HAY, how is the supply in your area?

[QRTRHRS]

The hay crop yields have been getting worse and worse these last few years where I live in eastern PA due to fluky weather. While the quality is pretty good as long as the farmers can get the cut bailed on time, a field that might have once loaded a single axle grain truck can now be loaded onto a dually flatbed pickup.

Although my wife hates them, we squeaked by last winter on 3x3x8's once my normal supplier of small bales ran out of early on. This winter looks worse already, not to mention the price.

We have our farm on the market, wanting to downsize and semi retire eventually moving to Kentucky or Tennessee. Now I see where Kentucky has a hay hotline and I understand that hay is short in Tennessee as well.

If need be, I can usually get a trailer load out of New York or Canada albeit a bit pricey of course. What are your options in Kentucky or Tennessee? How about anyone else? How is it in your area?

[LazyJ_Arabians]

Bermuda is plentiful here for 4$ per bale, most of it is indeed going east, whereas last year it all went west. With plenty of rain and minimal army worm damage the quality is the best I've seen in years.

[JazzDad]

Around here. some folks are doing their 3rd cutting of the year. We've had more rain in 6 months than what we normally get in 12. I'm hoping the price will be good- gotta get some before the winter rush.

[Pat]

Hay starts at $30 for a 1000lb + round bale now. Last year sticks and weeds went for a lot more than that and up to $90 or more for a round bale of good quality. I didn't buy or sell but it was a frequent topic of conversation.

I got caught by our copious rain with freshly mown but not baled hay on the ground (it rotted) I got about a dozen bales put away but all the rest was gone due to the rains. Within a week or two I am going to have another go at it. Between old hay carried over (I didn't sell my surplus) and what I hope to put away in the next week or so I will have a lot more than my needs over the coming winter. I hope to carry over a substantial surplus as a hedge against a potential bad year next year. It is cheap insurance since It is only costing me the diesel fuel and some snacks and drinks as I am owed a favor and the haying is payback. Of course I spent a couple days under a friends truck and an afternoon under his brush hog. Changed his blades but got terrible vibration and had to balance them by grinding metal off the heavy one.

Pat

[egon]

If'n I can correctly recall back on the farm were I grew up there was always a years supply or more of hay/grain in hand. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Bird]

We drove up to Ardmore yesterday and sure saw lots of hay in the fields from Denton, TX, to Ardmore, OK. Most appeared to be freshly baled. In fact, in one big field there was someone in a big New Holland tractor gathering up bales and lining them up; two at a time; one of the front and one on the rear.

[QRTRHRS]

Egon,

I know of no one in my area that has a year's supply of hay on hand be it buyer or seller. Farm economics being what they are, I think those are days gone by.

Reading my weekly farm newspaper, I am seeing Timouthy prices around 215-220 per ton which would be horse quality. Some auctions though posted 265-280 a ton.

The 3x3x8's that I bought through this past winter weigh in at around 600 or so lbs. I was paying 40 for timouthy and 35 for orchard grass. I never use the round bales but I have friends that do. I see large round bale prices from 25 to 50 but I don't know what quality they would be.

To make life easier for my wife who feeds more than I do, we try to use the small bales. I have been buying what we call a dense packed small bale which weighs around 60-65 lbs for 4.50 apiece but the next load is going to be 5.00 each.

The farmer I buy from machine stacks the small bales in layers of ten, seven layers high on skids to minimize handling. I haul these towering monsters home on my dually so that saves me delivery charges.

[egon]

My farm memories seem to be from only yesterday but perhaps 50 or so years ago would be more correct! [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[WTA]

It's so so here in West Texas. The prices are outrageous and the quality is even worse. I sure hope we make it through this winter without having to buy any. We should. I've only owned this farm for three years and we started with unfenced bare dirt but now I've got 5 fenced pastures and all of them are planted with something. Giant bermuda in two, wheat in two and Alfalfa in the last. I have a semi trailer full of bermuda hay off our last cutting too.

Typicaly grass hay here goes for about 8.50 to 10.00 a small square bale from the feed stores. In the winter, I've seen and paid up to 20.00 a bale. No more of that garbage!

We sell it off our farm for 6.50 normally when we have excess now.

We had a very big farm in Pa when I retired from the Army but the taxes, drought and a lot of other issues made us sell and get out of that place fast about 5 years ago to come back to Texas. At least down here I can afford a large farm. And my land is mine here and I don't have the local law enforcement telling me there is nothing they can do about trespassers. Around here you just don't cross a fence that isn't yours unless you have a death wish.

Anyway, The hay market seems to have effected a lot of places differently this year. I've seen truckloads coming to the feedstores here all the way from Nebraska and Canada. It's high dollar stuff. The main problem in Texas this year from what I've been hearing is people are cutting their hay then the next day it gets rained on and ruined.
I've been very lucky. We cut 6 times and I was out with the hay rake every day flipping it to dry it as fast as possible. We normally baled and picked it up on the 4th day and then almost every time it rained within hours of us putting up the last bale. We've been lucky.

[jimbrown]

It is terrible here in AZ. i pay 12.50 for 100lb bales of bermuda. If I buy 20 bales or more it is 11.50. Alfalfa is about a dollar cheaper in the fed stores. Probably could get it for 8 or 9 if I bought 200 bales at a time.