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I dunno, we're pretty reasonable about it, weather dictates what most hay will be like around here, this should be a good year for 1st cut, and hopefully 2nd cut. We try to get as much and stock up on green 2nd and later cuts as possible, off good fields. I've seen a lot of tan, rained on but dry, faded, stalky, coarse kinds of hay, not a lot of nutrients, from people who don't have or take care of their fields, and they'll pick through it, you just feed a lot more of it, and it chokes up the bedding, making the stalls harder to clean. Anytime we can find or is available, green 2nd and later cut, they are always much better, I'll even feed some of the chaff left over from handling. The fields in this area can grow some really nice hay, just that the weather plays h#LL with getting it in. I've seen what the some of the show people pay in FLA., shipped in from Colorado etc., and what the feed store sells near the racetrack up here, some nice stuff but really expensive, like I said, we're pretty reasonable about it, had been buying 3000 bales a year for the 20-40 horses that had been hanging around our place, as long as it's not dusty or moldy, not usually a problem, too many weeds is n/g, but that's about it, the rest they'll eat or pick through. Good thing now, is most of em have recently left, won't be handling so much hay ! We used to run a pair of mower conditioners and balers, fill 2 barns with very large hay mows when I was a kid, for many years, we know what goes into making these small squares, and I think is why we don't make too much of a fuss, bad bales I use for mulch or other things, if I get some hard dense brick like molded or dust bales here and there, no big deal, we always check it before feeding. The time I got 26 wet bales in a load of 200, yeah I was really ticked, worried about fire, had to spread them all out.
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