OT slightly, What are you getting for your hay?

Thanks,

Mark

Mark

The gal I sell my tiny bit of grass hay to boards horses, and she pays by the ton - she's been paying $100/T for good quality grass hay from very small growers (people who have a few to a few tens of acres). Bale weight (she weighs a few and averages when she gets them home) varies from around 50 lb to 110 lbs depending on who she buys from. I'm new at haying, and haven't got my baler really tuned up yet, so it misses ties (wire baler) if I try to get the bales too heavy, so have been giving her 50-60 lb bales, which, of course, she loves because they handle easy, but take more storage space.

I asked about bale and ton hay pricing on 16 June on the "Using Your Tractor & Crop Talk" forum here on YT, and got a lot of good replies - many from the same folks replying here. Sure helped me understand the pricing folks discuss around here, but leads me to believe that some folks are getting very high prices for hay by selling by the bale, so hard to compare, especially with regional and weather induced variations. My friend tells me that some of the folks in her horse club buy their hay at the local farm supply store and pay as much as $10-12/bale - no bale weight mentioned. And, because of the greater demand for horse hay rather than cattle feed around here, grass hay tends to run higher than alfalfa. My hay is a locally popular pasture mix that has a surprising percentage of timothy.

Seems like this year, with the screwy weather patterns must be a bit of an anomaly, so maybe the variation over the whole country (and into Canada) is more than usual.

Chuck,WA

What varies with the bale is diameter. The popular bale is baled with a 5x6 roller. Course bale speed and cutoff time determines the actual volume and balers know it. The bale is locked in at $25; that is the market price and no one pays more; doesn't matter the quality. So the balers reduce the dia or bale really fast to get as many bales as they can from a field. Don't blame them as you can't make a living on a 2000# $25 roll of hay.

We also have hay rotting in the field. This hay is urban owners who want to beat the ag tax so they hire someone to roll up their weeds and leave them in the field so that when the tax man drives by "ah this place is in ag production; get to keep the exemption this year". Course animal owners only buy that stuff once and afterwards, goe after good $25 hay.

Mark

So far, this year, I've sold 100 4x4 rolls of first cut (May 5) alfalfa/orchard grass silage and 100 rolls of wheat and rye grass silage (4x4) cut May 10, all for $22.00 each. Sold my first squares of the season today, 100 rained on but still ok, alfalfa/timothy for $2.50 in the barn (dumped off the bale wagon but not stacked in the sheds yet). Got standing orders for good round bales, havent been able to put them up yet ($20.00 now, 4x5, never wet) for 400. So far (as of right now) square bales are done (yipee) put my last 688 in about 8 tonight. Price ranges from $2.50 for rained on alfalfa or pretty common timothy (lots of dead bluegrass in it, got 480 and 200 respectively) to $3.00 for good first cut alfalfa/timothy or straight timothy (780 and 1970 respectively). Rolls are $22 for silage (had 1999, before selling the 200) and $20 for good grass (126), $15.00 for fescue (got 300 in, should roll 150 every day, tomorrow until Sunday or when it rains). I raised my price last year, sold all but 200 squares and 90 rolls. First year since 1997 I havent sold out but it was the best hay year I've seen since 1982. Not raising it again this year, I was going to eat the fuel price but so far it hasnt been too bad, I just had my tanks filled $1.32 for off road B2, $1.50 for on road in 500 gallon lots.

We can't give away hay here in Middle TN. There are round bales rotting on the edge of fields everywhere. I put up all small square bales and use them in the winter for my small herd of cattle and a couple of horses that I keep. I have a couple of regular customers who buy a few bales regularly during the winter for their horses. They pay me $2.00 per bale when they pick them up. I recently sold 150 bales in the field for $1.00 per bale and thought I had made a killing.

Want some hay?

Tom in TN

Mark

Mark