Hay prices

[farmerjan]

Last year we were trying to buy local and in bulk. I hooked up with a guy on craigslist and drove out to meet him. We were prepared to buy 7 round bales of coastal. That is a fair price here where we are, actually a deal.
But when I asked for break if I bought 10, his tone changed. He pointed at all of his tractors and implements and said..

. I COULD HAVE BOUGHT AN APARTMENT COMPLEX FOR WHAT I OWE THE BANK FOR THIS STUFF. YOU GET THE BANK TO GIVE ME A BREAK, AND I'LL GIVE YOU A BREAK..

I can sympathize with the hay guy. Because we have that same kind of money in our equipment and then the fuel and time to run it and the repairs that inevitably come along too. We have done some dealing with regular customers that buy in bulk if they pick it up... but never for less than 30 or so round bales. The square bales we don't do much discount on unless they come when we are baling, load it off the wagons themselves so that we can reuse the wagon right then. Even though we have a kicker that puts the bales into the wagons, we still stack them so that they keep their shape if they don't get unloaded right away, and we can get more on the wagon if they are stacked. So if people come get the hay while we are baling, and get a wagon emptied, it is one less we have to pull down to the field and one less to have to take back to the barn for storage. And have had different ones offer to help when they are there so we give them a break too. There is no real benefit to hay in bulk, for the farmer making it. Costs the same per bale whether you are making 100 or 1000. Just takes alot longer to pay off the equipment if you are only making 100.

 

[AClark]

The only way we get a break on hay is if we pick it up out of the field, or buy a LOT of it, way more than 10 bales, usually 20+ of the big bales, and 3+ tons of alfalfa. I pay $40 a bale for coastal bermuda round bales. It's not the best, but the goats don't mind the weeds and the horses leave them. Plus the horses tend to scatter it on the ground and then they won't eat it, so we fork it up and use it for bedding for the chickens and rabbits. The rabbits chew on some of it, but once it's been on the ground and wet, it's mostly bedding. It actually works out well and saves me from buying bedding separately at $9 a bale for straw or $9 for a brick of wood shavings.

 

[Bossroo]

Sounds like you are bringing in all type ??? of weed seeds onto your property !

 

[Baymule]

The weed seeds will sprout, grow and the goats will eat them.

 

[Nao57]

We feed a variety.

We can get round bales from our neighbor for $25. It's not great hay, it's more to keep the goats busy.

We can get large 800# squares of orchard for $100 or a large 900#-1100# bale of alfalfa for $180

I just picked up some small squares of alfalfa last weekend, weighing from 70-75# (I weighed them)
A few might have been pushing 80#. Those suckers were heavy But the price was great, $13 and the hay so far has been very nice.

I picked up some really nice, super soft orchard that the goats just loved. Bales weighed roughly 47# and were $9 each
Picked up some more orchard, bales about the same size (haven't weighed them yet), not as nice quality but still good, for $9 each

I'm curious... if the quality of the hay is not that great, do the animals end up eating more to compensate? Or what is the effect on the animal side? Do they just look slimmer? Or even get sick more? (I guess it would depend on the animal.)(And I mean lower quality hay but not moldy bad or spoiled hay.)

 

[Nao57]

This thread seems interesting because there were major price hikes in 2019 and 2020.

It will be interesting to get new hay bale price figures now.

(And a bit maddening too.)

It seems like the hay price stayed really stable right up until about 2016? Although there were a few hiccups after the mortgage meltdown I expect.

 

[Grant]

Depends on what you mean by quality. If you’re talking protein % then you need to supplement that more. If your talking weedy, it really depends. Some animals will eat it fine, others not so much. As long as we aren’t talking about horses, the hungrier they are, the more likely they are to eat weedy hay....but then some animals prefer the weeds. So go figure.

 

[farmerjan]

The price spikes also are usually regional.... mostly weather related. When that horrible drought hit Texas back in 2009 or 11 ???? You were looking at prices of $100 per roll or more.... BEFORE trucking costs... Many sold out or sold way down to try to salvage the core of their bloodlines for holding on to breeding stock. In the Northeast there is a growing hay shortage.... bad year up there.... hard to find at semi-reasonable prices... @rachels.haven is having a tough time getting her barn filled.

@Grant is right about the hay. You pay for quality and that means type and protein content... you can feed a lesser quality and supplement with grain to a point.... they will eat more if it isn't junk/trashy/weedy.... although some do like some of the weeds. But there is a limit of quantity that any of them can eat.... and if it is poor quality, they will suffer nutritionally as they will not be able to eat the quantity necessary to get the nutrition out of it, unless you supplement with grain of some sort.
But if you have real rich/high protein hay, you have to be careful as then they can get too much "quality" and not enough quantity without causing digestive upset/scours/diarrhea/acidosis; without them consuming enough "bulk" /fiber for the gut tract to operate properly either...
Hay is plentiful here in Va this year and most is decent quality. We have made nearly all our hay with no rain. Early hay was short and we were concerned... but then we got some decent rain... and some was way over mature, but had some good 2nd growth coming up in it. We make a good bit of 1st cutting in rolls for the cattle, they can use some lesser quality when feeding the dry cows.... and they will pick through the hay in the rolls. A good bit of 2nd cutting is made in sq bales and we sell a portion of it to several long standing customers.... mostly for horses, one or 2 llama people. Sell some rolls for cattle hay when asked.

 

[Nao57]

The reminder that you are trying to hit protein content amounts was useful. Somehow that slipped my mind again.

It is interesting to hear about this.

Last year when Nebraska had all that flooding there was a significant price jump for hay right then. At the time it settled I'm not sure it went back down completely.

 

[Nao57]

Is the second cutting of a hay crop, later in the year after the first typically as much protein content as the first cutting's protein content?

It should be similar right, but then the amount of sun exposure closer to fall is probably slightly less, so I wonder if that can edge the numbers apart a bit.