Yeah Hay!

[plowjockey]

Since I have to buy all of my sheep hay, it's nice to see prices finally come down.

Here in NE Indiana, 1st and 2nd cut alfalfa/grass mix is $2-3 per small bale. I'm stocking up.

How is hay doing where you live?

[ROCKIN R FARM]

Had about 8 acres of tall fescue with a little red clover in it cut & baled a couple weeks ago got 20 big round bales off of it ! I was amazed, but this is the fist time it has been touched in the 2 years i've owned the place.

[Joshie]

Remember that when that price gets too low it's not worth baling it. Costs us about $1.50 to cut and bale it. Not really worth making enough to sell at $2/bale.

[Patt]

Looks like it will probably go up around here since we had a longer than normal winter and a rain shortage in a good part of the state this year.

[Linda J]

Hay is coming down here, too. I just paid $65.00 round bale for horse hay, I know that sounds high to some of you, but we've had a horrible drought and was paying $85.00 a round bale up to 2 weeks ago. Please keep praying for rain for central Texas, it's going to take a ways to really restore the earth. I saw square bales at $6.00 each, you load. I've paid 8-9 each last winter.

[Callieslamb]

I'm sitting here with my four acres waiting for my first cutting to get done....Alas. It's hard to be the small guy at times. Now I will be buying my hay all winter again. We only had one week without rain all summer...and that week, my hay guy's dad died. Alas again!

[clovis]

Originally Posted by plowjockey

Since I have to buy all of my sheep hay, it's nice to see prices finally come down.

Here in NE Indiana, 1st and 2nd cut alfalfa/grass mix is $2-3 per small bale. I'm stocking up.

How is hay doing where you live?

You better buy all that you can at those prices. You should consider filling the barn with so much hay that the neighbors tease you about it. When they get done laughing, load all you can outside, and tarp it off. Then load your truck with hay too.

A year ago, in central Indiana, square bales of absolute trash was selling for $5 a bale. I saw two year old horse quality hay sell for $9 a bale, and the buyer bought every bale of it.

This year, even though I haven't been pricing it, hay seems to be in the $3 range, and large rounds seem to be in the $35 range.

[motdaugrnds]

Quality orchard grass (no alfalfa) in my area is selling for $8.00 per square bale; and it has many heads in it!

Since I have not had time nor money enough to rennovate our 4 acres of pasture, I am having to buy our hay. I have 4 quality bales left that I got earlier this year from one who got his hay in early May ($8.00 per bale then too). I am trying to hold off buying anymore until this fall when I hope it will be of a better quality. Don't know what I'm going to do if it isn't.

[SFM in KY]

Two years ago, with the drought here in Kentucky, we were paying $90 a bale for the big square bales that were being trucked in.

It's pretty much back to normal/average now ... good grass or grass/alfalfa mix in the big rounds runs about $35 to $45 ... good small square bales of grass or grass/alfalfa mix is usually $4. I do prefer alfalfa but here it is really difficult to get good alfalfa hay. With so much humidity, almost nobody gets it dry enough and you end up either with some mold, or most of the leaves crisped into dust.

[PA Katahdins]

Hay is doing well here with normal prices of $2.50-$3 for small squares and $30-$40 for rounds and big squares. I already have 35 big squares in the barn from our grass field and have another 30 alfalfa big squares i am buying off a neighbor out of the field. We had rain all at the wrong times this spring which made for a late first cutting around here but those that got it off early are looking at their third cutting in the next couple weeks.

[Molly Mckee]

Here in E WA state the good alfalfa is holding at about $150.00 a ton, timothy 165.00 and good grass or grass alfalfa 110.-120 a ton. You can find cheaper hay if you don't care if there are lots of weeds. We had a late spring, record rain in June and haying is about 3 weeks behind. This is the cheapest time to buy hay, especially if you can buy it off the field. A lot of hay here goes overseas so the price for good hay won't drop too much.

[Joshie]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

I'm sitting here with my four acres waiting for my first cutting to get done....Alas. It's hard to be the small guy at times. Now I will be buying my hay all winter again. We only had one week without rain all summer...and that week, my hay guy's dad died. Alas again!

We've had the same problem. Our hay guy cut ours in the only 2 clear days a couple of weeks ago. It was ruined for our horses so we told our hay guy to keep it for his cattle. Figure in the long run at least it'll keep our hay guy happy.

It's been a bit drier lately so I'm hoping that we get a good second cutting. If we save it to sell this winter, hopefully we'll get more than the $3 we got last winter. We need horse hay here.

We only have 10 acres.

[julieq]

Here in Southern Idaho it's 8.00 per small bale (about 90 lb bales) of grass, 9.00 per small bale for alfalfa. It's about the same as last year. But our hay guy did tell us that due to late rains he hasn't had a good year for grass hay, so not sure how that's going to effect pricing later this year for horse hay.

[dixienc]

Coastal hay is going for $4 from the barn or $3.50 in the field. Big round bales are ranging from $25-$35 this year about the same as last year. The feed stores are selling square bales at $6.50 and have been since last fall.

[BethW]

First cutting orchardgrass is going for 4.50-5.50 per square bale here. We had a nice spring with good rain, but it's completely dried up in the last 2 months. No telling when the next cutting will be, if at all. The fields are completely baked right now.