Hay

[wildoak]

Seems to be drought or flood in so many parts of the country this year, we've not had a good start getting hay. Our hay source finally was able to get a first cutting a couple of weeks ago and we picked up square bales. They look okay but are just so dry, 30-40 lb bales instead of the usual 60ish...moisture content is almost nil. I've been hunting round bales and they are either exhorbitantly expensive or just really below average hay - or both! I've been waiting all week for some being brought down from Ft Worth area, where it's actually rained this year, and looks like we will finally get them this weekend. He's already lowered my expectations though lol, said they are just "ok" with some rye grass in them. At $75 they are $10-20 a bale less than everything else I'm finding here. What are they running in your area this year?

Jan

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

I need 400 square bales in the 50-60lb range to get me through winter. Normally by now I would know for sure I had it and id be relaxed about it. Not this year! My hay man has retired and 90% of what you find in Missouri is all fescue. I'm going crazy trying to find some! Nobody is square baling quality orchard, brome, timothy, etc. I can find 100% alfalfa, but that won't work for me.

 

[RenMac Farm]

Hay is actually good here in WV this year.. Most people are putting up or have already put up their first cutting. We are cutting the field we Square bale Sunday, it actually looks like we might get 200-300 square bales of hay off of it this year.. it is a small field. Then depending on the weather we are knocking down the field we put up on rolls next weekend or the weekend after that. We might actually get 2 cuttings this year!! Most years due to weather we only get one cutting. Since we feed all the horses together in the winter time we feed Rolls of hay, We only put up the squares for late winter or when the weather is too bad/too much snow/too cold to get the tractor out and feed and when I have a horse confined to the barn due to injury/foaling etc.

 

[Marty]

Hay Parm I can fix you up if you want to head to Tennessee!

 

[cretahillsgal]

To put it simply.... there is NO hay for me.

I've been worrying constantly about it and don't know what I am going to do. We are so dry here that even my yard is dead. I have not had to mow it yet this year. Only thing around here that is growing are the cactus and the mysquite. I still have about 20 round bales left and 35 or so small square bales then I will be up a creek. It looks like I am probably going to have to order a truckload in from out of state. Or drive to pick it up.

 

[ohmt]

Opposite here-everything has been under water so no hay. Not that it was easy to find good hay before. It seems as though everyone around here raises cattle so the hay is always too mature, full of weeds, moldy, dusty....you name it. And then they want $75-$100 for each big round bale that my horses can't eat.

 

[happy appy]

Wow I feel lucky to be able to buy my hay for $19/4x4 round and $2.20 for a 50lb square. We put in 200 squares yesterday and the round are coming in 1.5 weeks or so. I usually only buy 1st cut for my group.

 

[bevann]

Very dry here.We have very sandy soil since we are only 5 miles from the bay.Big noise storm last night, but we got only a shower-not enough to measure in the rain guage.Pastures are burned up even weeds are dying.1 of my hay suppliers is about 60 miles north and he usually has more rain.He is to call me when he gets second cutting alfalfa/blue grass mix up.I'm hoping it will be ok.I'm feeding hay now whiuch I don't usually do in summer.We planted a new hay field for this year-reed canary grass-don't think we will get anything from it this year.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

what are the downsides to feeding alfalfa to minis? I have one, Wiz, who can't eat it...gives him a tummy ache. But why does it seem like I generally hear to avoid it for the minis? Also, since I'm not breeding for next year, is there still a reason to avoid fescue?

 

[Equuisize]

Appears to be a similar message across the country

Michael was up where we used to live and found some good bales,

about 95#, of straight alfalfa at $15.25 a bale - shocking for

summer prices. That's a mid winter price when hay is hard to

get over the mountain passes because of the snow.

The feed manager said hay was going to be a problem this season

as it's has been wet and windy over in Eastern WA and it's knocking

the crops to the ground.

Right now we've pastures full of grazing but it won't last all summer.

We also buy local orchard grass out of the field but we've certainly

not had any growing weather, this side of the mountain, this season.

It usually comes down and is baled the first week of July unless something

changes it's going to be a bust for quality hay this year.

 

[chandab]

Opposite here-everything has been under water so no hay. Not that it was easy to find good hay before. It seems as though everyone around here raises cattle so the hay is always too mature, full of weeds, moldy, dusty....you name it. And then they want $75-$100 for each big round bale that my horses can't eat.

We are in the same hay boat. I was going to say you must live close to me, and you kind of do in the grand scheme of things, I'm in NE MT, we've been getting the same lousy winter/spring weather, I'm afraid to see what summer will bring. [We are far enough north, that haying won't get started for another couple weeks, and my regular hay guy might be flooded out, he's below Fort Peck dam on the Missouri flood plain.]

 

[Margo_C-T]

Bad year here, too. Most hay is irrigated in NM; may run out of water before the season is up(irrigation districts count on run-off into what here are considered 'major' rivers--Rio Grande, Pecos, for instance--from up north, and since snow pack was minimal,may = no water later in the year.First cut alfalfa looked good on a trailer sitting at one local feed store, but here, that's really too rich for horses, not safe to feed, IMO...AND, it was well over $10/bale, tax included. Grass hay is even worse; local-grown in limited amounts; has been baled way too dry and way too mature for the most part, but light(@ 50 lb, if you're lucky)bales are ALSO above $10/bale. I bought one bale of a supposed K-31(fescue)/bermuda mix yesterday-which looked OK on the trailer... but won't again. Once opened, it is nearly HALF old brown 'stuff'...and even the 'green' is wirey and tough. I can feed fescue because I do NOT have breeding mares, but won't get any more of this crap.

'Some' area feed stores sell 3 string CA bermuda...I did buy one bale, at $18.95 before tax, that 'supposedly' weighed 125 lbs.(more like maybe 105-110 at best, which did not surprise me, as I've found that when asked, sellers VERY often overstate the weight-I'm sure that sometimes it's because they are just inept at estimation, but all too often, it is because they know most people can't or won't VERIFY...but I CAN, and I DO, and I tend to not do any more business with those who routinely do this...

I consider bermuda a 'filler', and really don't care much for it, but the horses were willing to eat it after finishing the much-better orchard grass I am about out of, so I may shop around among the local sellers and get a bale or so every month just so they have something to 'graze' on after they finish the 'good stuff'! Like many of you, I am still searching for some decent while affordable grass hay for this year.

In my searching around, I was told that hay brokers were practically fighting to 'snatch up' what IS available. I had a line on some good grass hay grown in the general area...then the grower informed me that he'd been 'offered' to sell the whole crop to one broker! He did so, but did tell me what he sold it for. It is kind of sickening what we will end up paying by the time the 'middlemen'get ahold of it...nearly a 100% markup overall. Pretty tough on some of us to afford.

Margo

 

[chandab]

what are the downsides to feeding alfalfa to minis? I have one, Wiz, who can't eat it...gives him a tummy ache. But why does it seem like I generally hear to avoid it for the minis? Also, since I'm not breeding for next year, is there still a reason to avoid fescue?

Usually alfalfa is a bit too hot for minis, its loaded with calories and high in calcium, but many feed it to all classes and sizes of horses (since its so nutritious, you can usually feed less of it, but then they have less chewing time, so you might come up with some fence eaters). I don't know about the fescue, but I believe its ok for non-breeding horses.

Here's a decent website about feeding alfalfa (and a few other feeds):

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/hrs3243#You

 

[shelia]

I have been told by my vet manys times. Don't feed alfalfa. It is high in magnesium and something else and will cause entriliths.

 

[Miniv]

Central Oregon here.......a major orchard and pasture grass growing area. With our unseasonably cooler weather, everyone's first cutting is expected to be late. That means there will be a second cutting only. In previous years growers get a third cutting and occasionally even a fourth!

Because of the late season for us, everyone around here has been running out of last year's hay! No feed stores have any, none of our growers that we've bought direct from have any.......We were down to two bales a few days ago, so Larry located some hay in "the valley" - Western Oregon, hooked up the flatbed to the pickup and drove 2 hours each way for 2+ tons of so-so pasture grass. He's going back this coming week for another load.

What I'm seeing and hearing from you folks and also from people in our area, it's going to be scary.

 

[barnbum]

We're okay here... my hay guy called on a 90+* day to see if we wanted to start, but hubby wasn't home with the truck, so I told him to let the next person in line get that load. It will be $2.75 off the field. I'm grateful. We're going to get 350 bales this year since we're using dry lots.

 

[Hosscrazy]

Not easy to find hay here either. I feed my minis timothy and our feed store finally had some brought down from Canada. Of course that means more $ to pay for the cost of transportation.

Liz N.

 

[~Lisa~]

Just talked to my hay source been getting hay from them for years and last year I got 7tons for $1400.00 bucks..2nd cutting alf/orchard mix this year I can expect to pay about $1800.00 for the same amount but I have already reserved all of it and paid for the majority of it so I should be ok

 

[Marty]

Its kinda crazy situation here: Crappy hay is plentiful because most people sold off their horses and cattle a couple of years ago. About 90% of it however is rolled and not usually fit for horses. That can be had for about $15-$25 for a rolled bale. There are some rolled bales around if I look hard enough that would be suitable and I usually grab a couple of them when I find them for backup. However I have a couple of good hay sources that do bale very nice hay. Problem with that is we are dry as a bone, not enough rain so I'm still waiting for the first cutting of fescue free orchard grass. I don't have anyone pregnant though so I can also get some fescue if push comes to shove. I need about 200 bales as I have a full barn this year again.

 

[JaiteraMiniatures]

Hay is horrible here! We're going through a drought (usally we have about 35 inches of rain here by now and last I heard we were at 13 inches, but it's rained some since) The man we usually buy from is afraid to cut because of fire and earlier this year he couldn't cut, because the hay hadn't grown enough! Luckily he's had one cut so we bought some and we bought few of last year's cut. If we had more horses (we hav 7) we'd be in some MAJOR trouble, but we're OK...just winter is a worry.

Hopefully it starts raining more here! No floods please though xP Everytime it has rained here it's been a downpour, creating washaway! We're truly living up to the phrase of "when it rains, it pours!" haha.