grass hay?

Just wondering if grass hay will have any value. A good friend has some that he could put in small squares and I could haul it if it has enough value to pay.

Absolutely.

Yes!!!The 'horseys' just go ape $h!+ over good grass hay,somtimes its worth more than alfalfa.

With all this hot dry weather, almost ANY hay will sell come January or Feburary.

Northern or southern MN? Location means a lot.

Nice tender fresh grass hay? By now, its got to be headed out, getting a bit over ripe, not top quality by now - still has value, but you missed the top dollar by now in most of MN, the horse people will turn their nose up at the course stuff.

If it remains this dry, we won't have much of a second cutting, and any hay by next January will be valueable....

Poor road ditch hay sometimes only beings 75 cents a bale in my part of MN, when we have a good hay year and right off the field when everyone has hay. But in January in a short hay year, you can appoach $4 a bale for grass hay if it's pretty good stuff.

Your 2nd cutting (unless you are way up north & only get 1 cutting) is the fine, top quality high-dollar stuff. But: you can't get a 2nd cutting unless you make a 1st one, so you need to get on it.

--->Paul

(quoted from post at 21:38:44 07/05/12) the horse people will turn their nose up at the course stuff.

--->Paul

Click to expand...

I like to give the horses something to chew on...
I get aggravated when folks throw out that blanket term of "horse people", but am starting to loosen up and throw the term myself.... Our old stallion is a gelding now and for sale... We've had a couple real winners show up to see him and impress us wif their expertise..... Wife gets upset with me when I run folks off mid visit......

(quoted from post at 00:49:07 07/06/12)

(quoted from post at 21:38:44 07/05/12) the horse people will turn their nose up at the course stuff.

--->Paul

Click to expand...

I like to give the horses something to chew on...
I get aggravated when folks throw out that blanket term of "horse people", but am starting to loosen up and throw the term myself.... Our old stallion is a gelding now and for sale... We've had a couple real winners show up to see him and impress us wif their expertise..... Wife gets upset with me when I run folks off mid visit......

Click to expand...

I am way beyond the term "horse people." My phrase of choice is "crazy horse lady." We've all met a crazy horse lady. It's the same thing as the crazy cat lady who gives you a candied apple(covered in cat fur) in your halloween bag. One such woman went as far as to divorce her husband over a horse. Then, when she couldn't pay the bills(because she kicked the breadwinner) she dragged her horses into poor health through neglect. All the while, she claimed that her horses were fine and pointing the blame elsewhere. When they did take her horses, she had to be put on suicide watch. You would think, with all that love for them, she would want to see them be in a better place.

Crazy Horse Lady...


My other personal favorite is the hay sniffers. They ball it up, shove their cupped hands to their nose and breathe in. It's like you'd see someone do when testing the aromatics of hopps for a batch of beer. Reminds me of a teenage boy sniffing something else... What are they smelling for? Mold, I've been told. I've also been told that the hay has to be palatable for the horse or it won't eat it. Hrmmm... most of these people buy rauchy lifeless hay, and then give their horse a flake or two a day. IF I was that horse, I don't think I'd be worried about the palatability if I was starving. I can't imagine a snoody horse, turning it's nose up to any tiny morsel of nourishment. All the horses I've seen are hogs. They eat like a horse. IF you buy bad hay, give the horse a full bale so he can pick through the good stuff and play with the rest. It's a mess to clean up, but, if you really loved your animal, wouldn't you do something good for it?

And that defines a "Crazy horse lady."

> With all this hot dry weather, almost ANY hay will sell come January or Feburary.

You got that right. I'm cutting my neighbor's swamp pasture right now. It's so dry I'm getting places I've never been able to before. The hay's terrible, of course, BUT it's hay. Maybe it's just the heat getting to me, but I say if you can bale some hay right now, by all means, bale it up! It sure is looking like a major drought year right now.

Worst case scenario is if nobody will buy your poor-quality hay, then buy their good-quality cattle for peanuts later on

"Grass" hay was the main kind we fed for 55-plus years to a LOT of cattle.....fescue, orchard grass, Johnson grass, bermuda (common and hybrid), Reeds canary, Sudan, sudex and probably a few others.....the cows seemed to think it had value.

Down here in TX that's all we have. There is some alfalfa trucked in but they get upwards of $15 a bale for that. The horses get the clean, weed free coastal bermuda and the cattle get the weeds bahia,johnson,common bermuda grass hay.

Growing up in Iowa we fed the cattle the premium quality feeds,alfalfa,silage etc and the horses got the grass hay baled out of the slews. Horses are smart enough to pick through any quality hay and only eat the best part.

We have a lot of "crazy horse ladies" around here. There is a full board stables down the road from me and cost is $900 per month.

I don't care what kind of hay it is, I have never in my life seen a critter turn it down in a taste test between it and a snowball. And "horsey people" have a tendency to p!ss me off, too. They always seem to want to pay later, never show up when they call you and want something, forget to pay later, think hay is "dusty", (I never saw any that wasn't), claim to be poor, and in general think that I ought to feed their dam horse for free, which doesn't help pay my bills. And most seem to be members of PETA or HSUS and believe that tax breaks for 'production' farmers should be extended to them because they have a farmette. Unless you're Amish, horses are used for pleasure or entertainment. So the gubberment should tax them as such- not give them a tax break!

Sorry 'bout the rant- I just had another one go though here over the weekend---

Some of those horse folks can be irritating, for reasons you've mentioned plus more. Others are quite pleasant and have common sense. I have no problems with horses and if I had time and money I would possibly get my own to ride. I figure if the horse has to have alfalfa, it is not staying around. Sure, grass may not have the nutrient levels of alfalfa, but if cut at the right time it's more than enough to keep horses and cattle going. After all, both have been eating grass for centuries.

We have a good friend who is a horse fanatic. But, a level-headed, fairly smart one. We tease her all the time about 'horse people'.

She has a few stories herself from run-ins at the stables with.....

'Horse people'!

Folks like you who know what's what, can have some fun with it too.

--->Paul