Excess Hay Supply

[Ferguson K]

Square bales here go from $10-$15

Round bales go from $30 (last years hay, stores outside, might have mildew... etc. Etc. ) to $120 for top quality bales.

We pay $45-50 depending on the bale.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Merm...wait a minute. If a Large square is 75+lbs...whats a normal square?

The bales of alfalfa they get from out west are larger than the square bales locally. I don't know what they weigh exactly.
Different machines bale different sizes. Round bales can be different too. Some are 4x4 and some are 5x5.

 

[Mini Horses]

I just pd $150 for 1100# square of last years orchard. Nice hay, still some smell, color,etc. & goats like it. Bet it was awesome when first baled!!
A friend is a "retired" driver, with own rig (does some short hauls, etc) and he used to go to NY & get trailer load, resold some, balance for his use & I got it for cost. Good deal. He has about 4 trailers and would load them & store. Sometimes he'd pick up some freight going to help defray fuel costs for his trip.

Here we pay $9-14 for a good mixed hay, 45-60# bales normally.
Alfalfa, I'd love fresh, not overripe, to buy. Hard to get here & costly when you do.

 

[Baymule]

In Texas, alfalfa is imported because of blister beetles. We pay $50 for 5x5 round bales, mostly Bermuda, top quality hay AND our hay guy lives around the corner from us, stores it in his barn and delivers it to us a bale at a time. We are blessed. Square bales from individuals go for about $6 a bale. @Ferguson K if you have a place to store it, it would pay you to bring trailer up here and load up on square bales. When we lived in Livingston, I found square bales in Center for $4 and I went and got 100 bales in the field.

@misfitmorgan look for where droughts are. In 2011, Texas had a searing drought so bad, that the trees were dying. We had over 2 months of 100 degree plus days. The drought was from 2010-2013, but 2011 was the worst since 1895. We paid $80 for crappy round bales and were glad to get it. Did they make money? Sure. Were we mad about it? No, we were grateful because in other places round bales ran up to $150. Your excess can be another's blessing. You don't do it for free, you have to make money, so don't feel guilty about it. Look on the hay exchange or hay hotline for buyers. Here's the Texas hay hotline, but lots of other states have hotlines.

http://www.hayexchange.com/oha/display_oha.php

http://www.gotexan.org/HayHotlineHome.aspx

 

[cjc]

Interesting! On the west coast we had the exact opposite problem. We barely had any rain which resulted in not much hay. Hay was VERY expensive for the past 10 months but it is starting to turn around this year. Our standard round bale cost is about $60, it went as high as $120 last summer. These bales are about 1,000lbs and the silage will sell for more, $80 a bale or $160 at its peak, silage of course weighs more.

To answer your question I think there is definitely a need for this but you would have to look at your total trucking cost. Hay is heavy and it fills a truck load fast. We looked into getting hay from Washington state to help accommodate our shortage but the cost was too high but then at the same time it required them crossing a border as we are in Canada.

I am jealous of your full barns! Up until just a few weeks ago we were struggling huge just to find hay people wanted to sell.

I don't know how close you are to a Canadian border but we would like some of your hay haha.

 

[misfitmorgan]

The bales of alfalfa they get from out west are larger than the square bales locally. I don't know what they weigh exactly.
Different machines bale different sizes. Round bales can be different too. Some are 4x4 and some are 5x5.

Here common bale size for rounds are 4x5. Normal square bales are 50-80lbs ranging up to 110lbs...less then 50lbs here is seen as low quality and sell for less maybe $2/bale...any rained on hay is low quality $25 for rounds no mildew, $20 with mildew. Rained on square are $2/bale.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Here common bale size for rounds are 4x5. Normal square bales are 50-80lbs ranging up to 110lbs...less then 50lbs here is seen as low quality and sell for less maybe $2/bale...any rained on hay is low quality $25 for rounds no mildew, $20 with mildew. Rained on square are $2/bale.

I wouldn't want hay that had been rained on with or without mildew if you paid me to take it

 

[OneFineAcre]

In Texas, alfalfa is imported because of blister beetles. We pay $50 for 5x5 round bales, mostly Bermuda, top quality hay AND our hay guy lives around the corner from us, stores it in his barn and delivers it to us a bale at a time. We are blessed. Square bales from individuals go for about $6 a bale. @Ferguson K if you have a place to store it, it would pay you to bring trailer up here and load up on square bales. When we lived in Livingston, I found square bales in Center for $4 and I went and got 100 bales in the field.

@misfitmorgan look for where droughts are. In 2011, Texas had a searing drought so bad, that the trees were dying. We had over 2 months of 100 degree plus days. The drought was from 2010-2013, but 2011 was the worst since 1895. We paid $80 for crappy round bales and were glad to get it. Did they make money? Sure. Were we mad about it? No, we were grateful because in other places round bales ran up to $150. Your excess can be another's blessing. You don't do it for free, you have to make money, so don't feel guilty about it. Look on the hay exchange or hay hotline for buyers. Here's the Texas hay hotline, but lots of other states have hotlines.

http://www.hayexchange.com/oha/display_oha.php

http://www.gotexan.org/HayHotlineHome.aspx

Imported hay can have blister beetles too
Depends on where it came from
A half bale killed 4 horses here last year

 

[misfitmorgan]

Interesting! On the west coast we had the exact opposite problem. We barely had any rain which resulted in not much hay. Hay was VERY expensive for the past 10 months but it is starting to turn around this year. Our standard round bale cost is about $60, it went as high as $120 last summer. These bales are about 1,000lbs and the silage will sell for more, $80 a bale or $160 at its peak, silage of course weighs more.

To answer your question I think there is definitely a need for this but you would have to look at your total trucking cost. Hay is heavy and it fills a truck load fast. We looked into getting hay from Washington state to help accommodate our shortage but the cost was too high but then at the same time it required them crossing a border as we are in Canada.

I am jealous of your full barns! Up until just a few weeks ago we were struggling huge just to find hay people wanted to sell.

I don't know how close you are to a Canadian border but we would like some of your hay haha.

I live in michigan so if I go south about 4hrs , north about 5hrs, northwest bout 8hrs.

We would have to figure out costs DH has a cdl so no problem there but other logistics would have to be figured out.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Here common bale size for rounds are 4x5. Normal square bales are 50-80lbs ranging up to 110lbs...less then 50lbs here is seen as low quality and sell for less maybe $2/bale...any rained on hay is low quality $25 for rounds no mildew, $20 with mildew. Rained on square are $2/bale.

Most people don't unless they are feeding cows. Some people buy small amounts if they are going to feed it fast. Rain washes out the color and will make it dusty as it dries but if you use it quickly it's makes no difference still it is not desired here either hence the lower price. This year farmers are talking about brush hogging hay ground cause "its not worth cutting" cause they are stuck with large amounts of last year's hay still. Ironically they were saying it last year to though and still all cut.