Hay Prices in your area

Wondering if hay prices are sky-rocketing across the whole country, or just in certain areas.  Our alfalfa price in Nebraska has gone from $125/Ton a year ago for the good stuff all the way up to $225 to $250, if you can even find it.  Hay is nearly impossible to find.  Have lots of friends getting very desperate in their searches.

Had a customer tell me yesterday that they had a big native grass meadow on the edge of the sandhills that did 385 bales last year...this year they hauled home 43 bales. 

Shaping up to be a very tough year in Nebraska.

u can buy 4 X 5 rolls of mixed grass hay here in WV for $30/bale. Now trucking it to Nebraska is gonna add a bunch to it. But, if you get that desperate, let me know and i can prob hook u up. Sorry to hear about all the drought out there. Its never good no matter where it occurs.

My family owns a farm in central Oklahoma and has been raising Alfalfa since the mid 40's.  The Alfalfa and seed we raise is drought hardy but it is really stressed right now for water and this cutting is going to be slim (it never recovered from last year's drought, submoisture is too low).  Currently our small square bales we consider horse quality (approximately 90 lbs) cost $11 a bale while our big Alfalfa square bales are $250 a ton in the barn.  We don't have any bermuda or prarie grass for sale becuase we will probably have to feed it later this year.  Our fields of bermuda have been given over to the cows since their pastures have been ate down to nothing.

my hay feilds are double what they usually produce, considering we had no snow this winter its a fluke, one that im vary greatful for. however the price of grain is getting rediculous and by the sounds of it, its going to get a whole lot worse. Seems like the US beef herds going to take another hit this year, No one will be able to aford to maintain cattle when feed stuff goes so high.

husker1 said:

Wondering if hay prices are sky-rocketing across the whole country, or just in certain areas.  Our alfalfa price in Nebraska has gone from $125/Ton a year ago for the good stuff all the way up to $225 to $250, if you can even find it.  Hay is nearly impossible to find.  Have lots of friends getting very desperate in their searches.

Had a customer tell me yesterday that they had a big native grass meadow on the edge of the sandhills that did 385 bales last year...this year they hauled home 43 bales. 

Shaping up to be a very tough year in Nebraska.

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Top quality hay (dairy quality) went for 14 or 14.5 cents a pound ($319/ ton) in SW Ontario at auction.  Very expensive!

1st cut hay crop up here was 50-60% of normal, alfalfa hit bad with early march warm spell then frost kill back, and now 2nd cut looks very poor given lack of rain...

Glad I'm not buying much this year...  here's to year round grazing and not making hay! (long-term goal, not there yet).

Texas is no where as bad as we were at this time last year! Were looking at 80-85 a roll and 13 for a square of coastal

All of our hay prices here are by the bale.  4 X 5 rounds are as low as $12 delivered, but as high as 20-25 depending on distance.

Standing hay is free to $5 per bale, lots of first cut that will never be cut for feed, just cut and let lay. Our cattle numbers in PEI have dropped over the last 5-10 years.

Second cut doesn't look too promising for most. Some parts of the province have had as little as 8 mm of rain since June 28th and no sign of any amount of the next two weeks.

Since May 1st, we have had 30-40% of our normal rainfall.

Out here in SW MO, 4 x 5 rounds of fescue mix are running about $45/bale. Two years ago you could get it for $20/bale. That is the junk hay. Premium hay is MUCH higher, and can be found on Craig's List for around $75/bale. We are already feeding hay, DRB we used to manage intensive graze when he had the rain to grow grass. We have not had any kind of rain to speak of since May, and all of my fields are brown and crispy. We cut about 20 acres for winter feed (trying to get year around grazing, not there yet), and the last two years we got an average of 110 bales off that acreage. This year we got 66 (4 x 5). Not good. We reseeded half the acreage last fall and spring, so I refuse to put the cows on that since it will just further damage it (we took a cutting in May, and nothing has grown back). Right now the cows are in a "sacrificial" pasture being feed the winter supply of hay, and we are praying hard for a wet fall to recoup some of the grass. I will have to replant the pasture the cows are on now, since it is just dust now  :-\

I sell my 4 x 5 round rolls (1000#) for $40/roll - got plenty and will have more

I'm gonna keep tabs on you guys in the states with extra hay....in our own operation, we have enough hay ground that we should be in decent shape, but I have several customers who are in dire need.  I know you're half way across the country, but I will let them know what's out there...

It is hard to comprehend how tight the hay supply is in Nebraska.  High priced row crops have taken many acres of hay ground out of production and, coupled with a horrible hay harvest tonnage-wise, the supply is just not there.

I'm thinking right now that it will be realistic that we can see $300-$350 hay...and that won't be for the cream of the crop...just the average hay.

In Colorado its $330/ Ton at the stack for mountain grass hay.

I got an email from a Wyoming rancher asking me if I would trade hay for bred heifers. I have close to 1200 big bales of alfalfa and grass hay left from 2-3 years ago, along with close to a 2 year supply  this year. I feel fortunate that we had a great hay crop this year. Lots of hay in this area was bought standing and baled in big square bales and the trucks are loading and heading south now. One trucking company from Ontario has purchased literally thousands of acres of standing hay and have baled it. They have 7 big square balers and several haybines, so obviously they must think they can make some money. I'm not even sure what hay is worth here right now, but I know I could have purchased lots of year old hay ( still in very good condition) for $15/ bale about 2 months ago. There have been several US ranchers through this country in recent weeks looking for high quality hay to buy. My closest neighbour told me that he has had 2 ranchers from Texas looking at his hay in the past 2 weeks. Right beside my farm, there is 480 acres of alfalfa that will not be cut and baled this year. It was hit pretty bad by weevils but there is a pile of stuff there. Unfortunately, when you are trucking hay, you want the best hay you can find as the trucking can be more than the hay costs.

My wife got an email from a close friend in California who raises horses, and she said she is paying $17 / small square bale but is having trouble finding it. My wife thinks we should load our stock trailer with hay and head to California to help her out, and while the thought is good, it is the over 3000 mile round trip and a week away from home that bothers me! 

I feel for anyone suffering drought as it is one of the worst things I have ever experienced. We went through over a decade of drought from 1979 to 1990, and it seems to me like it was just last year. That is the main reason I am hesitant to sell hay, as next year my be our turn again... but then a part of me wants to help out those who are devastated by this drought.

The key is finding back hauls for loads of hay.  Was able to purchase some hay in North Dakota and the trucking to southern WY was around $800 per load because of the loads of oilfield equip from TX to ND and then they are scrambling to find loads for the return trip.  Saskatchewan guys might be able to capitalize on this to move hay south if you can find reasonably priced rides for it.

husker1 said:

I'm gonna keep tabs on you guys in the states with extra hay....in our own operation, we have enough hay ground that we should be in decent shape, but I have several customers who are in dire need.  I know you're half way across the country, but I will let them know what's out there...

It is hard to comprehend how tight the hay supply is in Nebraska.  High priced row crops have taken many acres of hay ground out of production and, coupled with a horrible hay harvest tonnage-wise, the supply is just not there.

I'm thinking right now that it will be realistic that we can see $300-$350 hay...and that won't be for the cream of the crop...just the average hay.

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You are where we were here in Texas this time last year.  If it weren't for good Nebraska alfalfa, I don't that I could have kept my cows.  Its a lot better this year but there is little high value hay worth shipping north.  That makes it hard for us to return the favor.  Guess we can just pray for rain and hope for the best.

Here in eastern Washington feeder quality 1st cutting  that had had a bunch of rain on it is bringing $165 with good quality bringing $225+++++. As of now we have been having the opposite problem as most of the country it just won't quit raining. So it looks like hay may go up a lot more.

selling first cuting small squares for 140 a ton down to north carolina. First cuttin was the best ever. second cutting mot so much. just did a 7 acre feild and got 110 small squares. same field did close to 600 in first cutting.

There is no hay to price here.

husker1 said:

Wondering if hay prices are sky-rocketing across the whole country, or just in certain areas.  Our alfalfa price in Nebraska has gone from $125/Ton a year ago for the good stuff all the way up to $225 to $250, if you can even find it.  Hay is nearly impossible to find.  Have lots of friends getting very desperate in their searches.

Had a customer tell me yesterday that they had a big native grass meadow on the edge of the sandhills that did 385 bales last year...this year they hauled home 43 bales. 

Shaping up to be a very tough year in Nebraska.

Click to expand...

Same here in Iowa.  Shipping is running $4/mile loaded.

Glenstory said:

husker1 said:

Wondering if hay prices are sky-rocketing across the whole country, or just in certain areas.  Our alfalfa price in Nebraska has gone from $125/Ton a year ago for the good stuff all the way up to $225 to $250, if you can even find it.  Hay is nearly impossible to find.  Have lots of friends getting very desperate in their searches.

Had a customer tell me yesterday that they had a big native grass meadow on the edge of the sandhills that did 385 bales last year...this year they hauled home 43 bales. 

Shaping up to be a very tough year in Nebraska.

Click to expand...

Same here in Iowa.  Shipping is running $4/mile loaded.

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I broker trucks on the side and I can get people going for around $3/mile. That is for just about anywhere in the US right now. Let me know if i can help.

Lots of Hay here in southern Saskatchewan, I'm told it's worth $70/ton Canadian money.