Hay prices

[Alaskan]

PLEASE someone make me feel better about bleeding through the nose to pay for hay.


For me, local, picked up from the field the day it is baled, Timothy standard square bale is about $7

Really nice fertilized, low to no weeds local Timothy is $9 per bale.

Just found out that if I have to get non-local, it will cost me $16 each.

Again for a standard square, Timothy or brome, same price.

How much does everyone else pay for hay? (Dang, crazy coyote yapping in the distance....always stressed they will bust into my coops)

 

[Baymule]

Timothy wouldn't survive Texas heat, we have Bermuda and Bahia hay. In the field, fertilized square bales currently are $6 for 70 pounders. We buy 1200 pound round bales for $40 to $50 each. Then we pay an extra $10 for our hay supplier (and friend) to store them in his barn and bring them to us one at a time. We just bought 19 bales and have 11 from last year. We over bought last year, but that's ok, we are set for the year now.

 

[misfitmorgan]

You don't wanna know lol but i will say sorry i pay less...but we do make our own hay.

 

[Green Acres Farm]

Coastal hay here is currently $8, Perrenial Peanut is $12 for 40-60 pound bales. Big bales are $60, but are often left out in the rain at the feeds store, so we rarely buy them.

 

[misfitmorgan]

It is looking like prices are going to go up, pretty stiffly this year....so stock up early.

 

[Mini Horses]

Weather has everything to do with supply. I have hay raised directly across the street from me, a neighbor 1 mile up raises it there & a few other fields, including his own farm.

Nice hay, from his barn @ $6, about 50#. Now, I rarely buy it because he does use chemicals for weeds. This affects the manure used for garden and placed into my fields. Instead, I travel about 50 miles for non-chem, has a few weeds, nice hay. Squares $7-8, 7-800 lb rounds $50.

Of course, you always take their word for the "no-chem" but, this guy does organic as much as possible, so I feel pretty ok with it.

Now, when I buy alfalfa for the goat does, that breaks the bank. MOST often, I have to resort to pellets instead because of the lack of really good, not over matured/dry bales available. There's probably chemicals there, too. Just feel most often chems are more used in the grass fields.

 

[misfitmorgan]

It's exactly opposite. Alfalfa is chemically treated way more often then a grass field would be, at least for any hay from the North. People who treated grass hay up here would be laughed out of the county.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

We feed a variety.

We can get round bales from our neighbor for $25. It's not great hay, it's more to keep the goats busy.

We can get large 800# squares of orchard for $100 or a large 900#-1100# bale of alfalfa for $180

I just picked up some small squares of alfalfa last weekend, weighing from 70-75# (I weighed them)
A few might have been pushing 80#. Those suckers were heavy But the price was great, $13 and the hay so far has been very nice.

I picked up some really nice, super soft orchard that the goats just loved. Bales weighed roughly 47# and were $9 each
Picked up some more orchard, bales about the same size (haven't weighed them yet), not as nice quality but still good, for $9 each

 

[Alaskan]

Fun to see how things are different in different areas.

I hadn't ever heard of peanut hay before.

Where I live, down on the Kenai Peninsula, the season is so short and cool and often rainy, that usually locals only get one cutting. Rarely can they squeeze in a second cutting.

Up further north in Alaska, and further inland (or at least further away from open ocean ), they actually get heat. They grow most Alaska crops. Hay, carrots, and potatoes.

 

[OneFineAcre]

I normally buy coastal Bermuda for $45 per 1200 lb round bale for the 2nd cutting
That's all gone now
Been getting 1st cut fescue for $30
Can get alfalfa sometimes for $12 for squares
Just bought 5 squares of 2nd cut Timothy/ Orchard from NY for $10