Please advise on hay supply and cost in SoCal- San Diego County

[hey101]

DH and I contemplating moving to a horses-at-home again situation in San Diego County.

Trying to figure out our potential new budget but I am using 2007 hay prices from SE PA to do my calculations.

Can someone in SoCal, specifically San Diego County (San Marcos/ Escondido) recommend some good hay contacts for me to follow up on, or give me some ballpark pricing on per-ton $$$.

I have not found a whole lot on Craigslist or socalequine.com. I checked the hay exchange website and this forum of course.

Does anyone in the area ever split loads? Or do people just get it by the bale from local tack shops (which seems waaaay pricey to me, being el cheapo!)

[baysngreys]

I spent a year there (07-08) and was paying $22-24/bale for Orchard or Orch/Alf mix.

Grass (Bermuda) hay is total cr*p in SoCal. Dry, dusty.

Couldn’t find anyone to share a load either. Everyone gets their 10-15 bales a week from the local tack/feed store. Can’t tell you how many times they didn’t even know what hay they were loading into my truck! I’d pay for Alfalfa, get Orchard; pay for Grass, get Timothy (at $27/bale!)

I looked from LA to the border, it’s just so expensive to truck it in.

Most people feed Alfalfa hay or cubes.

I moved back East!!!

[531]

hey 101, I’d try calling around to these local stores:

http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DMUS_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Hay+and+grain+san+marcos+ca&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Hay+and+grain&hnear=san+marcos+ca&view=text&ei=vlfDSpvBKYmAswPsm4HVAg&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=1&ved=0CC8QtQMwAA

I’ve been to Carter’s - I bought Timothy there and it is beautiful.

My barn gets in bermuda and alfalfa and the hay is extremely high quality.

Good luck!!

[naters]

Google some stores in Norco California. I was just there last week (yes, I know its not San Diego) but there were stacks and stacks and stacks of 100 pound bales of alfalfa (nice too) for 8.00 a bale.

[system]

[QUOTE=hey101;4196386]
DH and I contemplating moving to a horses-at-home again situation in San Diego County.

Trying to figure out our potential new budget but I am using 2007 hay prices from SE PA to do my calculations.

Can someone in SoCal, specifically San Diego County (San Marcos/ Escondido) recommend some good hay contacts for me to follow up on, or give me some ballpark pricing on per-ton $$$.

I have not found a whole lot on Craigslist or socalequine.com. I checked the hay exchange website and this forum of course.

Does anyone in the area ever split loads? Or do people just get it by the bale from local tack shops (which seems waaaay pricey to me, being el cheapo!)[/QUOTE]

Thanks you for the post.

[system]

101,

Have you come across any suppliers of teff grass hay? Very common in inland S.CA, but hasn’t seem to have caught on in coastal areas for some reason. Tests very similar to timothy, but about %10 LESS/bale. I know that Linda’s in Norco has it and may be able to suggest suppliers in your area. I’ve talked to the feed store near the race horse training facility in Bonsall [?] but they had no knowledge of it yet. Have been using it for my IR horse for a few years now.
I hope you will let us know what you’ve found. I have a friend who just moved to Poway and is looking for teff.

Barb in Yucaipa

[twohotponies]

For your friend in Poway…Elston’s in Ramona carries Teff hay. I think they are pretty much the only ones around who do. I cant remember how much it was per bale.