Poll:What Is the Cost of Hay per Small Square Bale in Your Area?
Friday July 11, 2008
We've almost finished getting the winter's supply of hay in the barns.
The first cut was a bit late due to cool, wet weather, but a few days of sunshine meant the crop could be cut and baled quickly. Knowing that there is lots of good quality hay for our horses makes the tired muscles and nicked up legs and forearms feel worth it.
Rising gas prices have affected horse owners in a lot of ways. We think twice before hooking up the trailer to travel to events, grain suppliers are warning customers of higher prices. Hay prices have gone up to reflect the greater expense farmers incur when fueling their equipment. The price for small square bales is hovering around $3.00 per bale in our area. I guess I date myself when I can remember hay being less than a $1.00 a bale! How much is hay in your area per bale? What impact has flooding, drought or other factors had on the hay crop. Take the poll and leave your comments below!
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Comments
Last year it was the drought. This year they are blaming diesel and fewer acres in hay as more farmers try to grow corn for ethanol conversion. Thank God there’s no drought this year.
You should worry we have a drought here; small bales are over $25 and big ones over $350!
I am in the middle of Los Angeles, and hay prices have gone from $16.25 earlier this year to over $21.04 – for a SINGLE bale of alfalfa!! The feed store says it’s due mostly to gas prices, and they have raised their prices for all feed as well – a 50 lb bag of Equine Aged used to be $14.65, now it’s $19.94. They do offer free delivery though…
Geez…..I thought it was getting bad here! But if you look around you can find bales for 3.50-4.50 a bale. Where as last year it was up around 6.00 a bale. So I feel luck.
We live in Kansas and our hay hasn’t been cut yet. But in years past, we sold the smaller round bales for $25 – this year we were told the prices should be $35. Thank goodness we keep enough to feed our 3 horses for the whole year!
We are running $6-9 a bales for quality grass/alfalfa. Nice spring so the 2nd cutting will be nice also.
our hay was always about $4 a bale. We were spending a large amount but it was worth it for the convenience of the hay supplier. He even stored our hay since we went weekly and got 50 at a time. Made my life easier. It’s only gone up slightly since the gas prices. I wouldn’t be surprised if it went up more soon.
Hay in Alaska – Fairbanks area is running from $8 to $10 for brome hay. Straw was $17 a bale last winter!! I have not priced it this summer. Alaska is always hit hard, but our diesel prices are just about the highest in the country so this summer will be bad and next summer much worse as our only fertilizer plant is shutting down.
I live in colorado and prices for small bales of hay are approx. $8-9 per bale. Your lucky!
Here in Texas I just paid $5 a bale (picked it up myself) for organically grown hay.
If I buy in bulk (over 600 bales) I can get it for about $5.50. Individual bales or small amounts (ten or less) can be as much as $7.00 to $9.00 depending on quality. This is in Massachusetts but my bulk hay comes from Canada.
I live in east central Illinois and in 2006 paid 2.50/bale small squares. That is what I had been paying for the last 5 yrs for grass/alfalfa mix.
In 2007 I could not find hay. It was October before I had hay in the barn and I paid $6.50/small sq. This year hay is plentiful again and I am seeing it priced anywhere from $3.75 to $6.00 for small squares.
The industry needs to switch from price per bale to price per pound of hay for comparisons. You woudn’t buy meat per package in the store, all stores advertize by the pound. A bale of hay can vary from 30lbs to 150lbs. Pricing by the bale has forced suppliers to make bales weigh less thus increasing freight costs and your cost.
Buying the pound would be difficult off of the field and a bale of hay would be more expensive right after it’s cut than after it has sat in the barn for a few months.