[stevenson]

Just wondering what hay prices are in other areas. It is up there in SJV So CA. 17.50 for oat hay , 23 for alfalfa hay . I did not price the grass hay. Hay this year is double of what I paid last year.

 

[gottatrot]

Hay is double here too in OR. A bale of orchard grass was around $20 for a 110 lb bale last year, and this year it is $40. I am not sure how high it will go because we've had late rain in the PNW and they've had difficulty cutting hay.

 

[stevenson]

We have empty fields, or they have been turned into orchards. Cheaper to water young trees. With cut back water not many hay fields. i did forget to put the bale size they are 100 lb - 110 on the bales.

 

[horselovinguy]

My square bales are almost double...
My round bales are up $30 a roll...
Feed is $7.00 approximately more a bag...
Farrier just doubled in cost to me...

My hay guy is baling like crazy but he can no longer absorb anymore $ increase and is passing it on to his customers.
Fertilizer is now 3x what it was 14 months ago.
Seed is double...
Diesel, well we know that hurt ourselves, but he burns $300 per day per tractor baling...
He said he was speaking to other local hayman and some are in serious trouble and not sure they can hang on...so get ready for some very bumpy and expensive days to be in our future...
Keep this up and many of us may be having to face some nasty choices to make of what more can we cut to keep our horses... or forced to sell/re-home or worse.
Scary, just very scary.
🐴.....

 

[Peppers on]

Just wondering what hay prices are in other areas. It is up there in SJV So CA. 17.50 for oat hay , 23 for alfalfa hay . I did not price the grass hay. Hay this year is double of what I paid last year.

It’s 27.95 for A here it’s gone crazy
Some places 22.95 on special day

 

[marymane]

From what I can tell prices here haven't gone up dramatically from before. Not like some areas. I'm seeing some people still selling for $5 a bale timothy. 5-10 bucks is the usual. Approximately 50 lbs. bales. Used to pay 7 a bale a little over a year ago. But that's with a cursory look on local listings. Our barn is lucky now that the owner uses some of the property to bale hay and is included in the board (for now, it's a small private barn so this is doable with the property size and number of horses I guess). If I feed alfalfa I do it in pellets as that's easier to get for me. Bags for that pelleted or cubed are around 14 - 16 for 40 lbs. But I don't expect these prices to stay fixed for too long. Sometimes I've noticed they don't always have bags available for alfalfa/timothy/mixed pellets/cubes, beet pulp, and they're no longer stocking compressed bales (or if they are they're gone so quick I don't see them).

Feed has gone up by 5 - 10 depending on the brand and type.

Farrier has gone up as well but not drastically. With gas and everything going up he has to.

Dentist work done recently and was surprised at how low the price was. So dental and veterinary hasn't changed any for me yet.

I've been very lucky and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. My heart hurts for the people who are already at the stage where that hard decision is needing to be made.

 

[rambo99]

Big rounds a 1000 lb bale 55 a bale not sure on square bales. Farrier went up 5 dollars a trim. Alfalfa cube went up 1.50 was 15$ a bag now 16.50.

Don't buy commercial feeds so doesn't effect me. Have enough hay for 3 years so good. Stocked up on vitamin E for ice so good there.

If things get that bad an horses are unaffordable. Selling them or rehoming them won't be an option no one will be able to afford to have them or won't want them.

Fuel cost are going up diesel is 5.49 a gallon. Regular fuel 4.69$ a gallon. Both jumped 10¢ over night a few weeks ago.

I go 3 days a week to work anything we need I get on those 3 days after that my vehicle is parked.

Time to go back to horse an buggy days an cutting hay the way it was done in the old days put it up loose.

 

[Horsef]

Not to be pessimistic, but it’s like that over here as well (Serbia, Europe). Out small bales have gone from 120 local currency in October 2020 to 300 now. We also had a drought last summer so that wasn’t helpful either…

1.5$ to 3.8$ for approx. 45 pounds -but I don’t know if it has a type - it’s just all sorts of mixed grass. That’s 250% in a year and a half.

 

[Acadianartist]

Those prices are nuts. Cost has gone up just slightly here from 4.50 to 5$ a square bale last year to 6$ this year. These bales are about 60 lbs.

The biggest problem here is that it has been raining too much to cut so we will likely have somewhat overmature hay again. Hoping we get a break soon and fields can be cut in the next week or two which would still be within a reasonable window for our climate. We don't have a choice of hay, and alfalfa doesn't grow well here, so this is predominantly timothy hay that is seeded, limed and fertilized. We pick it up in the field so the supplier has minimal handling and no storage costs. It means having to be on the ready to go get it the minute we get the call (we get a day's notice) but it's worth it.

 

[boatagor]

I'm in VA and our prices seem to have risen slightly, from $5-$6 for a Timothy/orchard grass mix square bale. My "agreement" with my friend is that I don't pay for hay but she's complaining about how much her round bales were to cut this year already so I think she's going to end up charging me. I'm considering getting some square bales now and putting them up for winter, although I don't know if that will work because my gelding is in with her horses. I don't have the means to transport or store round bales myself.

 

[JCnGrace]

We haven't gotten any hay yet so I don't know if our suppliers have raised the prices. From what I'm seeing on craigslist it doesn't look like others are except if the area is close to Indianapolis. Back the last time fuel costs got so high they raised prices a good chunk and never went back down so for a few years there they got to make a good profit.

 

[dogpatch]

Hay is double here too in OR. A bale of orchard grass was around $20 for a 110 lb bale last year, and this year it is $40. I am not sure how high it will go because we've had late rain in the PNW and they've had difficulty cutting hay.

In the "old" Oregon, nobody ever cut hay on the west side until the 4th of July, so don't despair. I think you moved to Oregon in a drought and may be experiencing your first real "Oregon Spring!" LOL! West side hay is always poor quality as a result (but heck, it's loaded with sugar when it's cut in May/June). I don't know what Eastern hay prices are going to do this year, but I'm sure it'll be painful when I learn. Hay guy said probably only one cutting for a lot of hay, and everybody will be competing for top dollar with what's there. I just hope there's enough to go around!

 

[Palfrey]

4.00/bale for Timothy/Orchard grass mix for me personally from family hay fields. I had a work colleague tell me she got her hay for 3.50/bale delivered!!

You can tell that the inflation prices haven't totally hit the horse people in my area yet as they are being VERY picky about hay this year. Not wanting the wind row, or bales that are "too wet" (which are NOT wet), not returning calls about down hay ready to go. It works out for me because I just take what my uncle has left.

 

[LoriF]

Try living in Florida. Last year I was buying coastal round rolls for 70. a bale approximately 600 lbs. I also supplemented with timothy which cost me about 35 dollars for 100 lb bales. This year the round rolls are 85 bucks and small bales of coastal are up to 9 dollars 35 to 40 lbs. I now board where hay (timothy and orchard) is included so I have no idea what it has been over the last few months.

 

[Susan K]

We have been told to expect prices of $33 or more for a 100lb. bale of grass hay this year. This is in the Reno, NV area. When I first moved here in 2013, we were paying $12 for the same hay.

 

[newtrailriders]

Our hay guy raised the price to bale up to $3.25/bale and we'll be paying kids $1 a bale to throw it. 50 lb bales. We just sold last year's hay for $6.50 a bale and we could have got more. So we'll go ahead and have it baled again this year. We didn't fertilize this year because the cost of fertilizer tripled.

 

[Zimalia22]

We are just now baling first cutting. Price of twine has nearly doubled. We all know what the price of diesel has done. Don't blame the grower! We're at the mercy of prices too! And heaven forbid if something breaks down! IF you can get the part, you pay thru the nose for it!

 

[stevenson]

The guy I am getting hay from , goes and bids, picks it up and brings it here. He clears .75 cents a bale. I did not bid on any field this year. I have not been out looking, hubby said all the fields look weedy, and a lot of the farmers did not plant alfalfa this year. The hay I am to have delivered on Saturday, may have gotten a light rain today. I sure hope it was not heavy . We have had thunder lightening and rain the last couple of days.

 

[Horsef]

@Zimalia22 I don’t think most people would blame the growers. If anything we are mostly commiserating and hoping you guys stay in business. At least I am.

Locally most small time farmers had to get their cows processed for meat and stopped keeping them because it was costing them more to keep them than what they could sell them/the produce for. It’s only big corporate farms that are still in business. I think that has happened a long time ago in the western countries but over here a lot of people were keeping 10 or 15 head of cattle on their family farm up until two years ago. Not any more, unfortunately.

 

[Acadianartist]

@Zimalia22 I don’t think most people would blame the growers. If anything we are mostly commiserating and hoping you guys stay in business. At least I am.

Locally most small time farmers had to get their cows processed for meat and stopped keeping them because it was costing them more to keep them than what they could sell them/the produce for. It’s only big corporate farms that are still in business. I think that has happened a long time ago in the western countries but over here a lot of people were keeping 10 or 15 head of cattle on their family farm up until two years ago. Not any more, unfortunately.

That's very sad. And one more reason I no longer eat meat unless I know the farmer (also, my husband is a hunter so we mostly eat wild game). Really not interested in eating meat from those big corporate farms. Since my daughter is vegan, I mostly eat what she eats with the odd bit of wild meat or locally-produced meat here and there. I don't really miss it, having been a vegetarian most of my life until I had kids.

I made it clear to my hay supplier that I have no problem with his price. I know it doesn't seem like a lot to some of you, but I'm sure he'll be hearing complaints. Every year he says it may be his last cutting hay.

I've said this over and over again: we have such low hay prices here that no one wants to grow it anymore because it doesn't pay like other crops. As a result, it's really hard to find good quality hay. Few people feel it's worth investing in seeding, liming and fertilizing hay fields. So instead, there are farmers who drive around cutting random fields of weeds. It's awful. I had hay one year that had a ton of goldenrod and raspberry canes in it! Big sticks! I get that you'll get the odd unwanted weed, but this hay was junk. Glad I found a couple of farmers who still invest in hay, but not sure how long they'll keep doing it if we can't pay them a good price.