My Socks Are Officially Blown Off
In a casual email exchange yesterday, a West Coast horse friend mentioned that she'd just taken delivery of a new load of hay, and that she'd had to pay $16 a bale for it.
She didn't say how big the bales were, but I did some math on my own:
* 50-pound bales @ $16= $640/ton
* 65-pound bales @ $16= $492/ton
* 80-pound bales @ $16= $400/ton
Maybe I've just lived in rural Idaho too long, but having to pay those prices in order to support one's horses is inconceivable to me.
If this is an example of what's happened to the supply side of our horse economy, it's no wonder that the rescue organizations are crying the blues over the exploding number of unwanted horses ending up at their gates. Nor is it any wonder that ranchers are complaining about the horses being abandoned on their land.
Wow. Hay at $400 a ton or more.
There went my socks.
posted by Juli Thorson @ 10:22 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Friends in western Washington used $15-a-bale hay to keep their drivewy from washing out in the floods. Ouch!
Michelle
Not that I'd pay double digits for hay, but I heartily wish I had not purchase my current $2 a bale hay. It's awful. Wouldn't have done it, but it was from my father-in-law......and my brother-in-law and he had it in my loft (trying to be helpful) before I could really check it out. I sure won't do that again!
(My caveat to expensive hay: Every locale has its ups and downs to keeping horses therein. You take the good with the bad, or you move. It's pretty hard to change an entire market unless you have huge buying power. Hopefully your west coast friend has a larger income to compensate for those prices....eeek!)
Hi, Pam,
Definitely a good point about the cheapest not necessarily being the best.
I do often wonder, though, if people stop to realize what they REALLY are paying when they purchase hay by the bale, a few at a time. I realize that storage space is an issue for some folks, but it wouldn't take long for the difference in price per bale vs. a bulk buy to add up to enough money to build a simple hay shelter!
Juli
I live in Western Washington and I just paid $295 plus tax for a ton of Timothy. Alfalfa is about $20 a ton less.
Juli, I think you're absolutely right. I married a "cow guy" (lol) and he thinks of hay in terms of dollars per ton, not per bale. And it DOES make a difference. Especially around here---you can get good hay at the auctions if you happen to be there on an "off" day and you think in terms of dollars per ton.
Central Oregon hay is going for between $195. and $220.00 ton. That is orchard grass hay....
I usually pay $16 per bale, and can't wait to get the storage in place to be able to buy in bulk. It will save me a LOT of money that way. Also, my (West Coast) bales are 100-120 pounds each - SO much fun to move around... NOT! :-)
Here in the mid-west we had a drought which has been blamed for the 100% increase in hay cost. But the real problem is energy. The local farmers are plowing up their hay ground & planting corn with the hope of selling it for ethanal prodution. Dale
I cannot believe anyone would pay that much for a bale. Its been ridiculously difficult fo us to pay $5.50 a bale.
I'm in Tennessee, I used to pay 20 for a large round bale, this year they are anywhere from 65 to 80+ a round and not usually a good size. Squares used to be 2.00 a bale, now they are 6-8.00 a square. People here are dumping horses off at unbelieveably low to free prices.. I even saw a guy with 2 horses tied to his trailer on the side of the road with a sign -- Free Horses will haul for gas cost. I had a man drive up into my yard pulling a trailer, he got out and said is this where the free horses are? Hay is hard to find here, it's being shipped in and at an extream cost. People are selling out of their horses, people with cattle have been stretched and selling out. TN is in a VERY rough place with this drought, if it continues next year I hate to see whats gonna happen across the board.
In north Florida we've been paying $6.50 to $8.00 per bale for bermuda grass hay, $11.00 for peanut hay, $13.00 for T&A and $16.50 for alfalfa at our local feed stores and hay suppliers.
Round bales of grass hay are about $55 to $65 each.
Not cheap. But Florida has traditionally not grown much of its own hay and when you have surrounding states experiencing a tremendous drought - its a pricy proposition.
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