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2022 Hay prices

Because I am mainly buying orchard grass hay I mostly buy from Tennessee and am on a FB group for Tennessee hay buyers/ sellers. At this point I am not seeing huge price increases from last year. For the last couple of years the growers have had really good baling weather the first of May so that is the hay I try to acquire. Those people that wait till latter May and into June for first cuttings tend to run into more humid conditions and pop up showers and the hay tends to be coarser and less likely to cure well. So I think a lot of the growers up there are probably on their second cuttings by now. The nicest looking stuff seems to be in northern Tennessee almost to Virginia. But 6 hours one way is farther than I want to drive even though prices up there are lower. Diesel prices would probably eat up any cost savings though.

You canā€™t even buy much in the way of local hay for $5 a bale so you people are really lucky. There is some mixed grass hay in Tennessee for that price but my horses do not like fescue so that would be wasted money to buy. Most expensive hay is the hay they wonā€™t eat,

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Ainā€™t that the truth! I bought a load of pretty Tim / Orchard mix. Horses give the Tim the middle hoof. Iā€™ll get straight orchard next time

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Mine love timothy even more than orchard grass. I got some 3x4x8 bales last year of western timothy. It was gorgeous and they preferred it to alfalfa. But it is a crap shoot buying from resellers. The next stuff was ā€œMountain timothyā€. It was bright green, no stems but the leaves were really long and coarse. Smelled wonderful. They hated it.

I would have to drive to northern Tennessee to get timothy/ timothy mix grown there so I stick with orchard grass that grows farther south. I wish I could take a pony for the taste test when I buy.

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I buy from local resellers, I like my hay delivered and stacked when possible lol.

My horses like western hay quite a bit too. But weirdly mine seem to prefer Orchard even then. Locally I can get hay from NM and Idaho. But those dealers donā€™t deliver. I think my current load is out of Kentucky. So naturally they like wasting it since I can get it delivered. Hay tastes better with Momā€™s sweat in it maybe lol. Possibly they are just full from grass but they are picking up all the orchard so I dunno.

On topic, only the alfalfa I buy at feed store has gone up significantly price wise. To be fair, the quality is heads and shoulders above their usual stock. Thankfully the perennial peanut hay is already getting baled so I probably wonā€™t need much more alfalfa.

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I am so jealous of all of you in good hay land!!

In Georgia, unless you feed coastal Bermuda, (some do, but I have had nothing but trouble with it, so not worth the risk) prices are going up and up. I just paid $19.50 a bale for meh 80/20 orchard alfalfa. My hay guy says to prepare for a significant increase due to the price of shipping it down hereā€¦ :disappointed:

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We had major floods over the summer so hay prices never dropped, and coming into winter they definitely wonā€™t be doing anything other than going up!

I snagged some 50/50 grassy lucerne (think you guys call it alfalfa?) for $14 a bale. Two hour round trip to collectā€¦but that still works out cheaper than the $24 a bale for delivery, or $30 a bale to buy locally! My two are out 24/7 and are easy keeper ponies, so what I got should last most of winter.

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so the one mare that I gave half of her hay as coastal Bermuda hay that we just got and half of TEFFā€¦ she very neatly separated the hays, eating the TEFF but piled up the coastal Bermuda neatly under her water buckets

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Iā€™m still buying last yearā€™s hay at last yearā€™s prices from my hay guy. I consistently buy 60 bales every 90 days (for the last 8-9 years) so he has my next load or 2 put aside on pallets. Heā€™s taking care of his regular customers. Right now Iā€™m paying $6/bale for small square orchard mix. We had a short winter so he has more hay than normal which is nice. As for 2022 prices, he said the increase will be more from fertilizer than anything else but wonā€™t be as bad as Iā€™m anticipating. So we shall see. Worst case? Iā€™ll buy some rounds from him to supplement (he has plenty and theyā€™re decent though his small squares are better).

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20 THOUSAND tons??? That is 40,000,000ā€¦poundsā€¦of hay. I canā€™t even fathom that much hay. Makes me faint trying to imagine it all!

My usual supplier, out of the Klamath Basin, told me a couple weeks ago to find somebody else this year. He said they are selling their beef stock because they donā€™t have enough pasture and are having to buy outside hay to feed them; whatever they grow this year needs to be enough to feed their own animals. K Falls area is well known for water issues tho.
Still, I am really disappointed as Iā€™ve been buying very good hay from them for a long time.

The problem with Tim/Orchard is that these types of hay mature at different times. It isnā€™t a good mix. We tried it once and ended up killing the whole field and replanting straight orchard.

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I donā€™t think anyone was hoping to get huge prices, I think a lot of us were worried about it. My feed bill for grain has gone up so much itā€™s a little terrifying. Hay guy is charging a fuel surcharge instead of raising prices.

Hay prices do go up and down significantly here, depending on local conditions. A good year has been hovering around 5-5.50 for 10 years. Bad years it can get up to $12 by April when supplies are short. Itā€™s a volatile market.

In winter I feed 6-8 bales/day, in summer a bale can last me 2 days for 12 horses because of the grass. It makes a huge difference and is one reason I keep my number of horses where they are.

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Here in NW Washington, theyā€™re predicting (on the west side, not sure about the east side) they wonā€™t have hay until August, and even then, not sure how much.

I have a hay guy, but last year with the heat, he was only able to get 100 bales off of one field. Iā€™m reall hoping he gets enough that I can get at least 200 bales for my three Morgans. I paid $10/bale the year before last, $12 last year, and Iā€™m guessing $16 or so this year. I actually doubled my hay budget, just in case.

Weather here has just started being favorable for getting hay put up. Prices are way up on most I see for sale in local ads.

We sell all our excess to one buyer. Due to double fertilizer costs, 5.00+ a gal for farm diesel and the added costs for maintaining the hay equipment and twine increases, we notified him we will charge $5-$10 ( at most) more per bale this year.

That would put his cost at most $35 a 4x5 round of good mixed grass/ clover. We feel there is no need to price gouge as we are all suffering. It will pay our increases and we will make a good profit. Bales that size are easily going for $65 +.

Like us, some sellers out there wonā€™t take advantage of the crazy world of hay prices 2022.

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I expected prices to jump this year, but looking at current ads, prices are about the same or in some cases cheaper than last year. A few people have bumped up prices, but Iā€™m guessing they will have to come down to sell given the competition.

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First ā€˜localā€™ hay is on the ground here in SW WA/NW OR, and the per bale prices are roughly the same as last year. These are 50-70lb. bales of often native grasses (and weeds for some ā€˜farmersā€™) so not suitable for all horses. (I would never, on vetā€™s recommendation, feed it to a Cushings/IR horse for example as it is crazy high in NSCs).

My hay supplier is out of 2021 orchard and is awaiting the first cut from his ranchers out in SE OR. I have enough to get me through to 2nd cut in late July/August and Iā€™m grateful I had the foresight and finances to lay in extra last year. I am anxious to see the increase in cost for this higher quality hay. I suspect itā€™ll be $20-40 more per ton. I do see some boarding barns struggling to find hay right now-- a few rather desperate ads on FB asking for help finding larger quantities right this minute. Scary!

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Itā€™s been interesting but our hay prices have held too, a little higher than previous years but nothing drastic.

The only change is in round bales. Cattle guys who bale and sell extras are holding back selling for concern of dry pastures in a month.

I wonder if some have elected to either not fertilize as heavy or do a" less expensive " option to keep prices more doable for their customers? I am glad it is not as bad as was feared.

Yields here are good and the weather has been good and lot of hay is being made. That in itself may bring prices down .

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I bet you are correct on that hunch. We are in full swing haying season right now. The weather is perfect and tractors are in the fields or on the road heading to one.

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Itā€™s crazy good for making hay here. I was out in the Amish country last weekend, and I was drooling over the alfalfa fields. Canā€™t remember the last time they looked this good at this time of year. I realize that fertilizer and fuel prices are all-time high. But just based upon sheer volume, I hope things balance out.

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do the Amish use either of those items?

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