# Hay= the price of gold (or almost)



## Marsha Cassada (Oct 23, 2011)

Just finished helping to handle 320 bales of hay. 4 of us locally bought a large trailer load. It came from Kansas. The bales weigh 70-90 pounds. Only 20 were mine. Luckily the guy and his son who delivered helped to unload. I was the youngest, at 58, of the local unloaders! Those puppies were HEAVY!

The price was $10 per bale. I only bought 20 bales, as I have pasture and only two miniature horses. We had a rain a few weeks ago and the winter forage grasses are showing some life. You should have seen us sweeping/raking up the hay debris and stuffing it into tubs to save so it wouldn't go to waste.

Ah, the good old days when 20 bales of grass hay would have cost $60 instead of $200.

I learned that our OK governer has waived the weight and wide-load permits for hay being transported in OK. No wide load at night, but otherwise hay is good to go.

Looks like very nice hay. It is "native KS prairie hay"--whatever that is. It is harvested off huge properties, some as large as 6000 acres. The hay guy told us the field is burnt off every year which controls the weeds.

Anyway, it is beautiful, soft, and a nice green. My two boys have already sampled it and seem content.


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## Field-of-Dreams (Oct 23, 2011)

AWESOME!!We got in ten giant bales yesterday and paid $20 a bale. Three strings, probably 70LBs. HOPEFULLY we should be OK now for the rest of the winter. We have about 200 regular squares in the haybarn and maybe another 50 or so distributed throught the other barns.


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## shorthorsemom (Oct 23, 2011)

I just paid $6.50 a piece for "kicker bales" of fine grass hay. Come winter they will be $8.50 or more each. They are fluffy and not all that heavy, but they are super clean and no weeds and no waste...

SE PA and hay is like gold here, hard to find since we had so much rain after so much dought. Glad to get it though.


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## Hawks_Eye_Minis (Oct 23, 2011)

I buy timmothy orchard grass hay the bales are arround 50-60 lbs and i pay $2 a bale... I could get rounds for $25 but for only 2 minis theres no point in those... I buy 100 bales a year so for $200 i can pretty much feed them all year

Im from wisconsin and i found a private grower only 5 minutes away


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## chandab (Oct 23, 2011)

Field-of-Dreams said:


> AWESOME!!We got in ten giant bales yesterday and paid $20 a bale. Three strings, probably 70LBs. HOPEFULLY we should be OK now for the rest of the winter. We have about 200 regular squares in the haybarn and maybe another 50 or so distributed throught the other barns.


With three strings, I'd say they are probably more like 100# bales. I don't think I've seen 3-string bales much under 100#; but I've seen 2-string bales upto about 90#.


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## ohmt (Oct 23, 2011)

I feel for all of you. We pay anywhere from $25-$40 a ton for pretty decent hay. This year it was on the high end ($40) due to all of our flooding, but still not bad, especially when some of you are paying $20 for a 70 lb bale. Yikes!


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## LindaL (Oct 24, 2011)

Well, living here in Florida...unless you want to feed your horses Tifton (coastal), which my horses turn their noses up on...probably with good reason since I've heard that coastal causes a lot of colics...ALL other hay is shipped in from other states...which means...$$$

I just paid $17.99 for Timothy!!!!! Yes, that is PER BALE!!!!






I am hoping to find a dealer that will ship and deliver a load for less, but so far, no luck in this area.

Last year, I found a lady who had semi-loads of nice T & A shipped down from Michigan and I paid $13.00 bale.

When I lived in Oregon that same bale would have cost about $8.00 and NICE local grass hay would have been about $3.50 bale.

Guess this is the price we Floridians pay for living here with horses.


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## chandab (Oct 24, 2011)

ohmt said:


> I feel for all of you. We pay anywhere from $25-$40 a ton for pretty decent hay. This year it was on the high end ($40) due to all of our flooding, but still not bad, especially when some of you are paying $20 for a 70 lb bale. Yikes!


Wow, and I thought I was getting a good deal on hay at $75-100 per ton. I'd love to pay only $40/ton for horse hay, I might have even more at that price.


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## disneyhorse (Oct 24, 2011)

Hay is $13-28 per bale here... #80 and #100 pound three-string bales... Pretty expensive! A #50 bag of beet pulp pellets is $15.50

Andrea


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## Riverrose28 (Oct 24, 2011)

Talking about hay, right now I'm totally disgusted! We had a deal with the farmer , cattle farmer accross the road, to buy all of a 48 acre field. We have always shared the hay, he would bale some in round bales for cattle and some for us square for horses. Well the owner of the farm died, the guy accross the way, cattle farmer is still renting the fields from the wife, and all was well. Then last year the cattle farmer died. His son has taken over, this is were the problem lies. He is in a hurry. First cutting was full of weeds but at least eatable for the horses, but now he wants to cut one day, turn the next then bale, it doesn't have enough time to dry out. He is young and you can't tell him anything! They just brought a flat bed truck load in here we had to turn away, it was so wet you could wring it out! Between the dry weather, wet weather, we are not going to make it thru the winter. I can't put wet hay up in my barn, it will catch on fire, and will mold, what are they thinking. He said well I'll put it in my barn. Well good luck! My farm hlep spent all day in this field picking up the bales, not to mention the cost of fuel with the tractor, I'm peeved! I went out to check the hay and it was not acceptable and you are right it is needed and cost too much to take a risk. Last load had night shade in six bales. Just too much to take. Don't know what I'm going to do next year, but this guy has got to go.


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## shorthorsemom (Oct 24, 2011)

In SE pa it is almost impossible to put up dry hay this time of year, by the time the sun gets high enough to dry it out, it starts getting wet again. My supplier for my horse hay has a hay dryer.

My husband puts up his cow hay wet and in a silo this time of year, but we can't even get dry enough conditions to do that. We are going to be so short on hay. Horrible year for hay. I wish we could put up hay here for my mini horses.

Our friend put up some horse quality hay, or so he thought, and it got mouldy.

You can never put up horse hay in a day unless it is 95+ degrees outside. Tough when you have a reliable source of hay dry up.

That guys hay is going to burn down his barn. You cannot mow wet hay, very dangerous.


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## Miniv (Oct 24, 2011)

We're looking at $200 per ton for quality orchard grass (two string bales).... and we live in a top hay growing area. A lot of the growers either ship it over seas or truck it out of the area for more.

Fortunately we are currently feeding off some of our own home grown....but it's not going to last through the winter.


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## Lizzie (Oct 24, 2011)

We have always envied those who live in other parts of the country. We have paid about $17 a bale (three string) for several years now. One of the reasons we have not bred any big horses fror some time. And for those who at least have a little pasture for some of the year, we envy you even more.

Lizzie


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## StarRidgeAcres (Oct 24, 2011)

Prices and availability were a problem here in southeastern MO earlier in the year. Too much rain and folks were saying production was going to be a problem. But things dried out a bit and just toward the end of summer folks started loosening up on their personal stockpiles and started selling. It took me until late Sept to secure my fall/winter supply. The quality isn't as good as years past, but it is certainly edible and properly cured/baled. I've got 400 70lb squares of orchard/brome/lespideza (sp) mix. I paid $3 per bale. He stores and assists with loading. I pu 50 bales at a time.


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## hobbyhorse23 (Oct 25, 2011)

ohmt said:


> I feel for all of you. We pay anywhere from $25-$40 a ton for pretty decent hay. This year it was on the high end ($40) due to all of our flooding, but still not bad, especially when some of you are paying $20 for a 70 lb bale. Yikes!


$40...a...ton?? That's two small square bales here!







LindaL said:


> I just paid $17.99 for Timothy!!!!! Yes, that is PER BALE!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I want to know what part of Oregon you were in- north of Seattle we've always payed $15-20 per bale for good quality Timothy or Orchard Grass from over the mountains. The local stuff isn't worth buying no matter how cheap it is! My area is just too wet to grow good hay, especially in a La Nina year like we just had. I want another riding horse but there's no way I could afford to feed him and do the vet care for three horses on my salary in this area. ($300 for teeth, $600 for a gelding procedure, $1,000 for stifle surgery that elsewhere is $150.) Oregon is sounding better and better!





Leia


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## LindaL (Oct 25, 2011)

hobbyhorse23 said:


> $40...a...ton?? That's two small square bales here!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


When I was boarding out in Scappoose, there were signs all over the sides of the roads for grass hay for $3-4/bale. Now, if I wanted Eastern Oregon grass, then of course the price went UP and yes, the quality was always better than local.


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## ohmt (Oct 25, 2011)

Yep, $40 a ton, that was not a typo! We got good hay that wasn't rained on and wrapped for that. I bought 100 80lb bales of really great grass/alfalfa mix hay in May for $2.00 each too. Now don't you guys wanna come on up here to ND?



Actually, we are one of the few states that is still doing ok in this economy. Cheap living and lots of jobs.


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## susanne (Oct 25, 2011)

LindaL said:


> When I was boarding out in Scappoose, there were signs all over the sides of the roads for grass hay for $3-4/bale. Now, if I wanted Eastern Oregon grass, then of course the price went UP and yes, the quality was always better than local.


Other than the glorious "Brinster" local grass hay, most of that $3-4/bale around Scappose/St. Helens is cow hay and/or filled with weeds. Some on Craig's List advertise "local orchard grass hay," which translate to "more expensive [email protected]" It simply doesn't compare to orchard grass from east of the Cascades.

At our feed store, orchard grass goes for $23-28 per 110# bale, local grass hay for at least $8-10.

We currently buy central Oregon orchard grass at $11 per 90# bale from a farm that trucks it in...it would be less if we could purchase by the ton, but we have very limited storage.

I've heard news reports that our hay prices are up this year due to so much being hauled down to Texas and Oklahoma, creating our own shortage, but so far, we've paid the same for the last 2-3 years.


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## Katiean (Oct 25, 2011)

I feed alfalfa. It seems to be the cheapest. I get 100-130lb 3 string bales for $13-$15 each. I try to buy extra each month because I don't want to buy any in December. I am feeding 4 minis. I wish I could afford the mix. They are even bigger bales and the orchard grass smells so sweet.


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## Minimor (Oct 25, 2011)

Some of you definitely make me feel good about our hay price. This weekend I'm getting my winter supply of hay delivered-- 2 1/2 semi loads (50 bales per load--800 lb bales) of round bales, $33 each. That better last us through to spring!


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## Davie (Oct 26, 2011)

I have spent more for hay this year that the last 2 years combined. I was able to get 100 bales early June for $7/bale--he was rationing everyone. Then my other regular hay dealer was called to cut an 8 acre pasture that made 230 bales and I wished I had bought it all but only got another 75 for $5/bale. Then was told by both my hay guys that there would be no more hay to sell and no Round Bales at all. That left me extremely short as I put up 175 square bales and then use about 20-24 round bales.

I've been going to Lumber 2 and getting 3x4 mid square bermuda bales that are weighing 1120 pounds and they are only lasting about 10-12 day and right now are $140/bale. I can get round bales of brome for $70/bale and I can get ND alfalfa 3x3 bales for $140/each.

Last year my square bales were from $4.00 to $6.00/bale and my round bales from my close hay guy were $35/bale delivered and from my other guy they were $40.00 and I had to go get them.

My good winter hay is almost gone now as I've had to feed it now and I have one 3x3 alfalfa bale in the barn to use this winter and will be going today to get another 3x4 bermuda for the kids in the big lot. Would love to put in at least 2 more 3x3 alfalfa bales before it disappears. May also change the horses over to brome as I've heard it makes good horse hay as well.

Hate haveing to pay almost double for hay from last year and our long range forcast is for continued hard drough conditions for the next 2 years. Sure not going to make it easy that is for sure.


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## chandab (Oct 26, 2011)

Davie said:


> May also change the horses over to brome as I've heard it makes good horse hay as well.


When its put up right, Brome makes excellent horse hay; around here its often put up a bit late, so its a bit coarse, but my horses just love it. Wish I could get more of it, but we tend to get more Crested Wheatgrass (it tends to grows better in our dry climate than Brome).


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## StarRidgeAcres (Oct 26, 2011)

Minimor said:


> Some of you definitely make me feel good about our hay price. This weekend I'm getting my winter supply of hay delivered-- 2 1/2 semi loads (50 bales per load--800 lb bales) of round bales, $33 each. That better last us through to spring!



*50 TONS OF FREAKIN' HAY?????? *

* *

May I ask how many you're feeding?

*WOWZER!*






* *


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## ohmt (Oct 26, 2011)

Parmela, we go through about 70 large round bales each winter with about 40 minis to feed. Our mares and foals eat a LOT. It is all free choice for them. About 1/4-1/3 of it goes to waste as well (which is why we only use large bales during the winter-small squares are much more economical)


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## chandab (Oct 26, 2011)

StarRidgeAcres said:


> *50 TONS OF FREAKIN' HAY?????? *
> 
> * *
> 
> ...


We put up more than that every year, but we also have a herd of Red Angus cattle to feed.

And, i still buy some hay, as most of our homegrown is definitely cow quality.


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## Minimor (Oct 26, 2011)

I'm feeding 40 smalls and 1 big at the moment. The big mare & at least one Mini will soon be gone, so that will help a little. I feed hay year around since our pastures don't amount to a lot--we're on sand here so grass is never real lush. This year I have ordered 100 rounds that are about 1200 lbs each (and have used almost 1/2 of those already since July. Some are grass, others alfalfa/grass and a few 2nd cut alfalfa (which I do not feed free choice). I'd ordered 175 of the 800 lb rounds but a couple weeks ago asked my hay guy to add another 50 to that number. I'm getting the 120-130 delivered now & the rest he will keep until spring.

When my hay comes this weekend I plan to put 30 bales in for the 9 pasture geldings--I figure that will last them until mid March. Same number of bales & hopefully similar time frame for the 10 pasture mares I'll put 10 into each of 2 paddocks, 5 horses in each paddock--that will last them until early or mid February....would put 15 each but if the spring thaw comes early and if there's much snow to melt I could lose both paddocks & have to move the horses out--I sure don't want to have any leftover bales sitting in water. So, I'm putting 10 bales in the side pasture (unused for winter) and will have to feed from there when the horses finish their bales...more work for me but I won't lose any hay to water that way.


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## Marsha Cassada (Oct 27, 2011)

I got 10 bales of brome in September. They were very light, only about 40#. My two boys LOVE the brome! I've never seen them eat hay right down to the last stem before. It was my first experience with brome. I was told it came from SD. It is so fragrant, too.


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## vickie gee (Oct 28, 2011)

I have bought what I can locally. Coastal and tifton, anywhere from 6-8 dollars a bale. Tomorrow we go pick up about 90 bales of tifton. My husband will do most of the work, but we are taking 2 trailers. The bales are lightweight because the grass was so short. Hopefully, I will be able to do my fair share of the work. The feed stores are already up to $10 and more. I checked on getting some alfalfa/orchard trucked in but could not afford or need 600 bales. I have room to store it, know I could sell enough to help pay for mine, but at this stage of life I don't have time and don't want to get into the hay brokerage biz!


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## dgrminis (Oct 30, 2011)

Marsha Cassada said:


> Looks like very nice hay. It is "native KS prairie hay"--whatever that is. It is harvested off huge properties, some as large as 6000 acres. The hay guy told us the field is burnt off every year which controls the weeds.
> 
> Anyway, it is beautiful, soft, and a nice green. My two boys have already sampled it and seem content.



We are in Kansas and not sure if you were asking or not but "Native KS Prairie hay" is just hay made out of the "native" grasses here. We feed primarily brome but do also feed prairie hay and our horses love both and we haven't ever had any problems. Both are nice and grassy and the brome smells excellent



Prairie hay smells good to me too but not as good as brome


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## dgrminis (Oct 30, 2011)

Marsha Cassada said:


> I got 10 bales of brome in September. They were very light, only about 40#. My two boys LOVE the brome! I've never seen them eat hay right down to the last stem before. It was my first experience with brome. I was told it came from SD. It is so fragrant, too.



Those are very light compared to our brome bales here in KS - ours normally weigh 70-90lbs. But the horses love them and you are right it does smell wonderful.


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## MBennettp (Oct 30, 2011)

I usually buy round bales but got left out when my hay guy suddenly retired and the guy that took over the baling wouldn't sell. I have ended up with the $140 squares of bermuda. The horses love it but I don't have anyplace to store but one at a time. I think about 3 more will get me through the worst of the winter. I sure had to blow my hay budget but at least I was able to find some.

I keep the feeders full day and night. The horses actually seem to eat less when they know it is going to be there when they want it.


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## Equuisize (Oct 30, 2011)

Our access is better hay is limited down here. What comes into the feed stores hasn't been good this year and the local yard, isn't getting anything much better, just a bit cheaper.

Everyone keeps saying that it was a bad year and this year _for sure_ they aren't embellishing their stories just to raise the prices.

We've bought local orchard grass from a grower for 4 years now. Because of the rain it was cut later than usual and it isn't so hot either, so we didn't buy as many as normal. Well, that an the big guy has developed an allergy to it.

We were hoping to find some good alfalfa as Zoe is still nursing Zakky, got some that was really good and some that was half the quality. the big guy is eating it strictly now, too, so was hoping to find something really nice for them.

Yesterday Michael drove back up to where we used to live, out of desperation to find better hay, and brought home some nice Eastern Washington alfalfa & then some alfalfa/orchard grass mix.

The guy thru in a bale of Bluegrass just to see if the kids would like it.

Anyone have any experience with bluegrass?

It's very fine and the color isn't bad considering the year we've had.

I tried Teff hay once, years ago. It was a lovely color and the kids used it to pee on or threw it around their bedrooms...so that wasn't an economy at all.

However, another horse in the barn loved it so we donated it to him.

As far as prices the local orchard grass was $6.50 for about 60# bales, in mid July this year.

Alfalfa has been running about $15.00 a bale - although the nice stuff he got yesterday was $11.50 for about 95# bales.

The alfalfa/orchard grass mix was beautiful and was $14.50 a bale 90# bales.

The Bluegrass was free but he charges $10.00 a bale for it and the bales are 110#


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## jayne (Oct 30, 2011)

Hi Nancy,

Interesting that you should bring up the Teff hay. That's all I've been feeding for a couple of years now and my horses do really well on it, and no one turns up a nose at it. I do buy direct from the grower in the Yakima area and it's lovely, green hay. Last year it was $150 a ton and this year it was $180 a ton, which still isn't too bad EXCEPT I had to pay to have it hauled over here to me on the west side of the mountains and that added $75 a ton more, for a total price of $255 a ton. The bales are right at 100 pounds so that make it $12.75 a bale, which seems about the same or a bit better than anything else from eastern WA. My hauler brought me 7 tons (the limit of his trailer), but eight would have made me feel a bit better in case the winter is hard. I might drive back over there myself with a small trailer in the next few weeks, but we'll see. I'm feeding a clydesdale, two standard donkeys, a pony and three minis. One donkey and one mini have foundered in the past and I want to make sure to feed them a hay that is as low in starches and sugars as possible, and the Teff seems to work the best.

I hope you get some good information on the bluegrass. That seems like a great price and if it's good hay, that might be worth getting a bunch of it. I hate going into winter not having plenty.

Jayne


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## Flying minis (Oct 30, 2011)

Didn't plan on such high hay prices this year, but after they went up last year, we sold down over 1/2 our herd of big horses (went from 20 to 6) and bought 2 extra minis. Leased out one biggie so I'm feeding 5 big and 5 little ones. Our pasture was fantastic and we were able to cut it and bale into big rounds, so we actually should have enough of our own hay (grass / brome mix) to get through the winter. At the hay auction near us, grass is up to $240 / ton, alfalfa even higher, so our timing turned out perfect (amazing for us, we're usually just far enough behind the curve that it costs us). Plus, the gal who boards with me has connections with some hay folks from her hometown and got us 80 bales of alfalfa / grass mix (about 70 lbs) for just $3.00 per bale, we'll feed that when we have to keep horses in overnight.

But it seems hay prices are nuts everywhere, I know last winter I went through a round bale (800-1000 lbs) every week - glad I won't be having to buy that much again this winter! Last year I got 12 bale loads every 2 1/2 months, this year that many should make it almost all the way through winter for us!


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## Leeana (Oct 30, 2011)

I have never paid over $3 a bale for hay, 50-60 lb bales. I was at a sale over the weekend and fresh cut alfalfa sold for $4 bucks a bale which is unheard of around here. We are pretty lucky to get hay at the price we do and there is always somewhere and someone who has it. Generally speaking, we pay 2.50-2.75 a bale for alfalfa or orchard grass.


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## Field-of-Dreams (Oct 30, 2011)

Leeana said:


> I have never paid over $3 a bale for hay, 50-60 lb bales. I was at a sale over the weekend and fresh cut alfalfa sold for $4 bucks a bale which is unheard of around here. We are pretty lucky to get hay at the price we do and there is always somewhere and someone who has it. Generally speaking, we pay 2.50-2.75 a bale for alfalfa or orchard grass.


We down here in Texas hate you....






We just bought three bales of alfafa a few weeks ago and it was $27 a bale!



They are gorgeous large 100lb bales, but really! Ouch. Fortunately we don't go through it fast, it's just for our weaners.


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## Equuisize (Oct 30, 2011)

Thanks Jayne,

I read up on that Teff hay after we got it and thought it'd be good for the little ones.

Couldn't convince them of it though nor the big guy....

Guess they are picky eaters like me.

Plus I only saw it offered the one time at the feed store and never saw it available again.

Sure was pretty stuff and smelled wonderful.

Hope someone has experience with Bluegrass, too.


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## Minimor (Oct 30, 2011)

Bluegrass is supposed to be nice feed; I know it makes good grazing, but we get it in hay here & our horses simply do not care for it at all. They will pick it out & throw it away & eat whatever good stuff is mixed in with it. If there's nothing mixed in with it then they go through the hay & then stand at the gate & wait for something better to come along. I'm not sure if there are different varieties of bluegrass & people here grow the wrong kind, or what the problem is.

I just got my 130 round bales delivered today; it hurt to pay the trucking and the hay came from just 35 miles away. I asked the trucker what it would cost to have a load of hay shipped down to OK; he said he's been contatcted about hauling hay to TX for cattle, and he estimates it will cost $5000 to $6000 in trucking. There were 50 bales on each load, so $5000 would add $100 per bale to the $33 per bale I pay for the hay itself. OUCH.

I have to say it sure is nice to have my winter supply of hay all here!


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## SHANA (Nov 3, 2011)

My hay is free for me and I have lots, more than what I need so my husband has been selling what I don't need round bale wise. I use round bales outside in feeders but do have small square bales as well for when the horses are in the barn. We bale our own hay so it only costs diesal for the tractors, etc but I don't pay for that.


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## a mini dream come true (Nov 6, 2011)

""We down here in Texas hate you....






We just bought three bales of alfafa a few weeks ago and it was $27 a bale!



They are gorgeous large 100lb bales, but really! Ouch. Fortunately we don't go through it fast, it's just for our weaners.""

Lucy, We are just envious of the fact others can get hay cheaper



The hay prices are killing us. Minis aren't so bad, but put a couple of biggies in the mix and OMG



. They can go thru a big round bale in a week. They are going to put me in the poor house for sure if we don't get a break.


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## Double T (Nov 6, 2011)

LOL Hazel, don't come any further west then!

I've been lucky in that all my mini hay has come from my family's fields so it's free except for the normal helping with this or that stuff. But ranch jsut ordered a turck load of Alfalfa for the big horses from N Dakota. Hoping it's better than the feed store big rounds we got a month ago, they were fine for our weaning calves (which is what we bought them for), but I wouldn't of started to feed them to horses, they stunk like a goat farm, and were all borwn and weedy. Hoping our small bales are a lot better kind (coming from a different source).


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## Katiean (Nov 6, 2011)

I just bought hay friday. It was $15 a bale and the bales are getting smaller. I was getting 125-135 pound bales. Now they are maybe 100 pounds and they cost more. Oh well, I guess we gotta suck it up and pay it.


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## topnotchminis (Nov 6, 2011)

I got some really good grass mix hay(timothy, and another can't remember) and it was 3.25 a bale and the bales are about 45Lbs


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## Magic (Nov 6, 2011)

Hay is about 50% higher this year here than it was last year. We live in a rural area and are surrounded by hay fields, and raise some of our own hay, but we need so much hay and I prefer to use some of our fields as pasture that we need to buy a lot of it too. Our hay guy said that a lot of his previous hay customers sold off most or all of their cattle and/or horses because of the rising hay prices. He gave us a good deal on the hay we bought,which was very nice because between what we grew and bought we needed 50 tons of hay. I'm glad we had such a big hay barn built because it was absolutely full. Now we're making payments on hay. LOVE our hay guy! Hope he's around for a very long time.


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## Marty (Nov 7, 2011)

If anyone out there is still hurting and can haul hay, I would be more than happy to provide some phone numbers of very good hay in Tennessee for about $3.00 a bale.


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## HGFarm (Nov 8, 2011)

Ok here in AZ the timothy (with nothing else in it) is about $22.00 or more a bale. Always has been very high- these are 3 wire bales that are pretty heavy. The alfalfa is also 3 wire bales- probably 90 lbs each- it's running almost $16.00 a bale. Bermuda hay, which I use for bedding during foaling season because there doesnt seem to be much nutrition to it, is usually higher than alfalfa for some reason. No pasture here, just dry lots in the desert.

They need to STOP shipping it all to China..... two of the feed stores were out of hay completely a couple of weeks back.


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## Marsha Cassada (Nov 8, 2011)

HGFarm said:


> Ok here in AZ the timothy (with nothing else in it) is about $22.00 or more a bale. Always has been very high- these are 3 wire bales that are pretty heavy. The alfalfa is also 3 wire bales- probably 90 lbs each- it's running almost $16.00 a bale. Bermuda hay, which I use for bedding during foaling season because there doesnt seem to be much nutrition to it, is usually higher than alfalfa for some reason. No pasture here, just dry lots in the desert.
> 
> They need to STOP shipping it all to China..... two of the feed stores were out of hay completely a couple of weeks back.



We are shipping HAY to China?? What next!!?


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## ohmt (Nov 8, 2011)

We ship a lot to China-the majority of our food exports are to china. Their increased demand for corn and soy bean meal is what has caused those prices to increase so much and because we use those for a very large portion of other food, a lot of other groceries increase in price. And then of course it causes our horse feed to increase in price. It will just keep increasing too. Reaching 7 billion is scary. We keep gaining numbers, but we get no more land, no more farmers, and no more animals. In the next 30-40 years we will have to produce more food than we have ever had produce EVER, combined! You add to that all of the new laws for animal welfare being passed and that decreases production (not saying i'm against or for it). I don't think we will ever reach 10 billion because we will never be able to feed them all unless someone invents some magic pill.

Ok-all done, sorry for the tangent! Just something I think more people need to be aware of. Did anybody see that the Duggars are expecting their 20th child? Ugh.


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## HGFarm (Nov 9, 2011)

Shipping hay to China:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-09/hay-cheaper-to-ship-to-china-than-california-hits-dairies-freight-markets.html

It explains that they dont want to ship empty cargo boxes back to China from all the items they ship over here, so are filling them with hay and getting their money's worth on the cargo containers. And it's cheaper to ship to China than to California?!! What is wrong with this imbalance?!



It's a sad day here for sure when we can't even take care of our own country. Guess what's going to happen to the cost of milk and milk products when the dairies start going under, or are paying such ridiculous prices for hay?!


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## Margo_C-T (Nov 9, 2011)

I have been told that export is a large part of the reason that even beet pulp goes way up in price at certain times; certainly that is happening around here now...beep pulp pellets hard to get AND notably pricier. I darn sure agree that we should not be shipping ANYTHING to China that we do not have an excess of over here!

ohmt, you bring up a very good point about the exploding world population. I have recently been thinking a LOT about this, not only due to the 'news' of the 7 billionith human being born(NOT a cause for celebration, IMO), but simply to looking around and seeing how 'congested' it is, almost everywhere you go. This IS a 'finite' planet; would life even be 'worth' living when we literally OVERRUN it w/ people??? Flame me if you must, but I strongly feel that the time is near, if not already here, that limits on how many children one can have should be instituted, across the globe!I don't LIKE that this seems necessary, but it seems to me the only choice to try to preserve SOME sort of decent quality of life, including sufficient food, for humanity on this planet going ahead.

As for the Duggars...while I admire their base values, I think it is EXTREMELY poor judgement to produce SO many children. When they were on the 'Today' show yesterday, I KNEW what their 'big news' would be, and deliberately turned it OFF when they came on....'they love kids', one TV person said...but they already have MORE THAN 'ENOUGH' of them to demonstrate their love for, wouldn't you think?! I really hope there is FINALLY a 'backlash' against their practice of endless production of offspring that will, at the least, get them OFF TV(I have NEVER watched them, BTW, because I was put off by learning about them back when they'd only 'cranked out' 14!

Margo, who remembers....


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## Riverrose28 (Nov 9, 2011)

I hate to say it but greed is killing us small farmers! When the guy died that owned the twenty acres next to me, it never made it to market. The real estate man bought it and sold it as estates. The land across the road from me went on the market being sold in five acre lots, when I called about the five acres across from me to add to my farm, I was told this land is too valuable for farm land. What the heck it has been farm land for 200 years, now all of a sudden it's too valuable? Well they sold the five acre lot to someone that built a house. :arg! Now our hay supplier has passed his property is for sale, guess what, it will go to a devoloper, all 50 acres as no farmer in this area can afford it. Some friends of mine live five miles away they went to a trail horse sale looking for a horse for some one else that was looking. They didn't buy, but, when they came out from the sale the people that were parked next to them had a stock trailer that wasn't locked. There were four horses in their trailer. They didn't buy any horses either, but just goes to show how desperate people are to feed and care for their horses. I didn't ask after hearing this, so don't know the outcome, but if this keeps up none of us will be able to feed our livestock.


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## ohmt (Nov 9, 2011)

I sadly agree with you Margo, though I know it will never happen. What is going to happen is that we will hit a population plateau-we will stay right around the same number of people (it WILL be less than 10 billion) because we can not produce enough food to feed them all and we will see higher and higher numbers of people dying due to starvation and malnutrition (and other disease due to crowding).

Another growing export to China is beef-the past few years their demand for beef has inclined dramatically and it will continue to do so. They do not have the space to produce it so they must import it from other countries, including the US, of course.

This is a topic I very strongly encourage more people to become aware of. It scares me and the fact that the majority of people don't realize what is happening is also incredibly scary. Like Margo said, reaching 7 billion is NOT something to be happy or proud of. We have come a long way in production, but science and resources can not keep up with human reproduction.


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## HGFarm (Nov 9, 2011)

I agree with you all and it's a sad state of affairs for sure! It's not just the exporting of hay. As to the Duggars, if they are so proud of a big family, go adopt some kids who have none, or do some community work to help those that are not so lucky or in need.

I also agree with the over crowding comment. Out in nature, when a species is overpopulated, something devistating- either starvation or a horrible disease that kills off a lot, happens to get the population back to a sustainable level. Somethings got to give and I hope my old life is over before that happens- I dont want to be here to see it... but I do think this world is done in regards to cramming any more people on it.


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