this year's is $3-4/sq. and $30-50/round...

if we don't get some dang rain in the next couple of weeks, it will probably double and the beef market is going to be flooded once again... and you know what that's like!

There is none. NO ONE has hay. I've never seen it this bad.

I have a friend who has a friend who was custom baling a small patch for someone up in Georgia. They'd had a couple of showers on this patch so it was up enough to bale a little off of. This guy stops and asks how much for the hay, and he tells him he's only baling it, it's not his hay. The guy insists, and he tells him again that it's not his hay to sell. The guy gets belligerent and tells him he's getting some hay whether he takes any money for it or not. He has to call the Sheriff's Dept. on his cell phone to come to the guy.

Now that takes guts... or a whole pile of stupid!! He could still get hanged in some parts of the country for such an attitude...

hay
 

Here in S.Central Ky. we just paid $20 for a round bale. I think it is 5x6. Fairly good hay. I thought that was awful until I read this thread. We'd have to get rid of our highlands if the hay was as high as some of you are reporting.

That's for sure. I know some folks around here who would've called the Sheriff to tell'em there was a dead idiot laying on their property.

I am in GA and there is no hay to be had unless you find someone who is shipping it in from somewhere else. I found a guy with some grass hay off of irrigated fields. He is asking $125 per 4x4 bale with a limit of a 2 bale at a time purchase. I asked his reasoning for a 2 bale limit, he said that with no hay that the price is going up by the week and if he sold it all at one time he would be loosing profits later on. I didnt buy any from him but a friend of mine did. I contacted another lady I found on the internet that is close to me and is having alfalfa/orchard mix shipped in from another state and she wants $21 a piece for 55lb square bales. So another friend and I are going in halves on a tractor trailer load shipped in and geting a much better deal even with the high fuel prices.

Right now grass hay is $100/ton out of the field, I haven't seen any alfalfa advertised yet. I'm planning on selling all my cows and just run a couple of steers every year for ourselves and to sell to buy a couple more steers the next year. I don't have the time to bale all the hay I need or pay as much as it's going for.

Bobg

We pay $30 delivered for the 800 lb round bales. That's $75/ton delivered. This is in northern central Vermont.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

We buy 3000 bales each year. so the higher price is a killer- we bought euipment and found a few free fields to cut- so this will save us this year.
We already bought $1200. it is $2. for small bales, and straw is $3.00 for wimpy bales.

Liz In NY

BJ -- I am in MO but since I moved out of the burbs I don't know a lot of local people that put up hay and no one is advertising in the paper. The only leads I have are from the feed store.... where else should I look?

Today, here in Virginia, I saw them baling wheat straw along the road I live on. The wheat crop was so good that the bales were hardly 6 feet apart. I never saw so many. They were stacking them about 20 feet wide, 20 feet tall and hundreds of feet long. Tarps on top and wooden supports to keep the stacks from toppling. I can't imagine what they will do with so many.

If the wheat is an indicator, then the hay should be good, too. I got a cutting off of my pastures, while the cattle were grazing it. Beautiful hay! It has since turned hot and dry, so I won't try to get a second cutting.

I've seen first cutting square bales offered as low as $2.00 and first cut 4x4 bales for $16, delivered. I've contracted for 2nd cutting round bales for $16 and square bales for $3.50, delivered.

Just 50 miles east of me, near Virginia Beach, square bales of good grass are going for $10 and up. It's very urban there, not rural like here. I've bought some hay here for people who live there and had them pay for hauling.

Hay prices are so regional. We need a good way to buy and sell, so that the prices even out. Take a look at what the State of North Carolina does for it's farmers on this site: http://www.ncagr.com/paffairs/class/6-07hay.htm

NC lets it's state farmers advertise for sale for free on this site, while anyone can place a wanted ad on the site. I think that every state should have a site like NC's. Virginia doesn't have a similar site.

We can call our agricultural extension agent, who will match us up with hay producers. I called and got a list of 5 hay producers. The best deals I got through friends and word-of-mouth.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

You all will think I'm nuts but we pay 130 for a large round delivered. This is grass/alfalfa mix. The large rounds are averaging 1500 pounds. I can buy a ton of 1st cutting grass/alfalfa mix small squares for 120. We have to haul it, but at these prices I have to stock up - because it will go up even more. Wish I had more money right now. We have been in a drought here for 5 plus years. Your high prices look really good to me.

Anne
CGR

Then you'll be tickled senseless here in KY! Where the drought is killing us up on the ridges, those folks in the bottoms are still getting some fairly decent hay.

What we have to watch for now are those guys trying to squeeze their hay crop with nitrate, which isn't all that good for pregnant mares... leads to a high % of still-borns and aborted foals according to UK.

We are very lucky to have the friends and neighbors that we do. We are getting 1000 lb round bales (70% clover & 30% mixed grass) for $15.00.

They only live about a mile from us.

$1.35 off the field for small square bales.

Got 1000 coming this week and will get more if it will fit.

Around here, hay prices have varied. The other night at the Salebarn 2nd cutting alfalfa went for $7.00-$7.50 a bale (and I know for a fact that the alfalfa was not top notch). It all falls apart as soon as the bale is broken. We have dairy goats that are not very picky and they don't really like it that well. We paid $2.60 at a farm/estate auction for last year grass/alfalfa mix. And that was bidding against someone else. Hay at another salebarn has been going upwards of around $10.00 a bale for alfalfa and mix hay.

We paid $2.50 for grass and $3.00 for alfalfa last year. This year (same person) we are paying $3.50 for grass and $4.00 for alfalfa. And now our hay guy tells us he will not have enough for us and just a few weeks ago he had set aside plenty for us. Our 500 bales in the barn that we have had to use some of for goats is not looking like nearly as much any more. Our 2nd cutting alfalfa is ready to go again. It is thin and needs replanted.

Carisa

I just moved to western PA and arranged to buy 700 first cutting square bales of grass hay for $3 each.

In Michigan, I was getting 2nd cutting for $2.50 last year, but that was from a neighbor I'd done business with for years ... can't expect the same good deals here right away!

Luckily, the supplier is only a mile or so from my place, which will make hauling easy. He agreed to let me pay as I go, too, so I didn't have to come up with a lot of cash at once. Nice guy!

Just heard back from the extension agent he game me a few numbers and said hay was in short supply in our area and they *might* have some to spare.

hay prices
 

here in Tennessee they square bales are going for $5.00-$6.00 per bale, and the round bales are going for about $60.00 per roll. :flame:

Hay seems to be in short supply everywhere - even on the other side of the world. I don't make hay off our farm as we are mainly Kykuyu grass which makes lousy hay so always buy in. This year there has been none at all advertised.

I've sourced 200 conventional bales because Kevin does a lot of mechanical work for the Bretherens up here who own vast tracts of land. $5.50 per conventional bale, plus GST plus trucking - all up, about $7.50 a bale. Beautiful hay so I'm not complaining too much and I can at least claim the GST on both it and the trucking but it's the most I've ever had to pay.

Cheers,
Ronnie

A friend of ours leases a couple hundred acres for hay. It's just down the road, but sort of secluded.
He went there last week to check on it. Someone had gone in there, cut, baled and removed every bit of hay on the place. Without anyone noticing.
Unbelievable.

Hay leads in Missouri
 

Here are some sites that you can watch, although we found most of the people to be hay brokers and more expensive...but they do have hay for those in dire need.

Last year we drove the roads and stopped everywhere we say bales in the field and we inquired at the closest house who it belonged to. Our best method is to make a "Wanted" flyer with tear off tabs with our phone number and post it at the local feed store, farm store, livestock auction barn and gas/convenience store. We have had several calls this spring as a result of those flyers. We have already locked in the 120 large bales of mixed grasses @ $25 per bale and last week we picked up 100 bales of really good alfalfa for $2.50/small bale. We should be set for the winter. Good Luck! :)

http://www.mda.mo.gov/Market/haydirectory.htm
http://agebb.missouri.edu/haylst/index.htm
http://www.hayexchange.com/mo.htm
http://www.haybarn.com/reports/lists...O&category=Hay
http://www.missourihayforsale.com/

We have a 5x6 baler, but we are the only one for miles. The big ones just arent as popular

By the square bale here in w. Illinois we pay $3-$3.50 for grass hay. Last year was really dry and this spring we had cold snaps that hurt the growing.

Hay just got cheaper here in central Missouri. We've had around 4 inches of rain in the last 2 hours. That will make a 2nd cutting.........more hay/cheaper hay.

Everybody round bales here, except a very few for the horse set or the high-dollar hobbyists. It is exceptional drought here, and like the Florida comments, there is little hay to be had. A 5x5 roll is $100. The line of trailers at the cattle auction barns each Tuesday and Thursday in town is unreal long.

I usually work it out by trade and sales that my feeding portion costs me nothing. Not this year. I have $25 a bale in it, even after all the trading, and proud of it being so cheap. I just wish I had 100 more bales to sell.

Dunno about a fall hay crop. Maybe, if we get some more rain along the way. Getting mighty late, though. My hay land looks like it was cut a week ago, not 2 months ago.

Fortunately, I saw this coming and started last November fencing more pasture. Finished end of May. I'm good on graze.

if it ever quits raining long enough we will have plenty...we have several fields lined up, we wont cut ours this year, just leave it for them to graze...