Question Time!!!!!

[ASB.Immortality]

What is hay in your area going for? I have that is selling 4x4 round bales of fescue for $45 and square bales for $5. He was told he was too high. Is that right? I know the square is a good price but what about the round? All of it is horse quality.

[Bonnie M]

Those sound like good prices to me.

It is ~$65 for a round bale of coastal and/or tifton here. And I get small square bales of tifton from a local at $6.00 per bale. I used to pay $3.50 to him about 4-5 years ago.

Coastal/tifton is ~$7-$8 a bale at the feed stores.

[Helene]

I just paid $7.50 for a small bale of alfalfa. When I complained, the dealer told me, that this is from the first cutting this year and the first producer sets his price. It is beautiful "stuff"....Last week, I paid $5.00 for not so good alfalfa. $6.50 the week before for decent hay, also alfalfa.
For the same size bale, but grass, I paid $7.75 two days ago.
The other local dealer charges $8.50 for alfalfa and $8.00 for grass....all about the same size bales.
Lots of farmers here cut their fields yesterday. It does not look too good. We've had little rain and the rows don't look as thick as they did last year. I have to check if my field has been cut....The last time I looked at it, it did not look real long and we've had two irrigations already. The wind has been constant and keeps drying everything out.

[motorgypsy]

Bonnie we're only maybe 20 miles from you and our round bales went up to $70 last week for this year's cutting because of the drought. It's short and the round bales fall apart. They are 5 foot and very heavy but the horses are eating them in record time. Squares of tifton are I think now $7. I just paid $205 for a 1500 pound square of double compressed alfalfa. The T/A goes for $220. Grain has gone from about$11 to $15.00 a bag for TC senior. At this rate I'm going to be taking my horses up to the right of way on the highways late at night to graze. It's very very bad.

[Mo.D]

I can still get horse quality grass hay for $4. per bale.Anyone feel like making a hay run?Your friend,Mo

[pasorider]

I just bought some fertilized Bermuda, delivered in my barn for $3.75 per bale. I don't know what the big round bales will be this year, last year they were anywhere from $30 to $40. I still have about 25 square bales left from last year, so I am hoping to get by with 2 horses, plus having some big round bales in the field. I pay $11.38 a bag for Nutrena Compete

[GNix46]

Not a bad price. Just put up 57 round bales. Right now they are going for $40.00 per bale, and $5.00 per square put in your barn.

[SandyMM]

4x5 round bales - coastal - are $50, squares are $5. I still have about 60 squares left in the barn and have money budgeted to put up a year's worth of hay starting around the end of the month through the end of September - maybe early October.

I like putting a round bale out in each pasture as it takes the stress of overgrazing off the pastures and cuts feeding time (and mess) dramatically. Feeding the round bales doesn't cost any more in the long run, guarantees there's free choice hay available, reduces work, and will make more room available for winter hay.

[SandyMM]

I wish we had the room and machinery to put up round bales!

[CarolU]

We don't even have hay for sale right now. I know some has been cut, but it's a very late spring and still cool at night. Most haven't cut yet.

Last years hay was $9.50 a regular bale, $90 a big bale, and no idea what rounds were selling for.

[motorgypsy]

A little price comparison between the 4 x 4 round bales and the 4 x 5 round bales.

Do remember that a 4 x 5 round bale has about 3.14 x (5 divided by 2) squared x 4 cubic feet and the 4 x 4 bale has 3.14 x (4 divided by 2)squared x 4 cubic feet so dividing the large bale volume by the small bale volume you get 6.25 divided by 4 or 1.562 times as much hay in the 5 foot as in the 4 foot bales. This means that even if you pay half again more for the 5 footers you still come out a little cheaper.

When you go from a big one to a small one you are getting only 64% as much hay so the price should drop 36% at least because of the waste factor also. So this means a $50 4x5 should drop to less than $32 for a 4 x 4 to be equivalent. And don't think your hay supplier doesn't know this. If he doesn't he probably isn't making any money.

They also tend to waste more of the smaller ones since they frequently waste the outer layer even when they're barn kept and the outer layer on the 5 foot is 2 x 3.14 x (5 divided by2) x 4 compared to 2 x 3.14 x (4 divided by 2) x 4 for the small one which is only 1.25 times as much outer layer to waste on the big ones which contain 1.562 times as much hay since they seem to waste about the same depth on the big ones as the small ones.

So unless the big ones are more than half again as expensive they are a better value. Watch out for the producers that switch you over to 4 x4's and only drop the price a little or maybe even keep it the same. It's a huge amount difference in hay.

$50 4 x 5 round bales is fairly comparable to a $32 4 x 4

$100 4 x 5 is fairly comparable to a $64 4 x 4 round bale. And so on.

Check my math on this but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

[Red Ryder]

Bermuda is $5.00 sq bales putting up 200-250 bales Wed night.