Hay Prices Going Up?

Prices here usually go up before the end of winter too. I haven't checked local prices cause I still have some of my hay in the barn. It's always best to buy the full winter supply early before prices go up. If I can't find anyone to cut this year I'll be buying next year. I have 10 acres that can be cut, but around here there is nobody who will cut it anymore. My neighbor used to cut it, but he quit cutting and I can't get anyone else to commit to it next year.

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We just bought 65 bales of alfalfa/grass mix for 2.50 each. they aren't as good as the earlier hay we bought from this person, but still good hay

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"They laughed, because he was different"

"He laughed, because they were all the same"

It's crazy... thank goodness I have only the rabbit, one lone goat kid, and the poultry to buy hay for... plain old straw is $9 a square here, go figure. Makes me cringe.

Up here, you really started noticing people selling off their animals fall 2005... made me so sad. There's one ranch down the road with the most BEAUTIFUL longhorns, the day we passed and saw they had only four in their fields I almost cried. But, a couple weeks ago the two cows calved, and they are slowly building the herd back up... maybe things will get better with all the rain we've had.

There is an organic, grass-fed operation near us, too... critters have been so lean the last couple years they've had to grind entire carcasses into Steakburger. Sigh.

Small square bales of alfalfa here are $11.50, coastal grass hay bales are $9 - $10. Round bales are running around $100. We have big dairy operations here, and I don't know how they manage to pay for the hay. They have always had to purchase the hay as they rarely have the cows on pasture anyway, but the prices are enough to send you reeling.

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"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."
Thomas Jefferson

I didn't realize it was that bad down there. I know it's raising our prices because some of our hay around here is being shipped down there.

Does anyone know where we could get a good price on a couple of steers? We might drive down there if the price was good enough.

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ICOG7.ORG
Layton Hollow ADGA Nubians
Taking Reservation for 2015!

Prices are so location-specific. And demand-specific, and also "what's the other guy getting" specific. They are coming down here, quite a bit. But then I am in the South and winter is almost over here. Finding hay at almost half what it was in late December now. Not that I need to buy any, I just keep up with prices cuz I do sell some.

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

We just made a deal to buy it out of the field at $1.50 a bale, as many bales as we want, any cutting we want. That's about the best way to buy it I think. Down side, you better be ready to drop everything, jump and run when they call!

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Cloven Trail Farm
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Ja-Lyn's Radio Flyer, aka "Rad" on his 17th birthday.
9/14/93 -12/3/10.
Rest peacefully my soulmate, I'll love you forever.

That is a good deal! I can't do that because I don't have a barn . I just have pallets and I throw a tarp over the hay. Someday, someday!

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The more people I meet, the more I like my chickens

Hay, stacked on wood pallets and tarped, will keep as well as it does in a barn. On nice, days, pull the tarp and let the hay air out.

I don't have enough barn space to store the 12-16 tons of hay I use over the winter, so I pay a little more for my hay to the farmer I contracted with to store it in his barn, than he sells to others who pick it all up at the beginning of the season. I pick up 40 bales every other Saturday out of "my barn". I'm essentially renting space from him, and he could be using the space for something else - around here, lots of farmers pick up extra cash in the winter by storing boats and RV's in their empty barns. It's a trade off. I'll have a new barn this summer, with enough area to store all my feed.

I am all for farmers making a buck for their hay and I don't mind paying good prices for good hay but it does erk me when I have to pay good money for trash hay. Around here they baled anything that they could bale and called it hay. I have had sticker bushes and small tree trunks in some of the hay I bought. I know that alot of it was shipped to Texas and I am embarrassed for the farmers that are honest and would not dream of doing that to someone. It also ticks me off when someone ( I will call him the middle man because he does not bale the hay and is not a farmer) buys up hay for $35.00 a large round bale and sells it for $75.00. Also I remember in the past when some other states had the drought in the (Georgia, Alabama and some of those states) and the farmers in our area sent hay free of charge to get them through the drought even paid to transport it there. I can't believe farmers are not helping other farmers in need. Just a younger generation now I guess that only sees a way to make that all mighty buck. They just don't give a darn about anyone but themselves and how they can price gouge. I will get off my soap box now.
Judy
www.oklahomarawmilk.homestead.com

Doc we have not found that to be the case in our part of Oregon. We have ended up with a dustying of mold over all of the hay, making us not feed it to anything other then the cows. If we lived in a drier enviroment I would do the pallet/tarp thing in a heartbeat, but we would have a bunch of hay we could not feed to the horses, sheep, and goats by mid way through the winter if not sooner if we went this route.

Hey folks do me a favor, when you are throwing out prices of this type of hay and that type, add to it the weight (approx. of course) of the bale involved. There is a big difference between paying $6 for a 50 lb. bale and $6 for a 100 lb. bale.

Our local feed store is selling something that they call "canary grass" with had some seed head to it, but is the shape and consistency of straw. When we have been out of hay from our regular source I have purchaced a few bales of it and the animals like it. The are charging $4 per bale for it, bales weigh about 50 lbs. They also have alfalfa, 3rd cutting and beautiful they claim, that are supposed to weight 150 lbs (which I find hard to believe) and the price is.......$19 per bale.

At my regular source for hay, grain, and pellets they have very nice alfalfa in 110 lbs or so for $12 per bale. I actually buy their orchard grass/alfalfa mix for some of my special needs goats and sheep (insert here.....OLD) and it is wonderful stuff, worth the $12 per bale we pay for it and similar in weight to the straight alfalfa. Now on the other hand the really beautiful orchard grass (110 lb) is $14 per bale. When I spoke with the head guy yesterday he said that in his opinion there was a heck of a lot more grass hay out there then "they" were selling and that a certain amount of the so called shortage was BS. His company is in a tough place because people in the area rely on them as a source of feed and they feel they have to provide it, even if they are not making much if any profit. They actually had a buyer for all of their 1000 lb low endophyte fescue and decided to sell the bales each at the same price to retail customers rather then sell it all at once to one buyer (over seas I believe). Not many businesses would do that these days, but they did.

No matter what the reason, times are tough all over and when we make our move sometime later this year one of the biggest priorities for us is going to be better and more pasture and land then we have now. Also (in line with the defending your property from the PETA types) an easier place to defend or more to the point a place where the Anatolian and Kuvasz can patrol the fence to avoid any of "them" ever setting foot on our property

As far as the contract thing goes....

We had been getting almost all ovf the 40-50 round bales of coastal bermuda (high quality coastal and very heavy bales) from a very good neighbor down the road for 15 years without fail. This year, he could not spare even one roll.

not even one.

We had two other suppliers we used also, they were in the exact same boat....no hay to sell us even though they had been selling it to us for years....and these were our friends...if it doesn't rain, there is nothing to cut during the spring and summer, so no matter what kind of contract you may have, there is just no hay as almost all hay farmers are also cattle ranchers (in our area) and have to hold back what they themselves need first to get through the winter before they sell the surplus. Not only was there not a surplus to sell, but the hay farmers themselves did not have enough for their own cattle and had to sell some of their own stock.

And yes, roadsides were being baled with trash in it...paper, plastic, wires and fumes from autos....someone even found a dead cat in their hay...but something like that is better than letting your cattle starve to death.

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Diane Rhodes
Feral Nature Farm
LaManchas, MiniManchas and Boers

Just a quick note. HAY PRICES ARE UP NATION WIDE.

I can normally buy alafalfa at 1.25 a 65 pound hand square bale. Right now in my area. There is NONE available. 10 bucks will not get you a bale.

I traveled to Iowa, Indiana, and Tennessee for Buying mixed hay and alafalfa. I was able to fill my 48' flat bed trailer for MANY times what it would take normally.

I used 1 trailer load my self and the rest was sold the same day I pulled in to unload it from folks just driving by and seeing it.

65 pound 2nd cut are going for 22.50 a bale to Lexington Ky. That is 10 times what I normally get and PAY.

I was able to get 2 53' foot van loads of 65 pound bales of orchard grass/ alafala mixed bales from Idaho. The ton price was FAIR the transportaion added a huge price to the cost. I HAD NO PROBLEM GETTING 26 BUCKS A BALE. Picked up at my location.

I didn't have one single bale of strw this year. If I did I would be a rich man.

Baled corn stalks has been a GREAT seller this year as well. Normally this is the last of anything to sell. Let along bale up.

I still feed more corn then anything. Corn is still cheap.

Weekly hay report

"Some
producers have started to feed straw for livestock due to lower prices for the
straw and better availability."
That is very scary.

The middle man. "HAY BROKER" Make the hay available.

They do make more profits, but have much higher costs. They have to transport, store and market the hay.

Many do it in large quantity and small marks. I am happy with a 12% return as a MIN. Just because I buy the hay at 1.70 a bale and spend 1 buck a bale to transport it, then .20 cents a bale to handle it with .10 cents a bale to store it. Why is getting 3.50 plus a bale unresonable? Heck why is 10 bucks a bale unresonable?

I have already made my commitments to buy 5000 bales of first cut in my area and leased 100 acres for our use. I sure am not going to farm that 100 acres. I will buy it from the guy I rent it to to grow on. I hope to be able to move 10k more bales for other farmers.

Hay is like fire wood. Only certain folks use it. The folks that need it know how to get it cheap. The ones that like it pay to get it.

The dairy guys buy large 1000 pound square bales. They are much more cost effective. Some one with two horses or a few goats or sheep can not use a 1000 pound square bale. They have to pay for the convinance.

Baleing 45-65 pound square bales is VERY labar intensive and not cost effective. Folks have to pay for that.

We will see only more increase as more hay ground will be convereted to corn growing. I think it is a waste. More revenue is produced with hay then corn, but we as adverage Joes do not see that.

My wife and I have been truely blessed by God.
The men of our church help us put in our hay every since I got sick. We feed the guys and pay the expenses Alfalfa grass mix 2nd cut small bales cost me 110 per ton this year and 27 dollars to transport 40 miles equals 137.00 per ton. Last year 2nd cut small bales very good grass hay cost me 40.00 per ton in the field and 50.00 per ton at my barn door. Fuel, taxs, string, oil, parts and up keep on equipment have all gone sky high.
Also last year 2nd cut 2000 lbs round very good grass hay cost me 15.00 in the field and 25.00 at the barn door. Of course around here you have to drive twice as far to make half as much as the rest of the country. My mens group is a wonderful group of men. They keep telling me as long as I am willing to keep my homestead they are going to stand up with me. Of course I do what I can for them as well.

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My Goats love me, the chickens think I am an alien being. NAIS is the mark of the beast.

I aleted to the shortage we were going to have over a year ago. If you think hay prices are high now. YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!

Example. I was able to get 2 flat bed load of utility grade alafalfa/orchard grass mix From Iowa in TODAY.2/13/07. Both truck pulled in together. I planned on putting the bales up till I found a buyer or ship them out to the horse center I deal with in KY.

DIDN'T HAPPEN. I never even touched the bales. Before the trucks even got here my phone was ringing.

" I hear you have some hay comming in today. I want it. I DO NOT CARE ON THE PRICE i WANT IT". That was one of MANY calls.

I try to be far and had my market price set so there was no need to rape anyone.

I just told them. "Hay is cash. I have it comming in at this time. If you want it have cash. I will not hold the bales or take pre payment. You must inspect the product and pay. Sorry for any problems."

9 folks were sitting in my store drinking coffee with me this am waiting on the trucks.

3 of them purchased every bale before the trucks could even park safe.

NOW, These folks are going to resale these bales. I know they are.

Thoughbred center is now buying truck loads of premium orchard grass/ grass mix for $35 a 55 pound square bale. This sound high. BUT IT S NOT FOR THEM. I haul them a few truck loads a week. Do I get the 35 bucks a bale. NO I get far less. I used to get bent over the bale till I found out the buyers were taking my 150 a ton and turning it into 900 a ton wholesale. It sure didn't take me long to figure it out. I was happy with 150 a ton and they paid the transportaion. Now 600 bucks a ton and they send a truck.

I CAN NOT SEE how any one can justify feeding fair to good quality hay to beef. They would earn more by just selling the hay.

Just today I got a call for fodder. I could not belive it. The offer was good. I do not deal in fodder. I was offered 60 a ton picked up in 45k loads. I do not know much about the fodder market, but if folks are that short, if they are feeding straw and begging for fodder WE HAVE A PROBLEM.



" 07-10-2006, 01:30 AM
daytrader Join Date: May 2005
Location: Metro east St Louis Illinois
Posts: 466

Same thing here. New was as close to used in price it was a no brainer to go with new. Our 2005 cost the 2k more then a 1972 John Deer. I am a John Deer fan, but I had to go with what made me feel right. I DO regret Not getting a larger one. The one I got is a fine machine. Just as we start doing more and more. It would be nice to have a larger machine, but we still need what we have. Its about time we get a second machine. One for baleing and swathing.

Around here I can make a mint IF I HAD THE EQUIPMENT. Hundreds of acres of straw will be and are being tilled under. Many around here have told me. If you want to rake it and bale it you can have it.

Alot of these folks are cutting just the bare min to get the tops off leaving the rest. They then mow it and till it under.

I do not have the amount of land it would take to plant for baleing, but I am starting to think about leasing sum. Not a lot, only like 100 or 200 acres. Planting it in alfalfa and orchard grass mix. I have a machine that can run a baler and a rake, just not sure about planting and moving the bales. I will see as time gose on. Maybe in a year or 3."

My heart goes out to those of you trying to get by with those prices.
We had a tough year with the 05 crop. Last year I had to feed junk to my goats and paid $3.50 for 12 pound bales. This year I wised up and kept about 400 bales off of my own field (which I lease out) and it is top quality. I did have to search around a bit to find someone to do small bales, he did my portion of the field in small bales then switched equipement and did the rest in large rounds for the guy who leases it from me. I still have to buy grass hay for my bucks but the price is excellent at $50. (delivered from a neighbor) for a large (ton) square.
We can still get straw for bedding at $2. a bale.
We have weekly hay auctions up here and I hear the prices aren't too bad, but I haven't gone myself.
Good luck to those of you in the south west.

I can get alfalfa pellets for $150 a ton. Wish I owned a semi. Ken

Why not make a deal with the farmer for next year that you want X number of bales of hay. Pay him the "going rate" when he is baling and let him store them for you.

The reason the price went up is because it is winter, he has the hay and you need the hay. If you had a place to store hay, you could probably find a farmer that would be willing to give you a good deal on hay right when it is baled and still laying in the field.

I've never seen good results with hay "stored" on pallets and covered with a tarp. Do you not have a garage or old outbuilding that you could store hay in?

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Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."