dot me not Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 Here in Georgia we're in an absolute hay crisis. I have never seen so LITTLE hay out there. Now the scalping begins... I found a fellow a few miles from here that has some rolls of fescue hay available. This usually goes for $15-$20 per roll depending on quality and he's demanding $35 per roll! I had to go all the way to Kentucky this weekend to pick up a load of alfalfa and was REAL lucky to find it for $3.50 a bale (good quality 3rd cutting 60 pound average bale). We bought all he had left. Been checking around and found that most alfalfa is currently going for $250 -$300 per ton! We usually pay $100-120/ton when we have it trucked in from Ohio, but every farm I've used is OUT. My friend over in Gainesville, GA that runs a show barn has been paying $6.50 a bale delivered but her supplier says that it'll be going to $10 or more per bale depending on what he has to pay for it from Canada. Are you guys having any better luck?? Lydia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokjbc Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 Hi, Can't help you there... here in Las Vegas we are having a cheap hay season- about $9.75/bale for alfalfa. I'd KILL to pay $3.50. In the past we've been as high as $11.50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted January 29, 2003 Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 Small square bales of mixed grass first cutting hay, 35 to 45 pounds, usually bring $3.50 if purchased at the farm around here. Third cutting alfalfa, if you can get it in small squares, would probably $5 or more. I have been buying 4X4 round bales of dry hay and balage this year. The dry rounds weigh about 500 pounds, and the balage weighs 900 to 1,000 pounds. It's a grass/legume mix, mostly timothy, orchard grass and clover with a bit of alfalfa every now and then. I consider myself lucky to have bought it for $25 each. If you were buying it in small quantities, it would be $30 to $40 per bale. I have to say, though, that this stuff for which we pay such outrageous prices is usually very high quality; much better than what I've seen for sale in other parts of the country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dot me not Posted January 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 I expect that we'll see $11.50 or more for alfalfa before spring arrives. I was sooo happy to find the man I got my hay from. I really wish I'd found him just a couple of weeks earlier so I could have gotten more from him. So right now just my broodmares(gotta get the mares off fescue before foaling) and my paint stallion are getting the falfie. Everyone else is getting the plain fescue and they'd better be darn happy to have it! Bill, how lucky you are to live where you can find such a variety of hay!! There was a farm about 15 miles from me that used to try to grow alfalfa and it was a dismal failure. I don't know why, but it seems that the only grass that really thrives here in the North Georgia Mtns is fescue. I know one fellow that has a stand of timothy and another that has orchard grass in one field. The timothy hasn't done well at all and the orchard grass is OK but not great. I did read that the University of Georgia has developed two new types of alfalfa that are supposed to fare better up here. We have 12 acres of land that we'll be sowing in Feb/March? and we're thinking about trying Orchard grass and the new strain of alfalfa together. We have our own baling equipment, both round and square balers, so I'd love it if I could just get enough hay to take care of my own mares. I talked to one elderly gentleman last week that runs about 400 head of cattle. His son-in-law has some chicken houses and they've started feeding the chicken litter to the cattle. They're mixing it half and half with range cubes. I know that's scientifically feasibile, but there's something about a critter eating chicken crap that really makes my skin crawl. Lord have mercy, that stuff STINKS! My neighbor has 2 houses and dumps load after load of it onto the hayfield adjoining my pasture. It's sooooo pleasant after a rain!LOL Lydia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brookcove Posted January 29, 2003 Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 I have a friend who raises fancy imported Dorpers on chicken litter-fed fields. They had the chicken houses and decided to get the sheep to graze down the fields around the houses. Now their sheep operation makes more money than the chickens. They do intensive grazing and boy does that chicken litter make nice forage. I'm so envious when I go over there and see her flocks standing knee-deep in grass, year round. The only time she gets out the grain bucket is when they want to move the sheep (they don't use dogs). Alfalfa, if you can find it, is going for around $7. I can't even find any grass hay. We were stocked up with soybean hay but we had an accident and lost about a third of our stockpile. Tractor supply sells hay cubes and we've been supplementing with them. They're actually cheaper than hay. But it's straight alfalfa and I'm getting desperate for something "real" for them to eat as they're getting too fat on it. It'll be ok - spring should be here soon, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BorderFever Posted January 29, 2003 Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 Wow I never realized how lucky I was to have a year's worth of coastal bermuda hay in the barn!!! :eek: Alfalfa hay down here is $9.00/bale for horse quality. I'd like to buy more, in large bulk, next year if I can find a reasonable seller/shipper. Ideas anyone? The idea of feeding chicken to sheep is rather scary to me. Remember how "mad cow" got started? Obviously economics applies here, and no one wants to see their animals starve, but for the long haul species appropriate feeding is a better bet for all involved. Wendy Alabama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dot me not Posted January 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 Hi Wendy, Have you tried the internet hay exchange? The website is www.hayexchange.com . You just put in the state you're interested in and you'll get a list of growers. Some of them will deliver but for those that don't there's a transportation directory too. We happen to know a fellow that has his own trucking business and we have him bring it to us as a backload. Much cheaper that way. The freight for a 53ft trailer is $650 which basically adds about a dollar a bale to the price. We've gotten over 700 bales to a load before. We usually get first cutting alfalfa for $90-100/ton loaded straight off the field wagons and $100-120 for second or third cutting. If you don't need a whole load you can also get with someone else, say maybe a horse farm, and split the load. We've even split loads half alfalfa and half wheat straw for the local greenhouse. There's all kinds of ways to work around the hay situation just as long as the hay is actually available!! Start looking now for best results! Good luck, Lydia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted January 29, 2003 Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 Yikes! We raise our own (horse quality) timothy hay to feed to our sheep when we can't graze. We sold off the extra hay at $2.25 / bale (45-50 pound bales) late last fall. We don't deliver - the price is for you to come haul it yourself. (Although we do help load it.) Sounds like I shoulda hiked the price at least 75 cents... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kajarrel Posted January 30, 2003 Report Share Posted January 30, 2003 Wow, I've been feeling sorry for myself - without cause, I guess. With the early rain, followed by the drought, here I didn't get a second cutting. I've been looking at some pretty sorry hay (dusty, moldy). Finally found some that's acceptable, but a little reedy, for $2.50 a bale (~50 lbs.) + delivery. We got a grant to fence and irrigate our pasture which means that I'm loosing my hayfield. I'm a little worried about what this will mean . . . Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rave Posted January 30, 2003 Report Share Posted January 30, 2003 Check this link out: http://www.ncagr.com/HayAlert/index.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brookcove Posted January 30, 2003 Report Share Posted January 30, 2003 Thanks Laura - NC had a pretty good networking system for farmers until the budget problems. I was so mad about the cutbacks to the Ag Review I forgot about the website. Still, nothing within a few counties of me. I think if we can hold out till spring the prices should be better. The drought seems to be pretty much over here. I'm getting a bigger, better hay barn I hope, so my new policy will be to get two winters' worth ahead. Another lesson to add to this newbie farmer's education. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted January 31, 2003 Report Share Posted January 31, 2003 I think I remember reading somewhere that the long-term use of chicken litter can lead to excessive levels of copper in the soil, and hence the forage, and hence the sheep. Mineral uptake being what it is, I would imagine that that can be mitigated and altered in a million different ways. Lush forage tends to be low in all minerals anyway -- it's mostly water. I would certainly never feed chicken litter directly to sheep. Cattle can take (and require) higher levels of copper than sheep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brookcove Posted January 31, 2003 Report Share Posted January 31, 2003 We have very low copper levels in our soil so I guess that's how my friend gets away with it. That and the sandy soil which is well watered by frequent coastal rains. Many people I know around here blithely feed their sheep minerals and feed formulated for cattle, and get away with it because the soil copper is so low. The down side is we have very low selenium too. Our farm is on a pocket of almost zero selenium levels. I have to inject selenium in my very young lambs as they can't eat enough supplement to make up for the deficiency. Well, I guess that's more than anyone ever wanted to know about the dirt in Brook Cove, NC . . . <-- aren't these new easy-to-use Graemlins irresistable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted February 1, 2003 Report Share Posted February 1, 2003 Rebecca, Another thing that will help sheep use whatever selenium is available in their minerals or forage is Vitamin E. Without it, sheep can't metabolize selenium. I would imagine it would be especially important to keep levels of E in the diet adequate in areas with very low selenium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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