Plastic wrapped around the bales. It’s haylage or something like that. Great for cattle. My neighbor feeds these to his starving herd of beef cattle when he thinks of it. We are always picking plastic out if our fences and yard since he just dumps the bales out and the cows rip into them. He cleans up nothing. Quite the eyesore.
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Can I ask why you buy hay when you have your own? I realize orchard/ fescue may not be your hay of choice but still…
I dont feed OG hay, one of my horses get wicked diarrhea and I have two other metabolic horses plus the donks.
That makes sense then. Too bad you can’t use what you grow.
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Truly
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Just curious, what kind of hay do you buy then? I live south of you with an IR horse.
Timothy has been the good bet.
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It can also be great for horses and I’m not sure why it isn’t used for them much, or at all in America. Here in Europe it’s very common. Great for my horse with allergies/a dust allergy. Now I don’t need to wet or soak hay. There are a few things to be aware of when buying and feeding haylage, but I’ve always wondered why it wasn’t popular in America. Or atleast wasn’t when I kept horses there.
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I believe botulism in wrapped bales is much more prevalent in North America, and that makes feeding them to equines far more risky than in other areas of the world.
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Interesting.
Botulism is always a risk with haylage, but there are ways that can be greatly reduced, usually. I don’t know if it’s just more prevalent in the soil there, perhaps?
Yep, IIRC, that’s the issue.
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I hope they have a lot of sheep. Once you open one of those bales it needs to be eaten completely in about 2-3 days or it goes bad ( unless you are in freezing temps it will keep a bit longer) . Might want to let your neighbor know…
My personal pet peeve is people who bale and then let them sit while the grass grows around them. I know it isn’t my property or my hay or my business but I just hate it!!
Thank goodness I married a man who removes the bales as soon as we bale them 
We have gotten some much needed rain here but I see that round bale prices have gone up higher. Still some mixed grass squares reasonably priced.
Most places around here the grass was burned up due to no rain and 90’s temps since June so second cuttings are iffy right now for many and that might be why prices are going up.
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Here in the PNW, we are having a bumper hay year. Hay is nice and green and plentiful! Last year, we were in a major drought and many non-irrigated fields failed to produce anything but drought-tolerant weeds. Prices have ticked down a little bit since last year 'm seeing $250-300/ton compared of $350+ last year. I’ve seen prices as low as $5/bale in the field, which is crazy to think that the feed stores were charging $26/bale for similar quality hay this spring.
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@CowgirlCoffee where on earth are you seeing this? I’m in PNW, Oregon, and am not seeing prices drop at all. “Local” hay is $350/ton. Eastern is pushing $600.
I have seen a few ads for local hay rather cheap, but you had to be able to get it yourself out of the field and the quality was likely poor.
So far I’ve put up some first cut Eastern Orchard. Planning to finish up in the next couple weeks.
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@CowgirlCoffee
I am betting that hay is on the east side (either WA or OR), direct from the grower. I’m seeing those prices on hay in Craigslist ads, too, but just too far to drive when I can’t see the hay beforehand, too risky. My SIL got beautiful dryland (Goldendale) hay (so not irrigated) for $350/ton just two weeks ago. She gets a discount for cash, but it was $370 to other buyers. So, yes, the ‘bargains’ are out there.
Honestly, I have never had hay delivered or stacked for me, which is a massive savings in overall cost. I can also store up to 12 tons at a go, if I so chose. I only need 6 per year so that’s what I buy. If you can sort out a way to beg, borrow or steal a trailer or truck, and a couple of teen boys, the savings of buying from the grower or a decent broker/hay dealer can be significant. Maybe we should create a network of friends with trucks, teens and trailers to help each other out!
But, like Obsidian, Eastern hay prices here in the Willamette Valley to Clark County and beyond are running right around $500/ton. I actually foresee a lot of 2022 hay needing to be to sold come spring, based on who cannot afford it right now, the abundance, as Cowboy said, of ‘local’ non-farmed/irrigated hay (the $5/bale in the field type) being fed instead of the “good stuff”, and the better growing conditions despite high fuel/fertilizer costs.
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When you guys talk about Eastern hay, where is that coming from? Out here (New England), local hay is okay but Western is trucked in and much nicer. It’s often grown in Nevada or Wyoming or Idaho. Good local hay is usually out of New York, but it’s hard to find decent alfalfa, the good stuff is Western. It’s funny to hear you talk about Eastern as the good stuff!
My guys are talking about how the droughts out west are driving up the price of western hay, because much of it is being sold to CA or even overseas. The price of gas & fertilizer is keeping local hay $$$$. We’re running $500-600/ton for really premium second cut grass, delivered & stacked. I’m dreading what alfalfa is going to run.
I am in Eastern Washington State.
I have an actual price: $450/ton for local first cut timothy/orchard grass. That’s definitely higher, and it may jump because if we get a second cut at all this year, it won’t have a good yield. So people who go looking for second cut in the fall and can’t find it may provide competition to those who get first cut normally.
Central/Eastern Massachusetts here.
@Simkie
When we say “Eastern” we are referring to hay grown east of the Cascade mountains in WA and OR-- on the high plateaus/deserts which require irrigation. They often produce 2-4 cuttings of timothy and orchard hays and alfalfa. Much of that is exported to Asia and other parts of the US. These are often 120lb., 3 string bales. This is the premium hay that most boarding barns feed, as well as those of us with horses at home.
The local hays are just that-- the natural grasses of the western side of the states (the ‘wet side’ as opposed to the ‘dry side’). Most are not actually farmed/fertilized/sprayed, just cut and baled in situ. The local grass of the west side is often high in sugars as well, making it unsuitable for IR or Cushings horses, no matter how yellow and ‘bad’ it looks.
There are some nice west side hay growers though-- meadow grass or bent grass or ‘valley’ hays that are carefully managed, but those are still higher than the small local bales in cost.
Drought has been an ongoing factor in hay production in the West (and Canada), along with fuel, fertilizer and herbicide (and seed!) costs. Funnily, alfalfa has been cheaper here than orchard at times!
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I got priced at 440.00 a ton for tested low NSC first cut orchard. It’s lovely hay that my horses love.
Then I fell off my chair for 600.00 a ton for 2nd/3rd cut straight alfalfa. So really ouch.
Price includes delivery and an additional 70.00 to stack. They always keep hay for me year round and take care of me so not sure if it’s worth shopping around.
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