I'm glad I've never had to buy a bale of hay. Well, except for the horses when travelling. Feed store sells small square bales for $10 each. He says it's not hardly worth it for that, by the time he makes them, hauls them off the field to storage, stacks them, load them back up to take them to town, unload, load them back onto customer. He says by the last time he's handled it he's on a first name basis with that bale.
So I went an bought a $500 square baler and immediately made 50 bales. I figure it took less than an hour to pay for the baler.