Hay prices?

Who on here cuts hay & what are you getting for a roll this year? I'm gonna need about 40 rolls for winter. I thought about buying my own equipment but buy the time I buy equipment, beg for or lease land to cut, spray & fertilize I don't see how I could come out ahead of just buying.

$30 per roll. 48" wide x 64" tall roll. I wouldn't sell it that cheap but we've got one guy that buys it all. He'll wind up with 500-600 rolls this year.

If you pay $100 roll, you could never justify buying the equipment to roll your own hay for 40-100 rolls per year, especially after you add the costs of lime, fertilizer, and spraying.

I'd suggest finding a local and building a relationship with them. Buy from the same guy every year. Find somebody that bales actual hay, not weeds and sage grass.

I have different contacts & made a new one this week. Paid $25 for a 4x5 mixed fertilized heavy. Bermuda, orchard with some young Johnson grass. I bought 16 rolls just to see how my cows would eat it. I can get hay, just curious what others were charging.

& you are right Fur, I could never justify buying equipment. I would have to lease a field to cut, just thinking out loud.

If you buy from more than one person, I'd suggest weighing some of the rolls. The guy that buys ours, was buying 5x5 rolls from someone else for $25 per roll. He told us we were too high since ours are 4x5.5 I suggested he weigh some of what he was buying and some of ours and he took me up on the offer. Our bales outweighed the 5x5 rolls by 300 lbs.

A properly set John Deere baler with net wrap can pack a whole lot of hay into a roll.

Hay is very abundant this year, you should be able to get good hay rolls for $30 or less. We have a barn full, have it lined up out side and still have hay to cut !