hay prices

[kathyp]

just drove over to idaho and back.  lots of hay trucks and lots of onions  .  i'd rather be behind a hay truck.  good looking stuff coming out of eastern wa and idaho.  much better prices!!

[Zoot]

We paid $175 per 1 ton squares in Sept and it is excellent - imported from Oklahoma. We didn't get much from the cuttings here in MD this year which was unfortunate as the local grass is excellent when it rains. It's now up as high as 250. $3.00 bales are available if you don't mind the beer cans and weeds mixed in. Same goes for the $10.00 bales.

[Cindi]

Oh I don't miss those days when we would have to haul hay for our horses.  That was one part I couldn't stand.  That was about 7 years ago, I venture.

We always got our hay from a local farmer, it was heavy bales, high protein, excellent, in those days we paid $3.50 a bale, the horses did well on it.  Never fed alfalfa or timothy, that was available too, but that was a nice hay when they were mixed I hear.  Have a wonderful day, best of this great life.  Cindi

[Mici]

when talking about bales, square ones, you mean the little ones?:
http://www.homestead-farm.net/art/kidsArt/hay-j/Stacked-HayStraw.jpg
jesus...here they're almost for  free, 2€=3$ (aprox)

[kathyp]

my bales are about 110 lbs.  about 50 kg?  some bales done for shipping are 1 ton bales (2000 lbs) and then there are round bales which i believe are about 1 ton also.  i use the smaller bales for the horses.  large bales would spoil in our wet climate.  because so much of the hay from oregon is exported, our local prices have gone up.  also, some hay farmers have taken to planting corn in the hope of getting in on the bio-fuel craze.  so far, they have made some money and we have paid much more for groceries and animal feed.  never mind that the bio-fuel is more expensive and new reports are having it causing more pollution than regular fuel  .

can't blame the farmers for trying to make a bit more money.  it is probably a temporary gain.

[abejaruco]

Temporary?
The biofuel craze is so temporary as the Algore one.
I thought that Algore could not sell a comb, and you see, Nobel.

By the way, Chineses are learning to eat. So, we have biofuel and Chinese craze.

[Carriage House Farm]

The fact that it is unsustainable makes it temporary.

[kathyp]

can't explain algore.  of course, i can't explain hillary, or many other things  .  sometimes sh** happens........

[Cindi]

This was kind of interesting.  There was a period of time when we were having hay delivered.  It was awesome hay, it was extremely compressed.  The bales were about 1/2 the size of a typical 80-90 pound bale.  But, let me tell you it was deceiving!!!!!  Beyond what you could ever imagine.  These bales were in the proximity of about 150 pounds.  I recall trying to lift one once, and caught myself laughing my guts out.  I called my oldest gal, who at that time still lived on our property.  She is a lean, mean, machine, and still is to this day.  I told her to try and lift this bale up.  By gads!!!!!!  She tried and she tried, and she couldn't do it.  Me standing there, watching her, holding that inner laughter inside.  She asked me if I could lift it.......challenging me....and I told her that I thought she was nuts!!!  Nope, it was so small, so compact, you could not have even a chance of getting a grip.  The hay hooks were the only way to even begin to move this loaf, unless it was rolled....but then, try and roll and hunk of hay that is so heavy....it was certainly a great space saver.  In winters to pass, I wished that we still could have obtained that tiny, compressed bale of heavy hay, but no so, never had the chance again.  Oh well...have a wonderful day, enjoy our lives we live.  Cindi