How much are you paying for good hay? Can you find good hay?

[1acrefarm]

I am having trouble finding it myself. I have some friends with horses and their pasture is not doing well due to drought. I have tried to find them some horse quality round bales for weeks but no luck. I am glad my little lawn does well for my goats. I am also glad I have lots of grew up land within walking distance i am allowed to tie my goats on. Without hay I may wind up having to heat my barn though.

 

[jessupfamily]

helmstead~ I sent you an email. Thanks!
Amy J.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Currently we are paying $3.00 for medium hay. It's basically horse hay, but not the first cutting. Cow hay is cheaper and more weedy. The first cutting is the nicest and most green and it costs a pretty penny! We often times have a hard time finding hay, but my dad just found a reliable source right in our town.

 

[unionwirewoman]

we bought 10 ton @ $75 a ton . it works out to be around $1.88 a bale . We have also been in a drought up here in NW Montana , but I think most of the problem stems from developers buying good farm land and then selling it off 1 acre at a time . It's so sad to see my valley grow so fast , but I guess it's inevitable . The hay we bought didn't even have a smidge of timothy , or alfalfa in it , so we'll have to supplement . It used to be you could buy straight alfalfa first cutting for $80/ton two years ago . Never thought at 27 years old I'd be reminiscing about the "good old days" where gas was at $1.09 agallon when I first started driving , and hay and farmland was abundant .

 

[verthandi]

Holy Cow! How can you all afford it at those prices? I thought mine was high this year at 4.40 a bale for nice large (55lbs) bales for Canada. They are delivered at that price from 5 hours north of me, right to my barn and put in. But I do buy 500 bales at a time. I use 1200 a year.

 

[frizzylizzy]

Here in California (San Joaquin County) our hay is around $14.00 a bale for rectangular bales (about 140 lbs give or take) of alfalfa and up to $16.00 for grass hay. Hay quality is horrible this year- the feed stores swear that the hay is from the same grower all year long, but the quality goes from great to not feedable from week to week. I never know what I'm going to get and it always seems to be full of dirt clods. Last month I lost 2 horses from colic and I think the hay was the problem.
I very rarely see the round bales here and only occasionally see the huge bales going by on trucks.
I wish I could afford to irrigate and just let them graze all year.

Elizabeth

 

[southernsibe]

Here in the eastern part of central Virginia it is $13 a bale, at least, for a small square bale. Prices get a bit better a little farther out, but you need to buy in such quantity, it is prohibitive. I'm scared I will not find anything decent because I have to wait so long. The part of the barn that will house the hay is next to finish after the chicken coop. I lost quite a bit of hay getting round bales and not storing it under something.
Rachel

 

[seedcorn]

at sales, it's around $180/ton. Square bales are projected to be over $10 by january. Part of the problem is the labor involved w/square bales plus the lack of quality hay. There is more alfalfa hay up here for dairy than grass hay for horses.

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

Yes up here in Ontario its approx. $4.25 to $4.75 for a bale of good quality horse hay

 

[1acrefarm]

The drought is playing a big part in the present shortage. I think it is only part of the story though. I think we are losing alot of hay fields to corn production. Ethanol is making switching fields from hay to corn very attractive.