I’d give a molar if I could by tested low nsc grass hay of any sort at that price! Or any price really for the convenience of buying tested hay.
It’s grown local ish to you?
Gotcha, thank you so much for the run down! I didn’t think it could possibly trucked from way out here, but I thought maybe our “western” was your “eastern” 
Lucky you that it’s even closer than that! (Although hay prices this year don’t seem real lucky for anyone.)
It’s grown in middle of WV. They deliver around eastern WV and Northern Virginia.
Family that owns it are never the cheapest price by far but the easiest to deal with and nicest people.
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Hold onto your hats peeps, I am going this weekend to buy my first load of this year’s timothy at a whopping $33/bale, I’m damn near died.
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It’s rough. I paid $27.50 for meadow grass a few weeks ago. Hard to swallow especially for light bales.
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I paid $27 for second cut orchard two weeks ago. I keep my hay guy secret in my area…I tell no one about him (he’s a drive for most of my friends though). However, his farmer grew 80,000 tons this year, so I suspect I’ll have hay available next spring if I need it!!
How much do the $27 and $33 bales weigh? I think alfalfa/ timothy bales at the only feed store that carries that type is $20 a bale and the bales only weigh about 40 lbs.
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I asked and he said 110. Not too bad but the math still says ~$600/ton 
Holy cow! I nearly fainted at $18 a bale. I’m so sorry.
And of course I have someone on stall rest 
What’s the saying, squeezing the dollar until the eagle screams or something like that?
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My bales were 115 lbs. That’s pretty standard for the orchard or Timothy grown east of the Cascades.
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I just bought my first hay since January. It’s from my neighbor, who seemed to be giving me a deal last year for $5 first cutting orchard grass/timothy mix ($6 was more typical around here for small bales). I went to get some hay and he said “it’s going to be higher this year. Fertilizer was double in price, and I just put $1300 worth of fuel in the tank and didn’t even fill it.” The nice stuff I got last year at $5 is now $7, and he had some not as nice but still perfectly good mixed grass hay for $6. I got some of each.
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NE WI here. My small bale guy raised prices on bales that they deliver a bit, but I will never complain about nice 50lb grass bales delivered and they help stack (and even bring extra help at times!) for the now higher price of $3.50/bale. The timouthy rounds we got are about 900lb and those were $75 delivered. I know I’m very lucky for the small squares at that price delivered even for our area.
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One of the girls I was riding with today said state wide hay production was at 50-60% of normal. Some areas of the state had unfavorable weather while some producers did not fertilize. One field we rode today confirmed that information. It’s a field that is always baled in big round bales. They were much smaller round bales this year.
There will be zero extra hay this year in our area.
Hay here in NJ just went up a dollar a bale. And if they can’t get a second cutting with the drought, trainer is expecting it to go up another few if they have to get it from Canada.
@SLW Are you sure the farmer didn’t just get a baler that makes smaller bales? Not actually less production? We are seeing hay guys changing to the smaller round bales from the bigger 1200# + size bales. Also going to large square bales that flake off for their horse customers. Square or round, the bales are smaller at 700 to 900 pounds, depending on the hay type. Smaller bales are easier handling for so many folks owning smaller tractors.
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Great point and very possible. I know the guy that bales the field so I’ll reach out to ask him out of curiosity!
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Hay went into the barn this past Saturday. $540/ton for alfalfa and $565 for orchard. Plus, I hired some teens to help. That was the best part of the whole show! Those kids worked their behinds off and they were faster than me, which is saying something!
I spent a bit more than I budgeted, but at least it’s up and done and I’ve got plenty til this time next summer.
Fingers crossed prices start coming down.
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Our local media has done several stories about how hay is the water hog in our state. We’re in a terrible drought and so now hay production is the evil water waster, with reporters and “experts” talking about hay being a crop that just consumes all the water with no benefit to the residents of the state.
No benefit?
Anyway, it’s annoying. And I paid about $18 a bale for small grass bales, delivered and stacked. It was the pits.
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Must be the same ignoramus’ that have no clue of crop value to local communities. The farmer spends to get fertilizer, equipment, spends his profits locally. His hired help spends locally. The customers (horses, cattle, sheep raisers) come to buy his product, get fuel, eat at restaurants there, to keep that money moving locally.
Every crop needs water, hay brings in good money with several harvests, over other crops that get harvested once a season.
Lots of politicians and citizens have NO CLUE how food production, meat, happens!! No idea of the food chain, including hay, gets to the store. They get focused on one point, blinded to a wider view of all the steps needed to keep things flowing smoothly. Maybe your local Farm Bureau could put out some advertising to show another viewpoint.
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