Hay prices?

[cowman]

There seems to be a whole lot of hay around? Some of it not so good?
I got probably 2/3 of mine up with no rain in small bales. Custom baled, stacked and tarped. The guy who did it will also sell it as he has an extensive hay business, mostly for the pleasure horse trade. He tells me we're probably looking at that $3-3.25/bale range. Which is okay I guess considering the year. This hay will be moved in truck load lots(he has a picker) over the course of the year.
The hay that got rained on I put up in round bales and will feed some this fall before the cows go and I suppose skid the rest next year in the spring.
I'm hearing that round bale hay isn't worth a whole lot...like in that 2 1/2 cent range? If you're selling this year you might want to get a certified check before it leaves the farm? Not that people are crooks but maybe they just won't have any money?

[whiteface]

An awful lot of hay has been rained on this year, cowman. Glad to hear some of yours got up with no rain. Certainly we're glad to have this rain, there is feed absolutly everywhere! Eases the pain of our cattle being worth not too much. I predict guys will keep their cows, calves and feed another year rather than selling any of them for nothing. 2 1/2 cents a pound isn't going to make very many tractor payments but then what is the hay going to feed??!!! $100-$200 cows???!!! Theres only so many horses out there that may pay a little more for decent hay. Hope you get that hay moved cowman for decent money, by the way, what is the hay round bales, how much rain on it? What would you like for it? I may buy a little extra hay for my "little extra" herd this year, and you're close, the trucking may not kill me! LOL!

[ALICIA]

That just goes to show you the difference in talk. Down hear in the east they are saying hay is going to be expencive because so much got spoiled right in the field and we have so many dairy farms. We cut and then it rains for 2 to 5 days. Its the 5th of August and its to go down to 7 tonight and only around 20 for the day time high. Cut wet hay isn't going to dry very good in this weather.

[cowman]

There is going to be a pile of straw around this fall. Apparently grain is going to be relatively cheap?
Straw and barley. At what price does it have to be to replace, say, 3 cent hay?
I've always wondered about feeding whole barley/straw to beef cows? Now the experts always tell you you must roll it or you lose to much feed value...but is this true? The swath grazers don't and their cows seem to be fat and sassy?
About five years ago I tried feeding whole barley and straw for about a month and they seemed to do pretty good on it.

[cakadu]

I don't know about cows, but I do know with our sheep that we don't roll the grain and they do very well on it. The biggest reason that we don't roll it is because it helps in keeping the rumen functioning well. Also seems to help in the bloating end of things because it takes longer to break down so you don't all of a sudden get that surge of sugars etc. which can cause bloat.

[cowman]

What I was trying to figure out was a what prices does straw and grain become more economical over hay? Surely in the last few drought years we've learned a few feeding tricks?
If you have access to very cheap good straw then it might make more sense to buy some barley, than to try to feed very poor hay?
Good two row barley straw, baled right behind the combine(with a chaff saver...blown on top of the swath) has some good feed value? If the crop is a lttle bit dirty with quack/weeds, so much the better!
If Barley gets down to that $2 range(entirely possible) and you can get the straw in the bale for around 1 cent/lb. then I would think good hay would have to be 3 cents or less? Garbage hay shouldn't be worth more than 1 cent?

[grassfarmer]

That sounds like cheap straw Cowman, I doubt i'll get it for as little as that up here. Whiteface did you find some hay? I was down and bought some near Penhold today - good alf/brome hay no rain in heavy rounds for $50 a ton. I can give you the guys number if you like. He had a fair bit left.

[whiteface]

Thanks grassfarmer, I think cowman is up at 4 am so busy thinking about how to make money he didn't see my interest in his hay right under his nose! Stop worry about finances and pricing shit cowman to the point of not being able to see a potential offer right in your face! Good morning! Freight is always a killer for me. Some truckers will be at $20-$30 a bale just freight if I start snooping for hay north of Red Deer, east of Three Hills, west of Sundre or south of Carstairs. So suddendly I become at the mercy of people like cowman!!!! LOL!! $50 a ton sounds pretty good to me grassfarmer! If I can't get an answer or a decent price out of "anyone around here...ahem! cowman!" I might be sending my cows to Rimbey for you to feed grassfarmer, could you use a little extra cash to put up with a herd of fat old sassy herefords that have won everything in the country but are still only worth $100.00 each???!!! LOL!!!

[grassfarmer]

Whiteface, as usual there is hay to be had out there but prices are all over the place. I called some guys growing alfalfa south of Calgary and they are wanting $70 a ton or $65 with rain on it - I don't think so, not this year with the cost of haulage and price of cattle!
I have a lead on another guy that is going to sell hay for $40 a ton - catch is he hasn't got it made yet. He had good hay last year and was charging $10 under the going rate. Does this make me a price gouger? In Scotland we call it thrifty!
At least with the better moisture we have plenty grass - hopefully can graze well into December and have them onto banked grass to calf on by mid April. This country up here can sure grow grass with some moisture and some management.

[whiteface]

I call it thrifty too grassfarmer! I'm not looking to pass the buck (or lack of it!) at all to the haymakers but that is definatly the point...the cows are worth $100.00...if you can sell them and I will consider that into any hay shopping that I do, otherwise I eat the cows! Literally! Which is why I suggest to cowman to keep his cows and feed his barley, I think it will kill him to have to sell either for much less than what projected prices are suggesting. Incidentally, I too have run into several outfits that also say "at least" 80 a ton for their rained on sticks ( like mine!). They are aware of the price of cows right? They know there are only so many horses out there right? I told them to keep their hay...nicely of course! LOL!

[cowman]

Whiteface:I think I stated I wasn't interested in selling my hay this year? With all my cattle going this year my taxes are going to be "fun" enough!
If I feed some this fall before the bred cow sales I won't have that much left anyway, and I always have preferred that late spring market when the price tends to rise a bit.
I would think even a trip from east of Red Deer to west of Olds would be "pricey" for hay? If I was you I'd go as local as possible.
Grassfarmer: Perhaps one cent is too cheap, but I doubt it around here. In fact there will probably be a lot for free in the field! The only time I ever paid for straw in my life was during the drought and that was because I was selling it as fast as I could get it baled! There are some super heavy crops around and the grain farmers quite frankly don't want to deal with all that straw(costs way to much in N to use it up) and for whatever reason a whole lot of cow herds seem to have disappeared(at least around here)! In fact there are quite a few pastures that have never been grazed at all...and it looks like they won't be!
I don't know how to explain it really. I suspect people around here just got sick of cows! This area,where I live, is in fact a grain area, where cows were kept to clean up the garbage and hopefully add a few bucks to the bottom line! I guess when they started sucking money out of the farm instead of adding to it, the farmers dumped them! And I suppose that is probably a good thing, but I do wonder where they went?