Hay- Price and availability?

We just got a wagon of late first cut grass, $4 the bale, 50# bales. Like Mulemom said, not enough dry days together to do the hay here. I told the guy selling, he may want to do 2nd cutting a bit early, get it OFF the field so he can get a third cutting this year. He is just starting haying, got the field from our past hay supplier, and is learning as he goes. The old guys got at least a couple wagons off there of first cutting, several hundred bales which WE purchased. Not sure why this cutting didn't produce the quantity like before.

This hay is rather coarse, but edible, so we are happy to have it stacked in the barn. Will be good for feeding outside, where they hunt for every leaf in the cold. Hoping they get a bigger cutting for second, so we don't have to buy all over the place. I hate that. Husband said the price was OK, right in line with other hay sellers locally.

Around here, the hay auction tends to go pretty high. Buyers are only wanting little bunches for their hobby size barns, willing to pay more than me. I also don't want alfalfa hay, too rich for my horses, but looks SO GOOD in the bales.

We used to pay the guys delivering to stack it in the barn, new owner is not willing to do that. Guess we need to line up some guys for the rest of our supply for that. Just can't do 500 bales like I used to. Of course that is double handling, on the truck, off in the barn, so really is like 1000 bales handled. We usually need about 900 bales a year and the sooner I see them in the barn before winter, the happier I am.

Can't/won't do rounds, not big enough equipment and too many chances of moldy bales here with our damp air.

In spite of the awful heat and drought we had a bumper crop last year. Thankfully we never got around to selling it. We haven't been able to get the first cutting in yet because every time our hay guy has cut his own alfalfa it's been ruined by rain. His first cutting got moldy and his second isn't good enough for his horses. This is the year his alfalfa should be best. He should have gotten four good cuttings.

He said it was good when I told him we hadn't sold last year's hay. We might not get anything this year. Every time he tries to cut ours it has rained. He hopes to do it this week but it's not looking great. It has to get off the field. Unfortunately fewer people cutting hay nowadays.

The guy who used to bale our hay got a job managing a ranch in Wyoming. His friend and our neighbor is going to do it this year. Our neighbor said that most of the people who cut hay around here have stopped. He said it would be a lot easier to buy the hay he needs than putting it up himself. I suppose that if our neighbor ever does stop doing our hay we'd have to put the horses out on the hay field. As long as the snow doesn't get too deep we might make it through most of the winter without hay.

__________________
Moms don't look at things like normal people.
-----DD

I ever get to where I can put up my own hay, I'm planning to have 2 years worth at a time for just in case. Right now, I don't have the room for it. But there have been years when hay has been scarce because it's been too dry and other years when hay has been scarce because it's been too wet.

I should have all the hay I need by some time in August. And I may, just to be on the safe side, get an extra 30 bales or so for just in case.

For those dealing with damp hay, not enough time to dry before another storm, you might want to check into spraying the hay with propionic acid to cure it for storing in the barn. Here is some information about the whole reason spraying helps, how to do it, and much more about the topic.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...preventing.htm

The propionic acid is actually a form of vinegar, which CAN make the bales smell like pickles in the barn.

We have purchased hay from a hay maker who used this spraying method to get his crop into bales and stored before losing the crop. He was able to bale with a much higher moisture level, spraying the loose hay as it entered the baler. We found the sprayed hay to be excellent feed for the horses, stayed very green if not in sunshine, kept ALL the calories, so we actually fed less hay over winter than normal, horses stayed in great condition. Horses LIKED the flavor, ate it readily. We never found a bad bale in the entire amount of hay we purchased from him, two years running. Probably 1000 bales.

Down side is those bales would normally weigh 60#, but sprayed, they were probably at least 75# each. LOT of hefting to get them on the truck and nicely stacked in the barn. Second item is you CAN NOT let the sprayed hay touch unsprayed bales, it WILL make them moldy. We hung a big tarp from the ceiling beams, which prevented that moisture transfer, had no mold problem using the tarp between the two kinds of hay.

In other discussions about using the acid-curing method, there were complaints about acid making the baler life shorter by causing corrosion with the spraying. So something to consider. Our hay guy said he could not have had ANY HAY put up, without using the spray, the season was so bad those two years. He puts up thousands of bales of hay, was the only guy in his area that got hay baled and stored in the barn those years. To him, the baler having a shorter life was the trade off to have a crop to use and sell, got another baler when the first one finally died. Wasn't new when sprayers added, didn't die fast, but didn't last 20+ more years either. Moved the sprayer set-up to the new-to-him used baler when he needed to replace the first one. He only used the sprayer if he had to, acid cost made the hay cost more to sell.

If you are doing your own hay, guess you have to decide if getting ANY CROP of hay done is worth the shorter life of your baler in using the propionic acid to cure your hay during baling when hay is such a high moisture content. Our hay guy was baling thick, heavy growth hay, grass mix, alfalfa straight, on the second day to get it in the barn before it got rained on. Again, sprayed hay we got was not moldy at all, in what I consider a large amount of bales, done over two years. His barn didn't burn from hot hay!! A good sign about how dry the bales he kept were!!!

You can do a search on propionic acid for hay, read other information. Just looks like this will be such a wet year for everyone, so having sprayer on the baler could let you get second cutting baled and in the barn between storms.

If you buy treated hay check the protein. The spray can increase the protein in some conditions. This can be a problem in alfalfa that is high protein to begin with, especially for horses. It does make very pretty hay tho, and as long as you take the protein into consideration, it's fine for horses.

Good hay year here.

130-140 a ton for good grass hay.

Holy cow!! $502/ton?! I was getting ready to wonder how you thought our prices here in eastern WA were cheap until I read that!
We don't feed orchard as the horses don't like it that much anyhow, not counting that it's more money.

We buy a brome/wheat/fescue mix which is $200 this year. Was $150 in 2012, then $174 last year... sheesh! They really like it, it is only a few miles up the road, and unless you know somebody, it is on the cheaper end cost wise.

We also make sure to buy all we need (and then some) at the beginning of the summer when it is all getting cut, as opposed to waiting until fall.

In my part of Cali a 3 string 100 lbs bale of quality grass hay goes for around $20. California and Nevada hay are going overseas too.

I'm not a horse person, I just saw the thread title.

we recently paid $18/bale (120 pound bales) for oat and alfalfa. That is delivered and stacked but west of us it's closer to $25/bale. Crazy expensive.

This morning I filled my hay shed with a medium quality grass alfalfa at $400 per ton. That is 2 months early for me and I'm still feeding last years hay but I was worried that hay will be more difficlt to get later on with irrigation being cut off for so many local ranchers.

But I've heard the gloom and doom at other times too and it turned out to be wrong. It is always a comfortable feeling to look at a well stock hay shed. And I'm pretty sure the price won't go down this year.

__________________
For we used to ask when we were little, thinking that the old men knew all things which are on earth: yet forsooth they did not know; but we do not contradict them, for neither do we know.

We've been very wet in Michigan, so it grows but they can't get it off the field. I got lucky and found a guy I pre-buy from. I pay half down in the fall and it puts me at the top of his priority list in the spring. I'm paying 3.25 a bale this year delivered and stacked. Good deal.

I can only dream of that. Michigan had some of the best hay in the world.

__________________
For we used to ask when we were little, thinking that the old men knew all things which are on earth: yet forsooth they did not know; but we do not contradict them, for neither do we know.

Our prices are a based on a lot of variables but first cut was very good but already set at $170/ton for good grass hay but conditions are very hot and dry now so I'm guessing that's going to go up over the next couple months because second cut will be affected by conditions either by way of additional irrigation costs or the hail storms that usually follow long hot dry spells. If we happen to have an early winter, we could see hay sitting at close to $200/ton.

Lots of rain in East Texas this year. 4x5 Round bales from $30-$45

I just bought my winter round bales and half were delivered yesterday, the other half will come in today. Bought 5x5 rounds, about 1100 lbs each, for $60 a bale. Called my local feed store that cuts and rounds their own fields, their comparable Bermuda rounds are $90 per bale. I think I got a danged good deal for $60 a bale (from an employee of ours who hays his fields), then I read your post!! LOL! Oh well, this batch I got is beautiful. I picked up 47 rounds this time, should last me a good while.

We have had a really great summer so far rain wise, and today the rain settled over us for several hours this morning. I am looking forward to a couple more really good grazing weeks coming up! If we have rain in August and a good, wet, fall, I can hope for grazing into January if we don't get ridiculous ice storms every weekend from November through February! Last year I was buying round bales as early as Thanksgiving. That killed my winter hay budget!

195.00 a ton for certified alfalfa here. We feed alfalfa during the winter and then a grassier mix as it warms up. We can still get some of last years alfalfa for less.

__________________

Grass hay 300 lb small rounds $25 each.

Prices in our local area are holding, at $250-300 a ton for alfalfa, with the out of state buyers and no rain to speak of. People are baling weed fields, with a little bit of grass. I have no idea what poor animals are going to get that, but it will certainly spread weeds around.

Geez, maybe we need to move back to NY. We pay by the bale here, not per ton, and usually for horse hay you are paying $5/bale first cutting (~40lb bales). However, we were able to pick up out of the field this year from two different places. First one we got it for $4/bale and the other $3.50 (smaller bales, very late first cutting).

I still need more first cutting, plus will need second cutting for the sheep.

__________________
=====================
Karen
Birchtree Homestead Farm
http://birchtreefarm.com
=====================

Cheap hay is to make up for the property taxes.

__________________
People say I can't multi-task. Well, I can tick you off and amuse myself at the same time.