anticipating hay price increase

[Alice Acres]

Hey Catahoula- ya want to ship that to me

BTW there is an Anatolian Shepherd in Dog Fancy Mag from 2008 issue that is identical to your avatar picture! When I saw it, I was going , unbelievable likeness!

Cooper is a Catahoula Leopard dog and that's him as my avatar. I love Anatolian Shepherd but DH said no to more dogs (and goats).

Wow, Co hay is expensive. I know a lot gets trucked out there from the midwest - do you know if that is the case for the hay you are pricing?

Usually I can get decent grass hay for $2.25 to $2.50 a bale. This year with the drought (I am in a severe drought pocket ), we are over $3, some at $5. This is for an average sized rectangular bale. "Square bale".

We used to grow our own...but a few yrs ago hubby had the bright idea to rent out all our hay ground to a neighbor for crops (about 18 acres) and then use the rent income to BUY hay. It was working well (cost of hay was OK, and we had none of the labor!), but with the hay prices only going up, it isn't as good of a deal.

Thank goodness we have a nice barn (LOVE my barn!)
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/7249_001.jpg

(from a couple years ago - when we had a normal rain and green grass, etc)

and we can store an unlimited amount of hay. We have been buying anything we can get since 1st cutting. Good deal too - as we never would have dreamed the drought would get this severe, and have NO pasture from June on. It's just a dirt and dusty wasteland still.

Wow, even $5 a bale is a steal! I have seen people trying to get enough interests to get hay from out of the state or selling extra hay that they got from out of the state. Never mind the hay price... I LOVE you barn!!!!

Considering the drought here, I agree at $5 it's not a bad price. I was thinking it would have been way more by this fall. And worse, was thinking shortages d/t the poor harvests. 2nd and third cuttings have been virtually non-existant for many.
One of my BIL's lives out west of Rapid City, SD and he had friends who were getting together to truck in hay from MN and WI.

 

[BrownSheep]

I think for ten tons we payed $1000 or a little over. Not to bad 100- 110 a ton. Right now we have the ten tons we just bought and probably 30 more bales from last year. We just stack and tarp so we can store as much as we want although there has been some discussion about stacking in our shop which work just as well. No, abnormal drought weather here so I expect prices won hike much higher than usual, but I would never chance buying past September.

^^ Knows how to get it done. lol 10 tons? That's cool.

Haha yep go big or go home. I think we should have some left over if the winter is mild but who knows. With 30 sheep and two yaks we can burn through it pretty quick.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

I bet so. You should show us your yaks....

You have an awesome barn!! Every time I see it I have to smile. What I wouldn't give...

 

[Alice Acres]

I bet so. You should show us your yaks....

You have an awesome barn!! Every time I see it I have to smile. What I wouldn't give...

We had that barn moved in from a neighbor's farm. They used it as a dairy barn their whole life. Then they were old and totally retired, a few yrs later the road between us (about a mile apart) went from a 2 lane to a big 4 lane highway. They were too close to the new road, so the state was going to bulldoze the barn!
We lined up the house movers, electric company (had to take down power lines), state patrol escort, pouring cement sidewalls, etc...expensive, but worth it!
Our place came with a barn (in the same site), but it was falling apart and unsafe when we moved there.
We have spent more on the barn than our old house

And yes, we need YAK pictures!!!

 

[Southern by choice]

@ Alice- yes, I too, have barn envy...

Great story about the barn. Did you guys get any pics of the move? Alice= BIG RED BARN...they just go together in my head

@Catahoula- cooper is "purdy"

@Brownsheep- pics of yaks please

and now I am completely off topic....:/

 

[Alice Acres]

We did get pictures of it being moved - and it was before digital cameras were popular. I really need to go dig the photos out and scan them into my computer....good job for me!
I'll post them when I get it done. It was an incredible sight - this huge barn coming up the hill!!
Also - the barn pigeons moved with it.

Yaks, we need to hear about these yaks...and pics!

 

[BrownSheep]

Haha I'll post what pics I have in my journal. Theyre OLD! but I have issues downloading pics from my iPad on to the site so new ones are slow in progress.

 

[Catahoula]

Thanks...this is Cooper. He is a certified Therapy Dog. We visit libraries and nursing homes.

 

[Alice Acres]

Yay Cooper!! He's a handsome guy.
Most people up here don't know what they are.

We have a catahoula mix in our TDI chapter.

 

[PFSfarmer]

Down here in the Great United State of TEXAS hay is not something we like to talk about. With severe drought the past couple years hay is expensive. It has come down because we got a decent, but not good rain this year, but you are still lookin at about $75-$100 for a round bale. I seen round bale alfalfa advertised as much as $150. Dunno if they sold, but I seen it. Small square alfalfa is $15-$20. Trash hay off the side of the road is $5-$8. We lucked out this year and found some beautiful heavy sudan small squares for $6.

I am currently working on coming up with funds and plans to build a hay storage shed/barn as of right now we only can hold bout a 100 small bales under an awning.

If the grass is growing green and beautiful in the pasture we try to make the animals eat that first. I will take a prickle pear burner aka weed burner when it gets bad and burn the thorns off the prickle pear cactus for the cows to eat. Fire up that torch/jet sound and the cows come a runnin.