Feed supply

[Bruce14]

What's the feed supply like in your area? No doubt in western Canada its better than last year but how many parts are going to be tight? How far have you had to go to source your winter supply?

We are in pretty good shape. Hay was borderline to insurance claim. Silage, barley and straw are great. Baling all the straw we can just in case.

[cowman]

Lots of hay around. The asking price is still in that $80/ton range but very few takers. One guy has small squares advertized for $6.50/bale! Guess he still thinks it's 2002!!!
Grain crops are fairly decent with a fair amount of straw. Last year all the big grain farmers ran out and bought big balers, so as to cash in on the great straw bonanza, and they are baling up just about everything. I hope the shock of $10 bales doesn't give them a heart attack!
Some of them got a little greedy last year and held out for $50 /bale and either still have them or burnt them up this spring...now that was a wise business decision? In the meantime the straw came rolling in from Manitoba and Saskatchewan! With the added benefit of a nice little disease called fusarium gramminearum! One old cowboy told me that was a good thing because it would mean he could silage all his neighbors grain when they found out it had fusarium! Sometimes I wonder if grain farmers and cattlemen will ever realize they need each other?