Hay

[Field-of-Dreams]

We picked up our first load last night (coastal). We have a very nice lady that hays her yard! It's ten acres or so and they fertilize it. It is GORGEOUS. Green and soft. We "only" got 90 bales at $5 a bale (normally gives 120+) but she sold it all to us, plus GAVE us four round bales! She should get another cut later this summer which she'll hold for us and if it rains a third cut.

Plus we should get one cut on our own fields of round bales (maybe four bales) and again, if it rains we square cut in in August.

I feel bad for all of the people having hay problems, we scrambled last year to find hay...once we found Judy we ain't letting go!!

 

[3bays]

Hay seems to be in good supply here in NJ. Everyone is baling 1st cutting right now. We got 125 bales of nice orchard grass two weeks ago at $4 a bale.

That's the cheapest I've gotten hay in 5 years. I have paid from $6-10 in the past. Timothy was just baled from the two guys I buy from, at $5-6 a bale. I still need about 75-80 more bales to see me thru the winter but I dont have any more room so I will have to wait a bit till I have room.

 

[Katiean]

My hay guy shut his lot down last month. He said he was reopening it on the 15th of this month. I had to get a bale of alfalfa from the feed store. The only grass hay I can get is meadow grass and I like the orchard grass. I can get some hay up at the place that they make the hay cubes. But, their small bales suck. I can't wait for my hay guy opens his lot again.

 

[dgrminis]

Hay in this area is rough this year also -- so hot and dry that alot of it is not doing too well... Our normal Brome round bale hay supplier is square baling all of his this year so we are scrambling to find round bales. We have calls into a couple of people but they haven't cut yet and haven't priced their hay yet either... We also seem to be having a hard time locating brome square bales that are decent and affordable. Our normal supplier (mentioned above) has a standing order for 800 squares each year and they always had plenty for us after that order but with the way things are this year he said he wont have any bales left... They were selling out of the field for $4.25 a bale (not sure the weight but normally 70lbs) and he is the cheapest we have come across.. Found some 50lb bales that aren't very good quality for $5.25... But he does have very clean Prairie hay so looks like we will be buying that just to make sure we have SOME hay to get through the winter..

This is the first year we have had problems finding hay as pretty much everyone in this area has hay fields -- heck even my father-in-law and uncle have hay fields but with the way the weather has been nothing is doing well..

We have access to plenty of alfalfa but it is just not something we want to feed as a main hay - too rich for them.

 

[Magic]

Hay is scarce here, it's been way too rainy and most haven't been able to cut first crop yet. A lot of people are out of hay. We still have some, I made sure to buy plenty, but it's getting very low. I'm glad that we have pasture, most of the horses go out on that, and we're supplementing with soaked beet pulp and hay pellets to make sure we make it til first crop is cut, because there's no telling when that will be. It rained, hard, as recently as yesterday, and more rain is in the forecast.

The guy that harvests our hay field (we grow some of our own and buy the rest) told us that hay will likely be twice the price it was last year.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Too much water here. Almost lost first cutting completely; DID loose most of it, except the best drained field. And even then, got only 50-75% of the usual yield, and that, over-mature.

Alfalfa will founder sensitive horses. Its too concentrated... to give them enough roughage gives them too much nutrients, and can easily cause founder. I fed pure alfalfa at the QH farm I managed and the horses looked great... but when my two minis started getting sore, had to go buy them $9 crap hay to keep them healthy (and they weren't easy keepers either!). I love alfalfa, but its not for minis

 

[attwoode]

Good hay in our fields this year. We've got about 15 acres we 'll be cutting and baling as soon as we get a few days of sun. Too bad transporting is so expensive or I could ship my extra hay to some of you!

 

[MindyLee]

$2 per bale out of the field! And it is really nice quality horse hay... 1st cutting so far; 230 bales!

I'll pay $3 per bale for 2nd cutting and I expect 150 from that cut.

I also have the choice of getting more from another 7 acre field at the same price and its a little bit better hay BUT HAVE NO WHERE TO STORE IT!!!

Even my birthing stall is full at this point!

Best part of this... i'm lucky to get to make payments! I love my hay guy!

 

[Sandy B]

Northern California prices are high! We had a ton of rain and normally 2nd cut is baled and off the fields by now but because of late rain they are just now doing the 2nd cut if it did not get ruined from laying down. We compete with dairy farmers for 1st cutting alfalfa plus it is pretty rich. We are paying $17.50 a square 3 string bale (about 115#'s) and for the Orchard Grass (what my minis eat solely) $16 for 3 string bale about 110#'s. This is from a large volume feed store that we get good deals on. Our hay broker/grower is getting $14 a bale for alfalfa about 105-110 # bales but we have to haul a ways for that. I am hoping that I can find some fine stemmed meadow or grass for the minis at a better price than the orchard. Last summer at this time we were paying $7.00 for alfalfa and $9 for orchard of similar weight. I wish I had a storage for a truck-load.

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

We buy hay from two local feed stores, one grows their own ($15 for alfalfa/$13 grass), the other one $17.95 a bale alfalfa (biggest feed distributor in the area).

Both have told me that much of the farmers in the valley (northern CA) are growing wheat this year, so less alfalfa and the dairies are buying it up at $350/ton and have already bought much of the second cutting. Add to that the rain they're a cutting behind already. The good side we have a long growing season, so hopefully the prices won't go through the roof.

As for alfalfa - I feed it and have for eleven years - do your research online before saying no. Also it's very dependent on how you keep your horses and where you live. Ours are ALL out on pasture/acreage - so strictly speaking they get a variety, but the main feed is alfalfa. I like good quality grass hay, but I've seen very differing results in body condition with grass hay - hay belly no topline - I've never had that problem with alfalfa. Again though our horses aren't stalled, they're out and active. Right now they're all "Fluffy", if I was raising cattle I'd be darn happy!

 

[palsminihorses]

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?

Hi Parmela,

If you're not going to be breeding, there is nothing wrong with fescue hay. We just bought 70 bales of mixed grass (orchard, clover, fescue) for $2.50 a bale. He sells it out of his barn for $3.50/bale. Ours are spoiled because the broodmares were getting alfalfa mixed hay, so they are slow to eat the new hay. But it's good, clean hay, and they'll get used to it.

For those of you in OK and TX, you might want to check out our Springfield, MO Craig's List under 'Farm and Garden.' There is

lots of hay available, small square and big rounds. Might be worth having a truck load delivered. It has turned dry here now, so I'm not sure that they will get a second cutting, but for now, prices are good, and hay is plentiful!!!

Pam

 

[wildoak]

Just got 6 round bales in and it looks pretty decent. He said all of the really good hay is being put in square bales.

I feed a combination of coastal and alfalfa to most of my horses, although I have a couple of colic surgery survivors who get nothing but alfalfa & Eq Sr, per vets orders. I like alfalfa for its ulcer fighting properties but the cost alone would prevent my feeding it exclusively. Those two have maintained beautifully on it for nearly 10 years but I do have a few fat/founder prone mares who probably couldn't handle more than the small amount they get.

We are stocked up for awhile, thankfully - 220 coastal squares and 40 gorgeous heavy alfalfa squares, plus the round bales. Will need to do it all again but maybe we can hold out for a little rain here first.

Jan

 

[Ashley]

I just got 60 small bales of very nice grass horse hay today for my calves at 2.25 a bale. I am going to look at rounds tommorow for my horses. SO far prices are the same as last year. $20 for grass/alfalfa mix of last season stored inside, no rain, and this years crop is $30 a bale.

I do rounds for my horses as it works out much cheaper and much easier when the horses go through a round in 2 weeks or less. The calves are small which is why I decided to go with squares for them this year.

 

[MBennettp]

Hay is around here but it is crap. I bought a round bale of "bermuda and bluestem". It had a little bit of each in it along with a LOT of sticks, blackberry brambles, johnson grass, weeds,weeds,weeds.

I got another bale from another place that was so stemmy the horses won't even try to eat it. I just put both bales out for the cows. The feed store here has some bermuda but it is really expensive and very small squares (about 35-40 lbs).

I saw some on craigslist but it was too far for me to go.

If we get a little bit of rain, they will be baling the field where my hay usually comes from but they think it is going to make about 1/3 what it usually does. I have already put in my order for enough to hold me for a year. I will get it while they have it!

 

[Jean_B]

When I lived up in "dairy country" it was hard to find hay that didn't have alfalfa in it. I tried to keep it to under 25% alfalfa. I had a problem with a couple of horses that had way too much protein....when they pee orange in the snow you know your hay is too hot. And I tended to have more colic problems when the alfalfa content was higher.

Moving to the south - I fed straight bermuda grass hay and my horses THRIVED. The guy I got it from knew what he was doing. It was totally weed free, and he fertilized it regularly. He was picky because he also raised prize show quality angus. Since feeding straight bermuda grass, I didn't have any colic problems.

But during the drought a few years back, all I could get was crap weedy hay - so I was buying orchard grass pellets and timothy pellets. It cost an arm and a leg but it got me through the drought. I used the weedy hay to give them something to munch on as filler, but that's all it was good for. Before I started feeding the pellets, they were dropping weight like crazy, even though I bumped up their grain.

 

[Katiean]

A couple of years ago I bought some Teff hay. I had 2 colics and a mare broke out in hives. I sold it for 1/2 of what I paid for it and got alfalfa/grass.