2022 Hay prices

[Small_Change]

Southern Ontario here - I know a lot of people were hoping that hay prices would go down, as most of our area had a really, really good first cut. The rest of the summer has been a total drought though, and I expect hay will be very hard to find as the season goes on.

We luckily put up our own hay. We brought in 2100 small bales with first cut. Second cut, just last week and off the same fields, was 168 bales. That’s it. And we’re grateful to have that even. We will be able to feed our horses and those boarded here, but certainly won’t have our usual surplus to sell. Add to that the pastures being bare, I’ve been feeding a lot of hay this summer as there’s nothing to graze on out there.

[goodhors]

Same here, mid-Michigan. We seemed to be the blockage point where rain went north or south of us, but very little rain ON us. Even 10 miles south was doing 3rd cutting last week. First was quite nice for us, 1050 off 10 acres. Second was cut just before Labor Day, same fields gave us 50 bales. But every bale I do not have to buy is a plus! Saved me $360 in cash and i know it is good hay. Solid bales, not fluffy.

Just no growth with so little rain. We also have been giving hay, pastures are poor.

Bought hay last week. Thought we would get 200, but their whole bottom layer was damp and moldy, on pallets on dirt. They were VERY unhappy with us refusing that stuff. Said they did not see anything wrong with it!! Probably not getting any more hay from them! Kind of weird, they never acted like that before. Hoping this is enough to get us thru winter, even with a late spring.

[SusanO]

Why do people think you are going to feed that stuff? Not only do you have to pay for something your horses won’t eat you have to unload it and cart it off somewhere to mulch. UGHH!!! I won’t buy bottom bales. If you need to charge me more - I am A OK with that, Don’t make me wrestle with junk hay.

[luvmyhackney]

I feel much better now that I have a full barn of hay for winter. Plus my supplier is holding another 100 bales for me.

Pricing was about 15% over last year but with the gas prices rising and he gave all his workers a good raise I was happy to pay. I love my hay supplier!

[eightpondfarm]

i had to add another 50% more bales of alfalfa hay to my original purchase because the quality of my own field grass was poor. Sucks.
I have 25 tons more of field hay than i can use. I’m selling it back to my hay guy for $10 each for the 900pound rounds. I’m feeling VERY taken advantage of because came SO LATE (mid September) and my fields were FULL of weeds, stemmy tall weeds which, when dry in hay, turn into piles of sticks. So, hay guy got his 35/bale just fine, but i got crap hay. It’s fine for my sheep, they thrive on this stuff…they get in there and pick out all the delectable (to them) leaves and horn off the stems. My cattle (highlands…so mega horns) just toss around roundbales and then pick through regardless of weeds or just grass…so this year’s hay is great for them too. But my horse…gawd…i don’t want eyes poked out! So i will feed them my stacked/tarped leftover from 2021, which they loved and supplement with a lot of alfalfa. I really really REALLY need to find someone else to cut our hay for us. He’s always later than i would want, but this year was just ridiculous.

I’m selling it back to him because it’s such crap. I’d feel bad GIVING it to someone…

The alfalfa hay i bought to add to my already very expensive stash is costing me another 1/bale. 60pound bales at 10 dollars each. plus delivery @.80 each

[TheJenners]

That sounds horrible! I’d be mad too if I had a going thing and because of his tardiness, it cost me a lot of money…

[Jarpur]

Finally had some rain around here, and our usual hay producer said he might have some hay for us coming up, but he’s not yet sure about quality. If it’s decent, it’ll be $8/bale in the field (his son loads our flatbed trailer).

[SLW]

I have ended up paying $7.80 a bale for a nice mixed hay, large square bales. That’s the price for me to go pick it up at the barn.

Supply was tight this year locally because field yields were down. Hope 2023 is better.

[SusanO]

I went and got my second 3x3x8 bale for this Fall. It is OK hay and not Western hay but still edible and fairly reasonable in price. They do pick out the best stuff and waste some of it. Hay importer did have a bale of gorgeous OG hay from somewhere out west. $350!!! I hope it is a 3x4x8 and not a 3x3x8 but I still decided since none of my equine charges do anything that requires that kind of hay I was opting for the cheaper hay. For now anyway. Too rich for my blood unless the lottery ticket I got buying hay is a winner. YIKES! Not spending that much for a winter’s worth of hay.

[NaturallyHappy]

$350.00 for a 3x3x8 or 3x4x8??? Holy that’s a lot of money Batman!!’

[luvmyhackney]

I’d be livid and expect him to hand over some of those 35.00 bales to ease your burden.

I’m sure your horses will enjoy the alfalfa.

[eightpondfarm]

hmmmm

i had 150 bales. Only need 100. Would have been only 100 had he cut in time (and there not been all those 4’tall weeds in there! ) So the extra bales, i am not paying him for…so saving 35/bale on those, plus he is paying me 10.

[luvmyhackney]

Ahhh still. Would have been nice to have had the 100 good bales.

[PeteyPie]

I just ordered hay and the Imperial Valley alfalfa was $35 a bale! It’s usually between $17 and $21, or it used to be. The price has probably been creeping up for some time, but I haven’t been paying attention since it’s something I need, so no point worrying about it. But wow!

[starrunner]

Dang! Hay prices are very much normal in my area and down from some years when we are drought stricken.

About $4-5/bale for the 40ish pound mostly grass/some alfalfa bales.

[PeteyPie]

These bales are heavy and are a very high quality alfalfa. They weight 110 to 120 lbs. That weight is why my only comment on the thread about stacking hay is my observation, rather than my first-hand experience, about how the hay delivery guy stacks it. The best I can manage is two layers high, with a lot of leveraging and walking bales. Not pretty and not fast.

[CHT]

Our hay went up about 30% this year. Not a supply demand issue but more an input costs issue (fertilizer, fuel, wages). As we had a hot year, alfalfa isn’t super expensive compared to grass hay, but I remember our wet year a couple years back it was very hard to source and extremely expensive!

[trubandloki]

@CHT

(fertilizer, fuel, wages)

Yes! This is the issue.

[2DogsFarm]

I’ll check with my neighbor/Hayguy, but recently he had 40#ish squares of orchard grass/timothy for $5 & sourced alfalfa mix for $7.
Weather gave some here a 3rd cutting this year & rarer: a 4th.

I expect prices may go up as Winter approaches.

[candyappy]

@CHT

Our hay went up about 30% this year. Not a supply demand issue but more an input costs issue (fertilizer, fuel, wages).

You can add drought to the spiking prices in some areas. In my area of the mid west, we have had no rain now since sometime in August and it is dry again.

Pastures are once again burned up and some people have been having to feed hay already. Normally you can utilize pastures into late Nov- early Dec.

While we have had a good year in our state and the hay crop was abundant , we have had 2 significant dry spells and the available surplus may be impacted. Prices are moderate to high with some selling at a fairly reasonable cost but it is hard to see the quality from an ad.