Hay Prices

[flowerpower]

I just got a hay delivery the other day. My guys are telling me that they are transporting hay even further than usual this yr. And they have had horse farms in Ohio and Kentucky send trucks to pick it up.

I get my hay pretty cheap. The bales are 75lb on the avg. Plus they deliver it, put it up and help me stack it nice in the loft. They even brought a hay elevator this yr. I paid $3.25 /bale. What are the prices like in the rest of North America?

[bluelacedredhead]

That's decent from what I've seen so far this year. Ad in weekend paper for $2.75 bale. Small squares it says, so probably 50 lbers. Pickup only.

And poor quality this year.

When we had a crappy year two years ago, we were paying $4.00 a bale. The farmer ran out then he started importing and the prices just kept going up and up until we stopped buying from him.

[bunkie]

hay is high here. almost double what it was last year, and same for straw. we get 2 round bales (3 = a ton) of alfalfa for the goats for winter feeding. last year was 30 a round, this year it's 50. our neighbor gives us a good deal. it's higher on the regular market. we've seen it as high as 250 a ton! thank goodness we barter!

firewood's the same. saw it for a cord for 250 in the paper yesterday, and it had to be picked up, no delivery! outrageous! we considered 175 for tamarack and fir, cut and split, delivered awful high!!!

[plantsnobin]

We put up round bales, about 600 lbs each, not alfalfa, just basic grass hay. My father in law is selling them this year for $40 a bale, not delivered. We put up about 2000 bales, and we probably end up feeding about half of that ourselves to our horses and ponies. We had good hay weather this year, plenty of rain. Last year there were people driving up from Florida just looking around for people in the fields putting up hay. They wanted semi-loads if they could get it. Of course, they assured everyone their checks were good. Right. I don't know anyone who sold to them. Last year we were all in the same drought-stranded boat. You could have sold all the hay you wanted, for just about whatever price you wanted.

[PatrickW]

I just ordered some straw today, in case you're wonder what this costs in Amsterdam... It's to cover my garlic for the winter. I paid €3.50 for what is called a small bale here (about 50+ lbs I'd guess), which included delivery from a distance (25 minute drive). The price is down a little from last year, when it was really expensive, and it's a pretty normal price for here.

[flowerpower]

It was not a good yr for hay here. Not enough sunny and warm days to dry and bale. My guy said he still had 20 more acres he could have done. Just not enough time. We put up as much loose hay as we could. It was piled pretty high in the loft. We need a baler desperately though. lol Thanks Patrick. I wasn't trying to leave out our int'l friends. lol

We cut our own wood, but its like $225 a seasoned cord delivered. Mostly maple, oak, birch, cherry.. Here's a dumb question. My BF got some wood a a train yard in Brooklyn. The tree was dead but standing. It is the brightest color yellow inside. Very hard and heavy. It has a thick grayish bark, hard to get off. Any guess to what it might be? I have no clue. Thanks

[bcday]

FP, the tree with the yellow wood might have been a tulip tree, also called tulip poplar or yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). According to this article, the color of the wood can vary from one tree to the next, from pale green through yellow-green, canary yellow, to brown or tan. It's supposed to be soft wood, but it's fine-grained and maybe being dead and dried out made it a bit harder? Tulip trees do have thick gray bark. It isn't really a poplar, by the way, it's actually in the Magnolia family.

www.woodworker.org/WoodArticles/Wood%20of%20the%20Month%20-%20Poplar/Poplar.htm

[plantsnobin]

Sounds like poplar to me, FP. If it is, I'm afraid it isn't much good for firewood. It burns very quickly.

[canadamike]

Americans call tulip tree poplar in the wood trade, even if is is not, and the true poplaes are calles aspen, cottonwodd etc...

It is, in its yellowish incarnation an extremely beautiful wood, easy to work, sometimes with multi-colored hues in it. Georgous. Are you sure there is not something made of wood you need? It won't provide much eat though.

I would try to figure out some use for it or store it in as large pieces as possible. Needs for wooden things tend to arise in life...

[flowerpower]

I thought it was a tulip poplar. Thanks. The wood is already split up. I have just been tossing in pieces whenever. I have mostly maple to burn in the stove. There is a huge area of quaking aspen on our property. We are going to start cutting them down in the spring. They are blocking the sun for the better trees. We are gonna extend the goat fence in one area. And the rest will at least be managable. I know some goats who find it tasty. lol Will deer eat it when it's small?

[grungy]

One quick question here, do you folks have any idea what mulching hay (hay that has spoiled and unfit to use as animal feed, is going for? Be it the square bales both the smaller (50-75lbs or the larger square), or round bales 500-1000lbs. Thanks.

[flowerpower]

Mulch hay is usually free, but it should not be more than a dollar for a sq. bale. I'm sure you could find some free if you put the word out.

[plantsnobin]

Around here you can't give the stuff away. I know lots of places that have rows of round bales that they never did feed and they are just sitting there.

[grunt]

Unfortunately, the local farmers have discovered that gardeners like the stuff, and charge almost as much for spoiled hay bales as they do for the good stuff, so they both end up being overpriced. One of the locals couldn't get anybody to buy his spoiled stuff at the price he was asking, and rather than drop the price, he burned it. Which just leaves me shaking my head. May he not get the karma tag I think he earned.

[flowerpower]

In this area, a 5x5 round bale is $25, if you can pick it up.