Hay price

[Horse]

Any one know how much hay is selling for. I hear from 10/18cents a # but dont know of anyone that actualy sold or bought any for that price,except a few sq hay for horses.
IM in north central alta (the land of the NDP)

[smcgrath76]

I have seen ads for as low as $220 a ton. Greenfeed around $150 a bale.
I know some Dairy operations that have bought in hay at $275 to $300 a ton. Not much moving right now at those prices according to my regular bale hauler/hay dealer.
I see straw at up to $100 a bale.
I think lots of folks are waiting for a frost.
We have bought a bit of straw in at $40 a bale plus trucking (about $0.032 per pound) but will average it out with our other feed so it is reasonably affordable.

[newguy]

Baled some land around estevan and sold good 1300 pound grass and some alfafa in mix for 100 bucks a bale.sold all we wanted to in a day

[grassfarmer]

Straw seems all over the place price wise in Manitoba. See some advertised at 3c/lb in the swath (you bale), got offered some 1100lb squares at $20 and see some rounds at the more normal $15/bale. Unbelievable how much is chopped off the combine though. Unless you have straw ordered in advance it tends to get chopped around here apparently.

Price seems high this year Sean but its all relative - we were paying over $100/tonne for straw in the 80's in Scotland!!

[smcgrath76]

Price does seem high, but also calves are pretty high right now. I am still a pretty big fan of margins and managed risk. I can already see some Cost of Production increases happening, even here. Some are more/less reversible than others if the market swings in a different direction.
This is one year where grass management has really paid off in spades.

[kato]

You're right about the straw price being all over. Its still not as badly out of line as in Alberta by the sound of it though. It wasn't that long ago that it was free. No more. Guys seem to be fishing for some high priced hay sales, but I don't think they are getting too much interest.

We baled a bunch of oat straw from the neighbour's. It's sure nice to find straw that hasn't been ruined by Roundup. We're going to try and get some second cut alfalfa after it freezes too. Hopefully this will be a good enough cushion for the cows. One thing about the way the summer turned out is the best corn crop we've had in years. Now as long as the snow doesn't get too deep we shouldn't have to dig into the hay supply until the end of January.

[nicolaas]

I calculated once that a bale of straw held close to 30 dollars of nutrients in it (NPKS). I am not including organic matter. add in 10 bucks to bale, and so you end up with 40 bucks for a 1300 lb straw bale. Unless the farmer has a straw problem and needs to get rid of it on a particular field, the price should be up there.

[grassfarmer]

That's being a bit ambitious - residual nutrient values are reckoned to be $13-$17 for cereal straw here:

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/faq7514?opendocument

[nicolaas]

Sorry, It was about 10 years ago when fertilizer first spiked, so I guess I calculated it per tonne. I always price my own straw at 40 bucks/bale ever since for my ration. That being said, your 17 bucks versus my 25 is fairly close?? How much should people charge to bale? Is 15 bucks/bale too much for a cattle guy? I know 15 years ago I paid a fellow $7.5 per bale to bale it. A baler and a tractor costs lots to replace/ operate.

[nicolaas]

oops, custom rate for baling is 10 bucks, using grass farmers 17 bucks, I guess a fair price for straw is $27 in field? The farmer should plug his own numbers for NPKS in the straw.

[greybeard]

They have been studying straw removal at Indian Head for 50 years. This is the best I can find to sum it up:
A 40-year crop rotation experiment at the Indian Head Research Farm has shown that a properly fertilized fallow-wheat-wheat rotation can maintain crop yields and soil organic matter even when the straw is baled after each wheat crop. The removed straw represented about 40 per cent of the total residue produced, and in this case, the roots and residue that are left behind was sufficient to maintain soil organic matter. The only soil factor affected by straw harvesting was soil aggregate size, which was slightly reduced when the straw was harvested.These plots were converted to zero-till management in 1990, and between 1987 and 1997 there was an increase in soil organic matter, despite having harvested the straw.

[nicolaas]

I read some studies that said the same. I believe it depends on the soil type: rich deep soil vs grey wooded would handle the mining differently. I know that my baled fields definitely dryout faster in spring and sometimes germination hurts if there is no rain.