Yes hay is tight, but by no means impossible to find. Everything I know of is sold, however. I'd hate to have to find any amount of hay. Some guys are asking about buying new crop on contract, which means they are worried about the price getting higher. We probably still have over 50% of our inventory left, some of which is going to exporters in Salem, and WA. Rest is going to CA dairy market. 160/ton is too much for oat hay, even at the retail level. I can see 160 and up for real fancy horse quality oat hay, but you should be able to find alfalfa for less than that, and alfalfa has twice the feed value.
If you are friendly with anybody at the compressor, talk to them about getting kickouts. These are bales that have a little spot, a few weeds or some other imperfection in them. The Japanese are very picky about the hay they buy, and no one whats to send crap half way around the world, so anything that looks odd gets kicked out. It will still be mostly all premium alfalfa though, and will feed beef cows just fine. I used to buy them by the truckload from an exporter 300 miles south of here for $90 ton delivered, TDN ran around 54.
There should also be some grass hay cheap somewhere in the valley, most of it isn't very fancy, but it will feed. I just hate to hear you paying that much for hay unless it is real nice stuff-and cows don't need anything that nice.
