Where to buy hay.

[O So]

I am having the darndest time trying to get hay. My original feed store ran out about 3 weeks ago. So I called another feed store and they had some. It was different but for the better. I bought two bales that day ( don't have much storage space). I figured when I got down to the second bale I would go get 2 more. Well, 2 almost 3 weeks later I call and they are out. Just sold out the day before. They don't know when they will get another shipment. So I have about 1/2 a bale left and need to figure out where to get hay again. I would call my original feed store but I really liked the hay the the second one had. So do the boys. LOL So if I can help it, I want to try to get the same hay as the second place had.

One of my questions is, do you all think it is bad if I ask the feed store who they get they hay from, or what farm grows it? I wouldn't mind going 50 or so miles to go buy some good hay, but I just don't want to seem like I am just trying to cut out the middle man. I just want good hay for my guys, even if it means I have to travel and figure out where to store 6-8 bales. That would be my maximum if I want to loose a lot of space in my garage. Anymore then that and I would not be able to function in the garage, and that amount is pushing it.

Another question, is where do you people that live in Northern CA get your hay? Another question is, what is the next best thing besides Orchard/Alfalfa mix grass hay? What do you use if your original hay can no longer be found?

I will probably have to call my original feed store to see if they have any. If not I guess I could always buy alfalfa and what ever the most grassy hay they have, and mix the two, but that would be a pain.

Oh, and I have done a google search for hay, orchard hay, hay for horses, and can't seem to find a farm in or near my area! Only place I know of that grows hay, sells alfalfa only. So going to his farm won't do to good for me.

Ok, one more question. Does this happen often? Where hay of a certain kind just runs out? If so I may have to try to find somewhere to store hay and buy enough to last through certain parts of the year.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give!

 

[stormy]

I buy all my hay direct from the farm...but I buy lot's! Buy one farms entire hay crop! Anyway I found one of my suppliers on Craigs list and have used him ever since. There are also several hay auctions in the area if I get really short....try putting an ad on Craigs list.

 

[kaykay]

You usually see hay start running out this time of year before they do first cut for this year which is usually may or early june.

Your problem is you are buying such tiny amounts that most farmers wont want to sell to you.

Might be better to look up another horse farm close by and see if you can rebuy from them. I have done that for other farms around here that dont use a lot of hay.

Remember if all else fails you can usually get timothy or alfalfa cubes at the feed store and soak them.

 

[Hosscrazy]

As a back up until you find hay, I highly recommend Mountain Sunrise - they make 100% timothy pellets - they are very small pellets and are absolutely top quality. I still soak them in water - takes about 3-5 minutes to soak per feeding and I've used their products for years. Here is the link to dealers in California.

http://www.mountainsunrise.com/ca.html

Best wishes!

Liz R.

 

[Shaladar]

nevermind....just realized you want Orchard/alfalfa and I don't know if they have that.

Sue

 

[chandab]

There are a few companies that sell chopped, bagged hay; so that might be an options.

Triple crown makes some, I think both plain chopped hay and their Safe Starch hay product (its fortified and complete in the bag). Standlee hay company puts up compressed bales, they are available in some locations (Big R is one around here, and I think some TSC carry it). Lucerne farms does chopped hay; TNT does chopped hay; and, I know there are more companies. Buying bagged, chopped hay might be one way to get a consistent source of forage/hay if you can't store many bales.

 

[Jean_B]

When we had a major drought a few years back, I was able to find just really crummy, weedy hay. I used it but I supplemented with bagged timothy and/or orchard grass hay pellets. You can find them at just about any Tractor Supply or other feed stores. Much easier to transport and store if you are buying just a couple at a time too.

 

[RhineStone]

Contact your local University Extension Agriculture Agent. They should know who the local growers are. Look in your phone book under County Government. They are usually in the same office as your 4-H program.

 

[mydaddysjag]

Hay starts running short this time of year. Kaykay is right, whats hurting you is that your not able to store much, so your going to run into problems finding farmers to sell to you. I found someone local to me who has a 10 bale minimum, and that's really low. Any chance you could get one of those tarp sheds and store hay under it? Around here our feed stores don't sell hay, you have to get it directly from the grower. Ive had good luck finding it in the farm and garden section of craigslist. Our local feed stores do sell the cubes, pellets, and the chopped hay. I recently started feeding the chopped hay along with a small amount of regular hay. I like the chopped hay better than the cubes and pellets. The cubes are a pain to soak and cant be fed without soaking, and the pellets dont provide any long stem fiber.

 

[O So]

Thanks for all the suggestions you guy's.

As some of you have mentioned, it seems my problem with dealing with the actual farms is the quantity. I did a CL search and the one place that looked promising as far as quality and what type of hay I wanted, only sells 100-300 bales. They are more for what our feed stores around here would buy from.

I am going to call my original feed store for now and see if they have any thing yet. If they do I will buy a few bales for now. I really am hoping that my second feed store will get more in soon. I really liked that hay.

In the mean time, I am thinking of cleaning out my lawn mower shed. I really don't need the lawn mower anymore and the shed would give me a place to store about 10-12 bales or so. Then I would still be able to store about 6 bales in the barn I have my main feed in. So eventually I will be able to store up to 16-18 bales, give or take. Still not enough for the big hay guys, but it will help me get through tough times.

What I would like to do though is use this shed for times that the hay gets scares. So if hay is typically easy to get during the spring/summer months I would just buy enough to store in the normal feed area. Then when things look like they are getting scares, I would buy enough to fill that lawn mower shed up, to get me stocked up till the next time things start going good again. So typically does hay just get scares around this time of year, late fall early spring? This is the first time I have ran into a problem. So I am guessing this IS the bad time of the year for hay. Just don't know if there are other times of the year? I've only been buying hay since August of last year.

 

[chandab]

Hay is basically only put up one time of year, during summer (exactly when depends on where you live; we only get one cutting in July/Aug, other places get two or more, but still summer months); so anything you buy now was put up last summer. It does seem around now is when people who sell hay start running out. [if you do clean out your shed, you might consider "warehousing" an emergency supply of hay, then buy more hay to feed daily while its readily available. Hope that makes sense. (Using up the "warehoused" hay as the new crops start becoming available, so you can the "warehouse" new hay for the next winter).]

 

[O So]

Hay is basically only put up one time of year, during summer (exactly when depends on where you live; we only get one cutting in July/Aug, other places get two or more, but still summer months); so anything you buy now was put up last summer. It does seem around now is when people who sell hay start running out. [if you do clean out your shed, you might consider "warehousing" an emergency supply of hay, then buy more hay to feed daily while its readily available. Hope that makes sense. (Using up the "warehoused" hay as the new crops start becoming available, so you can the "warehouse" new hay for the next winter).]

That made perfect since and is a very good idea. I will plan on doing that this year.

I was kind of figuring our how much hay I use. I never really paid attention before now. I just figured hay would always be available. The last time I bought my 2 bales I made sure I made a note of the date. With that I have figured out that one bale of this good hay lasts me 2 weeks. So 2 bales would last me about a month, give or take a day or two. So I figure if I can store 10 bales, I should be set for at least 5 months. That is if I did my math right? LOL I really suck at math, yah, even the simple math.

That would set me up pretty nice if I can store 10 bales.

 

[chandab]

That made perfect since and is a very good idea. I will plan on doing that this year.

I was kind of figuring our how much hay I use. I never really paid attention before now. I just figured hay would always be available. The last time I bought my 2 bales I made sure I made a note of the date. With that I have figured out that one bale of this good hay lasts me 2 weeks. So 2 bales would last me about a month, give or take a day or two. So I figure if I can store 10 bales, I should be set for at least 5 months. That is if I did my math right? LOL I really suck at math, yah, even the simple math.

That would set me up pretty nice if I can store 10 bales.

That works if the bales you get are all roughly the same size, but they do vary (although, where you are at, I think they are more consistent with what is available at like feed stores).

Around here feed stores don't carry hay (heck, I don't even have a feed store; just a grain elevator), you have to get from a hay farmer (or neighbor). The bales I buy are 70-75#; the bales my father-in-law puts up are only about 40# (easier to carry, but I need nearly twice as many, more to load, haul and stack). My minis are quite abit bigger than yours (mostly 35-38" tall, just one 31" and he's slight-built), and I have 11; so I go through about 1 or 2 bales a day (1 of the purchased bales, nearly 2 of those my FIL puts up).

Glad you understood what I was trying to say.

 

[O So]

That works if the bales you get are all roughly the same size, but they do vary (although, where you are at, I think they are more consistent with what is available at like feed stores).

Around here feed stores don't carry hay (heck, I don't even have a feed store; just a grain elevator), you have to get from a hay farmer (or neighbor). The bales I buy are 70-75#; the bales my father-in-law puts up are only about 40# (easier to carry, but I need nearly twice as many, more to load, haul and stack). My minis are quite abit bigger than yours (mostly 35-38" tall, just one 31" and he's slight-built), and I have 11; so I go through about 1 or 2 bales a day (1 of the purchased bales, nearly 2 of those my FIL puts up).

Glad you understood what I was trying to say.

I can't say for sure how heavy our bales are, but the last two I could actually "woman" handle and manuever them up on the stand I have for the hay I am feeding, by myself. So I am guessing probably 40 or 50#s? They are 3 string rectangular bales. I think I can probably carry 6 bales in the back of my new (to me) truck without tying them in. I think? LOL Haven't tried it yet. Soon though. LOL

I told hubby about what I wanted to do with the lawn mower shed and he rolled his eyes! LOL He then told me to buy what I wanted and we would find a place to store it!!

So for now if I find the hay I want, I will buy at least 6 bales to get me to summer. Then mid summer early fall I will buy at least 10-15 bales for my "emergency" bales. I won't be going through this again if I can help it! What a pain it has been. Then to find even better stuff then I had been feeding, and run out of it too. Now I don't want to go back to the old stuff. The old stuff I had a lot of waste, the new stuff hardly any. They really love the new stuff. Sure hope they get a load in on Friday, if not by mid next week!

Really, where I am at, that is the only place I know of to get hay, at a feed store. I know the stables I take the O So to, buys their hay from the same feed store I used to buy mine from. So they don't even have a 'grower" supplier. I haven't been down there since the weather turned, but I may go by there tomorrow to see what they are doing for hay since the Orchard grass hay was sold out a while back. Maybe they can help me out. I could possibly buy a bale of theirs to carry me over till I can get the good stuff.

Another reason I really don't want to go back to the old stuff is, O So kind of got a bit loose when I had to start feeding the new stuff. He has leveled out again, and I hate to have to have him go through that again. He didn't colic, but go loose stools. I had to clean his bum a few times. Poor guy!

I will keep you all posted. I hope to be able to go hunting for hay on Friday. Hopefully my truck will be back up and running. We are dealing with a leaky windshield and it is supposed to get fixed tomorrow!!

 

[weebiscuit]

I will probably have to call my original feed store to see if they have any. If not I guess I could always buy alfalfa and what ever the most grassy hay they have, and mix the two, but that would be a pain.

Oh, and I have done a google search for hay, orchard hay, hay for horses, and can't seem to find a farm in or near my area! Only place I know of that grows hay, sells alfalfa only. So going to his farm won't do to good for me.

Ok, one more question. Does this happen often? Where hay of a certain kind just runs out? If so I may have to try to find somewhere to store hay and buy enough to last through certain parts of the year.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give!

Can't really answer your questions as we have our own hay ground, but I imagine there will be less hay in the future because it's not worth as much per acre as corn is. A lot of farmers in our areas have already put their hay ground into corn. Corn usually sells for around $2.50 per bushel, and I think it might be up to $7 or a bit over that for the July futures! So if you can get a supply of it, buy all you can! If you don't have storage for it, then get hold of a bunch of wooden pallets and stack it on the pallets and buy a large tarp to cover it.

 

[bluerogue]

Which feed store are you using? I go to River Valley... but I buy hay direct from the grower until he runs out. After Eric runs out, I have to switch to River Valley. We're currently feeding alfalfa, as that's all I can find that's decent. I can only store 15 or bales at a time myself, so I have to do hay runs once a month (7 mares, 2 goats). I much prefer to feed the tri-forage hay Eric grows, but he runs out usually about December, depending on how the growing season went.

 

[RhineStone]

Another reason I really don't want to go back to the old stuff is, O So kind of got a bit loose when I had to start feeding the new stuff. He has leveled out again, and I hate to have to have him go through that again. He didn't colic, but go loose stools. I had to clean his bum a few times. Poor guy!

Anytime you switch feeds, it is good to do so gradually. Feed some of the new with the old over the course of a few days. Some people drag it out over a week.

You can store hay outside under a GOOD tarp, but you will probably want to find some pallets to put on the ground under them. Once you find a place to put it, I would buy all your hay for the year at once, and get extra in case you run into a bale or two that goes bad.

The reason farmers don't want to deal with one bale at a time is because their time is worth something, too. If they have to go down to the barn/shed, open it up, climb into the hay mow, and get down one bale, they might as well get down 10. It's not worth their time for one or two bales. Being a "farm kid" myself, I know how annoyed farmers get with one bale at a time. I have heard it said that, "If you can't afford more than one bale at a time, what business do you have with horses?" (I know the OP has a space issue, not necessarily cost, but the farmer doesn't know that.)

 

[RhineStone]

Understanding that there are some relatively new horse owners here, the Cooperative Extension service is a good resource for quality information.

I did a quick search of Uni. of California Extension (I think that is where O So is from) and found this abstract that talks about hay for horses in California. http://ucanr.org/alf_symp/2001/01-061.pdf

Additional searches for topics like Toxic Weeds, Care for Horses, etc. can be conducted here as well for good, educational information.

http://ucanr.org/

Here is the link to find your local Extension office, too.

http://ucanr.org/County_Offices/

Myrna (who was an Assoc. Professor for the Uni. of Wis. Cooperative Extension before leaving to stay home with my child.)

 

[chandab]

I can't say for sure how heavy our bales are, but the last two I could actually "woman" handle and manuever them up on the stand I have for the hay I am feeding, by myself. So I am guessing probably 40 or 50#s? They are 3 string rectangular bales. I think I can probably carry 6 bales in the back of my new (to me) truck without tying them in. I think? LOL Haven't tried it yet. Soon though. LOL

I'm going to lay a guess that they are heavier than 40-50#, as the only 3-string bales I've bought were like 90-100#. The 70# bales I buy are only 2-string. [unless they are super compressed, then they might have 3-string and be lighter.] Are they like 18"x18" and about 3-4' long? If so, they are probably just standard small square bales, and heavier than you think.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Kim

Once again you are ahead of the problem, well done you.

I would go to a local barn, talk to the BO or even just a boarder, and ask them if you can come to an arrangement- for example, I make my own hay and I store it- if you, as a two horse owner, came to me, I would be happy to sell you a couple of bales every so many weeks, so long as I had enough for myself. If it became a permanent thing, so you wanted, say 30 bales a year, I would charge something for storage. Big barns get hay in all the time, so they would not have to store it per se, just make sure they always had "your" hay, and charge you something for the privilege.

I am sure you can come to an agreement?