How high will you pay for a bale of hay

[jessie15273]

NO one buys round bales?

I do! I get them for $45 most of the year, I can find them around 60 during winter

 

[skysthelimit]

At $20 a bale I would probably stop feeding it, and start cutting branches off my trees or feeding leaves collected in the fall just for roughage. There's enough maples and oaks around here and people would gladly let me rake up their leaves. In fact, most of the municipalities around here require people to put their leaves in special leave and lawn bags. I could just ride around on garbage day and take those bags off of their lawns. I'd have plenty of leaves for the winter.

 

[Miss M]

Hay prices here in Maine run 2.50 -4.50 for a 50 lb square bale of timothy and 20 -30 for a 4x4 round bale of timothy. Alfalfa tends to run a bit higher.

WOW. :shock: That is SO CHEAP for Timothy!

 

[akane]

You can find alfalfa here for 2.50 a 50lb square if you try but it's usually all brown on the outside and may contain some thistles. It's barely a step up from straw except very stemmy instead of soft and has poked out the eyes of animals.

 

[grumpy]

I'm buying second cutting alfalfa in 50-55 pound bales for $5.00 a bale. The farmer just lives a few miles down the road.

He just put up a third cutting......looked super good!! But, he told me once all of the second cutting's gone...his hay prices will got to $6.00 a bale.

There's a lot of waste feeding hay. But, for the young rabbits, I think it is necessary to keep them from having stool problems. All of my youngsters get a good dose of hay each morning. Even those still in with their mama.

grumpy.

 

[Lastfling]

I was feeding hay free choice just putting in the cage. There was a huge amount of waste. I made hay racks for the cages out of scrap wire that will hold a handful of hay and the waste has gone to almost none. I feed hay daily or as needed based on the amount being used by each rabbit and even then the two bales I bought back in April I'm only about a quarter way through the 2nd. That's feeding 11 adult rabbits.

 

[skysthelimit]

I was feeding hay free choice just putting in the cage. There was a huge amount of waste. I made hay racks for the cages out of scrap wire that will hold a handful of hay and the waste has gone to almost none. I feed hay daily or as needed based on the amount being used by each rabbit and even then the two bales I bought back in April I'm only about a quarter way through the 2nd. That's feeding 11 adult rabbits.

My kits climb up into the hay racks and nap there. The adults pull it out just for kicks.

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

I will be prepaying all of my hay for the year tomorrow, and the farmer is giving me a deal at $3.25 per small square bale of alfalfa. I have to prepay since he's pretty sure he'll not have the overstock I tend to depend upon if I run short in April/May. He's accomodating enough that he'll hold my bales through the winter, and I just pick up 6 every couple of months. If I go looking for orchard mix I'll pay $3 or less.

 

[3mina]

Round bales go for $30-55 here

 

[SatinsRule]

People keep mentioning "square bales"... mine are rectangles. :?

Square is easier to spell, and everyone else gets the point. :lol:

 

[a7736100]

I don't feed much hay but lots of vegetable trimmings from the local organic grocer MOM's. The chain box them up for people to use as compost. Some people get their frush fruits and vegetables from those boxes.
I have to be careful not to give them too much as I've lost a few rabbits to too much fruits and vegetables.

 

[Dan N TN]

I have 300 square bales and 180 rolls of hay all in the dry and still have a second cutting to do on 30 acres. The goal is 250 rolls and 1000-1200 squares. I'm fairly sure that I'll have a heavy 3rd cutting so I should surpass that mark with ease. It costs me on average $15 per roll and $1.25 a square in fuel and maintence for my own hay... that's not including my time or fertlizer/lime or re(or)over-seeding every couple of years. The alfalfa field that I redone this spring was killed by a late frost and I just desided to replant it in the fall window. Next year I hope to have 1000-1200 squares of high quality alfalfa. At a going rate around here of $8-9 a square bale I will be hard pressed to feed alot of alfalfa to my own livestock.

Alfalfa bales are high because I put down a seeding rate of 22-25# per acre (to choke out the weeds) and at $200 (or more)for a 50# bag, the seed alone will all but break the bank to get started.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

People keep mentioning "square bales"... mine are rectangles. :?

Square is easier to spell, and everyone else gets the point. :lol:

And that would be why Hubs calls me "Blondie". :lol:

 

[SatinsRule]

People keep mentioning "square bales"... mine are rectangles. :?

Square is easier to spell, and everyone else gets the point. :lol:

And that would be why Hubs calls me "Blondie". :lol:

Yeah, I work with a girl who was a dishwater blonde when she started working there, but has since dyed her hair jet black. Her nickname? You guessed it: "Blondie".

 

[Cindi Davis]

Hay is ridiculous but .... Farmers have to have some decent compensation for their work.

 

[3mina]

Hay is ridiculous but .... Farmers have to have some decent compensation for their work.

So is the price of rabbit meat at the farmers market and that would be why I grow my own, rabbit that is.
Hubby wants to scythe the yard at our new place next year since the grass outside of the yard is about four feet tall right now. I'm thinking for the places we can't get a full size scythe into I want to try a sickle. I figure if I go slowly enough I won't cut my hands off :x

 

[SatinsRule]

Hay is ridiculous but .... Farmers have to have some decent compensation for their work.

Anyone who's ever worked or hauled it wouldn't call the price of hay "ridiculous". I always dreaded cutting, turning and hauling the stuff. It was always in the hottest part of the summer, you had to deal with everything from mosquitos to wasps to snakes to rashes, the hours were long, and you were sore for several days afterward.

Then there is the cost of the equipment used in cutting, turning, and baling it.

 

[wsmoak]

I pay $12-13 for a bale of orchard or timothy mixed with alfalfa... but the farmer doesn't get that much. Because I only have one horse, I buy from the feed store, and they mark it up considerably to pay for the transportation costs and their overhead. I'm paying for the convenience of buying in small loads, plus their knowledge-- they know what horse hay is supposed to be and will reject the load if it's not good.

The rabbits get what I sweep up off the floor after the horse is fed.

-Wendy

 

[3mina]

The feed stores up here don't sell hay, if we want hay we go to the source. If we want cubes we go to the feed store.

 

[scottdigital]

I just put 350 - 50 pound square bales in the loft of my barn. I pay $3 a bale here. It is Timothy, Brohm, and alfalfa. My horses, Bunnies and all the other critters love it. I told my hay supplier I wouldn't pay more than $2.50 but with the shortage around here this year I agreed to the increase.