Hay prices vs corn prices

2012. My father in law has a small beef herd. Last year because of the drought he ran short of feed. Pastures that usually last till Nov 1 were done by Sept 1. Usually he would graze some corn stalks too but he chopped most of his corn cuz of the dry year. Normally on Dec 1 he likes to have 200-250 tons on hand. Because of early feeding and reduced yields in the hay fields it took most of his corn crop to get his feed supply adequate. About Feb 1 he got the sense winter was gonna drag on longer than normal, which it did, so he bought some hay from a guy. 60 bales at $65 each. $130 a ton. It was 2011 grass hay. Mostly road ditches. We had to dig it out of the snow and I hauled it home in my spare time. First time in 15 years my father in law bought any hay. Not really in the budget but do what you gotta do.

Now 2013. Hay yields are about 120% of normal which is almost triple 2012 yields. Our pastures should last till Dec 1 easily. Gonna have cornstalks to graze. Got 20 acres of corn that got planted too late. More Silage. Culled the herd a little bit. He is gonna have plenty of feed on hand for winter.

Hay guy pulls in last week Monday offering his new crop grass at $150 a ton. Told him we probably don't need any hay this year but you never know. Yesterday he is back again. $120 a ton now. Father in law tells him he would be a buyer at $70 a ton just to help out. That is about pasture rent price now. Hay guy responded with a comment about burning the hay before giving it away. 3 years ago most grass hay was $50 a ton. Now $70 is give away?

We can buy corn for $156 a ton for Dec 1 delivery. I know my father in law was trying to be neighborly but I think he was foolish for offering $70 when looking at feed value. This is for grass hay, not alfalfa. I know the cow can't live on corn alone but he has plenty of roughage in stock already.

Where should grass be priced vs $4.50 corn? Any good feed conversion links on the web?

I figure I have 55-60 dollars a ton in putting up hay here in NE Wy, I have to agree with the hay seller I would not take that for my hay I would not burn it but I could see saying that lol I do not put up road ditch hay mine is mostly alfalfa/grass mix along with grain hay, but if I can not even get 10 dollars a ton for my time for the work in putting it up it would stay in the field I could put cows up for so much a month and get more than that out of it and have no cost in cutting raking and baling sold all my hay this year for 150.00 a ton in the field I put up over 300 ton I did make some money yes but I also spent a lot in fuel parts and twine so I really feel I got a fair price and so did the buyers I really do not see hay prices here going below 100-125 here any time son unless the price of fuel/twine/parts /equipment goes down a lot but then we get one cutting a year and on average 1 ton per acre is common places where you can get 2 or more and tonnage is higher I could see a little less but still put up cost is high now days sorry for the long post just my two-cents
cnt

Guy that rents from us got 4th cutting in this week!

In 2009, I was delivering hay for $150/ton to the large dairy north of here, good clean oat straw was $180, all of which I helped put up, I cannot see selling it for that price, less than half, knowing the costs of the equipment, the maintenance, the cost of keeping a truck on the road, it was a decent paycheck at the above prices, not a huge or unfair mark up, if we did that, this customer would not buy from us, as I know with sawdust bedding for the calves, I used to deliver that, but it was so marginal, a pain to even get a load, enough that one afternoon after tearing the inside of my leg open at the day job, needed to get stitched up, but the mill called, I went and got the load on the truck first just to secure it, then took myself for some quality time with the doctor, a deep jagged tear, hard to numb, good times LOL ! He stopped hauling that bedding, they wanted it just above cost, would pay no more, one tire, one ticket, it will cost you much more than the load was worth. He turned all his ground to hay, for a couple of reasons, and it figures corn was doing well, as thats what is mostly grown around here and sells a few hundred acres worth of hay every year exclusively to that customer and by now the price is probably higher. His stands are decent too, so if the weather cooperates it can be really nice hay.

I figure good alfalfa hay has to compare to corn. And here good grass hay brings almost as much. So with corn prices nearing $160 I'm not paying over $200 for alfalfa. I did pay $150 delivered for some wheat hay. It's high but what do you do? You don't want to see the crap i'm baling. Rolled up 90 bales yesterday and I'm still coughing up dirt this morning. I figure I can grind it and blend it with wet distillers. I'll have $60 a ton or less in it in machine labor. (cutting it on 50/50 share)

I just bought 6 truck loads of good sub-irrigated meadow hay for $120/ton. I still have trucking in on it, but only about 40 miles away, so freight won't totally eat me up. I am also going to bale about 600 little squares on the same place. This is preimo stuff, and I paid $120/ton raked. I have to bale and haul it.

Well hay prices at the auction in Dyersville where down yesterday. Bought three semi loads of nice grass hay in big squares for $110 a ton. I can't grow it for that. I figure I have $40 a ton just in mowing/raking/baling. So that made the hay itself be around $70 per ton or 3 1/2 cents per LBS. Cheap feed I think.

I know it will be much higher this fall. I really did not need the hay but for that price I can leave some of my better hay in the shed for later.

As for your FIL, it would have been better to have just told the hay seller the he did not need any right now but would keep the hay in mind for later. His low ball offer just POed the hay seller. So if your FIL does need hay in the future I can guarantee the hay seller will remember the low ball offer and charge the FIL more money then.

North Central Missouri....I paid $50 a ton for good grass hay a couple weeks ago. Ended up getting good first and second cut alfalfa for around $120 a ton.
Hay is plentiful and good quality. So much around, guys are buying it cheaper then that now.

I suppose I understand the hay guy turning down your $70 per ton. What I don't understand is the reasoning behind trying to compare the value of corn to grass hay. It's easy to put a value on corn because it is a readily "marketable" crop. As you stated, cows can't live on corn alone, in fact, they don't need corn at all. They HAVE to have roughage. Trying to compare roughage value to corn vlue makes no sense when you're talking about feeding cows. Now I'm talking about brood cows....not finishing cattle. In order to determine a "fair" value for roughage, consider how many pounds of hay it takes to put on one pound of gain or look at it as how many pounds of hay does it take to "maintain" a cow. That would be somewhere around 20-25 pounds a day depending upon the size of the cow. You can quite easily figure what it will cost you to feed a cow. The "value" of that roughage can then be worked out between the buyer and the seller. You obviously thought the junk you bought last year had "value" at $130 per ton. He offered you good grass hay for $120.00. So absolutely, I would have turned down your $70.00. You didn't want it and you didn't need it. You just thought maybe you had an opportunity. Turn this around, if you had offered to sell HIM your good hay for $120 and he had offered you 70...........would you have been insulted?

As you seem to know already, hay is gonna be cheaper this year as there's plenty to go around. $70/ton was not out of line, if you need it, which sounds like you don't. I'm in the same situation. I barely got enough made to get myself through last year. This year I've got plenty. Looking for a few more head now. As far as corn, I don't feed any. Once I wean the feeders will start getting some but even then, I don't feed much. A beef cow should live on grass, no corn or silage needed. Most east river cows are way too fat IMO.

Casey in SD

Here are some web links to help you start. There are many variables to balance then compare to price. I would recommend to test the forage analisis for it's nutrient values form the state university or a private lab. Try to keep the values on a Dry Matter Basis(DM). Generally solve for the animal needs/or requirements first for protein, second energy,because these generally incurr the highest cost per unit. Then fiber, roughage, nutrients, supplements, salt,
...
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G2066
http://www.ezration.com/
http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2632.html
Search you - tube for a Univ. of Tenn. with Dr. Clyde Lane Jr.; he does an excellant job balancing: protein or energy level etc. with the square method

http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/compute/balance.htm

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/asc/asc12/asc12.htm

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=1398

http://www.beeflinks.com/feedprogram.pdf

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex9146

One pound of corn will replace two pounds of good quality grass hay, up to 50% of a cows nutritional needs. Joe

Fuel was about $1.00 a gallon lower 3 years ago.

That increases cost over 25% across the board. If $50 was breakeven in 2010, then $70 is breakeven now.

guys, the price of farm products sold by the farmer is a roller coaster at best. And they make all riders ill at some point.

On Cincinnati CL I saw somebody advertising small squares in the field for $2.

And no, I don't know anything about the quality.

Thanks. Thats what I was looking for.

A bale of hay, square standard size, used to be close to a gallon of gas.


Corn went up and down but stayed around $2 a bushel for a long long time.


I sold hay last year to a fellow in Michigan for $75 a ton and he paid shipping from here to Michigan.


This year, I just sold 100 round bales (4x4 timothy/grass) for $60 a ton. That's as low as I want to go anymore. after that, I am gonna whack it with a mower and leave it lay, put it in grain.

I don't see a correlation between grain and hay. Auction prices are king. when I go to a hay auction, I see lots of bales of marginal worth sell for $4 a square. I don't buy or sell at auction, but I use it to set my prices.


This year is good and bad for hay. If you are a hay farmer and you got it done on time, you are good. If you are a grain farmer and cut hay after grain is in the ground, you were too late and the hay is fair to poor in quality. That's just my area.

You are saying that fuel going up one dollar per gallon will drive your hay costs up by 20 dollars per ton? That means that you use 20 gallons of fuel per ton of hay? What kind of equipment are you using? Sounds like something is really wrong in your calculations. Tom

Tom,

There is nothing wrong with my calculations. It's just something I've noticed. Like I said I set my hay prices by auction trends. It's not my fault that auction trends flow that way.

15 years ago, if you told anyone around here that hay would be close to $4 a bale for first cutting, they would have called you nuts. Last year, $4 a bale was cheap in Feb for 1st cutting.

$3.50 per bale is about what it is right now. Gasoline is hanging around $3.65. In 1991 I clearly remember selling hay for 75 cents per bale. Gasoline, was 76 cents a gallon. in 2001 gas was around $1.75 a gallon, before 9/11/01. Hay auction prices were between $1.75 and $2. After 9/11/01 gas went down to 99 cents per gallon. Hay stayed up. It was the first time.


Just my personal musings. YMMV.