anticipating hay price increase

[Suburbanfarmer]

What do y'all do for hay in the winter? Do you have space and get hay for the whole year?

We have been buying alfalfa a couple of bales at a time due to space. Plus, we only have 2 ND does, so we only go through a couple of bales a month. I am anticipating an increase in hay prices this winter, more than usual due to drought.

What do you think? Will hay prices jump as much as people think? I am currently paying $16/85 lb. bale.

-K

 

[SheepGirl]

Don't have goats, but I have sheep. All the previous winters, we would only offer hay when there was snow on the ground and otherwise the sheep would graze the rest of the time. This year, with the sheep at my house, I'm going to try it this year. If pasture runs out early (because my stocking rate is higher than what it was at my neighbor's farm), I will feed hay. I can get a 400 lb round bale for $25. It fits in the back of our pick up and we just have to roll it off the truck and roll it onto a pallet in the garage and I just hand feed it (2-3#/hd/day). I still have hay left over from the second bale I bought, so I will probably be using that first. But I estimate I only have 100# left. So I will probably buy another one to stock up on, should I need it.

If you buy hay early you won't be subject to the hay price increase that the procrastinators have to pay

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

We used to buy hay by the bale like that but now that we have so many goats it would cost a fortune now. I got 25 bales for helping bale, gather, pickup, stock, ect. for a friend. Now that we are running low we went and got a round bale for 25$. There are several guys around here that bale 300-900 square bales and well over 100 round bales so we will pretty much always have the chance to buy hay and for a good price. Oh and they are so close they deliver to us. haha

 

[Southern by choice]

Round bales-$25 (neighbors)
"Sqaure"-$2.50 (neighbors)
Alfalfa-$14compressed bale (from the feed store)

We are in NC- all my neighbors grow big fields

 

[Catahoula]

wow...all of you hay are cheap except for Suburbanfarmer. We pay $16.5 for small bale of alfalfa hay. A round bale...around 750lbs of grass hay is about $155. 900# half alfalfa/grass is $190 I don't feed regular hay anymore. I switched to Chaffhaye alfalfa hay...which is $13.25 for a 50# bag. It last about 10 day for two Boer kids with browsing.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

wow...all of you hay are cheap except for Suburbanfarmer. We pay $16.5 for small bale of alfalfa hay. A round bale...around 750lbs of grass hay is about $155. 900# half alfalfa/grass is $190 I don't feed regular hay anymore. I switched to Chaffhaye alfalfa hay...which is $13.25 for a 50# bag. It last about 10 day for two Boer kids with browsing.

I think the Alfalfa here is 15.50$ a blae. It's been going up and up.
The guy who sold us the round bale said it was about 900 pounds but it doesn't feel that heavy to me.

Boy you do have expensive hay!! How do you do that!!?? If hay where the same price I don't think I could have goats.

 

[Catahoula]

wow...all of you hay are cheap except for Suburbanfarmer. We pay $16.5 for small bale of alfalfa hay. A round bale...around 750lbs of grass hay is about $155. 900# half alfalfa/grass is $190 I don't feed regular hay anymore. I switched to Chaffhaye alfalfa hay...which is $13.25 for a 50# bag. It last about 10 day for two Boer kids with browsing.

I think the Alfalfa here is 15.50$ a blae. It's been going up and up.
The guy who sold us the round bale said it was about 900 pounds but it doesn't feel that heavy to me.

Boy you do have expensive hay!! How do you do that!!?? If hay where the same price I don't think I could have goats.

I never had goats or any livestock before so I didn't know about how cheap hay was! Chaffhaye was easier to get and store for me and the goats don't waste much comparing to dry hay. In a way, the expensive hay price drove me to Chaffhaye and I am hooked. Even if hay price come down, I'll still be feeding them Chaffhaye. I guess I can only have four goats cause...anymore goats would be too expensive....

 

[ksalvagno]

I have to buy my hay for the year. All the farmers in my area sell out their hay as fast as they can. You may want to talk to farmers in the area and see if someone would be willing to store hay for you or maybe they don't try to sell everything.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Wow hay is cheap elsewhere!!! It's $18.99 here for a small square bale and I don't think large round bales are even offered anywhere.

 

[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.