hay prices

[cowman]

In the last issue of Canadian Cattleman they had a list of prices for hay, silage,feeder cattle, and fats. Hay has increased from $68.25/ton(2000) to an average of $107.16/ton(2002)...a 57% increase! I think anyone who needs hay would be pretty happy to buy it at $107.16/ton right now. Barley silage went from $28.62/ton to $42.75/ton. My cousins' barley silage was a little over 8 tons/acre last year...$342 /acre! Not too shabby for a dry year!
If we get another dry year what will hay be worth? Silage? Now if you have hay in small bales and it is horse quality what will it bring? I see small square bales of alfalpha/timothy advertized in the paper for $6. Now that works out to $200/ton. Say 2.5 tons/acre=$500/acre! Now I think that could be a paying proposition?

[bshaw2]

The unfortunate thing about these terrific hay prices is that for every hay farmer the can gouge and sell at those prices, there is another farmer that is feeding his cattle, losing a pile of cash, and losing years worth of equity to finance it. Factor that cost into things.

[carebear300]

Yep unfortunately that is the way agriculture operates one segment has to steal from the other. There is no way that the system is set up so that everybody gets a fair return.