When is the *right* time to buy hay, and how much? SEPA/South Jersey

[vxf111]

First year on the farmette and I need to know, when should I be trying to buy local hay and how much?

I brought the horses home around thanksgiving and bought enough hay to get through the end of April. I realized that I was clearly “late” to buy in late September, a lot of hay had been sold in August/early September but I still got what I needed (just paid more).

Now I’ve got to buy some. Do I buy enough NOW to get me through August/September? It’ll probably be first cut or leftover from last August/September so not the best. Or do I buy enough to get me to second cutting this year (which would be, when, June?) and then plan at that time to buy enough to last thorough the winter?

Storage is not really an issue. I have enough room to store a year’s worth of hay if I need to, though I think I’d rather not do that unless there’s a solid reason to. Mostly because of the dust factor and having to stack high enough to make things unwieldy. I can store about a year’s worth stacked 6 high but life is a million times easier stacked only 5 high and with more room to move around.

To reiterate-- in an ideal world, when would I want to be buying hay and how many month’s worth at that time?

[moving_to_dc]

If you buy now, you will be getting 2014 hay. If you buy a year’s worth right now, that hay will be almost 2 years old when you are using it up… That bothers some people, others have no issue with it.

Personally, I would buy enough right now to get me through to 1st or 2nd cutting if I have a dependable source. Then I would buy a year’s worth when it is cut.

[merrygoround]

Early June?

The best time to buy hay is ideally about a month after it has been cut and baled. Even another month later. the hay is reasonably cured, and you can be fairly sure you won’t get surprised to find you’ve bought a load of hay that has now turned moldy.

This varies from area to area, and with the weather at the time. Some years the farmers don’t get the window of time, 3-5 warm sunny, low humidity days, they need to get it cut, baled and under cover, until later than they would like. Then hay is not only more mature, it sets back the timing for second cutting. Around your area I’d hope for early June.

Hay is usually cheaper when bought “out of the field”, but you run the aforementioned risks. It does pay to know who is who among the local farmers. I cringe when I see people buying hay from some people.:rolleyes: Weeds are hard to tell from good hay when in the bale, unless you’ve had a little practice.

[2DogsFarm]

The right time for me is when the year’s 1st cutting has been baled & is ready to be stacked in my barn - usually early-mid June.
I buy a year’s worth at a time since nothing makes me happier than knowing I won’t be trying to buy hay, at whatever the going price is, mid- winter.
IIWM, I’d go that extra bale high & rest easy.

[Texarkana]

Originally from SEPA here…

Unless you have 100% faith in your hay supplier, the ideal time to buy hay is exactly when you did- late summer/early fall. They hay will have had time to completely cure and dry through the summer month and you will know exactly what you are getting.

When you buy hay in the spring or early summer and store it through the humid months, you could be in for a nasty surprise when it comes time to feed it. This is where trusting your hay supplier comes into play. Some hay suppliers I would completely trust not to ever sell horse hay with too much moisture, other suppliers just aren’t as careful. Unfortunately, due to high demand for hay, sometimes you have to buy hay right away in the summer so you don’t end up in a situation where you can’t find any in the fall.

Around here, buying hay directly out of the field is extremely common, but it is a HUGE risk. I learned my lesson the hard way when I purchased a winter’s worth of bales straight out of the field, only for them all to mold because they were baled too wet. I will never do that again. When we were picking up the hay, I even made an innocent comment to the hay grower that the bales seemed to have more moisture than I was used to, and he went off about how he’s never had a bale mold in his life. Right. :rolleyes:

[pony_grandma]

[QUOTE=Texarkana;8066828]
Originally from SEPA here…

Around here, buying hay directly out of the field is extremely common, but it is a HUGE risk. I learned my lesson the hard way when I purchased a winter’s worth of bales straight out of the field, only for them all to mold because they were baled too wet. I will never do that again. When we were picking up the hay, I even made an innocent comment to the hay grower that the bales seemed to have more moisture than I was used to, and he went off about how he’s never had a bale mold in his life. Right. :eyeroll:[/QUOTE]

Most people don’t do ‘the hard way.’ It’s cheaper when the hay bales haven’t been handled or stored and we get to pick our bales picking them up ourselves driving behind the baler. We get to inspect the windrows and see what we’re getting. We don’t pick up the bales in the tree lines that got shaded or the low spots that aren’t dry. And we know what day it was cut and the local weather that followed.

Mostly it is a trusted hay source and your locals are not going to give up their own connections.

[Lord_Helpus]

Since few of us are able to follow the baler around the field, you need to get the best load of bales you can. As people say, find a broker and then don’t trust him. My hay broker used to look at me with doe eyes and insist that he delivered what I asked for. Well the first 10 rows of the semi load may be what I asked for, but he knows and I know that many hay growers put the best bales in last, so people see beautiful hay when they first look at it.

I like second cutting. In NC, our hay comes from the mid West and upper NY state. So second cutting is usually available in July’ish.

It does take time for hay to “sweat”. You will earn brownie points if you ask if the hay has sweated. [It is called sweating because literally, the bales can get hot and exude moisture if they have been baled when too wet.]

I can live with hay that has not sweated because I insist that it is stacked with at least 6" between each stack. If you let them mush it in tight, that is when you are in trouble with fresh hay. – It takes 4 - 6 weeks for hay to sweat, and is usually done in a huge hay barn. But that means that the hay has to be handled 2x = more expensive.

My hay broker now knows that I will send back any hay that is not acceptable. He brings over 3 - 4 bales from a load and we open the bales and discuss the hay. Then I commit to X number of tons of [e.g.] bale #2. If he doesn’t have enough, then I will take what he has and make sure that I have first dibs on the next load.

Then the final step: Be there when the hay is unloaded. Watch it come off the truck. Know what you are looking at and reject bales that are not what you want.

I buy 2nd cutting orchard glass with about 25% alfalfa. Yes, I am picky, but my broker doesn’t resent me. I think he appreciates that I will only take what I want. The rest he can sell to people who are not as picky.

It helps if you know what a good bale looks like (inside). Ask people who do and learn from them. If you are not sure, let your horses tell you. Take a flake from each of several different looking bales, put them right next to each other and let the horse chose what he likes best. When I used to do this (before I learned enough to decide for them) all my horses would choose the hay from the same bale. Horses may be stupid about other things, but when it comes to their food, they are pretty smart.

[buck22]

vx, I live about 30 minutes from you. In our area we get orchard, timothy, teff, alfalfa, brome, and what some people call “pasture” which is usually the fringe of hay fields or hayfields that weren’t tended too that year very much. Brome is usually mixed, either with alfalfa, orchard or timothy.

1st cutting orchard is usually in around early/mid June. Timothy is usually mid June - if it happens at all in our immediate area - and teff and second cutting orchard is usually starts early July and runs the whole month. The only good cutting on Teff is first cut, second cut teff seems to be little more than straw and many horses won’t eat it.

Looking at my hay buying diary from 2014, I was just starting to buy teff the first week of July. The second week of July is when really nice Teff started coming in. 3rd week of July second cutting Alfalfa was in though it was stemmy, (last year was very cool and wet, a bad year for alfalfa in our immediate area). Gorgeous second cutting orchard was coming in the last week of July. Then there was another wave of nice teff and nice second cutting orchard mixed with crabgrass in mid-August.

Pay attention to the weather from early June until late August. Anytime we have 5 days of sun and light breeze with no rain forecasted, you can bet someone somewhere is cutting and baling. The biggest wave of haymaking in our area for the truly nice stuff is usually when we have a heat wave in mid July.

I buy my hay for the year in dribbles from late June until October. I put up about 200 squares and about 6 rounds. I tend to buy right from the hay farmer as he’s putting it up so he doesn’t have to store it and I get the best price. I drive and pick it up. Its taken me a couple of years, but I’ve put together a network of hay farmers I trust to tell me the moisture of that baling. If its damp, they’ll let me know and I’ll feed it immediately. If its dry, I’ll put in storage for the year.

If I were you, I’d buy just enough to get you through the end of July and then stock up fresh for 2015/16. We are blessed with plenty of good hay farmers in our area, some better than others, but there is no shortage. And if you’re willing, you can always head right over to PA for even lower prices and often even nicer hay, though I haven’t needed to so far.

Hay in our area right now is at the highest price it’ll be all year. Decent small squares are averaging $8/9 from private sellers, over $10 at the feed store. I generally pay about $3/6 per bale when buying it directly from the farmer during the height of the season.

[Mosey_2003]

I always like to start asking in late June. See how the first cut went, when the second might be ready, etc. Then I’d buy the second cutting off the rack. I did run into trouble with wet bales getting hot the last time I bought that way though, so I’d probably ask them to let a rack sweat before they brought it if I were still buying hay. BUT, that’s where you get into knowing your supplier and if they’re willing to do you that kind of favor; not everyone has enough racks to let one sit idle.

[kasjordan]

South Central PA here…you will be seeing hay ads from late May on… I would recommend getting almost all you want by late June, early July because if we don’t get rain, pickings will get slim.
People will soon be emptying their old stuff (last year), if you can get that to hold you till June, you should be able to get a barn full of good stuff for the next year.

[Cherry]

What kasjordan said!

Ask around, try to find a reliable hay grower! Good hay growers will replace any bad bales you get…

First cutting is often “stemmy” because it grows more slowly than subsequent cuttings and sometimes horses won’t eat it as willingly as later cuttings.

[Gloria]

We buy 2nd cut hay, one year’s worth, directly from our hay guy. He gives us a call when the hay is cut and baled, and he comes with a couple of semi truckload. We also pay him to stack them. These are round bales.

[jherold]

I place my order for hay in the spring with my trusted hay supplier. When he bales a paricularly nice field, (usually 2nd cutting in early July), the “hay fairy” shows up and loads up my barn for the year. I get enough to last well into the next year because I am always paranoid that I will run out in April. And you know where you find the best hay in April? Other peoples barns!

He always replaces any bad bales. (I think I’ve had 2 in the last 10 yrs) And always gives me a fair price since I’m a “regular.”