Were these square bales? What did you pay for them?

Yes, that's square bales. I only have 1 horse and 3 sheep, and lots of pasture.

(Sigh) I paid a fortune, hay is expensive here... $5 a bale. I could get poorer-quality hay for about $4, but this hay guy is a really interesting local old-timer and I like doing business with him. And the quality is amazing. There's no waste, the horse eats every last blade.

The sheep will get the $3 first-cutting bales I bought in July. They waste too much to get the good stuff.

$5 a bale!!!!!! Wow. We buy from the old timer farmer down the street too, but he only charges $2.50 for second cutting! Though, we DO have to put it up ourselves.

Although, you only have one horse. When it was just my lil' quarter mare and her goat friend, a bale would last them at least 2 days and we barely used any hay that year since we bought enough for two (our old quarter gelding passed on unexpectedly). BUT, this spring we snatched an old retired Standardbred Trotter from a pit and she STILL eats like a racehorse. So although our hay was bought cheaper and one is an easy keeper, I doubt we are any more ahead.

I would love to have my hay stacked for me. I have stacked 75 tons so far this year, about half with help at the top of the elvators. 3 years ago, I had to start working out throughout the year to be in shape for haying season.

We are the old farmers down the street who sell hay. We get $3 a bale for first cut, $3.75 for second. If it goes into our barn, the price goes up by $.50.

I am expecting my winter load of hay, (400 bales) on Saturday. I live in NH but by my hay from a guy in VT. He just has gorgeous hay and I like him. He helps unload the truck which is nice too. So we have two people in the loft and two on the ground running the bales up on the elevator. This year we are paying $5 per bale 1st cutting. You can buy it off the field for $3.50 but you handle it so many times and I don't have a schedule that is condusive to being available when the hay man calls to say a wagon is in. Our bales average around 40lbs. It's been a good year for hay so I am expecting to see a lovely load pull in.

I feed two horses, two donkeys and two goats through the winter. In summer it's half pasture, half hay.

Yep, $5 a bale, and it was the same price last year. I think of it as an open-space surcharge. Farms in my area (north of Philadelphia PA) are under constant pressure to sell land for housing developments, so if expensive hay helps keep them in business for another year I'm glad to pay it. It's probably naive of me to think it makes a difference, but who knows.

We are waiting on our last load. Still need about 400 bales. It will be 3rd cutting grass. The farmer ran out of the second cutting, husband did not want any grass and alfalfa. Gives a couple of the horse the runs when you feed them alfalfa.

We have about 800 bales in the barn that we got in early August. My son and his friends helped with one load, while another friend helped with the other load. We load from the wagons to the flatbed, then into the barn. We have a couple elevators, sure makes it easier. Husband usually does the hard part up in the rafters but had arm surgery last winter. Not allowed to throw bales, empty water buckets, shovel manure!! We DID let him drive the semi to haul the trailer though. I finally told him to go away after we got home, he couldn't bear to just watch and leave the bales alone. Critiquing our work was making the rest of us crabby!

We have some pasture, good for summer but nothing left by winter. I feed between 8-9 larger but not draft, horses from Oct to May, so we need a fair amount of hay. Always want some extra in case of severe cold weather. We feed more then to keep them warm. Last winter was not really that cold here except in Dec and a couple odd days here and there. I had a fair amount left over that we used because spring came so late into May. We are usually grazing pretty well by then, but cold weather didn't let grass get started early.

I can't imagine only buying 60+ bales for a whole winter per horse. Even with good grazing the quantity is so small! When I only had 2 horses I would get 150 bales for each horse. They were little and quite economical to feed, stayed well fleshed on smaller amounts. However the weather was always terrible, deep snow and temps in the -10 to -25 range for much of winter. Rented a ratty old barn which really just broke the wind force with the open slats. They went thru about a bale and a half a day, with a couple handfuls of oats and corn. Sure had the long hair!

I will agree that looking up at the stacked, new, fresh-smelling hay is one of the nicest feelings. You feel you are READY for winter now!

Daughter and I can probably manage the last 400 bales. That goes into the smaller barn, not much stacking high. The small elevator will get it up enough for us. The bigger barn has higher rafters, must be thrown up. There doesn't seem to be anyone willing to come work, even for good money. Our hay price is way higher this year with gas and diesel fuel having such a huge jump in prices. We get a bit of a price break, loading off the wagons. The farmers help load onto our trailer which is a big help. Still have to handle bales twice. Ours are about 60 pounds. Lots lighter than alfalfa or acid cured hay we used to get. Previous hay man used acid if weather was iffy, or could not get cut hay dried in sun. Acid cured is good stuff, really stays nutritional if you get offered any. Horses really liked it. Just...

Yes, we are feeling pretty secure about hay for the winter this year. We have acres and acres of hay but having retired to the farm do not have the equipment to put it up ourselves. So we had it baled "on the shares" and have 25+ 1500 lb. bales ready for the pony and two donkeys.

We have been in a drought situation this entire year and are still about 6 inches behind in rainfall. Also have had three or four times as many 100+ degree days as usual. The hay was scant and there is little regrowth after having it cut in June. Have an idea that hay prices are going to hit the roof this winter.

Re: quantity, winters down here must be shorter than in MI. I don't usually start feeding hay until early December, and have stopped by mid-March. I feed a bale a day for about 80 or 90 days. So the 60 bales I bought plus the 20 I already had should be fine. I might need to get 10 or 20 more, we'll see how the winter predictions go.