Excess Hay Supply

[misfitmorgan]

That didn't come out right anyway.
Just that there is some risk in the hay business.

i know OFA there is risk in all business though, i would never just jump into it and be like yeah we got hay for sale without taking some precautions. Even just selling farm animals people kill the animals and then come back and try to say we owe them a new one. Well no because you had them for 3 months and they died from pneumonia so i dont think that's our fault. One lady took a 8 week old weaned kid....decided they were not old enough to be weaned so put it on bottled milk only...no hay, no grain and only feed 12oz 3 times a day. She couldnt figure out why he was always s hungry and wanted to sleep a lot. We told her 4 times he needs hay, grain and water she said ok i will give him some then would call back again and be like there is no improvement....did you give him hay and grain? well no but i took him outside to eat some grass for 30 minutes. We told her to take him to the vet so she did and the vet told her he needed hay, grain etc...same as us then she wanted us to pay the vet bill. We told her we would not and to give him hay and grain, 2 weeks later she had her lawyer send us a letter saying the kid had died due to our poor quality of livestock which she had vet records to prove and wanted a full refund and the vet bills paid. We send the lawyer a copy of the bill of sale with the date highlighted and the original letter with the vet date highlighted and a copy of our "Liability/sale clause" she had signed giving her 30 days to return the kid for a full refund. We never heard anything after that. She had him for over two months though, the poor kid.

 

[Baymule]

There are stupid people and then there people so ignorant and willfully stupid, the descriptive terms must dive into vile and ugly language. $%#@#$$%^&&*

 

[Ponker]

We buy alfalfa in small square bales usually around 60-75 lbs each for $5.50 - $6.85 depending on the cut. We buy orchardgrass/alfalfa mixed small bales for $4.75. It's locally grown and I buy direct from the farmer. He also sells to the local feed store which resells it for over $8 for the orchardgrass/alfalfa mix and higher for the alfalfa. It's tough to find good hay for a reasonable price here. We're lucky to have found a great local farmer who sells hay by word of mouth. One thing I'm having trouble finding is straw. I have to pay $5.00 a bale for an extra small square bale. It's tough to find good straw.

 

[Baymule]

Haha, we don't even have straw here. @Ponker your hay prices sound really good!

 

[misfitmorgan]

There are stupid people and then there people so ignorant and willfully stupid, the descriptive terms must dive into vile and ugly language. $%#@#$$%^&&*

i completely agree, we tried to get the kid back but she wouldnt give him back. We called the humane society and animal control and asked them to help get the goat back or atleast look at him..apprently they were to busy to get around to it. We called the police they said they couldnt help, once we sold him, he wasnt our property anymore.

AC and humane society here are a joke there was a local lady who had 80 live dogs all miscared for extremely and 47 goats seized from her....it took 3 yrs for them to do it. When inspecting the property they found remains of over 150 dog/puppies/goats/kids. Then they patted themselves on the back for their efforts. The lady was literally called in for cruelty by at least 30 people and it still took 3yrs.

Haha, we don't even have straw here. @Ponker your hay prices sound really good!

Do they not grow oats or wheat in texas?

So far we have contracted 3 acres of oat straw at the end of the season. Hopefully more cause idont wanna buy straw though we have two round bales of chopped straw left still which should last nearly to harvest for this seasons. We only bed our stalls and one small area in the barn in summer and it is all very light on bedding.

We buy alfalfa in small square bales usually around 60-75 lbs each for $5.50 - $6.85 depending on the cut. We buy orchardgrass/alfalfa mixed small bales for $4.75. It's locally grown and I buy direct from the farmer. He also sells to the local feed store which resells it for over $8 for the orchardgrass/alfalfa mix and higher for the alfalfa. It's tough to find good hay for a reasonable price here. We're lucky to have found a great local farmer who sells hay by word of mouth. One thing I'm having trouble finding is straw. I have to pay $5.00 a bale for an extra small square bale. It's tough to find good straw.

So your direct price is closest to ours then....least that ive seen anyone post so far. Straw is $2/bale for large square bales around 40#

 

[Baymule]

Do they not grow oats or wheat in texas?

In the panhandle, no where close to here.

 

[Ponker]

So your direct price is closest to ours then....least that ive seen anyone post so far. Straw is $2/bale for large square bales around 40#

A guy working on my septic system told me his sister bales straw. He's gonna ask her pricing. WOOHOO maybe I've found some straw.

I had a couple of bales of big coarse straw that I liked very much. This new straw is fine with lots of tops. Beggars can't be choosers so I'm not complaining although I do hope that the big bales from Jimmy's sister are course.

 

[misfitmorgan]

i dont really have a straw preference but we most often use Oat straw because we grow oats.

So far we have around 100 bales left from last year's hay some grass mix some alfalfa. This year we have approx 750 bales of beautiful first cut grass and of really nice first cut alfalfa hay...We still have another 25 acres to finish up first cut on, 5 acres on the alfalfa field and 20 on a grass field...the 5 acres should yield us roughly 600 more bales..it is quite thick but short and nicely ripe. The 20 acre grass field is always a toss up one year we took over 600 bales off it the next year we got about 350 and last year we only got about 300 but we only took one cut the last 2 yrs and last year we got rained out and only got about 2/3s of the field cut and put up.

So first cut should total approx 1,650 bales....second cut probly around 850 bales and if we get a third on the alfalfa probly around 500 more bales. So season total should be some where north of 3,000 bales. Our Current livestock eats about 375 square bales a year.

 

[Kusanar]

i dont really have a straw preference but we most often use Oat straw because we grow oats.

So far we have around 100 bales left from last year's hay some grass mix some alfalfa. This year we have approx 750 bales of beautiful first cut grass and of really nice first cut alfalfa hay...We still have another 25 acres to finish up first cut on, 5 acres on the alfalfa field and 20 on a grass field...the 5 acres should yield us roughly 600 more bales..it is quite thick but short and nicely ripe. The 20 acre grass field is always a toss up one year we took over 600 bales off it the next year we got about 350 and last year we only got about 300 but we only took one cut the last 2 yrs and last year we got rained out and only got about 2/3s of the field cut and put up.

So first cut should total approx 1,650 bales....second cut probly around 850 bales and if we get a third on the alfalfa probly around 500 more bales. So season total should be some where north of 3,000 bales. Our Current livestock eats about 375 square bales a year.

Sounds like you need more livestock! lol

 

[misfitmorgan]

Sounds like you need more livestock! lol

Haha we are working on it as fast as we can! The livestock isnt cooperating.