Got Hay ?

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Here in eastern Tennessee we are having a hay shortage. Bad enough that I may have to slaughter all the bucks I have ( non registered ) but still top of the line as far as milk quality and quantity. Still , I have does to feed ( 8 ) and there ain't no hay to be found.

Although we've had a drought this year , evey year for the past 6 years it's been getting harder and harder to find hay of any type or quality. All the prime hay fields are being used for subdivisions .

After reading an article about how mid western farmers are moving to Brazil in order to continue the family buisness of farming , I was wondering if this is an epidemic that is affecting the whole country. The loss of our best farm lands to subdivisions. Who's in charge of this wasteful and destuctive planning ?

Not to get into the politics of poor leadership in this country , but I would think this would be a government issue. Seems to me the nations food supply may be at risk ???

I was wondering if the hay shortage is local or nation wide and if others are having a hard time finding hay . When I looked in the classified section of the news paper today , I saw no listings of hay for sale . What I did see was want adds that said : " Wanted , Hay for Sale. It's the first time I've seen that .

I was also told by a hay farmer who is sold out this year , that hay is being greedly auctioned for the highest price that can be gotten and the hay being auctioned is moldy and poor quality.It's like every man for himself attitude.

The aristocrates whith their big high dollar barns and expensive horses are making things worse for those who need the hay to sustain their food supply ( livestock ). They have been paying more than the average prices for hay ( even before the drought )in order to have the hay farmers sell to them exclusively.So they can get on their fancy horse riding cloths and go for a ride once a month.

As a result of no hay , a lot of people who need hay , myself included are resorting to alfalfa cubes $$$ . And they are selling so fast I'm betting on them running out soon .They have pallets of alfalfa cubes in the feed store show room instead of in the back storage room as usual because they are selling so fast

As I am planning to move as soon as my land is sold , I want to make sure I move to a place where there is hay , and will be hay for , well as long as the Earth can sustain life or I'm to old to raise goats , which ever comes first .

I have serious thoughts of moving to Brazil , but would rather stay in the U.S. , it's hard to imagine my goats learning to speak Portuguese .But because of the abundant farm land there and the shotage in the U.S. , I am checking out the possibilities.

So is this a local problem , is it a drought problem , or is this the begining of the end of an era of raising livestock in the U.S. , unless one owns enough land and can provide their livestock with hay and feeds grown at home .

I guess there's always the option of becoming a vegan ( animal free diet ).

-- Steve (at@home.com), December 24, 2002

Answers

Hay in Montana is $80 a ton for first cutting alfalfa. Wish I could find a way to get some; we're feeding plain grass hay right now.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), December 24, 2002.

Hay is short here in Illinois to. We are feeding big bales of corn stalks to the bucks, and calves so we can use the grass hay for the does. We doubled the corn we usualy feed ( at least its easy to find ). My normal hay person ran out early. The horse people around here are looking hard.

-- bergy (bbergbower@hotmail.com), December 24, 2002.

At 8 dollars for a 50lb sack of alfalfa cubes ,I'm paying $320 a ton.

Time to start cutting down some pine trees to supplement the expensive alfalfa cube diet.

-- Steve (unreal@home.com), December 26, 2002.


OUCH!!! That makes these cornstalks look real good!

-- bergy (bbergbower@hotmail.com), December 26, 2002.

I live in Eastern Kansas. The drought hit us late, about the end of June. When the drought DID hit us, however, we didn't get rain for MONTHS, and I don't believe there was a second cutting of hay. Some places irrigate for pasture and hay but Midwesterners generally don't: we have always relied on rainfall.

For that matter, we STILL are not getting any precipitaion to speak of. About 2 good rains since October isn't much for us. We got some rain in the early fall, but it didn't rain long.

I have never seen the local lake this low, and I have lived here 13 years.

Western Kansas was worse off than us, and I believe most of the Midwest was affected. :(

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), January 01, 2003.



OH!

Eastern Tennessee....you're farther south than us. Is it possible to plant for a little green feed, even though you know it won't do well? Out here, it is colder and winter wheat only came up last month. It is an inch tall. Is there anything you can plant and graze off????? Field peas, perhaps???? Wheat or rye????

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), January 01, 2003.


in Michigan,, any quality hay is being bought up and shipped "out west", where the prices are sky high. Can still find "horse hay" around here without a problem,, I am even getting some for free, last years,, round bales ,, but 50 percent of it is still good.

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), January 02, 2003.

I live in Western Kentucky. I bought alfalfa hay for $3.50 a bale in early December. There seems to be a bit of a shortage of hay. Everyone seemed to be selling out of it faster this year. I'm sure the drought last summer is the reason for that. I don't know if there is still some around this month - I know the farmer that I bought my hay from in Dec. expected to run out sometime in January. There is still plenty of hay fields around here.

-- Debbie Perkins (dperkins@ziggycom.net), January 03, 2003.

Tractor load of first cut hay delivered to your site within 24 hours. Call Dexter at 954 817 3631 or Email your request to: dexteram49@aol.com

-- Dexter Martinez (dexteram49@aol.com), June 26, 2003.

Anyone who needs hay just give me a call @ (330)223-1293. Delivery is not a problem and we have everything imaginable at reasonable prices.

-- Greg Casto (gregcasto24@yahoo.com), July 16, 2003.


Anyone wanting 500 small square bales of good quality alfalfa/timothy please email me. We are in Ontario and will be in Tennessee Sept 16. 519-855-9905

-- Bill Stellings (bramcity@rogers.com), August 24, 2003.

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