Coastal bermuda. We haven’t had to buy alfalfa for a few months, but it was $19 per a larger bale (probably 70#).
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@Tarlo_Farm No, we are between Flint and Lansing. This is our 4the week of no rain. Clay soil is hard on top, but some moisture underneath to keep things green. Pastures look fine, so far. My friend near you in Marne, rents out her hayfields. She said they just took off the alfalfa Tuesday as sileage. Her pasture is good, but only has one horse. She was thinking of mowing since he doesn’t need all that long grass, too fat!
Weather folks say showers possible, but not seeing any. I am watering the trees and gardens, really dry. May be a short asparagus and rhubarb season without rain.
Do you spread manure/bedding on your pastures? The thin layer is spread widely here, grass grows right up thru it. Spreading really helps my pastures, hayfields, by getting organic matter in the soil, holding moisture when dry. Like pasture mulching! Ha ha Sandy soil needs added organic matter as much as clay soil does, to feed the micro organisms, hold moisture.
Just a thought if you don’t spread there. I do not compost our bedding, wanting more volume to spread. Composting much reduces volume, so not as helpful, for me as just spreading our sawdust bedding. I also fertilize yearly, which helps create strong roots under the plants. Mowing high, regularly (except during drought spells) has plants pushing roots down deeper to find moisture, not setting seed. They seem pretty able to survive our droughts. Horses are only out at night, no overgrazing.
Hope the predicted rains stop by your farm this weekend!
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We just had a 5 minute rain! Now only misty sprinkle… But, we’ll take it! First rain we’ve had in 6 wks. Rain, Beautiful rain!!
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I think it just came our way about an hour ago ! Heavy, short shower. Enough to dampen down the dust… Good chance for us on Sat/ Sunday. We haven’t cut any hay again, just in case it does come our way.
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The barn owners and we (my cousin and I) were discussing ‘finding hay’ yesterday. There are only four horses (the BO’s and our two horses boarding). The barn owner likes to get in square bales for the winter when the horses are brought in overnight. The rest of the time when the horses are out, summer and winter, round bales are fed.
I offered to pay my horse’s board ahead a few months, if needed, to get the hay NOW. Money does NOT seem to be the problem, just FINDING the hay. The BO’s regular sources for hay here in Western Michigan seem to be lacking. As I am lucky enough to be “financially comfortable” in retirement, I don’t mind contributing $$ if it is needed to get some GOOD hay in ASAP. (Our BO has NOT raised the price of board in nearly 15 years!)
- sigh *
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@RHdobes563 Doing a Google search using “hay for sale west MI” I turned up a number of locations advertising sale hay. Some were FB groups, both open and private that you might need to join to view their ads. A listing under HayMap Michigan, has a number of advertisements with a variety of bale types, hay species, locations to buy from. We have previously found nice hay on Craigslist.
I am not sure where in west Michigan you are, but there is stuff both north and south, on the west side. If BO doesn’t mind driving, there is even more stuff to be found. Bob Walton, Walton Farms used to sell a lot of hay out of Rosebush, which may be close or VERY far away. He was older, might have gone out of business. He was one of the very few people I know that sold by the ton. Gave a great talk to our Driving club about hay, buying, quality of hays, selling, how to choose for our horses.
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We brought in beautiful quality hay, but only half the yield we normally get - just shy of 23 000 lbs instead of our usual 50 000 lbs on first cut. There hasn’t been any rain for 4 or 5 weeks here, and doesn’t look like there’s much in the forecast either. It’s rough…
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We had a very wet early Spring and then it just stopped raining. Very dry here now. I got my pasture mowed early May and then we had a few good rain storms and it is very drought tolerant with only one horse out on it.
Finally got lemon of a truck fixed enough to get a bundle of OG hay grown in Tennessee. A little stemmy and could have been cut earlier but it smells wonderful and still has lots of leaf. The horses say they would rather have the $30 a bale Standlee Grab and Go timothy they were eating while my truck got fixed. Sorry! Going to make a hay run Friday to get some OG/timothy with my truck and trailer and hope I can get at least 100 bales. That will hold me till Fall.
First cutting OG was really late for folks in Tennessee unless they cut the first of May/ late April. It has been REALLY dry after mid May so I don’t know how much second cutting they will get unless we get some heavy rains in the next few weeks. I will feel so much better when I have my summer hay in the barn! Usually I am set after the first of May so I am running late!
Is hay for winter hard to source very often? Or do you move to FL then
If we were any farther west, we’d be swimming in Lake Michigan. 
I’m printing out your reply for our barn owner. He may have tried Facebook (he’s MUCH more into it than I am) but may not have found these groups.
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I “think” local hay may be more available this year, we have gotten some rains. We feed the local hay to the goats
The three string Teff hay we feed the horses has come down $1 a bale I guess reflecting a reduced cost of shipping (it is from out of state) but still is $14 more than what we paid per bale two years ago… sure hurts, but all of the horse love it, eat Every piece, nothing left over.
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I just got 100 bales of a nice OG/ timothy mix grown in Tennessee. It isn’t as fancy as western hay but it smells good and the horses seem to like it. In fact they like it better than the 20 bales of OG hay I got two days before. So…I AM THROUGH BUYING HAY until this Fall!!! So happy to get home before the a hole beach traffic got cranked up down my route home and before a couple of them collided thus shutting down the interstate for hours! And no rain. It is backed down into the barn and all I have to do to get hay is get a bale down off the flat bed trailer! Such a luxury!
I wish I had better storage and I would buy enough for the year but it is usually so wet and humid here in the summer after about 6 months it gets pretty musty smelling. It was $11 a bale picked up and that is about the going rate these days unless you buy “mixed grass” which contains fescue which my horses say is not a food source. I guess it is like me and cilantro - if anything has it in it, then it is ruined and not edible. The farther north in Tennessee you go - the better the hay is and the cheaper it is but I don’t think I want to be pulling a trailer full of hay through Nashville. Not that brave yet!
So happy to be done for a while and not struggling to find any!
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I’m only about 300’ from the Lake and on sandy soil here. I spread composted manure last year, but my horses are not stalled, so my manure capture isn’t plentiful. I need to add lime, but mostly, I need regular rain. Fingers crossed we get good rain this week.
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Light rain right now, more scheduled for later this afternoon… and YESTERDAY…oh my, real pouring rain. Didn’t last more than a half hour or so, but last night…a nice soaking rain. If we could only keep this up we’d all be sitting pretty for a second, maybe even third cut!
I stopped by my alfalfa guy and paid him for my order. Stipulating that if there is a second cut i would swap-out. i THINK i have his agreement… I’m a good customer and i’m pretty sure he will do what i ask.
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Brilliant rain for us here yesterday. Right on time too. Turning off the irrigation system now for a while… which is a good thing because we still only have the one hose reel functional, the other STILL waiting for a part from France. I don’t know how these farm machinery businesses function, when here it is JUNE!!! and a single small part can’t get here, the RIGHT part (not the WRONG part, this time)… it’s just asking too much apparently. So we’ve been limping along with our hayfields, with just the one functional hose reel. But now… RAIN!!! and lots of it. And more coming in the next few days apparently. Our pastures really appreciate it. We have puddles!!! How novel! The wet conditions won’t last long here!
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and there’s no substitute for real rain either is there? irrigation is nice, but it’s just not the same. (and i’ve never understood that)
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Southern Middle Tennessee here.
- The grower who supplies the feed store where I’ve been buying a year’s worth for several years lost his first cut orchard/grass hay field as far as horses are concerned.
It was so stemmy his own horses wouldn’t eat it, so he round baled it for cattle.
He said he hopes to get a second cut in two months. I am not a gambler, nor am I willing to play Russian Hay Roulette against the weather. I started looking for other sources.
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Top quality grass hay of any mix is going for $16/sm square in my county. A person who is asking $17/sm square is not even selling local hay, it’s trucked in from Utah and other western states.
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Saturday, we ended up driving 105 miles up on the Cumberland Plateau for first cut orchard/grass mix hay. Beautiful hay and dry.
We carefully drove home with 147 small squares that cost $12/bale; same price I paid last year for the same type of hay, so I was happy.
It cost us six hours of driving and an extra $60 in gas, but worth every nervous moment bringing that high of a load that far. Big tip of the hat to every courteous and patient driver we shared the four and two lane roads with:innocent:
The parting comment of the owner of 2,200 acres of hay fields was that if he doesn’t see more rain, he may not have a second cut.
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mannnn…i’m SURE with you on laying in a winter’s supply from whereever/however you can! I will rent a trailer and go and get if i have to. 150 miles? Perfectly do-able and worth it for piece of mind and good hay!
I once had a semi of alfalfa trucked in from a horse acquaintance who grows…in MICHIGAN. They bale in big squares. Easy to unload and stack, but sort of a PITA to feed-out. y
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The story I heard was that the rain picks up some nitrogen compounds outta the atmosphere, so a little bit more fertilizer for the grass. I dunno if that is true. But it’s nice that the rain is FREE! Electric pumps for the irrigation system.
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And typically, it’s warmer. We got a glorious half inch yesterday.
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