Scarcity of Hay----Kind of Scary

[20kidsonhill]

Here is another option that I recently read about:
You all may want to look into it.

This is taken off a forsale page: "Due to the lack of rain and quality hay, I was looking for a way to feed my horses. I am now a distributor of Chaffhaye alfalfa in the Springfield/Bolivar Missouri area. It comes in 50 lb bags. Each bag is equal to 90 lbs of alfalfa hay. Daily rations for goats is 2.5 lbs per 100 lbs of animal weight. Cost is $12.75 a bag when purchasing a pallet of 40 bags or $13.25 for each bag. I am expecting a delivery Friday July 20th."

 

[20kidsonhill]

and someone elses comment about the hay shortage:



"I switched to a balanced grain that has alfalfa as its protein source instead of corn or soy so that I could just get orchard grass hay. Even that is $6 or just under a bale around here. SW Washington. l I don't mean from an orchard like prairie grass I mean actual orchard grass. My goats LOve that stuff and there is VERY little waste since its just long flat easy to digest stems I am going to disc our property and sow some in the new paddocks we are creating this year."

 

[ksalvagno]

Check in Ohio for hay. Some areas of Ohio have been getting rain and their crops look pretty good.

 

[poorboys]

I seen in Ky that they are selling around 4.00 a bale.

 

[TeamChaos]

I was feeling all secure, figuring we'd buy from our "hay guy" like we always do. I emailed him just to be sure and he's not going to have any, in fact he'll probably have to buy too. Aww, man! WE've used the hay stretcher from TSC before and the sheep and horses were okay with it.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

You guys seem to be rather lucky. Cheap hay here (weedy cattle hay) is about 10$ for an 80lb bale.

 

[drdoolittle]

Just an update on my hay situation. I got a number from the people who bought 2 of my goats last week of a farmer they knw who had some hay for sale. They thought he was selling it for $6.50/small square bale. I went to pick it up, and they had to weigh one of the "average" bales as they sell by weight (which was fine with me). It ended up being $9.25/bale! BUT, they are nice big (75 lb) bales and very, very good hay-----not trash. I, unfortunately, only had enough for 14 bales.

DH has said that the prices are "price gauging" and feels it's totally wrong--------just like with the gas prices. He said that this is the last hay we're buying for quite some time------saying that for what we paid for those 14 bales, he can buy enough electric fencing and a solar unit to temporarily fence the goats and let them forage on our property. We'll move the fencing as they clear each area. We have 5 acres, lots of woods and a 1 1/2 acre pasture.

Once winter comes, we'll switch to hay (if we can get it), alfalfa pellets, protein tubs, beet pulp, and the Noble Goat they are already on. I don't feel so panicky now, but I sure hope next summer is better.

 

[Chris]

Check in Ohio for hay. Some areas of Ohio have been getting rain and their crops look pretty good.

Ohio isn't going to be much better. Even the places that did get some rain isn't going to get a large amount of hay in and what they do they [if they have livestock] will holding on to.
Come fall/winter it might be real fun getting hay. I know the one mill I use is already talking about getting Corn, Oats and Soybean shipped in from Canada again.

Chris

 

[Chris]

Once winter comes, we'll switch to hay (if we can get it), alfalfa pellets, protein tubs, beet pulp, and the Noble Goat they are already on. I don't feel so panicky now, but I sure hope next summer is better.

Keep a eye on the price of Alfalfa Pellets, if the hay crop is low this year more people will be buying it and most mills/feed stores will start to charge more.
If you see the price starting to go up stock up on the Alfalfa Pellets.

Chris

 

[KinderKorner]

I feel your pain!

We had barely any spring rain.
And We only had one 1/2 inch of rain since April!

All the farmers completely lost all their crops of corn and soybeans which is what IL is known for.

People are in a panic. Wells are running dry, cities are rationing water, strict codes are enforced in some counties.

(No filling pools or watering gardens or lawns. They have even been shutting off the city water overnight to let the tanks refill)

Hay and pasture is non-existant. My pasture never even sprouted in the spring. Usually my pasture is at least 8 inches high at this point. I usually don't feed hay at all until late fall, and I have been feeding hay all year long.

:/ We usually grow tons of hay here. People buy it cheap and ship it down south.

This year the big cattle producers who usually sell hay are scrambling to buy enough hay for their own stock. It frightens me that the sellers are now the buyers. If the cows don't have enough hay, I know there won't be enough hay for my horses or goats.

Any hay you can find is very poor quality because of the lack of spring rains.

I have 35 bales right now. . I need about 350 more to make it through winter, and probably 100 more to make it until winter.