Butt deep in hay here it’s been raining like it’s on a timer here just enough at the right time, it has yet to turn summer brown here yet.

Just got 16 tons of certified weed free Timothy $300 ton about 550 bails small squares. South central Montana. You can get some cheaper but this is really good hay.

I sell it for $5 for good heavy grass hay bales. Straw at the neighbors is gong for $5 also.


That said I puts 4 ads out since winter to sell hay. Not one person called. I have stemmy hay for $2 and top of the line best alfalfa for $8. Last year all sold for asking prices. This year people are super picky I guess. A $7 bale would be very helpful. My input cost for fertilizer for a 6 acre field in front of my house went from $320 to over $1,000 this year...... So I did not fertilize and am seeing less hay now because of it but if no one is buying....3rd cutting starting next week

Almost half of this years supply



If you look close they are unloading hay into the barn too.

Around here, there is a big range of prices, but also a reason for it, as there is a big range in quality. Three different operators cut hay on three sides of me. All three brought in something north of $400,000 in equipment, yet only one or two seem to know much about making quality hay. One showed up at least a month after I was done cutting.......so it was over mature, stemmy junk.......the kind of stuff we used to say a cow would starve to death with a belly full of it. Two of them baled up POISONOUS weeds.

When I told one lady price was going to $10 a bale, she said OK. Would pay it. Prior to buying from me, all she could get was junk, and it was moldy to boot. Her horses almost died eating it. Have heard that story repeated more times than I can count. What passes for hay used to be part of what was once a growing plant, then eventually cut and put in bale form with a great deal of indifference, and passed off as "horse hay".

Mine is cut on a timely basis with mower conditioner to get it drying down fast, hit with a tedder if needed, which is almost always......rollabar rake to minimize dust and dirt in hay and baled at 15% moisture or less to avoid spoilage.......and bales are off the ground and in the barn within hours. 50 pound bales, packed tight like bricks (so smaller length), plus tractor slowed down so goal of 15 flakes per bale min for portion control when feeding it. Fertility is kept high, so mine makes about 3 ton per acre, first cutting. 50 pound bales as with 90% of buyers it is the lady or daughter what feeds the hay (by hand) and that is all they can physically handle.

Small, seemingly insignificant actions, but they all add up to allow me to sell for about double what the others are getting.

Was that lady whose horses nearly died a new horse owner/hay buyer? About all the horse owners i know are extremely paranoid about the hay they buy. It does get hard to find at times.

Some of the horse people are very picky........many are not. Buy more on price than quality......most did not grow up on farms and around livestock, so are learning on the job. But once burned, they start paying attention. That was the lady in question. Got one old guy raised on a farm......he has a hillside full of donkeys. Pasture pets. He feeds them well. Another is a vet down the road. I bale their hay for them. Their yardstick is if it looks good, smells good, animal eats it and maintains or gains weight, it's good enough.

The people with dairy goats are more picky than the horse people. Goats are said to eat anything....and may when it's green and growing. But once winter sets in, they get a lot more picky.....goats that is. Milking dairy goats get a lot of high quality alfalfa when available. I don't raise alfalfa. Had some mixed grass and red clover once and lady with milking goats bought all of that I had on the spot.