Hay!

[Bluerocket]

Beautiful Orchardgrass hay (or timothy) 3 string (over 100lb each) $22 each last year - I assume the price has increased this year -- hope to get some soon, waiting for the orchardgrass to come in.

One bale lasts 6 weeks with our 6 minis.

We are in a drought here - so hay is at a premium for sure.

Last winter ran out -- and had to buy local junk -- $5 - $6 per bale - light and awful musty stuff. Alfalfa and timothy and who knows what - hopefully will not have to get that this year.

edited to add: local hay is not always junk --- just what was available for desparate people last winter -- was expensive junk.

 

[erinspaintedacres]

Here in Central Alberta, I pay roughly $2.50 a bale for alfalfa timothy orchard grass for the minis. THey weigh about 85 lbs. For a large round for my full sized horses is $30 for a 1300 lbs bale. (alfalfa timothy)

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

We get 1000 lb round bales for 35.00 a bale here in Sharpsburg, MD. It's really good stuff too. Been getting hay from this guy for 7 years or more. It's good mixed hay, grass, alfalfa, clover, timothy. The horses eat it like candy. Unfortunately he is trying to sell his farm and retire. Our loss. We'll be looking for a new hay guy by next spring I'm sure.

 

[Minimor]

I am happy; our hay situation has improved a whole lot this week! It wasn't looking good for awhile--there is oodles of hay here--crops are tall & thick--but the weather has been so wet that the guys can't get it off. Any hay that was cut was getting rained on, or was pushed & baled a bit tough because there was rain in the forecast for the next day. We were getting very low. I hauled last years hay from 1 1/2 hours away--used my truck & trailer, but that cost so much in gas that when combined with the $3/bale price (45 lb bales) made it not not good value at all. The grass hay I was able to get last year was pretty crappy, with lots of wastage.

Well, I found a new grass hay supplier & ordered 1000 bales of brome, $3.75 delivered, 55 lb bales. They were baling Monday; it did rain that afternoon/evening but they haven't called to tell me they don't have hay for me so I'm assuming they have some, even if not quite the 1000 bales. I will go this weekend & get a small load ($3 if I pick it up myself) & make sure it's the quality we want/need--hopefully it is.

Then I just got a load of mixed hay delivered by my regular hay guy. 70 lb bales of timothy/brome/alfalfa--maybe 25% alfalfa this year?--due to fuel costs he's increased his price from last year's $4--it's $4.25 this year. Worth it to me because it's good hay, absolutely no wastage to it, & easy to haul--he delivers 160 bales at a time with a lift truck. Best of all, I reserved the 1100 bales we want for the year.

There is another fellow that will have timothy bales the end of this month--those were $4 last year, so I'll see if they're the same or a bit more this year...we'll get a load (250) from him, or more if the brome supply doesn't work out for any reason.

Our horses will eat for another year!! :bgrin

 

[Coventry Lane Farm]

90 cents a big sized square bale straight from the fields and us unload into our barn, and I have a few local dairy farmers close by that we purchase our extra hay off of them after they do our farm first with our hay and then the remaining acreage of ours is in soybeans and corn. Everyone gets what they want in the long run of things, us country people stick together here in Pa and help each other out.

 

[chandab]

Beautiful Orchardgrass hay (or timothy) 3 string (over 100lb each) $22 each last year - I assume the price has increased this year -- hope to get some soon, waiting for the orchardgrass to come in.

One bale lasts 6 weeks with our 6 minis.

Not to be nosy, but what else do you feed your minis, and what size are they?

I go through almost half a 70# bale every day for my six B-size minis; that's roughly 6# hay per mini per day (which is about 2% of their bodyweight - plus they get their ration balancer pellets, about 1 to 2 cups each per day). [Right now I'm going through less, as 6 of them go out on grass for 4-5 hours per day.]

 

[mmmorgans]

I am in southern Saskatchewan (Canada) and just had some grass bales delivered last weekend. We paid $2 per bale plus the guys gas - so it worked out to $2.50 per bale - delivered right into the loft in our barn - can't really beat that price!!!!!!!!