 |
|
02/06/07, 02:22 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
Posts: 896
|
|
|
Hay Prices Going Up?
The farmer I buy hay from is increasing a bale from $5 to $6. Is this normal? I am finding it hard to understand why he has to increase the price all of a sudden.
__________________
The more people I meet, the more I like my chickens
|
02/06/07, 02:32 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
|
Why don't you just ask the farmer why the hay's gone up? I'm sure he could give you an answer, since he's probably had the question from each and everyone he sells to.
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
02/06/07, 02:33 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
Posts: 896
|
|
Well, he said because it has been a rough winter and everything is going up. 
__________________
The more people I meet, the more I like my chickens
|
02/06/07, 02:35 PM
|
|
Gig'em
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Lexington Texas area
Posts: 1,198
|
|
|
There is a SERVERE hay shortage in much of the country due to the devastaing drought that has increased hay prices signiifigantly. We had to sell our entire cattle herd that we had had in the family since the early 1900s.
There was NO hay to buy at all for them and no forage left.
We are paying 11 dollars per SQUARE bale of coastal bermuda hay for the goats and the limit is 3 per customer at the feedstore if they have it. We used to be able to get a large heavy roundbale for $25. And used to pay just $2 for the square.
Alfalfa hay is $9...actaully cheaper than grass hay!!!!!!!!
So yes, expect prices to go up..it is killing most Texans and putting hundreds if not thousands of texas ranchers completely out of business.....heartbreaking and so many starving animals along the roadside. And take them to the auction? Get nothing.
__________________
Diane Rhodes
Feral Nature Farm
LaManchas, MiniManchas and Boers
|
02/06/07, 02:39 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
Posts: 896
|
|
|
That is a real shame TCW. Here in Maryland, there hasn't been a hay shortage. The farmer actually has a HUGE barn full of hay! I don't get it.
__________________
The more people I meet, the more I like my chickens
|
02/06/07, 02:41 PM
|
 |
Banned
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: North East, PA in Northwestern PA
Posts: 1,662
|
|
|
And I was griping at paying $2 a bale.
Ruth
|
02/06/07, 02:44 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
Posts: 896
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by moosemaniac
And I was griping at paying $2 a bale.
Ruth
|
Yeah, stop griping! Just joking 
__________________
The more people I meet, the more I like my chickens
|
02/06/07, 02:44 PM
|
|
Gig'em
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Lexington Texas area
Posts: 1,198
|
|
|
Quit complaining, LOL, it is just sickening down here what this drought has done.............generational ranchers losing everything...cattle, ranches, everything. Nothing left for the animals to eat. People are paying $125. a round bale if they can find it. Hauling it in from other states.
__________________
Diane Rhodes
Feral Nature Farm
LaManchas, MiniManchas and Boers
|
02/06/07, 02:46 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
Posts: 896
|
|
TCW, shouldn't our government be helping out with this disaster
__________________
The more people I meet, the more I like my chickens
|
02/06/07, 02:50 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Eureka, California area
Posts: 2,642
|
|
|
We are paying about 220 per ton (not sure the weight on those bales y'all speak of)for alfalfa and or grass/alfalfa...plain grass is more expensive as well. I am going towards pellets which aren't cheaper but they're not wasting ANY.
__________________
Joan Crandell
Wild Iris Farm
"Fair"- the other 4 letter F word." This epiphany came after almost 10 days straight at our county fair.
|
02/06/07, 02:51 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
|
In the Austin area, many ranchers where reducing herds going into winter after months of no rain. We finally got rain after the first of the year, but rain in the sky doesn't equal hay in the field immediately. Also, we got lots of rain and then a HARD freeze which killed back any new grass.
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
02/06/07, 02:53 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by GoatLove
TCW, shouldn't our government be helping out with this disaster |
Good question. They did offer drought relief checks. My friends who ranches cattle had to carry over 120 head all through the drought and his check was around $480! Do the math....every penny helps, but that didn't even come close to sneezing at his increase in feed costs. Ranchers that usually just graze their cattle had to resort to buying hay so that added to the demand for the unusually limited supply.
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
02/06/07, 03:52 PM
|
|
Gig'em
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Lexington Texas area
Posts: 1,198
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by farmergirl
Ranchers that usually just graze their cattle had to resort to buying hay so that added to the demand for the unusually limited supply.
|
Bingo!
There is usually forage all winter long of some sort and hay is given in addition to that. But the drought is going on 2 years. Folks had to feed hay during the summer as there was no grass because of the lack of rain in 2005/2006. All four of our ponds as well as our water well went dry. We sold all of our cattle and had to give away some donkeys (anyone need any donkeys?)
It rains good this past October (too late) and we now have water. But what ever grass we had had already been grazed to the dirt and killed out.
Our once fat horses are quite thin now and get only one flake of grass hay a day.
The goats are costing us a fortune and we are stringing up more fence to give them more forage. We live in thick Yaupon and fortunately, it's something goats can eat. There are more and more folks switching to goats around here, from cattle (even though texas is a big goat state already)....even more goats up and down the roads now.
__________________
Diane Rhodes
Feral Nature Farm
LaManchas, MiniManchas and Boers
|
02/06/07, 04:09 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: AR
Posts: 2,260
|
|
|
we wont have that problem next year we are fencing off a big area for our hay feild
__________________
Don't complain, just do it
|
02/06/07, 04:12 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
|
Oh man, you have donkeys??? I've been searching for a standard donkey for 3 years now! PM me if you have any you still want to part with!!
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
02/06/07, 04:45 PM
|
 |
Banned
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: NW OR
Posts: 2,314
|
|
|
Supply and demand. Demand goes up when hay isn't as available. He's raising it to make money, can't fault him for that. Prices usually spike late winter here too. Next year, find a farmer who will make a contract with you not to raise your price, in exchange for you promising to buy a certain amount. Or buy all your hay right after its cut. It's cheapest picked up out of the field and stacked in your own barn. If you don't have a barn, stack it on pallets and cover it with tarps.
|
02/06/07, 05:47 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
Posts: 896
|
|
|
Good advice Doc. A contract is a really good idea.
__________________
The more people I meet, the more I like my chickens
|
02/06/07, 06:17 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 567
|
|
We had bumper hay crops around here this year. I just got a load of 50 bales of really nice timothy/alfalfa for $3/square bale. That included delivery and stacking in my barn!
|
02/06/07, 06:55 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: ok
Posts: 1,825
|
|
|
11$ for a compressed square bale here about 2'x2' at my feed store and its more like straw. its being hauled in from out of state. I'm supplementing beet pulp and timothy pellets for my horses and upping the alfalfa pellets for the goats. people were begging for hay to drop to the cattle in the ice storm recently according to the news, but no one will give it up.
__________________
A mystery is not an explanation..... on the contrary....no sooner is a myth forged than, in order to stand it needs another myth to support it.
|
02/06/07, 07:01 PM
|
|
Gig'em
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Lexington Texas area
Posts: 1,198
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by farmergirl
Oh man, you have donkeys??? I've been searching for a standard donkey for 3 years now! PM me if you have any you still want to part with!!
|
I got your PM
__________________
Diane Rhodes
Feral Nature Farm
LaManchas, MiniManchas and Boers
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:41 AM.
|
|
