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Griping about feed costs

10K views 32 replies 17 participants last post by  WildAcreFarms 
#1 ·
Hay is getting ridiculously expensive around here (central Oklahoma). We haven't had to buy much in the way hay for a couple of years since we started letting a friend bale in our hayfield on shares. However, this year, the drought bit us and we didn't get but two bales of hay, where we normally could count on at least 40 for our share.

So, I'm paying $100 for a 3 x 3 x 8 prairie hay at our feed store. (Same bale was about $50 last year!) This last bale we got was 90% weeds and brush - incredible! The bales supposedly weigh approximately 750 pounds, and one would normally last our bunch about four days or so. This last bale lasted only three days because there was so much crap in the bale that the horses couldn't eat. I did file a complaint at the feed store, but while they may ultimately be responsible for the quality of the hay they sell, they, too, are at the mercy of their own hay suppliers.

I'm going to have to break down and pay $120 for the same size bale of orchard grass/brome hay. Hopefully, there isn't as much brush and crap in those more expensive bales, and the hay will be of better quality.

To make things worse, our feed program mainstays - alfalfa pellets and beet pulp, have doubled in the last two months. Beet pulp has gone from $10 for a fifty pound bag to $23 for a fifty pound bag. (Guess drought and/or supply and demand have hit the beet growers, too?). Alfalfa pellets have gone from $8.50/bag to $15 for a fifty pound bag.

There is a pelleted feed we can get at the store for $9 for a fifty pound bag. It's a good feed - we had great success with it as a supplement to the hay pellets/beet pulp we fed last winter. It's a 14% protein and 6% fat feed designed for performance horses and horses that need to gain weight. (ours do after this killer summer, anyway) I fear we may have to rely much more heavily on that feed this winter, as prices are still skyrocketing around here.

I am NOT a happy horsey person right now! Especially since the weather man says our drought will likely continue through at least next June. We've been clearing brush our of our pasture and planted some grass/pasture seed. Got a little rain and the seed sprouted and looked so nice...then no rain and it all burned up. Back to square one...almost. At least the drought and heat also kept the brush we cleared out from coming back too fast.

Okay - I'll quit griping now. We are trying to think positive, and are hoping that we get at leat enough rain over the winter to replant some winter grass, and maybe some bermuda/pasture mix gain come spring. Maybe by then feed prices will come back down, too?

Keep your fingers crossed!
 
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#2 ·
Doing a rain dance for ya!

I feel for everyone going through that right now. We had the opposite this year and had too much rain in the spring, drowning the hay fields. I am so thankful we do our own & it's on higher ground with good drainage. We put up enough for ours and a bit extra but nowhere near our normal average.

You should get a group of folks together & find someone with a flatbed hauler and truck it in. Small squares (75 lbs) of grass (tim/orchard) are going for $3, alfalfa mix $3.50 and straight alfalfa $4 around my neck of the woods.
 
#3 ·
You should get a group of folks together & find someone with a flatbed hauler and truck it in. Small squares (75 lbs) of grass (tim/orchard) are going for $3, alfalfa mix $3.50 and straight alfalfa $4 around my neck of the woods.
Some friends tried that - got took for over $5,000 collectively. Hay "dealer" sold them the hay, but never delivered it. Another friend bought an entire load of hay...only to find it full of trash after it was delivered. It was apparently "right of way hay." So full of trash and garbage that she had to throw over half of it out. She's in real trouble, now. She took out a loan to get the hay in the first place, and doesn't have the cash reserves to buy more hay, and doesn't have enough hay for the winter. She's hoping to pick up some work to bring in enough cash to get more hay - she can't borrow any more $$.

Personally, I don't have the ready cash to do more than buy a bale or two at a time these days. Daughter and her hubby + 5 kids moved back in with us, so my budget is pretty well stretched to the limit.

I'm just glad I'm on the "LIST" at the feed store - meaning they will make sure to set back enough hay for me so I'll have it when I need it. I'll just have to pay through the nose for it.

I have my fingers crossed that we have a late frost this year. We have rain in the forecast, and we may get enough growth in the hay field to get a skimpy cutting if the first frost will just hold off...
 
#5 ·
Yeah. Hay scams are running rampant around here. I figure I'll pay more in the long run buying it the way I do, but I am just too leary to buy hay from a total stranger running an add on craig's list.
 
#17 ·
we're having that happening around here too. people buying truckloads of hay and it never showing up. how can someone do that? :evil:

it sucks. a ton of timothy/orchard/pasture grass was ~$180 last year, this year it's $285. it's insane. the mix (pasture or orchard/alfalfa) is total crap so we've taken to getting bales of pasture and bales of alfalfa and mixing out own. my TB cannot maintain weight on straight grass and the amount he needs to eat a day is really going to kill me. i'm planning on borrowing the super duty and flat bed trailer from my ex to get a few tons of hay now so i can feed through the winter. that, however, doesn't necessarily help out the lady i board my horses with as she has three horses and four burros to feed as well. it just sucks. :(

also - all of the bagged feed has gone up just like you're experiencing. a bag of stable mix used to be $8.50 not even 3-4mths ago and now it's $13. COB went from $11 to $19, strategy from $17 to $21 (not SO bad) and then the LMF development from $18 to $20 (again not so bad but still - it adds up).

another reason i hate winter and living in the desert. :cry:
 
#6 ·
First, praying for rain for you and EVERYBODY in the SW who needs it. 2ndly, I have been following the Farmer's Almanac forecasts for several years now and I have found that they are far more accurate than NOAA. FA looks for trends in the past and factors in our current weather to make predictions. You'all are supposed to be getting some rain this winter. Here's the short-term forecast AND the long-term forecast for South Central U.S.
South Central U.S. Long Range Weather Forecast | Farmers' Almanac
2012 Long-Range Weather Forecast
It looks like November, 2011 and March, 2012 will be the heaviest precipitation months for you in the near future.
We can ALSO pray for gas prices to drop. In central IL OUR hay suppliers have been shorting us with same price/lighter square bales (40lbs/bale vs, previously, 65 lbs/bale). It's all bc of the price of gas to bale/deliver. It's ALSO a PITA to stack these looser, lighter bales. Heavier bales are baled tighter and you can fit them together better--ya know, first level east-west, 2nd level north-south, etc. With THESE lighter bales I have to make jigsaw puzzles out of them so I don't have my top stack (8-13 high) come crashing down on me sometime this winter!!
 
#7 ·
I hear you about the lighter bales. We used to run cattle when hubby and I first got married. Round bales were a bit of a novelty back then, and we baled and fed out sqare bales to our 65 head of cattle. My father in law would bale the hay in 80 pound bales because it was faster to bale and easier to stack. Never mind that my mother in law and I were the ones that had to feed them out!

We were never so glad when father in law got that first round baler. Life was so much easier!

I am glad that the FA shows we will be getting rain this winter. It really doesn't take a lot of rain for the type of hay we grow, or to get the pasture up in decent shape. There is HOPE for the future...!
 
#8 ·
Nothing wrong with buying hay from a stranger but dont pay for it sight unseen, If I was getting it delivered I wouldn't pay till it was in the driveway ready to be unloaded, If I was picking it up I wouldnt pay until I got there and was ready to load.
SOmebody asking for money up front shoulda raised all kinds of red flags.
 
#9 ·
I agree, Joe. I did go look at some hay, with the thought of buying it and picking it up - we could haul a few bales at a time on our flatbed trailer. Some people wouldn't let me look at the hay, some wouldn't let me pick it up, and a LOT of the hay I looked at I wouldn't feed to a cow or a goat.

We are all at the mercy of what is available on the market. At least my feed store is making good for the bad hay I bought. They are victims, too! Fortunately, they have the luxury of being BIG buyers and can give their supplier a lot of grief over the bad hay...including refusing to deal with them anymore.
 
#10 ·
I cant see any reason an honest seller wouldnt let you look at the hay before purchase or come pick it up. Last year my area was hurting for hay but everyone has plenty this year. I guess it just takes up so much room just not any money shipping it. An 18 wheeler can haul 80,000 lbs, I dont think you would fit 1600 bales of hay in a truck but even if you could it would cost $2000 in fuel to get it to OK from Va and get the truck back. That kinda blows.
 
#11 ·
A farmer had some hay for sale not far from us - $75 for a 5 x 5 round bale of mostly bermuda grass - the rest was blue stem. Would have been great for horses. He sold all he had - 56 bales, within five minutes of posting his ad on Craig's list.

Same guy normally gets 500 - 600 bales of hay from the same field. He could have charged $125/bale and sold it just as quick!
 
#12 · (Edited)
The drought situation in TX and OK is messing things up everywhere. Hay brokers have come up here and driven our hay prices up double ($200+/ton) from where they should be this time of year. Yields were slightly higher than normal and irrigation water was plentiful but many locals are scrambling for hay. Alot of farmers dumped their regulars for the TX buyers who are willing to pay a premium for their hay. Whole fields were contracted out early in the season and not available for sale. Fields that haven't been cut in years were so there's alot of old growth, trash, weeds ect that you wouldn't see in a maintained field and the quality is crap. Farmers are rushing cuttings and not letting things cure properly. More crap hay. These same growers think their SS are worth $11 (that's $350/ton). They are also cutting down on the size of the bale. The continued excuse of high fuel prices is nuts. The fuel cost represent such a small cost of the entire bale of hay. When fuel goes up $1/gal, that works out to less than $.05/bale. The fact that the goverment is subsidising transportation costs to get hay down to TX and OK doesn't sit well with me either. There was no thought and planning on how to deal with this situation to minimize the impact on everyone. I'm waiting on a rash of abandoned horses showing up on open space and rangeland.

I live in an area that produces a large amount of sugar beets. About a month ago there was a severe shortage of BP. The harvest is just starting so they price should drop sharply very soon. It won't be down where it needs to be because of the demand as a hay alternative and complete feed ingredient.
 
#19 ·
The drought situation in TX and OK is messing things up everywhere. Hay brokers have come up here and driven our hay prices up double ($200+/ton) from where they should be this time of year.
Wow!! Here its $320 a ton! :hide: :shock: Of either pure grass or alfalfa- no difference. Of course for 7 months of the year it pours rain (pretty much solid with practically no breaks) and then about 2 months of off and on.. And about 3 months NO rain and only LIGHT dew for about 2 weeks of that! So no local hay here (well some but mainly just that $2 for 90 lb bale of cattle stuff). So the hay is imported .. :think: Luckily we have enough pasture to mainly support my girl
:)
 
#13 ·
The government may be subsidising transportation costs, but it's not helping any. Transporters are making a killing - they are charging full price (and then some), and still collecting $$ from the government.

I most sincerely hope that BP drops - it would be lovely to be able to bolster this crap hay with some - my horses are missing their BP already! They look at their dinner of dry pellets, and look at me like "I'm supposed to eat this? Are you kidding me?"

We've had to resort to dampening their pellets just to make them happy (and to make sure their flax meal all gets eaten...not that its a big problem - the horses lick their feed tubs clean - they're just spoiled!)
 
#16 ·
I posted this on another thread - but we did find another source of hay - $100/bale for 1100 pound round bales of brome/orchard grass. Not right of way hay, and the hay guy is happy to let us not only look at the hay before we buy it, but we can pick out which bales we want.

The hay is still ridiculously high, but better than at the feed store, where it's currently $120/bale for timothy/orchard grass - and the bale is a 750 pound square bale.

If daughter comes through on her job (looks like it may be good to go) it will be a BIG help - she will be able to pay for at least half the hay, anyway!
 
#18 ·
Good luck with hay.. :( Here for about a 120 lb bale of grass its 19 dollars, 21 for alfalfa!! Thats at the specificallly horse store, another place was 18 dollars for grass hay that im guessing is like 18% alfalfa, 120 lb bale...
 
#20 ·
Jeez.... if hay gets that expensive I think Indie and I might be in some trouble. I know a nice guy who bales hay, sells it to me for $35 for a 4x5 (pretty sure anyway) big bale, plus 10 for delivery... He runs out soooo quick though, and then I'm stuck getting it from dealers... those guys charge me $70 a pop, and last year half of it was moldy (and get this) had grubs in it!! So not happy... but when winter hits in my area, you got no choice. Late winter/early spring are the least fun when it comes to trying to feed.
 
#22 ·
We thought we found a decent hay source, but it didn't work out. We made several trips trying to meet up with this yahoo, but he didn't show up. After about five tries, we finally were able to meet up with him. His "good Missouri hay" was nasty. The supposedly 1,000 4x5 bales were 400-500 3x4 bales, and I swear were at least two years old, and he wanted premium prices!

So - we are stuck with buying from the feed store.

One of our friends who got ripped off buying hay from out of state that never showed up finally found a hay guy that could get a truckload of hay to her. They hay is decent bermuda grass hay, but she is paying well over 300/ton for the hay, if you factor in delivery. If you consider that she already shelled out $3,500 (not counting delivery) for a load of hay that never showed up, the hay she got was even higher!
 
#23 ·
Wow. I was ready to be shocked about the way everything has gone up in the 5 years since I've had horses before getting the two brats that I have in the yard now, but after seeing this thread I am just gonna count my blessings.

I am getting good round bales, clean hay, 4x5 1000 for $20 a bale and decent, clean though not magnificent, square bales for $3 a bale. It's fescue and orchard grass mix. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that everything levels out for everyone soon.
 
#24 ·
That's insane. I am in the same area as you and feel very lucky to have "connections". I just bought 100 square bales from my uncle for $5/bale, and its decent hay. We also have access to pretty nice round bales for like $35/bale, which is AWESOME. Feeding only one horse makes it easier as well.

Problem is, pelleted feed has gone up. Purina has gone up about $3 every time I go into TSC. I'm not even going to get into alfalfa/timothy pellets and beet pulp :/
 
#25 ·
Eliz - you are up near Tulsa, in NE Oklahoma. Your area has had a LOT more rain than mine...

Here in Central Oklahoma, we are in such an exceptional drought that some of our neighbors' water wells have gone dry - they are having to truck water in! (Fortunately, we don't seem to have that problem - must be tapped into a different aquifer)

Hay scams are rampant, and some of them are even legal. It is not illegal to advertise that you have horse quality hay for $100/bale. In reality, it's smallish round bales of right of way hay - full of trash and heaven knows what.

I hate to think what it's like in Texas, where the drought is even worse!

I
 
#26 ·
I feel for you with rising prices, but American hay can be so cheap! I'm Australian and there was a time a few years back where we were paying $20+ for a bale of lucerne hay. "Meadow" hay was a couple of dollars cheaper generally, sometimes same price. Not sure on the weight, but it was maybe 40x40x100cm, not good at measuring. What are the standard sizes of American hay?

Last time I had a horse though prices were a little cheaper, but never below $10. I once met an American who had moved to Australia who couldn't get over how expensive feed was here. But I guess things change wherever you go, I'm in Denmark now and I am shocked at how much people pay for board here, and for just a small stable with no turn out, it's close to double what I pay for rent, bills and internet for myself. I was talking to a horse rider just the other day and I told her how I used to have horses in Australia, and feed them, rug them and care for them everyday, often going out twice a day, and she couldn't believe anyone would put that much time into a horse. Here it seems that all horse people, at least in the cities, pay for people to care for their horse for them, and just turn up to ride.

I know its like that in parts of Australia, like in the big cities, but I have never really known anyone who does that. Sort of ruins the whole idea of having a horse I think. But from what I read on this forum full care board seems more popular in America?

I hope your drought breaks - I know how horrible it can be.
 
#27 ·
I've never boarded a horse, so I can't say for sure how popular full care board is. I had a friend many years ago, before I got married, that had a QH that she boarded. Her parents paid for full board, but that girl rode her horse every day, so she still made sure that the horse was properly fed and cared for. Her QH was shown in open jumping - they did very well as I recall. I'm sure that for the kind of care that horse was given (show barn) they paid through the nose for it.
 
#28 ·
I live in central Texas...
Costal square bale is about 15 bucks of trash comparedddd to 8 bucks last summer.
Alfalfa sqaurre 17
Round bales 150 and up.
Lakes are drying up to nothing, my town is buying water, so our water bill is about 200...I'm about to have to sell my horse because supposedly she needs a chiro saddle fitter or massuse or something and the damn horses eat better than we do. I won't even be ablee to sell her prrrobably, I may have to pay someone to get her. Horses just don't sell around here...
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#29 ·
Hmm, lets see. Last summer, we were giving about $115 per ton for super good quality alfalfa. Our last load of alfalfa was $315 per ton. Our normal hay supplier had to go up on his prices of grass hay earlier in the summer due to the drought, he doesn't even raise alfalfa anymore.

We were talking one day and he said he was spending about $500 per day...PER DAY to keep the generator going to the pumps on his irrigation system and still, the hay wasn't growing. He got one "okay" cutting of his grass hay about July and got a really dinky second cutting about a month ago. Don't get me wrong, it's still good hay, there just wasn't much of it. He managed about 65 bales on a spread that normally produces 200+ (big squares).
 
#30 ·
I hear you - we got some rain this month, but it's been so dang hot that nothing is growing - it's all gone dormant. We thought it might grow enough to get a skimpy cutting with the rain and the cooler weather we are having now, but nope.

We did plant some winter rye in our pasture - it's been nothing but bare ground from where we cut out a bunch of trees and brush, trying to clear all that crap out. We timed it right, and the rye is coming up beautifully. Sadly, there is not nearly enough yet for the horses.

We did turn them out yesterday for an hour or so - didn't want them out any longer than that because they aren't used to green grass - they've had to be on hay all summer. They munched on the rye for a few minutes, but then disappeard to the other side of the pond (we haven't seeded over there.) Went to see what the big attraction was - and found bermuda grass! It's growing in some of the areas that we cleared - it must have been dormant there for years. There isn't a lot of it, but there are a lot of tiny patches all over the place.

I think we are going to try a little fertilizer where the bermuda grass is and see if it will spread more. I'm so excited!
 
#31 ·
I'm paying $125/1200 lb round bale of nice bermuda and there are a few bales of rye that I can have. I'm paying approximately $350/ton of good small square bermuda bales about 50 lbs each.

Hint for those shopping at TSC, they will beat anyone's lowest price on feed, especially if you buy by the pallet or ton. I buy 2 tons of Strategy per month and I'm paying considerably less than the per bag price on the shelf. I negotiate my pallet price every 6 months.
 
#33 ·
OH WOW great tip !!



Thanks so much Dream Catcher for that tip! I had no idea, and for those of us with multiple mouth's to feed they SHOULD be giving us a better deal! I have never bought feed there becasue they always have THE MOST EXPENSIVE price posted anyplace. I'm currently paying 14.50 for the stradigy white bag (pink fore breast cancer awareness month) at the feed store i normally go to and TSC is 15.99 for the same feed. I'd happily buy a pallet to get a better deal. how many 50 lb bags are IN a pallet?

Also I'm looking for a new feed dealer becasue I was getting the small StandLee alfalfa compressed (40-50lbs) NICE hay for 12.99 a bale now they are telling me that it's 15.99 a bale and 15.50 a bale IF I BUY AN ENTIRE PALLET!!~ you have GOT to be KIDDING!! I hope i don't rue the day i told they no way was i gonna pay 15.99 OR 15.50 a bale for hay!!

I found a local farmer/rancher that brought back several hundred square bales from Kentucky. I'd say they weigh 60 to 75lbs pretty stemmy alfalfa for 11.00 a bale of i get one hundred bales so i did and they horses seem happy with it, but after that nice green standlee hay it looks like crap IMO. BUt the horses clean it up so I'm buying it for now. I want to make a run to PRODUCTION ACRES AND GET SOME ALFALFA FROM THEM. it looks really nice and The price was decent last time I looked.
 
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