ASAP.Good Goat Hay Available *Today* only

[ozark_jewels]

We are baling hay as I type and it looks like we are going to have 20-30 extra bales. We can only fit 50 in our barn for goats, and the cows only need 20. Looks like we are going to have upwards of 100. They are smaller round bales, net-wrapped. Our friend who is baling guessed them at around #700 each. They are mostly brome with maybe a bit of fescue mixed in. I feed this to my goats and they love it. It is also great for calves, cows and horses. Good, green, leafy hay. Never wet. Asking $40 a bale.
The storms are rolling in and the hay that doesn't fit in the barn is going to get wet soon. If your in the area(SOUTHERN MISSOURI, Mountain Grove/Cabool area), and will be needing hay this winter, now would be a good time to get some. We will be moving and stacking bales till the rain sets in, so if you'd like to get some today, please call 417-962-9779.
I'd really hate for this good goat hay to get wet when there is liable to be a hay shortage this winter. I have a few goat breeder friends coming to get some bales, but we still have extra.

[southerngurl]

Oh crud, if they were square bales we'd be on our way!

[matt633]

Wish you were in GA, of course, if you were you might not have it!!!

[chris30523]

Matt I don't know where you are in GA but we are cutting now also. We are in the NE corner.I would like to save all we cut but don't have enough space to store it all.Will probably be baling on SAT.It is mostly orchard grass some bermuda and fescue mixed in.

[matt633]

we are in coweta, about 45 mi south of Atlanta. If gas prices weren't so high, I'd consider driving to ya!!! We are checking w/ a friend from High School that we heard is in the hay business now, but he hasn't called back. There are 4 feed stores in this county and NONE of them have hay. I've been checking Market Bulletin but nothing close. We are new to goats and have been giving grain and forage (mostly wooded, 3/4 ac), but they have thinned out most of the forage and I am stressing about getting some hay!

Sorry i got off topic there!!

[fishhead]

If there is going to be a shortage it might pay to buy some tarps and cover them. Or call the feed stores to see if they want some.

[HomesteadBaker]

Wow! I sure wish my husband had a great big flat bed truck with him (instead of our little Subaru wagon) becuase I'd buy some! He is in Seymour for the rest of the week.... getting closer to you! LOL

Kitty

[Jim S.]

Baling today too, NPK fertilized orchardgrass and fescue. 5x5s, plastic twine wrapped. Last fall, I presold all I have available for spring, though, at my price to be set this spring. We'll load it up tomorrow night for the guy. He'll get a super deal for locking it in early. Mine will go in the barn. No rain in sight here for at least 10 days, so I have time to get it in.

Yield looked good after cutting, for a droughty crop. We'll see how many we get. It only got 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall this time. Normally, it'd be 5 or so. Good leaf, though, and that's what is lacking in so many fields this year here.

Fall hay is the real question mark here. Hope I get some, so I can cash in in January! LOL.

[ozark_jewels]

All spoken for, thank you!

[Jim S.]

Woo-hoo! That's great! You might as well lock in the fall crop, too, at a forward price.

I love the smaller rounds. Won't get your tractor stuck in the mud in winter, easier to load and handle.

[chris30523]

Ours is SHL (stinkin hen litter) fertilized.We have orchard grass\fescue\bermuda (not much bermuda first cutting) it sure is dusty this year about like in the fall.


This is the overseer..

This is the clean up mmm turkey eggs..

[Jim S.]

Chris, windrows look real good. Are you in middle Ga., where the drought is just moderate? It is extreme here. See http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html The big red area in Alabama and southern Tennessee has me trapped.

Looks like we'll be short about 25%-30% from our usual crop this spring when we finish up today, and I don't usually fertilize in spring like I did this year. Usually, I fertilize after the first cutting, for fall hay. But I knew I'd better do it this spring if I wanted anything much at all.

Awful terrible dry here. We have had only two decent rains since March, a couple inches each. Behind about 14" now. My water-table fed ponds have dropped to August levels.

The hay is NICE quality, but the windrows are not as full as they would be if we had rain. I'm glad I fertilized, cuz I got leaves in mine. Some of the fields cut here, the windrows look like a riding mower left them, they are so small. All seed stems, few leaves. Everyone is saying there may not be a fall crop here at all.

I too got some pix yesterday, too busy to post them. Maybe soon.

Emily, 5x5 rounds here are $50 now in the field. I am certain we will see $100-plus in late December. If there's no fall crop, might go even higher than that.

That's why I'm fencing like a madman. There will be bargain goats this August for people with pasture.

I'm surrounded by lot-living neighbors and so don't use chicken litter. Whew, that stuff stinks. Is this your first year using it, Chris?

I tried to get her not to, but my sis-in-law used chicken litter one spring 3 years ago on one of her hayfields, and neither I nor she liked the way they looked the next year as a result. From what I've seen, after application, raw litter seems to do well the first year but even if not used afterward, it seems to burn out the grass and encourage weeds in the second through fourth year. I've seen several places and talked to folks here who have had that trouble. One great year, the next couple not real hot. Truck farmer down the road a half mile used chicken litter to grow last year, but not this year, after the weeds took over and he had to turn the whole field this spring and start completely over instead of just tilling. He was not happy, cuz the fuel costs to plow ate up his savings from using litter, and then some.

So even with higher fertilizer costs, chicken litter has not become a real popular way to go here, and you'd think it would, except for the drawbacks I mentioned. I understand that composted litter is much better than the raw stuff they spread here, and does not stink.

What's your experience, Chris? Are you using composted or raw?

[chris30523]

We use hen litter in Oct. The fields have had litter on them about every other year for the last 14 or so years.Hen litter is hotter and kills off the weed seeds and believe it or not doesn't stink as long as broiler litter.Stinks worse when we first spread it but it only lasts a day or so.My "lot living neighbors" Knew we raised chickens and spread litter when they built.Those are not windrows yet.That is how it comes out of the cutter conditioner.The hay still needs to be fluffed and raked.If it was lighter and more stems then it could be baled right out of the conditioner.We got 1500 squares off of that field first cutting last year.We do 6x6 round rolls also and that is what it will be this year.We are in the very NE corner of Ga and are very dry.Note the dust cloud behind the cutter.The cut hay is brown underneath and I hope it doesn't burn up before we get more rain.
We use the litter out of the chicken houses but you only clean hen houses out once a year so the litter is somewhat composted when it comes out.A neighbor fertilized early spring with the composted litter and his hay is not near as nice and thick as ours.

[Jim S.]

Chris: Oh, you're using a conditioner. We just disc mow, dry, rake and bale. We left it longer on the cut this year. It is green under there, but with the rain situation we did not want to risk cutting it short like so many here have.

If I was raising hens, I'd sure spread it, myself.

Broiler litter is all we get here. No hen houses, all for meat. I am not impressed with the results I have seen from it locally, nor with the smell, which we had to endure for a couple months from the truck farm a half mile away when he spread it.

[ozark_jewels]

Got pictures of the hay now.

In the barn:





And here is an open bale, close-up.





They approve!!




And yes Jim, the second cutting looks like its already sold.....if we get rain to grow a second cutting!

[chris30523]

We baled ours today.Got 33 6x6 round bales off a field that ususally gives us 70 first cutting.The grass was thick but the hay dried so quickly and so well that it is crispy.MMM toasted hay.The goats were happy to have fresh hay though.Horses too.