In a previous post someone mentioned that the cost of straw in their area is $5 a bale. Wow.

Here in North Carolina I'm paying $3.50 for a square bale of wheat straw. That seems like a lot to me just for spreading around for the animals. I am paying $4.25 for hay for the animals to eat, which doesn't seem to bad.

I wish I had a place to store a whole bunch at a time then I could probably find it a a better price. What are you all paying in your area?

-- anita in NC (anitaholton@mindspring.com), October 10, 2001

Answers

Here in Western Oregon prices are as follows: Straw-$1.00/bale (60lbs) Grass hay-$70-80/ton Eatern Oregon Alfalfa (20-24% protein test) $160.00

-- Charlie P. (webducks@uswest.net), October 10, 2001.

We were able to get 5 bales of medeium quality straw at the sale barn yesterday for 2.30 a bale. Get hay (brome clover mix) for about 3.00 a bale and alfalfa for 5.00 a bale.

-- Phil in KS (pemccoy@yahoo.com), October 10, 2001.

In NH we pay $5 for straw, but only $ 3 for second cut hay. But the only thing we use straw for is around strawberry plants. For animal bedding, we use wood shavings, $3 a bale.

-- David in NH (grayfoxfarm@mcttelecom.com), October 10, 2001.

Here in California if you go to the feed store alfalfa hay is going for around $9.75 to $11 a bale, and is expected to go up to around $15 a bale in the winter because of the (ahem) water shortage.

-- gita (gschmitz@directcon.net), October 10, 2001.

Here in Iowa square bales of alfalfa/grass are as low as $2.25. Big round bales (about a ton) are $25-35 ea. Straw is $1-2 unless you buy it at a greenhouse or the grocery store and then it is $4/bale.

We make most of our hay, but this year have to buy some because of the dry July and Aug.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), October 10, 2001.

$5.00 for bedding?? Geez. I think our straw is about $3.50 right now, will go up soon, though. But, I'd rather buy oat hay for $3.00 and let my goats use what they waste as bedding, but I know I'll have to supplement a little as it gets colder. Last month, my straight alfalfa was $4.25 and this last cutting is $5.00 & has a lot more leaf to it. I'm buying from the grower, stacked in the barn, guaranteed clean & dry. It's less in the field, but I couldn't get 20 bales on the truck without hurting myself! I got my $300 IRS rebate and just handed it over to my hayman this fall! He'll be totally out by November so I'm going to try to stock up whenever I have cash. By January/February, it'll be $7.00 per bale in the feed stores. Happy trails. dh in nm

-- debra in nm (dhaden@nmtr.unm.edu), October 10, 2001.

I am so lucky. Northwestern PA, $1.50 per bale,60lb bales, timothy stacked in my barn.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), October 10, 2001.

I help a neighbor bale a few wagons so I get a nice price break, but the local newspaper has clean straw between $1.25 and 1.75. Hay is about $2. These have been pretty steady the last few years.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), October 10, 2001.

W. Washington: Last time I shopped for ~3-ton quantity: Alfalfa/grass $204/ton for square bales. Straw $4.25-$4.75/ton for square bales (depending on quantity.) Delivery was $55.00 on top of that. More if you live further away from the barns.

These were prices well over a month ago, so I'm sure they're up even higher. The alfalfa growers in E. Washington were offered price incentives to not grow a second cut because of the water shortages. As a result, many farmers made their money without having to grow another cutting, and we hay customers have to pay higher prices because of less supply.

I heard of one *enterprising* woman in our county who has two containers (like the kind they have on ships that go to railcars.) She bought enough hay to fill them up early this season and will sell them this winter at exhorbitant prices. I guess that's profiteering...doesn't exactly warm the cockles of my heart, but it's free enterprize.

I sure hope we have another mild winter so the grass can keep growing around here.

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), October 10, 2001.

Make that $4.25-$4.75 PER BALE *by the ton* for straw. Sheesh....need coffee.....

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@Hotmail.com), October 10, 2001.

I'm so lucky!!! My dear father in law has retired from his off the farm job, so he spends all his time working in the fields at home. He charges us less than half, as long as we help him. This deal works out great for us! He sells oat or wheat straw for $1.50-$2 per bale (depends on whether he likes the buyer or not). His second cutting alfalfa (really nice) is $2.50 each and the first cutting alfalfa/timothy is $2. Really heavy bales, probably 70-80#. We use straw for bedding now. We started out with wood shavings but they were very hard to find last winter when the price of heating oil went way up and available shavings were made into pellets for pellet stoves.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), October 10, 2001.

Here in east TN the co-op is getting $4.00 / square bale for straw. Hay can be had for $2.50 ~ $3.00 a square bale depending on who's selling it. I've seen prices for 4x5 rolls from $12 to $16 in the paper this week.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), October 10, 2001.

$5 a bale sounds like the stuff they are baling up for racehorses! You know, the kind they cut and let weather so it's nice and white before they bale it. My neighbor does that and makes a nice amount on it each year, and I know for certain it goes to NYC/NJ to the race courses. I'd bed with hay before I ever condidered those prices!

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), October 10, 2001.

Your answers on prices scare me. I pay 1.50 bale for straw, I usually bed with sawdust which is 10.00 for all that will fit in the bed of our full size truck (they load it with a giant scoop). Last Saturday at the sale barn I bought 100 bales of very nice hay, mostly grass with some alph. and some clover for 1.75 a bale. My normal price for a mix hay is 2.75 a bale. Now I see why so many people around here are trucking their hay other places. It would be expensive to keep animals. Is your grain any cheaper? Around here it is anywhere from 130.00/ton (horse) to 165.00/ton (hog). Joanie

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), October 10, 2001.

$9.75 a bale here for oat or alfalfa BUT: ours are the huge 125 lb. rectangle shaped 3 wire bales. Straw same size about $5.00 a bale. Central coast of Calif. I mostly feed forage hay...same price as above this time of year. Hay will go up to $11 in the winter...it always goes up in the rainy season.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), October 10, 2001.

$3.90 a bale at hardware and feed store in town,$2.50 from farmer.

-- TomK( mich) (tjk@cac.net), October 10, 2001.

Here in upstate NY, I just paid a local farmer $2.50 each for twenty bales of straw, delivered. I think it is oat straw. Has anyone else noticed how they seem to get heavier every year?!

-- bluetick (coonhound@mindspring.com), October 10, 2001.

I get mine from our neighbor. Straw is $1.50 bale (when he bothers to grow it, he often doesn't)--it is $3.50 at the feed store. Alfalfa is $3 per bale and orchard grass is $2. He even delivers it for me and if we're not home he throws it in the barn for us. I'd say we're blessed there!!!

-- Sharon (spangenberg@hovac.com), October 10, 2001.

1.50 for a huge, heavy bale of pretty straw, and 20.00 for a huge round roll of pretty green alfalfa.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), October 11, 2001.

Wow, I guess I'm really lucky! We have our own fields but, out of curiosity, I still check hay prices. I don't feed alfalfa so I'm not even sure of the price in the area but nice 60# bales of mixed grass 2nd cutting go for $2.25-2.50 a bale, 1st cutting is $1.25. I don't use straw but the feed store gets $2.50 a bale for it. I bed with a mixture of sawdust and shavings- the sawdust is $15.00 a pickup truck loaded, and the shavings are $10.00 a yard delivered. I do feed a higher quality grain- Blue Seal Vintage Sweet, it's a 14% extruded sweet feed, and Vintage Senior to our older gentleman, it's a 12% totally extruded feed. The Vintage sweet is $8.55 per 50#, and the Senior is $9.25 per 50#. I don't feed much grain tho except to our Sr. and he gets the complete feed in lieu of most of his hay.

Stacy in NY

-- Stacy Rohan (KincoraFarm@aol.com), October 11, 2001.

Here in Downeast Maine I pay $1.50 a bale for mixed timothy and clover...about 50 lb. bales. I don't buy alfalfa hay, I just use the pellets occasionally. The only time I had a problem wih milk fever is years ago when I was feeding alfalfa hay on a regular basis!! Our one ton bales of mixed hay are about $15.00 to $20.00 each.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), October 11, 2001.

South Central Texas

Square bales of Coastal hay, about 60 pounds, $3.50

Round bales of Coastal hay between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds $25-$40, depending on grower.

This may give you some idea of prices around the country:

List Of States

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), October 11, 2001.

We have a real glut of hay available where we live, I can't give good second cutting hay away for 1.25 per 60 pound square bale this year!!! I don't expect to be able to sell any till the hard snows of January arrive, or even later.

It's always "feast or famine" with the hay situation, but there is plenty of good hay available very cheap if you can arrange transportation for it this year.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), October 11, 2001.

Wow how do some of you afford to keep animals ? $1.00 a 60lb bale for hay here in Northern NY

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), October 11, 2001.