Hay, What's in that Bale?

Garmin's first experience with unlimited hay in 2011

Hay can be expensive and hard to come by here in Colorado considering the droughts and flooding.  I've had some questions recently about how to purchase hay and how to tell if it is good quality.  The nutritional aspects of hay are many and varied...  and a topic for a subsequent blog post.  This post will address some recommendations for locating and choosing your hay supplier.

First of all I'd like to recommend my hay guy, Lyle.  He has BEAUTIFUL tasty weed free timothy grass hay that he grows at his place at Elk Mountain, WY.  I really feel the best way to ensure you are getting quality hay is to establish a relationship with someone you can trust to deliver consistent quality and amounts of hay.  If you live in Northern Colorado and need his info, contact me!

However, since not everyone can handle the heavy bales that I get from Lyle (the small ones are 110 lbs and the big ones are 1800 lbs) here are some considerations for screening potential hay suppliers.

Things to consider before you start shopping:

• How much hay will you need for a year for all your horses?  (a horse eats 1-2% of their body weight in forage per day, so count on about 15 lbs per average sized horse per day)
• How much hay can you store at your place?  
• What is your budget for hay? Will you be buying a years' worth of hay at one time or purchasing intermittently throughout the year?
• Do you need the hay delivered or are you able to pick it up yourself?
• Are you willing to purchase at a hay auction?  You may get questionable quality for cheap, or do you want high quality hay for which you may pay more?  Also consider the time you'll invest waiting for your ideal stack to come to the auction block, and that you may be competing with others to buy it.

If you're screening potential hay suppliers individually, call and talk to the person selling it.  Is he a hay broker or dealer?  Or do they grow it themselves?  Leave a message if the person doesn't answer, and if they call you back that's already one point in their favor.  Many hay suppliers are unreliable, and returning phone calls is a necessity if you want to purchase hay from them.  Find out what size bales it comes in, if the person will deliver it for you, and how much of it you can buy at one time.  Will they hold onto hay you reserve, or do they want to sell all the hay asap?  Find out if the supplier will give you a weight report to make sure you are getting the correct amount of hay.  This is more important if they will be delivering it to you in large quantities.

Go look at the hay before you buy it.  Most average bales are about 50 lbs.  Check out where it is stored, whether in a building or out in the open, whether it has been tarped to protect it from moisture or not.  To evaluate whether hay has been baled while wet I'll part the bale slightly with my hands, and shove my fingers/hand into the middle of it.  If you feel any heat or dampness, you don't want the hay.  If the hay was rained on slightly after it was baled and had a chance to dry thoroughly the outside of the bales may be brown/yellow, but the inside still bright green.  Smell is a big one for evaluating hay - trust your nose!  It should smell fresh and like dried mowed grass.  Any musty or moldy scented hay should be avoided.  While I'd like to think that people are generally honest, you do want to look at the actual hay you would be purchasing.  Shady characters often will put the nicest hay out front for people to look at, then actually sell you the lesser quality hay that was further back in the stack, or in a different location.  Be sure to ask to see hay in different buildings if there are other places, and inspect bales that are located two or three deep in the stack.  A worthwhile hay supplier will understand what you're doing and be happy to show you other hay, someone who is trying to pull one over on you will get huffy and declare it's all the same and you don't need to see the other hay.  Go with your gut.

My biggest point is to do your math.  Once you know how much hay you'll need for the year per horse, calculate your total hay needs and budget.  People will quote you hay prices by the bale, by the ton, or by the semi-load.  The best way to compare pricing among suppliers is to calculate cost by weight.  For example, this is how I would calculate hay for Cole, my lesson horse, for the year:

Then I calculate what my cost would be if I bought hay from theoretical Hay Guy A, who gave me his price in tons, and Hay Guy B, who gave me his price per bale.

I hope this helps with some of the details of purchasing hay.  One of the benefits of full board at a quality facility is you don't have the responsibility of finding your hay, but to those of you in the search for forage I wish you all the best in locating your favorite "hay guy".