price of straw

MELOC · #1 03/21/08, 09:36 AM

i will be trying to keep after my strawberry patches a bit better this year and that means lots of straw for mulch. i have tried other mulching methods and feel i need straw. grass can rot taking the strawberry plants with it at times. raking leaves is out...just too difficult this time of year. compost is out...that is at a premium for the time being as i need it elsewhere. so, i must bite the bullet and buy straw. the last i saw, straw was $3-$4 per bale...i can only guess it is more like $5-$6 now...if it stops there. i saw one farmer baling straw in large round bales last year. i wonder what a large bale of straw costs and if it would be a savings over buying square bales? does anyone have any idea how many small bales of straw are equivilent to a large round bale?

Windy in Kansas · #2 03/21/08, 10:05 AM

They used to say that one large round bale had the equivalency of 24 small bales. The large round bales are now packed much tighter than they used to be so probably contain more than just 24.

When I cut the twine of a large bale years ago I was shocked to see just how much straw was in it. My mulch was a foot thick that year just so I didn't have to haul the excess off.

The straw in a large round bale isn't packed into flakes the way a small is so is much easier to use as mulch in my opinion.

Can't help you with prices. The last I bought were $15 per round picked up in the field the same day they were baled. That was in 1997.

Janis Sauncy · #3 03/21/08, 10:50 AM

$7.00 - $8.00 a bale for oat straw in my area (feed store prices). I'm sure it will be going up soon.

I used it for straw bale gardening last year. I had been planning on trying to find a grower I could buy it from directly in late July or August for this year's garden (eliminate the middle man) but I got hurt in the middle of July and everything else kind of took a back seat.

I had a heck of a time with sprouting (oats). I thought that would be minimal, which is why I went with straw in the first place instead of old hay. This year, though, I'm going to post ads around (I already have one on Freecycle) asking for old hay and will try that. I'm sure I will end up with weed seeds but I guess I'll find out if those will be any worse than all the oat sprouts I got.

Janis

turtlehead · #4 03/21/08, 12:01 PM

Around here straw is about $4-$5 per bale, and hay is the same. Mulch hay is even cheaper.

I know what you mean about liking straw for the strawberries though. It's hard to keep the slugs out of the strawberry bed.

MELOC · #5 03/21/08, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by turtlehead

Around here straw is about $4-$5 per bale, and hay is the same. Mulch hay is even cheaper.

I know what you mean about liking straw for the strawberries though. It's hard to keep the slugs out of the strawberry bed.

and those dadgum sap beetles as well, even though that has nothing to do with the mulch. i really hate to resort to plastic, but i should keep my mind open to alternatives in case i have to. $8 per bale for straw is more than i can afford.

ET1 SS · #6 03/21/08, 08:38 PM

$2 per bale in the field, $2.50 stacked in a loft.

MELOC · #7 03/21/08, 08:44 PM

i'll take 40 bales please...in the loft.

Scrounger · #8 03/21/08, 08:45 PM

Here it is $2 in the barn. Been that way forever.

ET1 SS · #9 03/21/08, 09:06 PM

We were paying more, but recently found a guy whose hay has a little bit of milkweed in it. Folks whose livestock are penned up, and depend completely on what feed they are given, must be far more careful in what they give their animals. My goats live underneath the forest canopy, they eat trees and brush. I am only feeding them when there is too much snow on the ground so they can't get to the brush anymore. My goats still eat the trees, but need a bit more, so I feed them the cheaper hay.

rambler · #10 03/21/08, 09:40 PM

I sell to a friend for $1.10 a bale, he gets them out of my barn. Delivered to a auction place at 30-40 bales a pile, they go between $2-2.50 a bale, you lose the 10% commision. I do see people asking $5 a bale delivered, but can't imagine being on either end of those deals - being robbed or being the robber.

Now, location is everything, 'here' straw & hay has always been a low priced deal, other regions the high prices are just standard & that is fine, just depends where you are.

Big round bales come in different sizes from 4x4 to 5x6 foot, and newer balers really pack them compared to older bales, so hard to say unless you know the baler that made it, but 20-30 squares per round is a good starting point.

To unravel a round bale, place it on end, so it stands up like a tube. you can unwind the straw the opposite way the baler wond it up, just walk around the bale. Very hard to fork apart if the bale is sitting as it comes out of the baler.

--->Paul

MELOC · #11 03/21/08, 11:09 PM

there was a pretty big housing boom here for the last 20-25 years. lots of steady growth early on and then a massive surge. i suppose the landscape business is booming and lawn installs and such make local straw a pricey item around here. lots of folks with stabled horses here too, so there is another market. at the same time, many of the farms have disappeared, so production is down i guess.

ET1 SS · #12 03/21/08, 11:17 PM

I am told that this past year's production was a record high.

On average US production of all farms goods has been steadily rising.