Purina stores closing down, more farms liquidated

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Marty

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OK this is not good. Two more feed stores have closed their doors, both sold Purina as their primary feed with lower cost feeds as well. They were little family owned stores on the back roads here for many years. Gone. The one remaining that I use also sold Purina but will no longer carry it. I went to buy my feed yestarday and my feed man could not fill my order. He cannot afford to stock Purina any longer. Seems the problem is two fold: The first one being that Purina keeps driving up their costs and people here are refusing to pay it. The cheapest feed in the store was Omelene 100 at $12.95. Now why would anyone pay that when they could go 1/2 mile north to the local farmers Co-op and buy their best food for $8.50? Its all about the money, not the quality. He can't compete. The people will just no longer pay the prices.

The other problem is that last year, this area sold out most of their cows and horses due to the drought. There are empty pastures and barns everywhere that once were filled with horses and foals all over the place but no more. The major stables that were thriving up until about three years ago also closed and sold out. Usually there are wagon trains and horse back riders going up and down past my house constantly and I haven't seen any all summer long. Gone. Horses, mules, cows, just gone. For instance, there are only three people left on my road now that have horses including me, when there used to be about 30 horse owners on my road. My friends walking horse farm went from 60 head to 4 within the past year. So of course the feed stores aren't doing well when they are no longer equine around here to feed. Yes I am in a poor area, but this state is primary rural farming state so this is most definatley not good news. So far, things are not bouncing back in my area. I don't think this is temporary.

I also noticed that on the sales board, seems more farms than ever have liquidated for good. Usually we see a lot of "must sell to make room for new foals" but not this year. I'm seeing more farms just quitting for good.

Scary all around and just plain sad

The good news is that there is a surplus of hay now due to lack of horses and cows to feed. But it still is sad to see these things happening.
 
A surplus of hay!
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Where! The prices have gone up so much in my area too that I just can't believe it. Purina Equine sr is $19.99 a bag! Statagy was $17.70 a bag and they didn't carry complete advantage. We had to travel quite a distance to even find nice orchard grass hay only to pay $19.00 a bale. I haven't seen any feed stores close around here yet and I hope that is not what is coming.

I am hoping that things will start to turn around once the election is over. I have read that they seem to think our economy has bottomed out now. We just have to hang in there a little bit longer and things will start to get better. I have never seen a company actually lower there prices, but at least maybe they will stop raising them for a while.

This is certainly strange times so who knows.
 
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Wow...I am not seeing that around here (Wichita area) I have bought brome hay (100 bales) at 4.50 each. We have our own big round bales this year again. Yes, pelleted grain has gone up it is 13.50 a bag at Atwoods. I do agree that the old mom & pop operations are slowly disappearing though. The economy here in this area is booming with the aircraft and they are adding about 700 jobs at Spirit and Cessna is continueing to hire also. We are very lucky compared to other parts of the country right now.
 
That is very sad too see, but heck if the horse owners can't buy the brand food then go for the generic brand. Omolone 100 is over $14 here. I continue to feed the 200, 300 and the Platform feed. However the generic food is certaintly starting too look good. Only reason I don't switch over is because my horses look good, they feel good, and I have a controled number of horses that I feed. I just recently got some really nice alfalfa/orchard grass hay for $6 a square bale from an actual hay Co..

Right now the times are bad and everyone has to find a way to go along life normally, there will just have to be a few cut backs. I have a feeling once the right president comes into office it will get better.
 
A surplus of hay!
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Where! The prices have gone up so much in my area too that I just can't believe it. Purina Equine sr is $19.99 a bag! Statagy was $17.70 a bag and they didn't carry complete advantage. We had to travel quite a distance to even find nice orchard grass hay only to pay $19.00 a bale. I haven't seen any feed stores close around here yet and I hope that is not what is coming.I am hoping that things will start to turn around once the election is over. I have read that they seem to think our economy has bottomed out now. We just have to hang in there a little bit longer and things will start to get better. I have never seen a company actually lower there prices, but at least maybe they will stop raising them for a while.

This is certainly strange times so who knows.

Holy cow! I am glad we don't have to pay those prices! (Southern Indiana) We are lucky because we get over 400 bales out of the field next to us, we only pay $1 a bale for someone to cut and bale it. Then I also go get the round bales of alfalfa one at a time, we pay $40 for first cutting, or $45 for second cutting of the big round bales of alfalfa here. Round bales of other grass mixes are available for about $30 a bale. Our sweet feed is about $10 a bag or less. People are complaining about those prices that are from here, but we just moved from California so I am tickled!

Just remember that spending is a VITAL part of stabilizing the economy. I have explained to my husband that I am trying to do my part in helping stabilize the Miniature Horse industry by spending.
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Well, I surely HOPE that prices stop rising! I feed three different Triple Crown feeds, and they have all gone up expotentially in the past 9 mo. to a year. Lately, it seems they are up every month! Latest price was $19.75 for 50 lb. bags! Grass hay was 'about' the same as last year--which is pretty da*ned high--over $10/bale, tax included, and that's me hauling and stacking it myself! Alfalfa REALLY went up this year, even at my longtime, excellent producer's--they sell it to me by the ton(rare, nowadays, as there is more profit in selling by the bale)--but it went up by $40/ton, to $230/ton!! Now, even so, it was STILL cheaper for me to drive a 240 mi. round trip,at today's high fuel prices, and pick it up than it would have been for me to buy it locally(presuming I could get the HIGH quality hay they ALWAYS have). That tells you how much markup there is....(edited to add-at feed stores--though I do understand there are hauling costs from producer to store, and with the cost of fuel? Also, here, if you buy DIRECTLY from the producer, you don't have to pay 'gross receipts' AKA sales, tax, but you DO, if you buy from the feed store, unless you have a registered tax number, as a legitimate business!)

This state of the economy is a major cause of my having to part with some of my horses-though I'll admit my age and gradually decreasing ability to keep up with the hard work of caring for them and my place, is the other major factor...to my dismay. However, I've had no choice, and am just VERY glad and relieved that I've been able to place the horses that are leaving/have left permanently,where I KNOW they'll be in good hands and almost certainly NEVER at risk of ending up in uncaring hands or even, going to an auction.

I just hope all the horses that are no longer 'around' did not go to a bad end.

Margo
 
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I really do feel bad for the livestock people, here in California EVERYTHING is expensive....

The Feed stores are seeing a drop in the amount of feed that they sell.

Just bought a couple of bags of Omolene 300....$19.95 a bag !!!! (plus tax) Thankfully, I only have 5 weanlings to feed it to. The other feeds that I feed are almost just as high though. Geezzz, I am soooo glad I don't have big horses any more.

We grow/bale our own grass hay so we have plenty of that and also supply a couple of local Mini people. And we pay more to get it baled than most people in other states pay for the hay from the Feed Stores.

Alfalfa right now is around $12-15.00 a bale depending on where you buy it. Never thought I'd EVER say..."that's not a bad price".
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There are Ranches ( TB's, QH's etc) all over California selling out....Free horses are everywhere. If they don't find a home, they take the one way trip to Mexico
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. Very , very sad.

I do hope things turn around. I feel bad for the people, but I feel really bad for the animals
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Sue
 
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I pay $16.95 for a 70# bag of COB. The best I can find on Safe Choice is $17.95 for 50#. I won't go to the Purina store because they telled at my neice and she was only 8 yrs old when they did that. I go to a hay yard to get my hay and grass alfelfa mix is $15.00 a bale. Since things are costing more this year I am buying a couple of extra bales of hay each time I go. It about kills me to pay $280 a ton for hay.
 
Wow, I guess we are lucky here in the gulf coast of Texas. Hay is down in price here from last year, horse quality coastal hay is around 4.5 - 6.00 a bale. Omeline 100 is 14.25 a bag, which is about 2.00 a bag higher than this time last year.
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Our horses here are still selling and the market is fine for most folks. Heck I even bought a colt a couple of weeks ago, like I needed another horse. But I could not pass him up, he is just too nice and exactly what we have been looking for in another line for the farm.
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I hope things get better for you folks in areas of the areas that are not doing as well as the folks here in Texas.
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Here in California I agree everything is high. I have switched from Purina to Nutrena. And I try when I can to buy hay from the valley growers down there. And I buy in bulk too.. And when I get some extra cash I usually buy extra grain.. It is crazy to see that the market is hurting so bad... But I must say I still people here in CA buying 20K horses so I am guessing that the market isnt hurting too awful bad here.. I just budget around here to make sure everyone gets what they need and alil of what they want...
 
Considering that I pay upwards of $1.00 a pound for my dog food, I'm not going to complain about buying horse feed for less than half that. I guess it helps not having a bunch of horses I can't afford to feed when prices fluctuate, with things getting more spendy as they always do.
 
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Considering that I pay upwards of $1.00 a pound for my dog food, I'm not going to complain about buying horse feed for less than half that. I guess it helps not having a bunch of horses I can't afford to feed when prices fluctuate, with things getting more spendy as they always do.
Ya know...that's true about the dog food!!! LOL
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I am not complaining, just commenting on prices. I can unfortunatly remember when a 100# bag of COB was 5.00, back when Moby Dick was a minnow LOL

I have added some pretty little fillies to my little herd the last couple of months, and getting ready to add a couple more, so the Mini sales in Cal. are doing well, like was said.

But the Big Horse guys are folding on practically a daily basis, and that is so sad for the horses. And the trickle down effect means the Feed Stores lose the business......

Sue
 
Yesterday I was visiting with a friend who just got back from seeing family in Michigan.........He says there is a SURPLUS OF HAY there! Good Timothy Grass! If anyone knows where Iron Mountain, MI is, that was the area.........

Orchard and Pasture Grass here in our area of Oregon is going for $200 to $250 per ton........and this where we grow it.

Equus Senior Grain is running at about $10 per bag and Purina Strategy is running at about $13 to $14 a bag, depending where you go........ I haven't priced the Omolene products.

People keep saying that the economy will improve after the election.......... I hope folks don't count on that. It takes time for that "pendulum" to swing back to balance, no matter WHO is elected....... JMO.....and from observation.
 
I'm not a Purina fan myself. The only thing I liked was Race Ready. I have seen a big jump in feed prices also. I do alot of custom mix and oats doubled in the last year. I found wonderful custom mix recipes on the Missiouri 4 H extension site. Right now is $240.00 a ton and my supplier says that is the best price we can expect and will go up from there. Time to stock up for winter!!!!!

I just got Junior Glo and MoorGlow and was $21.54 and $27.00 a bag. PRICEY. Buckeye was higher.

We grow alot of our own hay but hay is $150.00-$175.00 a ton right now. I was lucky and purchased some beautiful 2nd crop that you would like to add Ranch dressing to and eat yourself. And Michigan and Wisconsin (parts of ) have a bumper crop of hay this year.

The ecomony is bad. But I love my horses and will continue to support the Miniature Horse industry. I have stopped breeding full sized because of the horror stories of last year. I would rather feed mine then have them go to slaughter.
 
Wel, around here I don't think it's possible to buy Purina, or Buckeye, or any of those other big name brands. Platform is not an option--none of the feed stores out here sell any of those brands. That is okay--We can get Frontrunner (my choice) or Co-op--we do have a Cargill-Nutrena plant here but the feed store will no longer sell Nutrena grain (and I wouldn't buy it if they did!)--it's nothing to do with price, it's all about the quality..or lack of quality
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Anyway, I mainly feed rolled oats (Feed Rite brand), which is now $10 for a 55 lb bag, plus we pay tax on that now (that's just new in the past month or so). The Frontrunner pellets are $15 for 55 lbs of mare/yearling 14% and $16 for 55 lbs of Foal 16%. Fortunately I don't need to buy a lot of pellets. Co-op does sell pelleted feed for a much cheaper price but the quality is not the same & my horses just don't like the Co-op pellets. Masterfeeds is also available--used to be $1 per bag cheaper than the Frontrunner but I don't know what it is now--my horses prefer Frontrunner so that's what I will continue to buy.

We also have a TSC now that sells their own selection of grain, but their prices are not cheap & I don't know how much they actually sell. I looked one day and their "clean" oats was $13.65 per bag. My $10/bag feedrite oats is nice and clean so I can't see why the TSC oats would be worth the extra price...they do sell Tiz Whiz, but again the prices are right up there, I think maybe a bit higher than Front Runner.

Hay...hay may not be scarce overall in this area, but good hay is definitely not plentiful. The weather didn't co-operate and so much of the hay did get at least one rain on it between cutting and baling. Prices are not down--they are actually up a little bit in some cases. By spring I think that we will have no horse hay available in this area...I do have mine (or most of it) spoken for, so that is good. I might need to hunt up a little more grass hay yet, but I'm not sure.
 
We use a custom mix from our local feed mill for all of the horses but one....Purina Strategy is now $23.00/BAG!!!!!!!! I'm changing to ADM Alliance Nutrition for $13/bag for her. I just can't afford Purina when there are other feeds that are just as good nutriontionally but cheaper priced. Our last bulk custom mix was $305 for 1400#....we feed 17 bigs and 8 minis and it will last about 26 days, supplimented with round bales of prairie hay. AND the feed mill may close January 1...costs are getting WAY too high for them!
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I guess I better stop complaining!

I recently paid $4.50 per bale for brome/orchard mix bales. $45 for the round ones. I feed Buckeye Growth @ 16.79 per 50lb bag and Nutrena Youth at $15.99 per. I think my most expensive thing is one of my supplements that due to the cost of shipping I page almost a dollar a pound for and I feed a pound per day!
 
Looking at those prices, I'm not sure that the feed mill is totally to blame. Your prices must be from shipping and a high markup at the retail level. I bought Strategy today for $13.70 a bag and Safe Choice for $13.50 in South Alabama. The prices have gone up on everything. Whole corn has gone up $3.00 per 50#, mainly because people are making fuel out of it.
 
Actually, our Purina dealer closed it's doors on the feed part of their business about 2 months ago.....about 2 or 3 months before that, the 'go to guy' in the store who we LOVED quit (ask him a question and he either knew the answer already, or looked and looked until he had an answer that he knew we'd be satisfied with). But up here, we were paying around $23-26 for a bag of what was called Hi Fat-Hi Fibre (this price fluctuated quite a bit), and around $13 for pelleted minerals. We gave up on Purina, as we won't deal with a couple of the stores....due to lack of knowledge in the sales staff and other problems that we've had with them. We switched to Master Feeds (which is owned by Land of Lakes if I remember correctly) and just buy pelleted minerals and feed just plain oats now. Have to say I am MUCH happier with how the horses look...

As for hay, man, we were getting desperate, and GOOD hay is in a very short supply. We have had HORRIBLE hay weather up here this year. I think we got in about 150 small squares back in June (put out my back helping the neighbour mow the rest of them in his barn....I don't think they should have been going in the mow by the feel of them
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) The 150 we got were ok, but JUST and we paid $2.75 a bale for them (about 50# bales). We just got the rest, 450 bales, and we're not sure how much we're going to have to pay for them, probably close to $4.00 a bale.....we were just lucky to get them, so we'll pay what we have to pay. *sigh*

~kathryn
 
Hi everyone,

I have read everyone's posts on this topic. I can only commiserate with you. I use ADM Jr. Glo and Patriot 14 P. The Jr. Glo is now like $21.75 a bag here in MN. 14P is around $13.00 a bag. I supplement with their Precise loose minerals.

Okay - that's the price if you buy just one or two bags a time. Here's a tip, its spendy the first time you do it, but if you can do it - it will save you a couple dollars a bag. Buy a ton at a time, bagged. That's just 20 bags of whatever. Work with your dealer and tell them you are switching to a 6 week feed program or however long it will take you to go through it. It takes me 6 weeks to roll through 2 ton of feed with my herd. The reason I gave was the price of fuel to go get the feed. The dealer worked with me and I get the ton rate. I can buy 1000 lbs. of Jr. Glo and 1000 lbs. of 14P and I get the price break.

Oh and because I buy the feed in bulk, I also get my supplements, probiotics and beet pulp at the same time for the same time frame and they give me a break on that too.

I find the feeds do not break down or spoil on a 6 week rotation, so that's all good.

For hay - it was decently priced, but I bought from a hay company this year. I bought by the ton. I have better quality hay and with that I have had to decrease how much feed the kids are getting.

SO - I totally feel for everyone out there. I chose to hang onto my herd, so I will do what I need to do to feed them. Bulk was the way to do it.
 

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