Hay prices and location ?

[504RP]

NM is in a serious drought. Zero cow hay for sale in the state. 1,200 pound bales of any roughage were $180 per bale before it was all sold out. Good alfalfa horse hay is $12 for 50-60 pound 2 string bales. Curios , what are hay prices out in your part of the country ?

I saw on the news a couple days ago 12 or 14 states from Oklahoma West is in a bad droute. Called it a mega droute. Said we haven't had a droute like this one for 1200 years. Don't know enough to say much about it other than what i heard on the News. Said water table is bad low in Western U.S. Lake Mead in Airzona is at 39 % capacity.

 

[Allenw]

Loaded some last night headed west for $50 a bale, about $85 a ton.

 

[Richnm]

Loaded some last night headed west for $50 a bale, about $85 a ton.

Where are you located

 

[Allenw]

NW Oklahoma I think I have about everything sold

 

[Boot Jack Bulls]

We paid $50 a bale for nice 4x5, net wrapped alfalfa/clover/grass mix back (about 900 pound bales) 2nd crop in October and about $95 a bale for 4x5 pure western organic alfalfa 2nd crop (about 1000 pound bales). Then last month, we switched over some pens to 4X5 inline wrapped grass and alfalfa baleage (1400 pound bales) and picked up some super nice dry 4X5 grass bales (string tied, hate and have to store inside!) for the horses, at $60 a bale across the board. We are lucky that the 2 people we source all our hay from have the variety I need (baleage for young bulls, fine grass for old horses, alfalfa for the cows, mix hay for the mature bulls, ect), keep their prices in line with local averages, and are willing to hold hay throughout the winter so I don't have to find quite so much dry ground to store it in Feb-May.

2 years ago at this time, really poor quality hay (string tied 4X5 700 pound marsh grass, sitting rowed up under some trees at the edge of a field poor!) was going like hot cakes for $100-125 a bale. Just 2 years prior to that, I could get nice alfalfa, grass mix net wrapped 5X6 for $35 a bale.

We can usually expect hay to average us $55 a bale over the course of a 5 year cycle. We have had a mild winter (worst stretch was bitter cold while Texas had snowmageddon) and an early spring with no signs of drought or really hard late frost, so hopefully we are going to be lucky again this year.

 

[Stocker Steve]

A neighbor beef farmer has a couple boys a few years out of college. He boys have been getting more into the square bale business. Sold everything they baled and at a good price. Much of it went by truckload to the Carolinas. They want dad to sell all the cows and only do hay. They think the hay is to valuable to put thru the cows.

Are they putting the nutrients back?