HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH FOR HAY ?

[marimus]

$870 /ton for prime alfalfa (lucerne).
Thats average price, ex farm, metric ton of course.

 

[msscamp]

You will have to put that in 4X5 round bales for cattle hay.

Why? :?

Square bales are going to the wayside these days around here.

Ok, but if one bought a load of small squares - as the original poster apparently did, why would they need to be "put in 4X5 round bales for cattle hay"? I don't see where square bales going by the wayside in your part of the country has anything to do with being able to feed small squares. :???: :???:

msscamp,
:roll: If you would read the original post you will see that it was a poll of the price of small square bales, there was no mention of the original poster buying a load.
:x My comment "You will have to put that in 4X5 round bales for cattle hay." was in reference to the poll.
I don't see where that could be construed to being unable to feed small squares.
;-) I'll bet there are very few people buying small square bales of hay to feed there cattle.

Actually, I did read the original post, and quite a number of people up here still use small square bales to feed their cattle - hence my question. ;-)

 

[angie1]

We feed both ss and rounds. $5 per bale is more than we'd be willing to pay for a ss.

 

[dun]

There are small squares and then there are small squares. The piddly 50-60 lb small square 2 wire/string bales are a dar cry from the 3 wire bales that weight 130-160 lbs that we used to feed. How much a ton is a more accurate measure then physical size comparisons of individual bales

 

[novatech]

Small squares of fertilized 60 lb. bales you can find around for about $2.50. That was in the field. Now out of the barn they are wanting $3.50. 1000 lb. rounds are going for $40 t0 $50.
Most of the hay in this area is pretty stemmy, or it has been rained on before baleing.

 

[Chris H]

We won't be purchasing many small squares any more, just what we need to take to a show. We had been purchasing a few ton a year for show animals, now we got a round bale processor and grind a pile for the different pens as we need it. With large rounds going for $90/ton and ss going for $400/ton it's easy to see you won't make any money on brood cows even purchasing large round bales to get them through 5 months of winter feeding using hay alone.

 

[backhoeboogie]

It all depends. There are times when $20 aint enough.

The only people I know that buy small squares are horse people and they want to buy 5 to 10 bales at a time.

If you have $3 a bale in it for irrigation, $3 a bale in it for fertilizer, $1 a bale in it because you got lucky a found someone with a square baler who happened to be available when the grass was at its optimum time. You are $7 in it.

You have hauled it to the barn. Some horse lady calls and wants you to shut down what you are working on, meet her at the highway so she can follow you in, and wants 10 bales. You'd be better off to load it up and haul it to her. At $15 a bale it is not worth the time and trouble.

This year you can cut $3 a bale because we did not irrigate. But it was so doggone wet that by the time you could bale, it was not "horse quality". If you could have, the feed stores would have bought it for $6 if you hauled it to them.

$5 a bale in the field would have neeted you $1 a bale this year for cow hay. You would have had to find some one to bale it for you. No cow people want square bales that I know of. Not in any quantity anyway. Maybe 20 or so in case there is an ice storm.

I am already stuck with over 500 round bales. Why the heck would I want to be stuck with 5000 squares that would have to be put in the barn and can't be sold as horse quality?