For those who "can’t find hay"
Aug 27 2007
Find hay for sale in Kentucky!
Buy hay online in Texas!
Buy hay online in Washington State!
These people appear to ship darn near anywhere
TONS of listings for hay and hay at auction!
More nationwide listings of hay for sale!
And yet more!
Now, I don’t want to hear from anybody that they can’t “find” hay. Hay is out there. It’s just that, much like filling up your gas tank, it is going to cost more than you were hoping it would.
56 comments to “For those who "can’t find hay"”
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Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find…… complain and fuglyhorseoftheday shall provide!
I know of plenty of hay for sale…just for 3x the “normal” price for this time of year. SUCK IT UP PEOPLE.
I dont enjoy the prospect of paying $7/bale for it either, which is why I’m buying as much as I can now…but I’ll pay $20/bale before they dont eat!
ayup… folks need to pull up their big-girl panties and *gasp* LOOK ONLINE for hay at one of MANY websites offering it. Hire a lackey for the day to unload it. This is not a hardship.
The woman can obviously read and use the internet, this is not rocket science. She is looking for a HANDOUT. She needs to ADVERTISE her horses, sell them for a hundred bucks a pop like they do the mustangs and GET RID OF THEM to feed the ones she wants to keep… and hopefully it will serve as a lesson as to overbreeding.
DUH!!
There is also the bagged alfalfa cubes and pellets which can be fed as well. Those can be bought at the feed store… if some people even bother visiting one of those.
Well, then you would have to be able to read and understand the box…
yes, there are cubes.
yes, there are enormous ’round bales’ of hay that you can buy that are crappy but semi inexpensive.
But it’s so much easier to go online and beg.
I need a new car! Anybody willing to ‘help me out’ with that? *eyes rolling*
The barn I board at gets its hay from Canada. Im getting ready to move my mares home and I plan on buying from the state prison. Yeah its going to cost more, so suck it up. Oh here’s a novel idea… stop breeding!
That’s cool of you to do the searches on hay, for those who won’t/can’t do the same thing. But, if that’s the case, they prob won’t see your list, huh?!
I will say your list turned up a few more results than what I’d already researched on my own–but it did prove my point that hay is “hard to find.” Never said it was impossible, just much more work than last year. I got mostly zero results for my area.
Part of my problem is I am uberpicky about my hay and I have to see it and look/touch/smell open bales, etc. Been doing lots of driving, lately!
If you are gonna include such premium hays as KMS Hayloft, though, might as well list http://www.oxbowhay.com and http://www.americanpetdiner.com
The problem I see is that the folks who would let their horses go without hay this winter, sure ain’t gonna pay those primo hay prices, especially since they won’t pay the seven bucks a bale.
But, there are the links, for the rest of us. Hopefully, it will benefit some.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
I want a horse, but I can barely afford to feed myself. Will somebody send me money to board a horse down the road from me?
I had gone out and got a second job, at a breeding farm, and thought that would give me: 1. Extra income, and 2. A chance to spend time around horses, but maybe I went down the wrong road there!
Reicheru said…
“There is also the bagged alfalfa cubes and pellets which can be fed as well. Those can be bought at the feed store… if some people even bother visiting one of those.”
Last year I had a hard time finding hay. It was not that I couldn’t find it, not that I wouldn’t spend the money on it, just that everything I found was either garbage or they wouldn’t sell it to me in the amounts I needed.
So I took my checkbook and got off of my lazy ass and went to the feed store and said, “What are my options?”
I put them on a mix of hay cubes, beet pulp, and pelleted feed. Granted, I am feeding two very small equines but not only did they come through the winter looking wonderful it actually ended up CHEAPER than buying the hay I had been getting.
There is NO excuse for otherwise healthy normal horses being skinny. Winter comes every year, it never sneaks up on us. Even if hay is truly impossible to find there are a host of other options out there.
I just got a shiptment of hay in from Canada…I’m in North Carlolina. I had to pay out the ass for it, but AMAZINGLY…..my horses will have hay all winter.
I meant North Carolina……:)
Here in Wisconsin, we are very lucky not to have a hay shortage– at least in my area. We pay about $1.75 for square bales and about $10 for round bales. In fact, many of the farmers around here ship hay to parts of the country that short of it right now. That being said, I can go to one of the rescues in the area and find numerous emaciated, skinny horses that have been seized from bad situations or bought from auctions. What is with these owners? We are fortunate enough not to suffer from the hay shortage that many people all over this country are suffering from and they STILL can’t feed their horses? As it was said before, you can bet your behind that the owners aren’t going without food. How they sleep at night knowing that their horses are?
Thank you!!! Theres even one around that I can get relatively close
It really isn’t that hard to get hay shipped from somewhere like Wisconsin, either. If you have a little money to invest, you can hire an independent semi truck driver to go get a big load and then sell what you don’t need at a profit and pay for your own hay. It’s a really smart thing to do right now if you’re in an area of the country where hay is pricy.
There are LOTS of hay sources…but ya gotta get off your can, chase them down, be there in the field when the hayman says to and hand him the beer/cig money you hoard for your own selfish bad habits…
The app breeder wrote me back if anyone would care to see what she sent me…
I looked at these sources. Many are from 06 not 07. There are none for my home state. My normal Florida supplier who usually has hay all summer will not have ANY until the first of October. Our home state supplier who usually gets 5000 bales from one pasture – got 36 bales this year. One pasture we have 6 horses in that normally has a good mix of coastal and fescue – is sand. It will have to be replanted. It really is bad.
Motor, I am in Florida and my barn is stuffed with hay…all the dealers have it, the feed stores, and the Fl horse list just had multiple posts about round bales for sale from $60-$75…
There is a guy down by Riverview if you call him, he will tell you where to meet him as he bales and he will sell you a hundred bales right out of the field, you load and cash only.
crazyhorse, I would like to see.
hey, some woman went online and asked for 2000 bucks to pay for a boob job… and she got it!!! can I beg online for money to help out with my student loans so I can provide affordable vet care when I graduate??? (for anyone who thinks vets are overpriced, try dealing with being 200,000 in debt for the privilege of working on your animal)… don’t think I’ll be able to feed a horse for a long time with those economics
FHOTD….that’s what I did…got a semi load…what I don’t need, I’ll sell. But I’m damn sure gonna have hay. The hay shortage is a reality of life and people need to quit bitching about it and go do what they need to in order to feed their horses.
And no, I didn’t have the available cash. That’s why God made zero APR credit cards. I can pay off the card at the same rate I would’ve bought hay.
Problem solved.
With 150 acres they probably have plenty of that uncut and overgrown. They can pay for someone to cut it and save money…
Well a fair bit of hay gets put up here, despite our crappy soils and crapshoot weather. The trouble is most of it ends up being “cow hay” which is, of course, fed to horses. I’ve seen wrapped haylage bales stored alongside horse paddocks, simply because they are cheap.
Small squares are $8 to $12, and rounds $60 to $200, depending on size and quality and the farmer too of course.
I spend at least an average of $200 a month for feed for each of the horses in my care. That is HAY alone, two consume more than that, dollar wise. Thankfully, the hay I import is so good, I need very little in the way of concentrates-whew!
This woman knew she had a problem last year too, I wonder where they moved FROM?
Yes I would like to see the email….
Here is another idea. My partner, horse hater that he is….went out and bucked hay this season to fill our barn with hay for the next year. How nice is that?! (part of why I keep him!) He got paid in hay, not money, which is just perfect. And he only worked about 5 full days for 5 ton, and that is enough for my 2 little horses for the year. Of course it’s too late now, but just another suggestion for people that might not have alot of money, but are willing to put the time and effort in.
One of those links had 5 listings for hay for sale in VA and 14 for hay wanted in VA – five of those wanted ads were in my area.
I had 11 horses on the property, but moved two to a friend’s facility on the other side of the state and sold two. Now, with 7 horses on 17 acres I’m still spending $1500 per month on hay alone. My horses still don’t look as well as usual. Fugly I know you’d once said horses don’t get thin because it’s *dry*, but mine certainly don’t look as glowingly plump and healthy as usual and that’s with switching from Legends to Triple Crown feeds to help them out as well. I’ve had rain twice in the past two months and my place is literally a dust bowl. My business is buying and selling horses. Between the ridiculous hay prices and the market taking a big dump (I have horses priced from $4500 to $20k, and the noticeable drop in interest the past three months seems to span that range completely), I can see how people are getting in over their heads. What I don’t understand is why don’t they get out gracefully? A large percentage of those in the business are taking a loss right now but we don’t make the horses suffer for it. And we definitely don’t breed more fugs to feed!
I have a friend who’s a horse dealer in South Dakota and she said hay is scarce in her part of the country. That said she’s out there finding and buying hay and paying more for it. She has over 25 horses on her property and a good amount of them are TB’s. She knows what she needs to do and does it. Here in New England we have a horse website with a bulletin board that people post on every year looking for people to share a truck load of hay.
We haven’t bred in two years either and we have some seriously nice horses. On our breed forum in the spring we usually have reports of probably 50 foals. This year I think there were maybe 15 max and some of these were presold. We feed Triple Crown Senior and add rice bran and alfalfa for the horses that need an extra boost and beet pulp for the chubs so they think they’re getting as much as the other guys. They look fine but we’re losing weight from living on beans and rice!
I live further away from the nearest farmland than most of you live from the Canadian border. Ship it in.
We pay $100 for crappy round cow-bales, and by the time we get a load of decent square bales in, they are running us around $25 apiece.
Too bad. We decided to move our horses up here, now we have to decide to feed them. Same goes for you if you’ve decided to ride out a bad year.
To Colorisnteverything…
Taken from ONE Flhorse list email on Monday…
..I have 1000 pound rolls for $60.00
Beth Phillips/New Vision Farm
http://www.newvisionfarm.com
Visit us & see what’s new!..
..You can get fresh cut coastal horse hay rolls for $50 each in Morriston
(just outside Ocala) from Bill Johnson at 352-427-7600…
..I found it in Palatka for $63.00. I heard it was around 60.00 a roll closer
to Ocala but not positive.
Shell..
..
We are getting $75.00 for 4′x4′ indoor kept rolls with absolutely no
weeds at our store in Tavares. It is very good quality hay coming from
North Florida.
DJ Jiles
Show 2 Win Farm and Tack
2633 State Road 19
Tavares, Florida 3277…
…Re: [flhorse] Re:hay rolls
We will pick up and deliver BIG rolls of Tifton 44 in the Ocala/ Wildwood/
Inverness area for $60 a roll. Must get a minium of 8 rolls at a time. We are
feeding this hay ourselves and they love it!!! Even liked by our new boarders
that had been on T &A. These rolls are BIG about 1000 to 1200 lbs each. Let
me know if anyone is interested in a load.
Ann…
and there is a lot more but since you are determined to make me wrong, and I have plenty of hay, YOU go look for it…
TJ I cannot access your email…write me privately…
Crazyhorse:
I’d love to see what the app breeder wrote!
To everyone: My BF and I were just having this discussion last night. Now, I might be lucky because we are surrounded by alfalfa fields, and becuase he custom bales a good deal of it, but…WTF!?!?!
HAY IS A NORMAL EVERYDAY REQUIREMENT FOR HORSES. Not having hay for your horses is like having a car but not being able to get gas for it. IF YOU CAN’T FIND HAY MAYBE YOU SHOULD GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS AND GO LOOKING! If it’s to pricey, maybe you should stop eating out or buying new clothes – and instead MAKE SURE THE BASIC NEEDS OF YOUR ANIMALS ARE MET.
I know too many people who won’t think twice about paying $60 for a new pair of jeans, and who drive big shiny new trucks, but bitch because they are having to pay $150/ton or more for some of the best hay around. Selfish dumbasses.
OH – and before you get too worried about the price of a bale – just how big IS that bale you are talking about? $5-7 for a #70 isn’t too bad at all! A small square is NOT a small square is NOT a small square. Each baler has a different setup.
Buy by weight, not by the bale, and you just might get a better deal…better quality hay, more slices in the bale, etc.
crazyhorse, you have mail
geldthebreedersoffuglies! This is precisely why I don’t find it too difficult to sell those tons of hay I bring in. I sell by weight, not by bale.
This summer I had in a small horse for training. The owner was feeding a different type of hay because the horse is allergic to timothy. $29+ for “100+” pounds. I weighed out one entire bale-it was 87 pounds. What’s that really work out to, by ton?
A whopping $688 a ton
I am always amazed at how people can’t do simple math!
Wow! Good resources. Hay is very expensive this year: had no second cut.
But…. There is no choice anyway. 
TJ,
email me. I am in Florida and have Apps. Curious about your stud.
spottedtapp@yahoo.com
OK, this came up last night at the barn. We have to supply our own feed, and the B/O feeds in the AM, we feed PM ourselves.
There are 2 teenage sisters with horses who store their hay next to mine. We have had big words in the past about them stealing my hay. Last night they had a note on their hay to the B/O not to feed them in the AM anymore because they are going through too much hay.
HELLO? You have to feed your horses. Just because mom can’t afford the hay doesn’t mean you stop feeding them.
OMG… I leave next weekend, get to bring my horses home and I can’t wait. I just can’t wait.
Thank you for the info. Now it leaves us to question those who blame the droughts on why thier horses are underweight….I just found a timothy/alfalfa mix for $1.50 about 200 miles from my house and the local farmers are charging $3-5 per bale. The internet…who would have thought the world could be at our finger tips?
Well in my opinion hay cannot be THAT hard to afford, they have internet, cable tv and im sure lots of other “luxuries” that can be given up to feed the horses…would you let your kids go hungry before you shut off the cable..i think not
Gospel:
AMEN!!!
I am so tired of people saying they can’t afford hay or WHATEVER the basic horse-related need might be…but then their Blackberry rings, they drive off in ther brand new 2008 F-350 truck and go back home to sit in the central air and watch satellite TV, eating food out of their brand-new-all-the-bells-and-whistles fridge.
I can and have lived pretty damn scarce myself, BUT my horse and dog were ALWAYS fed. It’s not their fault that I didn’t budget accordingly.
Sure, I’d love a newer, bigger truck…or cable TV…but I’ve got furry mouths to feed. And, no, feed isn’t cheap. But those little “luxury expenses” sure can add up to a decent chunk of change.
I usually don’t give this info to people because I DON’T want the demand for beet pulp to go up. Horses don’t need hay exclusively. If you live in an area where beets are grown for sugar you can get dry beet pulp pellets for $150/ton. Soaked beet pulp mixed with wheat bran in a 2:1 ratio (before soaking) can halve your hay consumption. One quarter ton of beet pulp will feed my three horses for a winter and I can cut my hay consumption by one third. Soaked beet pulp is also a GREAT way to get moisture in the guts of horses when they don’t like to drink ice cold water. People don’t realize that many horses get dehytdrated in the winter because they don’t drink enough…even when the water is heated.
I do like to feed hay in the winter because the heat created by the fermentation of hay in the lower gut really helps with heating the horse. If you need extra calories try putting a cup of corn oil in their feed. You can get a five gallon jug of corn oil at Costco for under $20. Corn oil will not make your horse “hot” because there are so sugars in oil. Corn oil has gone up from the ethynol lie. (Ethynol is the biggest lie perpetrated on the American people since one-hour martinizing). I don’t know if other vegetable oils are good for horses…anyone care to chime in?
And then on really cold days (like below 10 degrees farenheight) I blanket my old horse at night. I only blanket my old guy at night and/or windy rainy days. Make sure your horses have at least a lean-to so they can get out of the wind and rain. They really burn up the calories staying warm when they get wet. You can always go down to your local dump and find various lumber to build a windbreak for them…and guess what? It will cost you bext to nothing to recycle old lumber.
Last winter I fed my three horses on three ton of grass hay and beet pulp and I had fantastic looking horses in the spring and a half ton of hay left. I live in Idaho and the wind constantly blows and the median highs are like in the 20′s and 30′s.
You can also Google “Susan Garlinghouse”. She’s an equine vet that specializes in nutrition. She has a website.
“They look fine but we’re losing weight from living on beans and rice!”
Amen! It’s a great diet plan, is it not?
The critters always come first–and it is real easy to get bitter about the folks with cable TV, inground pools, nice shiny new trucks, etc, who won’t spend the money to keep their horses fat and sassy.
Given the choice of who I’d rather be, though, I feel *entirely* rich and lucky
The reason we moved three more of our horses to FL is because hay is available in FL but it’s a lot more expensive than we usually pay in our home state – $55 a roll compared to $35 a roll – $7 a small square vs $3 a small square. Now the FL rolls and squares are a bit larger than the others but not THAT much larger. FL does not have the hay available that it usually does though but expensive is better than none.
No surprise that hay producers are holding onto their hay until winter. It is good business practice to do so. These guys don’t OWE horse owners, even poor and overwhelmed horse owners, hay–no horsie hay handouts! Some, many, or most producers did not get the 2nd or 3rd cut that they expected. Thus charging more for what crop they did produce.
Making hay is hard work; if it were easy, lazy folks like those app breeders might put up some hay from their own 150 acres. Those that do make their living off producing hay deserve to make what money they can off of selling it.
I live in one of those drought-stricken areas where people are claiming they can’t find hay. I call BS. Yes, this spring, it was impossible to find the locally grown, normally relatively inexpensive grass hay that I, and most other folks here usually feed. BUT, even if the local feed store was out of grass hay, they always had alfalfa, T&A, peanut hay (the southeast’s answer to alfalfa), oat hay, or brome hay trucked in from the midwest or Canada. Did you have to pay an arm and a leg for it? Of course you did. But that’s life as a horse owner. Suck it up and deal with it.
Also, good point, reicheru and incognitomosquito, about alternate sources of fiber like alfalfa cubes and beet pulp. It is possible to design a feeding plan that does not require hay or really cuts down on the amount of hay required. Many state university extension programs have information available online on how to satisfy your horse’s nutritional needs with little or no hay.
I sent an Email to the owner of the Appaloosa Farm last night offering suggestions( sell some of that 150 acres, then you can Geld your Studs, offer Vet Care, Feed your horses, and get them trained, so you can sell them)and basically blasting her for being so short sighted on her income, and taking her horses to slaughter. She sent me an Email back about how I dont know her circumstances and who am I to judge. Geez! Anyway, my cousin, a well-known wildlife rehabber and rescuer is contacting her sources in Idaho, to actually see if these horses are really in trouble, or whether this is a scam of some sort.
Wish us luck as we pursue this and I ll let you know what we find out. Stupid, Ignorant People make me sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would say that hay is harder to find in Idaho this year, and it is definitely more expensive. I’m not offering this as an excuse for the piss poor planning of the Appy breeders, but they may be honest about having had a harder time finding hay this year. I live in Idaho and finding good hay definitely took more work. Our usual supplier sold out within 2 weeks of 2nd cutting, pre-sold part of his 3rd cutting (sold the rest within a few days) and told us that if we wanted 4th we’d better put money down. Last year we were able to buy 2nd cutting in September. The prices are a bit higher too this year. Four years ago we paid $90 ton, last year $120 for certified hay, and this year $120-150 ton for uncertified. But, as I understand from other states this price is considered affordable and, fortunately for me it is. Many of the farmers in the south-western part of the state realized they could make around $300 ton by shipping their hay to Florida instead of selling in Idaho, so they do. That has also impacted availability. Drought has had an impact as well. No, not because horses need rain to grow (loved that comment), but because of water right laws. Our friend’s QH ranch in Utah has grown their own hay every year, but this year they didn’t get their water so couldn’t grow hay. Simplistically, water law is stated as “1st in time, 1st in right.” Older water rights get water first, then junior water rights if there is enough water left. In drought years, junior water right holders don’t get to irrigate. Thus, no crop. Our friends had to buy $15,000 worth of hay to support their operation. It sucks, but what are you going to do? Stop driving your pick-up to slow down global warming? Probably not. The worst may be yet to come.
Did anyone notice that it looks like they just acquired this property?
“We are not at [address]” and “The new land needs buildings.” and “we have the horses and now the land”
So they bought a 150 acre property on pension plan payments and can’t afford to feed their horses?
I get tired of seeing for sale ads due to “lack of hay.” A friend has 300+ round bales for sale in MO, but noone inquires about it. Here is the ad link in case someone happens to live nearby:
http://www.tacktrader.com/show_item.php?tack_id=186881
Just on the cost of hay… You may know that the a large part of Australia has been in the grip of drought for several years. The State I live in has just slipped back from “marginal” to “drought declared”. I bought some hay earlier this year before our winter set in. I paid $17/bale for small lucerne (alfalfa) squares, $14/bale for small grass squares and $17/bale for oaten hay. Lucerne hay is currently selling at my local feed merchant for $27/bale for small square bales!! It isn’t going to get cheaper any time soon. Oh – and for exchange rate calculations, the Aussie $ is worth about 80c US at the moment, give or take.
Speaking of pasture and hay and all things fibrous and edible….
I was escorting my colt down the road for our daily trek and the neighbor (about a half mile from the house) was at her mailbox as we passed. I’d not met her before but as usual the diminutive size of my little friend brought her over and started a conversation. Normally I just nod and move past (I’m afraid I tend to be more than a little anti-social) but the little sprout needs some practice standing still for the time when he is trained to drive, so I took the moment to chat as a training opportunity. She commented on how lovely he looked.
She was standing ankle deep in lush green grass whilst her husband rode in circles on their riding mower behind her as she bemoaned the fact that her horses are skinny “because of the drought” (yes, it has been dry, but unlike much of the country we are NOT having a drought here) and her “pastures are just dust at this point”.
I didn’t even know she HAD horses but when I looked behind her barn I could see three skinny but not starving horses milling about in the shade behind sagging three strand barbed wire fence, all wearing ratty old halters much too large for them which SCREAMED “I’m an accident waiting to happen!”. At least they weren’t so small they were growing into the horse’s face.
They easily have two acres, if not three, of yard that they keep watered no matter what the weather. ~headwall~ It is a miracle those horses haven’t killed themselves on that fence trying to get to the veritable smörgÃ¥sbord on the other side.
My pasture was invaded by a toxic weed this year and is unusable until next year. I shared this fact with her along with the fact that I simply purchased some electric tape and step in fence posts and have been moving the horses around the yard. They are fat, sassy, and happy and I’m not having to feed hay all summer.
I do, however, have to pick poo from the front yard twice a day, and I have to invest the time and effort into moving the horses from their paddock to the yard twice a day and in completely rebuilding the fence every three days or so. I also have to keep a close watch on them because I do not entirely trust this temporary fencing. It requires effort on my part but my glossy well fed horses are ample reward.
Her reply, “We can’t do THAT! That would ruin our grass!”
Well, heaven forbid! We can’t have THAT now can we? Better to let the horses starve and have a lush carpet of green about the house. ~roll eyes~
Before I get into the hay convo I want to say to WTF? that I wasn’t swiping your handle(user name). I didn’t see a WTF? until after I registered. I’m going to change it. lol Anywho, onto hay.
I live in Arizona and hay prices have been pretty high for the last couple of years. I pay $9.50 for good alfalfa, $10.75 for Bermuda and $11.00 for Tif grass. The bales are all pretty heavy, at least 110 lbs. The grass is heavier. I wouldn’t care how much the hay got up to, I’d buy it anyway. I’d sell stuff just to be able to buy it. Hell, I shop for my horses before I shop for me. lol The man who is begging for help needs to get off his ass and get to a feed store. I wear to God some people are just losers from the get go.
wtfh? is now CraniallyChallenged.
Just FYI for those looking to have hay shipped to them–’premium’ suppliers like Oxbow and Kleenmama’s primarily provide hay for guinea pigs and rabbits. They ship their hay in small flake-sized boxes, or at least they did when I was volunteering for a small-animal rescue.
I have no idea whether they could handle a horse-sized order or not…it might be worth someone looking into if this is the route people end up having to take.
I live in Idaho and there is always plenty of hay here. For shit sakes we have tons of dairies that grown their own hay and sell it as well. Plus Idaho hay is very very cheap!
fi – 100% agreed. until youve been in a drought in the driest continent on earth for 10+ years and seen small, square bales for sale for over FORTY DOLLARS… i dont wanna hear another whiney bullshit word about it.
I firmly believe you can find ANYTHING on ebay. And yes, you can find hay on ebay too.