I've been spoiled!

[trinityoaks]

I went to the feed store today to try to pick up some alfalfa hay for my bunnies, since they've finished off all of the hay we brought with us when we moved. How I wish I had brought more (I DID have the room for it). I can't even buy it here--just alfalfa pellets and cubes. I can get timothy hay, but it's $50 a bale (50lb). :explode:

And grain is almost twice as much here (wheat is almost triple) as what I paid where I lived before. :evil: Thankfully I still have a lot of wheat, so it'll be a while before I have to buy more of that. I bought some oats today, and I'm going to need to get barley after Christmas.

My buns have refused alfalfa pellets in the past, so I'm trying the cubes. So far they seem to be ok with them. If it results in less wasted alfalfa, I'll be pleased.

 

[MaggieJ]

Ouch! $1 a pound for timothy hay??? That's awful! Here it costs about $3.50 per 40-50 pound bale.

I ran short of alfalfa hay late last spring and found the rabbits liked the alfalfa cubes quite well. That and the grass hay got us through until the growing season started. They may be your best solution.

 

[hoodat]

A long Summer drought will do that. Might be worth driving to Arkansas and see what it goes for there. Oklahoma had the same drought Texas got.

 

[ladysown]

i haven't figured where people get hay for less than $5 a bale here... at least hay that is good quality. Too much I find is either really rough, or was improperly baled, or light weight... I can't find GOOD hay for less than $5... where does everyone find it??

 

[MaggieJ]

I went on Kijiji and then made some calls. I explained I wanted good alfalfa hay for my rabbits and that they need the high protein content because I do not feed pellets. A lot of farmers here have hay to sell in summer or fall. Once you find a good source, you can usually go back year after year. Iggysbabysitter and I placed a joint order. This is our second year buying from this particular farmer. It's good hay, about 70-80% alfalfa with some timothy. He readily agreed to store most of it for us and we can pick up more when we need it. Real nice folks.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Trinity, I feed LoneStar Commercial Rabbit pellets, it is less than $12 for 50lb. I bet you can get it where you are. It works well, even with nursing rabbits, I just supplement with Calf Manna for nursing does.

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

I can get DECENT horse hay here for about $2 to $3 per bale... doesn't mean my rabbits like it, oh no. lol. They would much prefer the $15 bales at the feed store, but I refuse to pay that much for hay (at least when I was feeding horses!) I can get a good quality bale that my rabbits will eat for $3 to $6.

The feed store I buy my feed at sells a nice mix bale for $5, though it may have gone up by now. I'll have to look around a little closer for feed/hay once I'm only feeding my Holland Lop. I don't want to be driving all over carnation.

Emily

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Alfalfa is $19 a bale here. I just traded my mini-donkey for 40 bales of bermuda grass/oat hay. My neighbor bought a couple of squeezes last May, and was kind enough to barter it. The bunnies really like it! Even if I go back to alfalfa for the horses in the spring, I'm going to continue feeding it to them since they get plenty of alfalfa in the pellets.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I pay $9 a bale for Coastal Grass hay, and I think it is about $13-15 per bale for alfalfa.

 

[kotapony]

MamaSheepdog - I gotta ask, what on earth is a squeeze of hay? That's not a term I've ever heard. And for some reason it strikes me as really funny (no offense meant of course).

 

[MamaSheepdog]

A "squeeze" actually refers to the tractor attachment used to pick up the 8'x8' stacks of hay from the truck and move it to wherever, but it has become slang here for a stack of hay of that size. It resembles the forks on a fork lift, but the blades are vertical and move laterally, so they can squeeze the bottom bales together and lift the whole stack up. Plus I mis-wrote- he bought a couple of truckloads (3 I think). Each "squeeze" has 64 bales, I believe.

 

[kotapony]

Ahhh, thank you. I've seen pictures of such things (or at least smaller versions of it). They're just not practical around here because of the hills. Ern talks to other farmers on flatter land occasionally, and one was asking him why we don't grow our own grain (we have to buy 18 tons for the dairy cows every 2 months or so to the tune of $7300 - ouch!!). But of our 247 acres, 20 of them are tillable. And that's pushing it. Apparently most farmers aren't crazy enough to try and make it on land like this. :lol: our soil is really good, and hay fields aren't a problem but crops like corn wash too badly to plant. Last year we thought seriously about moving (long story) and I was drooling like crazy over the big, beautiful flat fields in upstate NY. Even doing the big round bales we occasionally have one that won't stay put and ends up crashing through a fence and off down the hill it goes.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

We only have 20 acres, but it's very hilly so not much usable land either. I guess you either pay the big bucks for flat land or pay big bucks to get the hilly stuff graded! Round hay bales gone feral! Sounds scary.

 

[Miss M]

Alfalfa and timothy are very expensive here, too. Not sure how I would go about natural feeding here. Plain old Alicia Coastal Bermuda grass hay is $8/bale here -- regular bales, not round.

 

[trinityoaks]

I pay $9 a bale for Coastal Grass hay, and I think it is about $13-15 per bale for alfalfa.

Where do you get your alfalfa hay? (My buns don't seem to care for grass hay except for nesting with.) I grain-feed my rabbits (by preference), so alfalfa is an important part of their diet.

 

[quintex]

Where is the timothy that you found?

I have been looking for some timothy in the area, though the $50 a bale is pretty rough. I went on craigslist and found this ad http://houston.craigslist.org/grd/2764312765.html and considering driving out there for some.

 

[trinityoaks]

Where is the timothy that you found?

Woods Feed Store on Robinson in Conroe.

http://www.woodsfeedstore.com/