hayprices and pressed alfalfa

[bookwormom]

what is hay selling for in your neck of the woods?
while I was at TSC today I noticed they sell 50lb bags of pressed alfalfa and timothy pellets for 11 bucks. what I am wondering, there should not be any waste with these things, would it be worthwhile compared to a bale of hay for five dollars?

[Jaycee]

Depends on what you are feeding. (Forgive me, I'm new and don't know who has what for animals.)

If you are feeding bovines, those pellets won't work to replace hay. They have to have the long fiber content of hay or grass. It's the way their digestive systems are designed to work. The hay helps to also keep them warm as it ferments in their rumen. You can use those pellets to supplement poor quality hay....

I don't think just feeding pellets work too well for horses, either, or goats. Rabbits, it'd be okay.

[rassd71]

Hayprices! Now there's a topic to get me all riled up! #2 alfalfa is now $15.75 a bale. That's just over 100lbs. #1 is over $18. No one in my area carries #3 or 'cow grass'. Bermuda is now $13.75 per bale at about 90lbs per bale. And straw is $6.75 per bale. The prices keep going up. And the local ranches that used to buy in bulk and would sell small lots to the locals have either gone out of business or just stopped selling to the 'public'.

Right now I'm feeding #2 alfalfa, alfalfa pellets and COB w/mollasses to fatten em up for slaughter or breeding. Which will both happen in the next month or so. Then it will be #2 alfalfa and bermuda to keep em over the winter. The pregnant ewes will get mineral blocks and occassional COB w/mollasses durring pregnancy.

[WRTN]

We have broodmare we are feeding Bermuda hay which we get for $5 a bale. They are stout beefy 4 ft. plus long bales too. Regular grass hay runs about $2 to $3 a bale

[silvergramma]

I'm in North Dakota 1500 lb grass bales.. 20 bucks .. so far i've got 22 on contract have picked up two last night... grass bales here the square ones can go from 2.50 to 3.00 a piece uncovered... as they get wetter from rains.. prices can go down to 1.00 a piece.. I try not to buy the square ones cause my right shoulder went out on me and its easier to just back up the truck and roll out the round ones.. i never use alfalfa on my horses.. ever

[Anon001]

Silvergramma,

Our hay prices are running about the same as yours. Hay is a lot cheaper this year than last year. Most of the bales in this part of the country are the 900 to 2000 lb round bales. It isn't as easy to find square bales around here.

Paul

[jonvee]

I've noticed a decrease in our hay prices over last year, which is interesting considering everything else is going up. Last year I paid almost $20 for alfalfa for DDs market lambs and the one we raised for the freezer. Last week I was in the feed store and alfalfa was $10.95. Chopped, bagged hay though is now $26/100 pound bag.

RSSD - when I had my flock we fed cull lima beans along with a small amount of grain to help cut feed costs. They were about 5-7-cents per pound. Do you have any bean processors around you?

[Anon001]

Alfalfa is one hay I've never bought or fed... I take that back. I used to have a Nubian nanny that would go down every time she kidded. So, when she was getting close, I would get a couple bales for her to help prevent her from going down. But, that has been several years. Around here, when you can find them, alfalfa square bales go for about $3.00 to $3.50 last I heard.

Since I feed so much hay through the winter, I usually calculate the cost of hay by the ton and then I also keep in mind what it is by the pound. Up until last year, I usually paid about 1.5 cents per pound or about $30 per ton. Last year when I bought some hay, it was $40 per ton.

[ldsparamedic]

Here in Yuma, AZ our Alfalfa hay just "jumped" to $6.50/bale from $5.50. I'll quit complaining. Our bales are 120 pounds. About 10 years ago, we lived near Tuscon and alfalfa was 10.50 per bale. It was cheaper to feed alfalfa pellets, which we did for the 10 months we lived there. It had no adverse affects on our horse.

Silvergramma, I was wondering why won't you feed Alfalfa, ever? We will not purchase first cutting Alfalfa as it is high in calcium and is bad for horses, otherwise, we have had no problems. Most folks around here feed straight alfalfa, some feed 50/50 alfalfa/bremuda grass.

[Anon001]

Silvergramma, I was wondering why won't you feed Alfalfa, ever? We will not purchase first cutting Alfalfa as it is high in calcium and is bad for horses, otherwise, we have had no problems. Most folks around here feed straight alfalfa, some feed 50/50 alfalfa/bremuda grass.

I may not be her, but I never feed alfalfa unless a nanny goes down after kidding which doesn't normally happen for me.

The cost / benefits are not good enough. For the nutrition you get from alfalfa and the cost of it, doesn't compute. There are less expensive ways to proper nutrition. Also, my two horses are easy keepers and well just on grass and hay with protein supplement which isn't much either.

People in this area typically don't use alfalfa and the only ones that do are the horse stables.

It's sorta like oats for horses. They now know it's not too great. Oats have very little nutritional value for the cost. Also, the starch is not good for horses which are natural borderline diabetics. I don't even give corn to a horse because corn is high starch for a horse and converted to sugar. With them being naturally borderline diabetic, they get hot if you feed them corn and then try to work with them. It's sorta like a sugar rush. A good feed of low starch will even out the horse's temperament and starch/sugar problems.

So, I find that alfalfa is too overpriced for what you get.

Paul

[bookwormom]

thanks Paul, I am going to show that to my husband.

[Genevieve]

So, would those pressed cubes of alfalfa be good for my ungrateful rabbit? Seems like it would be whole less messier for the creature.

[Anon001]

When I had rabbits (New Zealand Whites), I never gave them alfalfa. I did feed the best quality feed I could find.

Paul

[Genevieve]

thats all mine will eat. turns it's nose up at timothy. loves the greens I can get out of the yard in the spring and summer, so that helps stretch the alfalfa. I was just wondering if the pressed is good enough for it so that I could save some money and space and clean up.

[Anon001]

It depends on the type of "pressed" alfalfa. If it is in pellets or cubes, it may not be good enough. Some animals require roughage and some of the "processed hay" products may contain all the hay, but not enough roughage for the digestive system to properly function.

Paul