We sell mainly to the local cattleman here. We stack it down near our road, and we're done. His guys load it, mark it down, and go feed. It works out well as we only have to handle it once. Thank heavens for bale wagons!
Hay Prices
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Amen, hauling hay with an inline trailer is so good! Ours will haul 8 big 1600# bales and if you do it right they will off load in a line. Then it is just a matter of using the loader to put in the last couple rows in the hay storage pen.
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I think hay prices here in MN are either the same or actually down a little from last year but we had a drought last year so prices jumped significantly last year instead. Thankfully this year we've been getting more rain so the increased crop will counteract the inflation prices.
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980 Posts
Last year round bales all went up $10.... What I was paying $40 for went up to $50 and what another place I paid $50 for an orchard round went up to $60.... not bad as they are good rounds...
Grain went up... what I could get if I had the TSC discount(haven't seen that in a while) and a sale at one point I got a ton of Strategy for $15 a bag... that was a deal... but now it's $23, but now I have 2 on Purina Equine senior and that's $26... my local feed store beats TSC prices plus buy 12 and get one free plus spend $250 get $10 off. Not too long ago I got a free bag and $10 off so I was pretty happy! lol
I went to get a round bale yesterday and was talking to my hay guy.... this is a new place(as in started last year) I'm getting the round bales from.... $70 for a HUGE round bale and horses love it... Orchard/Fescue mixed. But he hasn't went up but not sure he can keep it up... plus we haven't had a good amount of rain so not sure he can do the squares as much this year. You can pick up squares from him from the field and that runs $9... he said they have a good weight. I tend to call people on the weight of the bales. One place said they had 75 pound bales of good orchard/alfalfa... I said wow I'll take some! Get home and unload no way they were 75 pounds... more like 50... so I weighed them and then told the store they are wrong... whoever said they were 70 were wrong... I know they are heavy but most when they say 50 are more like 40... whew sorry for the rant! lol
Grain went up... what I could get if I had the TSC discount(haven't seen that in a while) and a sale at one point I got a ton of Strategy for $15 a bag... that was a deal... but now it's $23, but now I have 2 on Purina Equine senior and that's $26... my local feed store beats TSC prices plus buy 12 and get one free plus spend $250 get $10 off. Not too long ago I got a free bag and $10 off so I was pretty happy! lol
I went to get a round bale yesterday and was talking to my hay guy.... this is a new place(as in started last year) I'm getting the round bales from.... $70 for a HUGE round bale and horses love it... Orchard/Fescue mixed. But he hasn't went up but not sure he can keep it up... plus we haven't had a good amount of rain so not sure he can do the squares as much this year. You can pick up squares from him from the field and that runs $9... he said they have a good weight. I tend to call people on the weight of the bales. One place said they had 75 pound bales of good orchard/alfalfa... I said wow I'll take some! Get home and unload no way they were 75 pounds... more like 50... so I weighed them and then told the store they are wrong... whoever said they were 70 were wrong... I know they are heavy but most when they say 50 are more like 40... whew sorry for the rant! lol
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Got my hay today. Hubby talked to the driver, whom stated he is working for the hay company because of the cost of fuel and insurance on his squeeze truck is about a grand a month now. It is just outrageous. The water shortage i snot helping either.
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1,602 Posts
I might get into fisticuffs with someone for $6 per 50lb bale at this point. Alfalfa bales are 20 something, plain old bermuda grass is 11ish, and my plain old bermuda rounds are $70. That's not even great hay, orchard, timothy, perennial peanut, or alfalfa is what you're after, but ain't no way I'm affording that mess now or ever, as I live in FL and most of that has to shipped from way out in the midwest. My alfalfa pellets went up $4 a bag and my feed is up $7. Diesel is ungodly as we're all aware. Plain old gas is freakishly expensive. My farrier has to charge more. It's really all going to heck in a handbasket.
I'd fight the folks responsible for all this but unfortunately that's illegal.
I'd fight the folks responsible for all this but unfortunately that's illegal.
I buy hay as I have never felt it was cost efficient to maintain hay equipment. Hay big bales are suppose to be between $80-100 a bale for brome, so I've decided to sell off my cow/calf herd this fall and just start backgrounding calves for the summers selling them every fall. Only thing I'll feed during the winter will be horses and my meat steer. I usually go thru 70-80 of the big #1600 bales and 100 small bales. I'll be cutting back to 6 big bales and 100 small bales. Less strain on my wallet and less work during the winter months. Already cut a deal with the neighbor to buy steers from them next May, so no disease to bring home from the sale barn .
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We are putting up first crop now. Our valley is a decent supplier for high quality hay. Dairy and performance horse… as a kid I was shocked to explore the Kentucky Derby in FFA, meet the owners, and find they feed our hay!
Now, it’s never been cheap. We have not only had a massive increase in production costs, but now many are going to lose at the least half their water. That means half of what the valley produces will no longer exist. I imagine the prices to find our kind of hay will see a jump from that as well. A lot of people may end up out of business, as too many difficulties are happening at once.
Now, it’s never been cheap. We have not only had a massive increase in production costs, but now many are going to lose at the least half their water. That means half of what the valley produces will no longer exist. I imagine the prices to find our kind of hay will see a jump from that as well. A lot of people may end up out of business, as too many difficulties are happening at once.
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69 Posts
Here in Central Florida I get a delivery of square bales second cut T & A that are 50 to 60 pounds for $16.99 per square bale, $40 for the delivery.
This years hay has gone way down in price. Small square bale's are 5 dollars a bale. Can buy rounds from 40 to 55 dollars a bale this year. Last year they were 85 to 120 a big round that's 1000 to 1200 lb rounds.
Plenty of hay no shortage at all this year.
Plenty of hay no shortage at all this year.
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17,506 Posts
Seems our hay prices have done a switch over from last year...
Where you paid last year, this year we are being hammered...and you get a reprieve.
Good for you. Enjoy the reprieve on your pocket...
🐴..
Where you paid last year, this year we are being hammered...and you get a reprieve.
Good for you. Enjoy the reprieve on your pocket...
🐴..
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69 Posts
I wish they were that cheap here.
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16,003 Posts
Hubby and I were just talking about this the other day. Glad we have friends who raise cows and pigs. We're in Tyson country so chicken hasn't gone up much, but I may start doing my own meat chickens if they keep on selling thighs for more than breasts. I prefer whole chickens but those have been silly too. I generally by thighs and chicken livers, because hubby doesn't want to eat our hens that he knows. I'm over that if things keep going up, he's going to have to suck it up.
We just paid $12.49/bale for Bermuda at Atwood's, it's been $10.99 - $11.59 the last year or so. Not surprised it went up. My big bale hay guy hasn't gotten back to me on prices yet, scared to bug him and ask. I'm pretty much good for 24 big rounds/year regardless of price, it's gonna hurt. He'll deliver, he's got a HUMUNGOUS bale hauler, he can do 14 or 16 bales at a time, IIRC. Sure makes it nice for me, my little hay buggy only does 1 at a time and that would be a pain.
I don't have my latest receipt handy but everything has just skyrocketed. There's gonna be a lot of nice horses going to auction this fall/winter, people are not going to be able to continue feeding them.
We just paid $12.49/bale for Bermuda at Atwood's, it's been $10.99 - $11.59 the last year or so. Not surprised it went up. My big bale hay guy hasn't gotten back to me on prices yet, scared to bug him and ask. I'm pretty much good for 24 big rounds/year regardless of price, it's gonna hurt. He'll deliver, he's got a HUMUNGOUS bale hauler, he can do 14 or 16 bales at a time, IIRC. Sure makes it nice for me, my little hay buggy only does 1 at a time and that would be a pain.
I don't have my latest receipt handy but everything has just skyrocketed. There's gonna be a lot of nice horses going to auction this fall/winter, people are not going to be able to continue feeding them.
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1,116 Posts
Regular gas is $5.55, diesel is $6.33 here. I'm lucky to have 16 acres of river bottom land pasture that has gotten a lot of late rain. I feed my Saddlebred a flake of alfala and a few grain pellets a day thats it and he's fat and shiny. The pony just keeps the lawn mowed. My Jersey milk cow just eats grass and is fixing to calf. There is a tremendous amount of stemy low quality native grass this year. But they bale it round bales wrapped in plastic to let it ferment to make haylege out of it and feed it to dairy cattle. Horses are not fed haylege. The inland alfalfa growing area of SW Oregon has been in exeptional drought for the past 2 years. I have a ton and a half stored in the barn I paid $24 for 110 to 120lb bales. I feel sorry for people who stable horses and don't have any pasture. I'm afarid a lot of good horses are going one way trip to Mexico and Canada.
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This season, I only bought 165 small squares of the orchard/timothy/mix I have been buying the last five or so years. I paid $12.99/40# - 45# bales🤯🤯
Duncan, the new guy, doesn’t come close to being metabolic which means both he and Rusty can stay on pasture more hours, so I should have enough hay.
Like @horselovinguy commented, it‘s a $300 fuel day, minimum, to get out in the fields these days. I’ve talked to friends in PA and here in TN, who are either cutting back their beef herds or selling out because they are too small of an operation to turn any sort of profit😢😢
Duncan, the new guy, doesn’t come close to being metabolic which means both he and Rusty can stay on pasture more hours, so I should have enough hay.
Like @horselovinguy commented, it‘s a $300 fuel day, minimum, to get out in the fields these days. I’ve talked to friends in PA and here in TN, who are either cutting back their beef herds or selling out because they are too small of an operation to turn any sort of profit😢😢
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I feed alfalfa to my high octaine hard keeper Saddlebred. Fortunately we have grass pasture too but it is cool season grass. Livestock get fat on when it is at grassus maximus in nutrients in late spring and early summer. Other than that it is like a standing crop of straw. I weigh the alfalfa flake each day, dole it out and feed in a tub so not a leaf is wasted.
SW Oregon has been in an exectional drought. The alfalfa growing country of the Klamath River drainage has not had rain in years. I buy a ton at a time. A ton is 16 heavy square bales. Last year ton price was $23 a bale, last winter it was $24. and today it is $25 a bale. I was told the next load is going to be $450 a ton. That would be $28 a bale. The feed man said there is not going alfalfa hay cut this year because there is no water alotment and the wells are going dry.There is Orchard grass hay for sale but it is the same cost as alfalfa. There is also "grassy alfalfa' which is more like alfalfay grass but it also costs the same as alfalfa. I am lucky to have only one horse. There is also his mini friend but he just keeps the lawn mowed. What I like about this alfalfa is they cut it before it blooms so there are no blister beetles.
Meanwhile, on my forested property near the coast my neighbor told me this past rainy season it rained nine feet. The Elk River valley is like a funnel.The rain clouds come in from the sea, are squeezed together by mountains and rise, dumping their rain. People raise cattle there but they still have to feed hay in the winter because the washy grass is not nourishing enough for the cows.And the stemmy marsh hay that they cut and bale there is only fit for cows.
![Horse Sky Working animal Window Wheel]()
SW Oregon has been in an exectional drought. The alfalfa growing country of the Klamath River drainage has not had rain in years. I buy a ton at a time. A ton is 16 heavy square bales. Last year ton price was $23 a bale, last winter it was $24. and today it is $25 a bale. I was told the next load is going to be $450 a ton. That would be $28 a bale. The feed man said there is not going alfalfa hay cut this year because there is no water alotment and the wells are going dry.There is Orchard grass hay for sale but it is the same cost as alfalfa. There is also "grassy alfalfa' which is more like alfalfay grass but it also costs the same as alfalfa. I am lucky to have only one horse. There is also his mini friend but he just keeps the lawn mowed. What I like about this alfalfa is they cut it before it blooms so there are no blister beetles.
Meanwhile, on my forested property near the coast my neighbor told me this past rainy season it rained nine feet. The Elk River valley is like a funnel.The rain clouds come in from the sea, are squeezed together by mountains and rise, dumping their rain. People raise cattle there but they still have to feed hay in the winter because the washy grass is not nourishing enough for the cows.And the stemmy marsh hay that they cut and bale there is only fit for cows.
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