Hay Prices in your area?

[Kittikity]

What is the difference between square bales and rolls? There's an ad in our local paper that says 4x5 rolls $35/roll, but doesn't say what type of hay.. I hope to have my yard fenced in by next spring so I can get goats, but I'm really starting to get worried about the hay prices.. I don't have loads of money to pay for hay or a large area to stock up on it..

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

My hay is $3.50 for first cutting and $4.00 for second cutting. Straw is $5.00 a bale.

 

[CarriBrown]

$15 for a 100 bale of alfalfa, and that's on the cheap side. Timothy is close to $30 a bale and grass blends are in the high teens, low 20s.

 

[greyfields]

I would expect to pay $200/TN this year in WA. I sold mine last year out of the field at $125. When we bought this farm, I robbed my savings and bought a disc mower, baler and rake for roughly $25k. I figured at $2,000/year minimum buying in hay, it will pay for itself eventually. I've also managed to sell about $1k of hay every year and my production this year will double as I've been given some fields to cut silage out of.

p.s. the only way I could do it that cheaply was to do round bales, since that way I don't require labor except my own. Horse people hate round bales, but they're way more economical. I make 28" diameter ones which will fit in most people's front loaders and then 48" for the cow people.

 

[Florida chick]

Carugoman said: I'm paying $3/100lb bermuda bale, but I have to go pick up and load. It's no problem since it's 11 miles away, gives the neighbor boys something to do and the younger one gets to "practice" driving a flatbed dumper with manual trans. I have two mammoth jakes and they just enjoy the bermuda grass! If the costs of making biodiesel ever go up, I may just have to use those mules to go and get that hay!


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GOSH! How far are you from Jasper,FL?? DO you deliver? I am paying WAY more for horse hay. Even the Bermuda is $6.50 a sq and Peanut $14 a sq bale... Round rolls are $60

 

[buc]

Quote:
What is the difference between square bales and rolls?

A: a square bale is in a shape of a square - well somewhat - it is really the shape of a rectangle, they are also called "dummy blocks" they wiegh around 45-60 lbs per bale depending on how tight they are baled and what type of bale it is, example a bale of straw would wiegh at the lower end and a bale of alfalfa at the highe end.

as for the 4x5 rolls, they are round bales and there should be a 3 measurement, 4 ' wide by 5 ' high by "?" long, that will give you the true size of the bale.

 

[carugoman]

well,gee, buc, here I was thinking these past 50 years, that a 'bale' was a three- dimensional object, more commonly referred to as a 'cube?' Here, I went and got a master's degree in mathematics...that info must've been in the doctorate program, ya think?

 

[cindydj]

Here in Nort Texas 60# sq in field $4-5 and $35-40 good horse quality coastal. Last year due to rain it was rotting in thefield and theyear befor in our drought Sq $15 and $125 for rounds. I am glad that is over for now.....

And Farmgirl I agree with the slaughter. We live close to a horse auction and the guys are trucking them to Mexico and it is horrible...

 

[carugoman]

The village; Modena, in Italy; the place made famous for its style of vinegar [balsamic], is also famous for its cuisine...The best place in Europe to have, you guessed it, horse meat ragu. Or stewed or pan-fried...for get about it, I'd rather call it "trigger" and ride swiftly out of town!

 

[AngelzFyre]

We just got bermuda hay where I work this past week, it's 5.00 per bale in the field, 6.50 in their barn*you pick up* and 7.00 delivered where I work at my friend's horse farm.

We get our personal hay supply from a feed mill about 47 miles from here.
My horses get an 80/20 Alfalfa/Timothy mix and that's 11.00 a bale right now at the mill. In the winter I try my best to get the mill's compacted straight Alfalfa bales and they've been running 11.00 each as well for 80/100lb bales. They've been out of those for 3 months now so all we get is the 80/20 mix. Their straight Timothy is the 8.50 per bale, but of course ours won't eat just straight Timothy. They use it for their own personal bathroom! Guess that's what their opinion of it is???

Spoiled they are!

Chickens always get the alfalfa leaves from the flakes we give the horses, or we supplement with bagged Alfalfa. It's 15.00 per bag right now.

I just hope we get enough rain to make the 2nd and 3rd cuttings! It's been 3 weeks since any rain and even our ponds are drying up.

Our local humane society reps and horse rescue groups are not even picking horses up right now unless they are down and starving. Even with ribs/backbones/hipbones drastically showing they say that they are "okay" if the person has them turned out with water present and will feed once daily(no matter how little feed). It breaks my heart to see so many out in pastures withering away and even with skin to the bone foals beside them. I don't know what everyone's going to do if the gas/feed/hay situations get worse than they already are. A friend of mine that does the rescues said they are finding record numbers of horses just turned out in heavily wooded areas and in State Parks/Wildlife Refuges.
SCARY to think it's coming to that!