# Where is hay short and where is it abundant?



## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

Decent here is Indiana...quality is questionable throughout the state, lots of first cut got wet, some second. Drought from mid July until now and still going. Started feeding hay a few weeks earlier than usual...some folks were earlier yet. However, prices are soft...have seen some go by the small bale for $2.50. Can't help but think they will get better, feeding corn will be expensive that is for sure. What do you folks think in your area?


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## dubltrubl (Jul 19, 2010)

Nearly the same here in south Louisian. Lots of hay cut this year, but much of it of questionable quality. Prices are fair, with good to high quality holding it's price better. I've seen large rounds going for $25-30. Some of those I wouldn't take if it was given to me though, since I know the fields they were cut from. Better stuff is going for $40-50. Small squares are holding their own ($4-$6 for good quality) and while more was baled than last year, not a lot of them around, and not really any greater demand than last year. I do know of a few guys hauling rounds to east and NE Texas, and are hauling it as fast as they can. I have no idea why or who they're marketing to, or what price they're getting cause they won't divulge, but 2 fellas in particular I know are moving 3 18 wheeler loads a week and wish they could handle more. It makes me wonder if east Texas is going through the same scenerio they when through just a few years back with a very short hay supply and winter in front of them. Or maybe it's folks not wanting to get caught in the same predicament and be short. Best I can tell, the drought really killed the quality and yield in our area this year, but sure made it easy to get a crop in.


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## country boy (May 27, 2010)

last year we had bad drought in west texas and not real good weather in easttexas I had people driving from san antonio for hay and by march I saw 3 year old bales( that had been setting the weather ) going for 80.00-90.00 it was crazy


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## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

As I talk to more folks it looks like the southern part of the Indiana are in worse shape than us guys in the north. Hay prices are picking up to the norm last few weeks in my area. I think folks are figuring they may need some bales and are buying up some hay now. Thinking come Jan/Feb hay should be worth a bit more than usual here.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Not sure about the actual price, but I've had a lot more calls than normal from folks looking for hay, unfortunately with 11.80 beans and 5.80 corn, for tax reasons I'm not looking at selling anything till the first of the year.


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## hay hauler (Feb 6, 2010)

Short in central oregon, lots of hay got rained on first and second cut, lots of field were let go because of last year, $160- $190 per ton of smalls for good hay.


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## NCSteveH (Jun 30, 2009)

Could have sold 3600-4000 small squares just this past week alone out of my barn in central Maine, problem is I don't have any left that is not already prepaid. Seems like I am getting 3-4 emails per week from people looking for hay. The biggest problem I have is finding acres, most seems to be in potato's around me and I can see acres getting harder to find for next year with the price of grains. I think it will be a tough winter for those who didn't stock up early.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Went to the hay auction today, even small squares went for almost half of what they should have been. One 40 bale load of small squares went for $125/ton today, last several years would have $225/ton.

I hauled a load of 2nd cut rounds. First row out of the building so they had some weather damage and a little surface mold, got $80/ton.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Hauled another load of the same hay without the mold on it and got $85/ton.

A load of very soft grassy third cutting small squares that would have brought $220-250/ton last year, brought $105/ton today. Not a lot of spread between large/small squares and round bales. Definitely not enough to justify making small squares no matter the method.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

mlappin said:


> Hauled another load of the same hay without the mold on it and got $85/ton.
> 
> A load of very soft grassy third cutting small squares that would have brought $220-250/ton last year, brought $105/ton today. Not a lot of spread between large/small squares and round bales. Definitely not enough to justify making small squares no matter the method.


So what has happened in your area to make the hay market crumble so badly?


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

MikeRF said:


> So what has happened in your area to make the hay market crumble so badly?


Not sure, several years of milk prices below production costs have forced a few guys to get out of the dairy business but they kept the hay ground. A _lot_ of people got rid of their hayburners as well it seems. It was also brought up today that no matter what the government might say, people are out of money. It was also mentioned that it's not near as uncommon anymore to see folks standing at intersections with signs reading "Have kids, out of benefits, will work for food."

I've only been to a few sales so far, but it sure seemed like their was at least 2 or 3 loads for every buyer. A couple of loads today was perfectly fine hay for beef cows, but they didn't even get a bid on it.

I remember several years ago when I ran short on beef hay that junk hay was going for $80/ton, anything cheaper than that and the cows wouldn't even nibble on it as it was almost past the point of even making decent mulch.

It also seems that with all the fair to poor quality hay at the auctions instead of bolstering the price of good hay it's doing the opposite and dragging the price down.

Just like grain markets, hay markets work somewhat the same. The cure for low prices is low prices and the cure for high prices is high prices.

I've seen a lot of faces the last few years selling hay I've never seen before and I've been doing this for over 20 years. Last year the prices were starting to soften a little, but the two years before that I was selling round bales for 180-225/ton, last winter was in the area of 130-175/ton. The new guys are already doing their chicken little imitations as of course when they decided to get into the hay business it was running around $200+/ton so first they ran out and paid too much for existing hay fields or too much to rent ground to plant hay on, then of course they had to have a new big square baler, a new tractor for the new baler, a new mower and blah blah blah. Even with the high prices of the last few years, I was never using the high prices in my spreadsheets and cash flows. With what several of my long time horse customers are paying and with what I'm getting at the auctions it averages out to what I plugged into the spreadsheets.


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## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

Yea I may have spoke too soon...cattle prices are still good and folks are selling when I was at the sale the other day ...I think you are right Marty, a lot of folks are still scared about what the future holds. The horse guys around Indy are starting to buy, still soft but picking. The early snow may have scared them. I thought rising corn...would move a little more hay...but the one sale that did well has been the anomaly so far. Still cannot help but think it will pick up if the weather stays cold and snowy being early for that here.

Also, lots of poor quality rained on hay out there still showing up. And people buy it because it is cheap...Craig's List is full of cheap hay ads...thinking it is rained on stuff. Anyway I sold all I can sell, need the rest for the cattle...may have to cut into my reserve because of the early snow myself.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

MikeRF said:


> So what has happened in your area to make the hay market crumble so badly?


HERE.With them expantion of the ethanol industry a lot of DDG's are added to the rations which are high in protien.So feedlots are adding poorer roughage to compensate.Corn stalks,straw,grass hay.Also some have cut hay down from 2# a head per day to .75# in the ration.

Fortunatly the dairy hfrs still use a quite a bit of hay in thier rations.

Dairies seem to be finding hay from west of here that they are dumping at lower prices and trucking it for little to nothing.

Not much of a horse market here.Most of them can't afford to feed them and just want cheap.

For 2011 I think there will be a shortage around here.I would say over 1/2 of the alfalfa was getting plowed up this fall.After seeing this I changed my mind about ripping out 110 acres and left it for next yr.Hope I'm correct.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

That's what I thought as well with $5+ corn and beans well over $10 bucks I figured folks would be willing to pay a little more for better hay. Still seems a lot of dairy's aren't cutting back on bean meal or corn and the hay market is taking the hit. Interestingly enough my friend who has the organic Jerseys quit feeding corn when organic corn got over $5 bucks a bushel several years ago. He feeds nothing but higher quality hay to make up for it and claims he never noticed enough difference in production to even consider going back to including corn in the ration.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Prices have come up a little bit in the area, getting about 30$/ton more than last month for the same hay. Little squares are at the same price, if I was short beef cow hay I could have bought large squares yesterday real cheap and it would have been better feed than what the cows are getting now.

Something else that occurred to me today, the Thursday sale is in the next county next to Elkhart county, the Friday sale is in Elkhart county and the Saturday sale is right on the St. Joseph/Elkhart county line. When the economy took a dump, Elkhart county was the hardest hit in Indiana. A lot of RV manufacturers in the county, also a lot of companys like Utlimaster. At one point I think I heard unemployment was getting close to 20% in Elkhart due to the downturn in RV sales. A lot of amish in the area have cabinet shops that would supply custom made cabinets for the higher end RV's. So just not the people working in the factory's felt the pinch. A lot of people that were making a living delivering trailers or RV;s also got pinched. My neighbor and quite a few people in town also worked at the trailer places in Elkhart. The neighbor worked about 80% of the summer, but now works for a week or two, gets laid off for 2 or 3 weeks or even a month before getting called back.

All of the above plays a very large part in our soft hay markets.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Got $160/ton Saturday for some very nice 3rd cutting, would have brought $210-230 two winters ago, and close to $200/ton last winter. Best selling load of small squares brought $185, but was the only one, the rest of the loads of small squares were in the 120-140 range.


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