Reply With QuoteYep, we need hay for our horses , price is going up dramatically but we've had three good rains in the last 14 days, grass is growing again so we may get another cutting.
Hay becomes key US commodity
Hmmm, makes you wonder what will happen with prices.
link: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/03b71...#axzz2427dHcQQHumble hay has become a key commodity in the US agricultural market, with price gains in drought-stressed areas far outpacing the rally in corn and soybean prices and further straining the country’s beleaguered cattle industry.
The price of bales has more than doubled over the past year at auctions in states such as Iowa and Illinois, showing the impact of the severe Midwest drought on forage supplies.
Average US hay prices have reached record levels after increasing a more moderate 8 per cent on year. The furious Midwest hay rally has gone largely unnoticed outside the cattle industry, as investors trade crops such as corn and wheat in Chicago’s futures exchanges. But the rise is significant because it will push up meat and dairy prices as farmers shrink herds they cannot feed. Hay supplies per animal are at the lowest level in more than 25 years, economists at the US Department of Agriculture said.
“My hay pile is going down in a hurry,” said Michael Cordia, who farms in Belgrade, Missouri. “I’m going to have to sell my cows.” Most cattle farmers would normally be grazing cattle at this time of year and mowing hay supplies for wintertime.
Midwest pastures are in very poor condition, however, forcing cattle to eat hay now. The US faces its smallest hay harvest since 1976. At an auction in Rock Valley, Iowa, last week, hay topped $300 per short ton, up about 150 per cent from August 2011, the auction head said. Good quality alfalfa bales had more than doubled in a year at the auction in Congerville, Illinois. In Missouri, prices rose as much as 70 per cent on year, the US Agricultural Marketing Service reported.
Yep, we need hay for our horses , price is going up dramatically but we've had three good rains in the last 14 days, grass is growing again so we may get another cutting.
I helped my brother put up about 500 bales for his horses this summer...Not sure if he paid too much or not...
Not too long ago there was a special on 60 Minutes, I think, on how it was cheaper for US farmers to ship hay China than it was to sell it to other US farmers.
My father-in-law grows and bails hay for sale in Louisiana (round and square), and he and his brothers refused to gouge folks because of the recent droughts. Call it what you will, he could have made a killing, but the man stuck to his principals...and I'd see folks selling small bales for twice what he was asking. His take on it is keeping family farms running, as the hay business is more of a hobby, until he retires.
The man is that cool, best father-in-law you could ask for...and since I took his eldest daughter off his hands, I'm ok in his book too.
I guess some folks would call him a sucker.
Dad got one cutting and sold it all off expecting to get a couple more...then the drought hit. Bet he wishes he could take that one back.
I have also seen this same thing in other ag media. To this point it has only been cheaper because of all the empty cargo containers going back to China. The price of the hay was the same, just the shipping was cheaper. The latest hay shipping prices that i have heard is that by truck from Colorado to Texas is about $4 per ton per mile...if no back haul could be arraigned. If there was a back haul then shipping went down to about $2-$2.50 per ton per mile. Because of the empty shipping containers shipping hay to China is at about $.75 per ton.Originally Posted by SBL
Hay is scare this year. Because of the drought my parents in Kansas have been feeding hay for the last month. They were lucky in that they had some rains in late April and early May that allowed them to get some decent harvest and they sold their calves early last year and that freed up some hay. That being said, i am not sure how many offers that dad has turned down from people to buy hay because he is not sure how long he will be feeding it.
Feeding straw now?
good catch
I've known and know people who do feed straw. It normally has to be ground and then mixed with something sweet like Vigertone liquid protein or something similar and cattle will eat it like crazy. Not the best feed but works in a pinch pretty well.
We had two cuttings up here in WA. It has been a good year.
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