How's your hay situation this year?

[wpsellwood]

We have all of our hay, but we paid double this year. Really really good hay though and it was delivered

 

[Margo_C-T]

I am fortunate to do business(been about 15 or more years now) with someone who not only produces top-quality hay(alfalfa, and beardless wheat, which I may try next year), but has an on-farm scale, so sells by the ton, and the proof is right there! I pull onto the scale w/ truck and trailer, they weigh the whole rig, me included!...then load, and pull onto the scale again-difference is what I pay for, at the quoted per ton rate, no matter how many bales I get. This also allows you to get a good average on what each bale weighs.

I believe that most sellers 'overstate' what each bale weighs, because they are well-aware that most people either have NO 'feel' for actual weight, and/or they have no way to CHECK on whether the weight is accurate---as in, being able to weigh bales themselves(talking mostly of two/three string bales; those 'handleable' by an individual.) This is a big reason why I prefer NOT to buy by the bale...though in most cases nowadsys, that's the ONLY way it is offered for sale. I DO have a good sense of 'measurement', whether it be weight(of hay,at least, because I've hefted plenty that I KNEW what they weighed),or other indicators...height, width, length, etc., so, when I buy from anyone other than my longtime trusted alfalfa supplier(above), I will heft a representative bale before paying...and being the old curmudgeon that I am, I may challenge the seller...or take a bale home and weigh it on my hanging scale, and they will hear from me if the weight is too much lighter than 'suggested'.

Margo

 

[MajorClementine]

We paid $0.25 more per bale this year than last. We got first cut for the minis because it's mostly grass. However, due to weather, we got second cut for our big horses and it has a lot more alfalfa in it. We were pretty worried about the valley running out of irrigation water this summer. We were at August levels in the first part of June. But in July it rained more days than it didn't so that helped a ton! It made second crop get cut a little later but we usually don't get 3 cuts up here so that was no big deal really. They got a little higher yield on second than first this year which is unusual. All in all I'm happy with our situation. Hay is surly more now that it was five years ago but we are doing much better than a lot of places and for that I am very thankful.