Hay Prices!! OUCH

[O So]

I don't buy from Elverta Feed for reasons like this. The old man who owns the feed store is not a very nice guy, in my opinion and experience. I don't think he'll return any of your money. I haven't been there in a few years, but the last time I was, it made me not ever want to go back there. I usually feed alfalfa and can get good quality hay elsewhere, without having to deal with the way they treat their customers.

They seemed ok to me, not overly friendly though. I went a head and bought the hay from him because I figured it was from the same grower as the really good stuff last fall. I think I figured wrong. I have learned my lesson though. I will ask prices before buying. Then I think I will only by a bale, bring it home and open it up. If I like it I will go back the next day and by my storage capacity worth of it. That is one of the things I think hubby is upset about. I bought 10 bales and don't like the first one, still have 9 to go. Yet I don't dare ask him to take them back, that would get him more upset. I just hope the rest doesn't have as much or any of the fox tail looking stuff.

Live and learn.

I actually buy all the rest of my stuff from River Valley Feed. Used to buy my hay there too, till they ran out last fall. Guess I will have to check to see how their supply is come mid summer, early fall. I get a discount there too, so that does help a bit!!

 

[Sandy B]

I was talking with my husband about this discussion. He pointed me to this page:

USDA Hay Prices in California

This seems to cover most areas of the state and there is no area that has a hay prices of more than $300 a ton for what they term "Premium" hay. How is it that a feed store can turn around and charge nearly $22 a square bale, even a larger than average one?

He found this by googling "hay prices in california". You can find similar pages for most states by changing the state name.

My question is this: Is this report retail sales report (what stores should be marketing their hay for) or is this direct from grower prices?

 

[JennyB]

I opened a bale. It looks ok, kind of stemmy, but not overly bad. Only thing that scares me is this,

It kind of looks like fox tail to me, but my foxtail at my house is a bit longer and thicker then that stuff. Is that stuff (in the pic) ok? I am hoping it is only in that one bale. I have been trying to dig most of it out as I get my rations. If it is ok, I will go ahead and give it to them.

I am going to call some other feed stores tomorrow and ask what they are charging. Then I will call the feed store I bought it from and ask them the same thing. Then ask why I paid so much. Hopefully I will get some of my money back.

I would take the whole lot back but I am dealing with a husband that just doesn't understand and is actually getting a bit mad because I am making such a fuss. So I will deal with what I have. Guess it just means I will go threw it a bit faster since I most likely will have to pull all that fox tail stuff out. (Depending on your guy's analysis!

If I read that report right, I paid for almost a full ton of hay. So they got their delivery pretty much free, thanks to me!

Kim that looks like cheat grass to me. It can be good feed if cut and baled early, but if not it will cause terrible sores in the gums and mouths of horses...nasty stuff!

Even if you get it green and easy for them to eat, they poop the seeds out and you have cheat grass coming up all over. Then you have to control it will sprays! UGH! I have dealt with a lot of cheat grass and it's not a good grass and I consider it a weed. I would not pay a thin dime for hay of that kind. I hope I am wrong and it's not cheat!

 

Sorry you have had to pay high hay prices and to everyone else here too. I think the weather is going to make us all pay a premium for hay this year. You folks who have good cheap hay count your blessings. I remember when we got excellent hay for $30. a ton

 

My Best,

Jenny

 

[rubyviewminis]

Here the ranchers rarely sell any of their hay, the few times they did it was the previous years hay, and the only hay available. Most of it was real bad, and I hear most people here won't buy from any of them anymore. Those bales were $7.50 each for maybe 85 lb.

Then I found a place near here that sold grass hay, not bad but not real good either $8 a bale and I was thrilled. This last year the hay I got from them was okay, some was moldy, lots of manure in it, made me mad, and then they had no more because they had sold out by April. People here are desperate for horse hay. So I had to buy from the price gouging feed store and the hay was bad. Had to use more gas to haul it back to get our money back. Then they got in some alfalfa that was barn stored from last year, excellent hay tho, had to pay $18 a bale at about 100lbs.

I went to C-A-L feed and started buying pelleted grass mix, no one sells any grass only pellets here. They had 50lb compressed mixed bales. So out of desperation I bought ten to use with the alfalfa. That hay is so filthy with dust and dirt that my husband made me a large screened box so I can separate the flacks and hose it down. I paid $10 a bale for that crap.

I'm from Colorado so had sticker shock with hay when we moved to Arizona. But there we finally found growers 1 hour and 15 minutes from us that we could get it in the field, but still had to pay 7.50 a bale and load it ourselves, then drive over an hour back home.

This county is supposed to have the most ranches of any county in the US and yet we are really struggling with finding hay. When we drove to Idaho to pick up our granddaughter, I thought we could find and buy hay while there anyway. No, no one has any, and they hadn't started cutting yet because of late rain. This along with gas prices through the roof is really making it hard.

 

[Margo_C-T]

Jenny is sure right about cheat grass--though what grows around here by that name has longer, thinner, awns. It is very much a 'pest' plant; grows along the roadsides up here, but will try to infiltrate anywhere. It is dangerous, too, in that it burns 'like it was soaked in gasoline', my husband used to say...so even worse in these horribly dry, hot, conditions! My horses don't seem to want to

The hay looks like three wire? Boy, for over $21/bale it had BETTER be those bigger bales!

Hay is in short supply in LOTS of areas, it seems. I was VERY fortunate this year, after a couple of years when I had to buy from local feed

stores at nearly $11/bale(and got over-dry, over-mature, not-very-good stuff that I had to ENDLESSLY pick through......)

to find some local-area grown(about 60 miles away from me, actually), Dovey fescue, that is clean and not over-mature OR baled too dry, at a 'mere' $7/bale from the grower. Bales are about 45-55 lbs. The Dovey variety looks good on its features/analysis, too. Price of alfalfa was way up here this year, also...

Sure hope coming years are better!!

Margo

 

[Reble]

So glad I live in Ontario Canada..

Here bought some nice mix hay (alfalfa, timothy with some mixed grass) $2.00 a bale

We only feed this to our fallow deer, we buy alfalfa hay cubes for our minis which cost $9.00 a bag which is perfect for our minis...

 

[O So]

I called River Valley Feed today and they couldn't give me a quote on mixed hay because they didn't have any. I then called Elverta and asked what theirs was going for (not letting them know I bought some already). They said 19.95 a bale. I just said "wow, it sure has gone up", and left it at that. SO, I added it up and it came to 199. something. Then if you ad tax, it would come to what I paid. I am saying this because it looks like I was wrong on the price. I only had my atm receipt to go by, forgot to get the actual receipt from them. So I divided the 216. and that is how I came up with 21.60. So I have to apologize on getting the price wrong. I didn't even think of tax. It is still high priced though!

Last time I bought it from Elverta Feed it was 15.99. So it has gone up 4 bucks since then. I really think a possible explanation for this increase, at least for this store, is the fact that River Valley feed still doesn't have any of the mixed. So there is no competition for them. They are the only one's that I know of, it that area, that has the grass/alfalfa mixed hay.

I told my hubby about the cheat grass. He will make sure he pulls what he can out of the rations as he gives them to the boys. He only has to feed Thursday mornings so it won't be to hard on him! LOL I am hoping that I will luck out and this bale is the only bale that has it. You know, maybe that was a small patch in that particular area of the field. One can hope can't they? LOL

Sorry for the price discrepancy in the beginning of the post. I just didn't think about tax. So again, it is 19.95 a bale, not 21.60.