We also had a dry year, but we had rain just in time for a second crop. Unfortunately I think this seemed to make people think prices would go down, but farmers aren’t going to sell at a loss!
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There’s a long thread in Horse Care about 2022 hay prices. In a word: high.
I paid $500/ton for 2nd cut orchard this year. It was $360/ton from the same supplier/same farm last year. Alfalfa was the same.
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Oh, I should have done a search. I flagged this thread and asked the mods to move it.
The 3 string alfalfa hay from the feed store that until quite recently was maybe $16.99 a bale is $30.99 this week. I also bought some orchard for $33.99.
At least it’s very nice hay.
I feel fortunate that I’m able to pay it, and I console myself with the fact that I can buy it at all, and also remind myself that it’s cheaper than a vacation at UC Davis.
We’ve had a little grass come in from some September rain, so that will help, but I’m letting it establish a bit before I let the ponies back out on it.
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do not expect hay prices to come down after a drought, we have experienced this twice now. Once the price goes up it just does not come back down.
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Yep. It’s one thing to weather high prices for a short time. Not sure I’m able to sustain $30+ per bale along with rapidly increasing prices for everything else.
We merged the threads together after a PM from the OP – thanks!
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I bought some additional brome/orchard grass hay from a person new to me. 50/60# bales of properly fertilized, cut and stored hay for $8 a bale.
We are in a drought, first rain in 8 weeks was last week and we got 1/2”. I talked to friend Friday night who runs 125 head of cow/calf pairs in western MO. He’s sold off a few head of cattle, been lucky to have a sprinkle of rain that refreshed his pastures so he had not needed to feed hay yet.
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Has rained exactly once since July 6 here in SW WA. Thirteen, 80 degree days in October so far-- record setting. There is no grass here for cows or horses or wildlife. The deer have eaten my garden, my apple trees, my mulberry tree…the rabbits are coming right into my raised beds and anywhere the sprinklers for the garden have created any green grass. There were almost no huckleberries up high, so the bears are already heading down into urban areas (one was spotted in a park just yesterday). So the lack of rain and high hay prices are going to lead to lots of livestock dumping at markets, and the horse auctions are going to be packed with thin horses come winter and spring here.
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The lack of rain sounds devastating for your area.
Our horse prices are still high. The 16/17 year old ranch geldings that could be bought for 2K a few years ago are listed at 7/8K now. I do not know if the horses actually sell for those prices. I don’t show so I have no idea about the hunter market.
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We have been in a bad drought in Alabama until about a week ago. All those grasshoppers are going to find out that there isn’t much local hay to be found around December. Most people buy local hay which is warm season grasses. That stuff usually isn’t ready to bale until mid June which is when the afternoon thunderstorms start happening. So when that hay got ready to bale we had several weeks of wet weather making it hard to cut and cure. Then it STOPPED raining until October. So people that waited for second and third cuttings were left wondering where the hay was. Not everybody had as dry weather as in my area but I think over all it was pretty dry for most of the summer.
I am a member of a Tennessee hay group since that is where I buy my hay. There have been very few postings of second and third cuttings of OG hay up there from farmers that usually have hay. So I am ASSUMING they have had dry weather up there and didn’t cut after second cutting much. Some “mixed grass” but that can be anything.
I have gotten some “mixed” timothy/ OG/ something else midwestern hay from the reseller which wasn’t too bad price wise. But the last bunch my horses wasted so much of it that I decided it wasn’t really that good of a price and broke down and bought some western OG hay. No - not the $350 bale but still expensive. No waste with this. It seems like hay is either cheap meh stuff or uber expensive. Not much middle quality this year. If I had a years’ worth of storage I don’t think I would have this problem. But at least I am not paying $20+ for 45 lb bales of Canadian hay. Gonna have to get my trailer ready to go north and get my winter hay. Ka-ching!
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We just got a $75/month board increase solely for hay. That is on top of a $57 increase last spring. The owners said it was down a bit from the summer high of $20/bale (80ish lbs grass alfalfa 70/30). They have typically fed straight alfalfa and she said that she would not find a satisfactory single source. Farmland is disappearing around here so fast. I think the economy will slow that down some? One can hope but that doesn’t help the cost of producing hay.
Susan
But it seems north of us, Maryville and more north, has had rain all summer that has evaded us. When we went to Iowa, it was greener there than here.
Yes, more rain than we got! Yields were down in my county this season.
Just ordered a ton of alfalfa. High quality stuff that gets shipped from AZ to TX, 100lb bales. Only stuff I could find locally, I haven’t made a whole lot of connections here in TX yet.
$34/bale picked up, $37 delivered. $680/740 a ton, respectively.
And my Tifton 85 supplier is going to run out soon.
I feed straight alfalfa, and it’s gone up $4/bale this year, delivered and stacked. First cut went for silage, due to heavy rain all spring, so second is about it. Third and (sometimes) fourth cuts didn’t happen due to drought. My board price is going up $75/month in January to cover the extra cost of hay alone. Fuel prices and fertilizer prices have also contributed to the increase in hay prices.
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I was discussing fuel and fertilizer cost effects last time I picked up a load from my Tifton supplier. He said his cost to produce is usually about $2 per bale… this year it was $10. And the fields didn’t yield nearly as much.
I really need a hay building big enough to buy and store by the truckload! Thankfully the alfalfa is only supplemental.
In our area, the fuel and fertilizer prices were as bad as anywhere, but the yields have been incredible. Pricing crept up on my second cutting brome and third cutting alfalfa. However, what really bothered me is that the bales are smaller. I went to put three into the Gator, and it was clear that they were not the size that they were last year. I am not complaining, really. The hay is beautiful, and he has enough for me for the winter.
My farmer uses a Hay Baron (at least that’s what I think it’s called). It picks the bales up and bundles them in a giant bale of 21 small squares. Those bales are about 20% smaller. The baron lets him work even if he can’t get enough manpower. I was shocked the first year he used it.
The baler setting determines the size of the bales. Perhaps his hay bundler needs slightly smaller bale size to fit 21 bales in the bundle.
We use an accumulator and grapple, which does not wrap the 4 dropped bales from the accumulator. Small potatoes as hay producers here, but they were affordable and the tractors can easily power them. They certainly saved us needing paid help getting the hay baled and on the wagons this year! Help has been very hard to get. We did get our kids to come for unloading and stacking in the barn.
The farm news is not seeing any fertilizer price drops in the future. Everything I needed was available but I spent the fertilizer money on professional herbicide spraying to get rid of the volunteer clover mixed with the grasses. The clover was taking over, forcing us to add a day or more to drying time to parts of the hayfield. The herbicide seems to have been quite effective!! Not sure if we will try seeding come spring to fill in where Clover died. The price of seed is about like buying gold dust! We can rent a seed drill to put the seed in with, no chance of it washing away with the drill.
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