Hay - What are you paying per ton?

[helmstead]

I recently had to shop around for a new hay source...

I was paying about $160-$180 per ton (orchard/fescue rounds or squares) at the LFS. I managed to find a farmer only about 30 minutes away...and I think I'm doing well now at about $100 per ton (orchard/fescue) and $80 per ton (fescue-square baled).

What's it looking like around you?

 

[patandchickens]

I can never remember how many lbs are in a ton

But back at the end of Nov I got a bunch of big squares, about 650-700 lbs, of 2nd cut mix hay, decent tho not outstanding quality, for $65 each... which may not sound like a super deal but this was not only delivered but the hay guy brought his tractor along to help us put it into the barn. So I'm cool with the price

Dunno about other places but it was a kind of sucky year for hay around here... not too bad growth, but it just about all got at least lightly rained on at some stage of the process.

Pat

 

[azelgin]

We just paid $265 a ton for Bermuda grass hay. That was actually a good deal.

 

[Wynette]

I don't buy by the ton, I buy by the bale (small squares). First cutting grass hay, I pay 3.50/bale for; 2nd cutting, 4.50. It went up drastically last year; in '07, I paid 2.50/1st cutting, 3.50/2nd.

 

[helmstead]

We don't buy by the ton (2000 lbs) either, but it's not hard to figure out what your ton cost is

Bermuda is really expensive around here, too. I would never feed it to a horse, so it doesn't matter to me. Goats, maybe...but because of the cost, I avoid it all around.

Prices are finally coming down here. It was only a year ago that a 600 lb round bale of fescue hay was $110! Now I can get an 800 lb round for $40.

 

[TMNTCkins]

$3.50/$4.50 a bale is great. Is that good hay? Hay is very $$$$$ it is going for $14.00-$16.00 a bale here in N CA. We got a squeze load (75 bales) for $800.00 last year and that last about six mo. I wish I could get horse hay for even $10.00 a bale.

 

[beak]

We're about 45miles SE of Denver. 3x3x8 alfalfa at 700lbs is going for 95.00, Timothy is around 105.00. The big 4x4x8 bales around 1300 are going at 145-155. Suppliers blame ethynol. They say the farmers are switching to corn because it pays more. Don't know just what I heard. We're getting stored hay at this point from when gas was 4.00 a gallon so it is priced for what it cost to grow and harvest. Then of curse the delivery people are still putting a fuel surcharge on even though diesel is 1bout 1/2 of what it used to be.

 

[azelgin]

Quote:
We can either buy alfalfa, or Bermuda around here. Alfalfa is actually about $20 a ton less, but the mules do better (attitude wise) on the Bermuda. They get a little wired on a diet of alfalfa.

 

[beak]

Quote:
Jeez, I love northern Ca. It's beautiful up there. I would have to love it without horses though. That's horrible. Have you looked in to cubes? We're getting alfalfa cubes for 7.30 per 50# sack. Zero waste and complete control over what the horse is eating. We have a lot of wind here and when you give wafers to the horse half of it blows away between putting it in the feeder and the horse lifting it's head up with a bunch of hay sticking out dropping on the ground. The horses actually like it better, We have to sand clear them once a month and they need extra hay at that time so we buy some bales and they always eat the cubes before they will eat the baled hay.

 

[Samarai Jenn]

Ours are $134 for the large round ones, We use that for the cattle, then we get the large square bales for the horses/goats/sheep for $30 a bale.