Who here is still in a drought,,,,,how has hay

[Frankie]

We are still in a pretty good drought.

We still DO NOT have a 2nd cut of hay. My hay guy told me today,,,,,maybe the end of the week.

We do not expect rain for the next 7 days.

Hay today,,,,,,$8.50, small square bale. If no rain this week and no second cut this week,,,,,it will be $10 by next week.

I paid $2.50 last year.

First cut here was not near what it usually yields, only about 30% of normally, and still no 2nd cut,,,,can't imagine prices by late August.

It seems to change more and more as we have less and less, or no rain.

What is it doing to your prices right now?

 

[CyndiD]

We did have some rain but I think we are still being considered in a drought as its very much below normal....and we have our own hay....THANK HEAVENS.

We did sell some of the first cutting for $4 a bale and the lady that bought that has some coming from somewhere in Michigan by semi....

I did price some bright straw that I use for bedding for foaling mares and that was priced at 3.25 a bale. I have never paid more than $2 a bale for straw...so I think we will use hay for bedding again this year...

:

 

[Sue S]

I live in central Wisconsin and are pastures have burned up, last year we didn't have to feed the big horses hay in the summer, but now were feeding the big horses 3 bales aday(7 big horses) and my minis get 1 bail aday, (10 minis) besides there grain and beet pulp. Where we get it he raised it to 2.50 a bale this month(for us because we have used him for a long time) others 3.00 a bale. Not suppose to get any rain in this area for the next 10 days at least.

 

[Minimor]

Wow, Carolyn, I consider that price gouging, big time, when prices jump from $2.50 last year to $8.50 now.

We had a drought here a couple years ago and hay supplies were short. Prices went up a little bit, but not much--maybe 50 cents a bale? The guys weren't out to make a killing on hay, at least most of them weren't--I do know one fellow that jumped the price up from $3.50 to $5.00, but he also lost customers. He ended up selling to the big money buyers--corporate PMU show barn, federal research station...corporate and goverment money. Thing is, I don't know if that price hike was really drought related--he got the opportunity to sell to the corporate & government buyers & figured they could afford higher prices, so he jacked up the prices. He is still selling to those same big buyers for the same money. He supplies some hay to a couple of big horse shows in town and he was selling 2 year old (rather crappy) hay to the show people for $6 a bale. Same hay was offered to me at $2.50 per bale.

In our drought years hay prices aren't so much the issue. Availability is--regular hay suppliers end up having to cut all their customers by a certain percentage, so then buyers have to buy extra elsewhere. If you don't have a regular hay supplier, it's strictly first come first serve on what hay you do find--we can still afford to buy it, we just may not be able to find any to buy! The biggest boost in our prices is due to rising fuel costs. High gas prices have raised my mixed hay supply 25 cents from last year; the new grass hay supplier I've found has raised his prices 10 cents from last year.

We don't have a drought this year--just the opposite, it's been too wet. There's lots of hay, but the guys haven't been able to get a lot of it up in good shape. In some areas the hay is standing in water. Fortunately we're now into the hot, dry spell so haying is going much better this week!

I would say that the only time we'd see a price hike like you've had there would be if there was absolutely NO hay to be hay locally & it all had to be shipped in from far away. That happened here in 1980--not drought, but too much rain--all the hay spoiled; there was absolutely no horse hay at all, and no dairy quality hay. The beef cattle had feed--pretty poor feed, but the beef cattle do get by on that. The dairy guys had to have hay shipped in by train--they paid huge prices for it, and got very poor quality. Price gouging at it's worst--nothing like taking advantage of people in a desperate situation!

 

[CKC]

Ours has gone up a $1 so far. It's $6.50 a bale(grass hay), but our hay guy is only allowing a pickup truck load at a time so that all of his customers has a chance to get some. We are concerned that there will not be enough through the winter as he doesn't know if he will even get any more cuts. I have heard that there are a lot of farmers and people in general selling or even giving away their animals.

It's got to be hard on them when they have to pay for their equipment,fuel, pay personel, etc. and only get 1 or 2 cuttings when they normally get 3, 4 or even more it's a huge hit to them as well.

Now that hay is $6.50 it will only go up every year. They won't come down in their pricing. Just a few years ago we paid $3.50 a bale now it's $6.50 and it will only go up.

Kim

 

[Marty]

We seem to be slowly coming out of the drought the past 2 weeks with hit and miss showers. Many wells are still dry and we are still way below the water table.

My lawn is turning green in the front and back yards, but the fields are still brown struggeling to wake up and turn green. I just sewed some seeds in the empty field yestarday in hopes that there still is a chance of grass this year.

There just hasn't been any good hay grown locally. Nothing, good or bad. Whatever the local farmers got off their fields was complete junk rolled into round bails and most farmers already sold off their cattle and horses.

Hay has been trucked in from somewhere and it's a crime what they are charging. They are absolutely raping the people with their insane hay prices.

I've been lucky. I get orchard grass. My regular hay source was able to come through this somehow in the nick of time with their usual high quality hay. They raised their price a quarter, and felt guilty doing it. I am paying $3.25 for the best stuff I have ever seen in my life. I am half way stocked up now for winter. Hus and I are supposed to go back for the last hundred bails next weekend. YAY!

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

I'm in northeast Wisconsin, and our first crop of hay was fantastic..our second crop dont look all that great. We had about 1,000 bales more then what we needed and sold it fast, to a lady in Michigan, we sold it to her for $2.00 a bale, which are small squares weighing about 60-70#'s. We just had our first rain in about 7-8 weeks last week, and did I do the HAPPY RAIN DANCE for it. We ended up getting 1 1/2"s which isnt much at all, but every little bit helps...all the areas around us got 3-4"s the same day. Our hay prices in our area have been around $2.00 a bale. I think the biggest price we have ever seen hay jump in our area has been to about $3.00 a bale. All the lakes around us are way down so I know the water level is bad, at our cottage..you can almost walk to the end of the pier and still see sand, other years the water started where the pier starts, the pier is about 30' long. Not going to be a good year for farmers :no: Corinne

 

[Bluebell]

It cost more to put hay up this year for the farmers with the roller coaster fuel prices too. So a small raise in the price is to be expected. We have our own fields but....we need rain bad and you can see it in the light 2nd crop. Also had to spray because of the bugs eating the alfalfa plants. That is expensive to do also.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

The hay problem is not only from drought, some farmers are ripping up hay fields to plant corn, because the price of corn is going up. All because of ethanol plants. So less hay produced, equals less hay for the demand.

I jokingly told my dad who is a full-time farmer he should plant grass for hay instead of corn in the fields.

Don't know what grass hay prices are, we aren't buying or selling right now, but I heard that alfalfa hay is already at $180/ton of the small sqaure bales at the local auction. Good thing I don't feed that!!

 

[RnRs Lilnickers]

Just got my yearly supply and it was $2.50 a bale (small square bales), really nice looking grass/alfalfa mix.

Prices around here are anywhere from 2.00 to 3.50 a bale. I stay with my same hay guy every year he is very nice and always makes sure to deliever and stack it for me. I am in southeast WI.

Glad mine is in for the year. :aktion033: :new_multi:

 

[bonloubri]

We have the opposite problem. When our hay guy cuts it rains on the hay before he can bale it. Or it rains and gets to high to cut for horses. He has lots of cow hay but has only had one cutting for horse hay and it wasn't the best I ever saw but at least the horses can eat it.

 

[lotsofspots]

You all are very lucky! We are paying at least $6.25 per bale for grass hay here in central Florida....anywhere from $10.49 to $17.99 for Timothy/Alfalfa and $15.99-18.99 for alfalfa!!! It is finally raining down here, but the new hay prices have set the bar, so I doubt we will see hay any cheaper down here EVER. Makes it really tough to stay afloat