Horse keeping in Montana (Billings: how much, gated, living in)

[FiveHorses]

I'm hoping to get a bit of insight from anyone up in MT that owns horses.

What's a small sq bale of good hay running these days? What would be the most readily available type of grass hay (not alfalfa)? How about a bag of feed? Farrier costs?

I've done my research and am aware of the water situation - but I was looking for some insight into how much actual grazing there is (in terms of length of time) in an average year (non-irrigated). I realise this is going to vary hugely from year to year depending on snow & rain, but am just looking for a ballpark figure.

Can anyone tell me about the native grasses... what type of grasses are they in the main, rich or poor, that sort of thing.

I'd be very grateful for any information.
Many thanks.

[Rickers]

Montana is way to large and varied to answer a question like that. If you specify a county at least then someone may be able to answer specifically. My God, Montana is larger than Germany and every corner of the state has it's own economy.

[FiveHorses]

I do appreciate how large Montana is.

But I've found that generally, feed costs and hay costs are within a couple of dollars of each other from - for example - Texas to New Hampshire. Farrier costs seem to vary more widely - but again, this seems more "regional" than anything else. I was just trying to get a feel for where Montana lay on the US-wide spectrum.

For the sake of argument, I'll say the Billings area, but would welcome any input from anyone who has horses anywhere in the state.

Thanks.

[magoomafoo]

Due to our long winter and poor second cutting last year, hay is quite high. I'm asked on a weekly basis if I will sell any of my hay. Some folks did not figure in the hay shortage carried over from the year before. Grass hay, decent quality will run you about $140-180/ton. Alfalfa is more than double that. I send our horses and mules over to the eastern side of the state from November to May every year for winter pasture. The grass quantity and quality in the Rockies just are not in great supply.

[Redraven]

Grass and grass/alfalfa mix can go for as little as $3 per bale for plain old average hay, to $5 to $7 per bale for "certified weed seed free" hay, in small square bales.
The year before last, I got crested wheat grass hay for about $130 per ton, small squares. Last year I was not able to get any.
This year I will need hay before the first cutting is done, I'm not sure where I will find it.
Open grazing horse boarding can run $95/month and up.
We may get rid of our horses.

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by Redraven

$5 to $7 per bale for "certified weed seed free" hay, in small square bales.

We may get rid of our horses.

Thanks Redraven...

Around where I am, a small square bale of crap hay (not to put too fine a point on it, but you run a 50/50 of opening it up and finding mold) is $6.99 from the feed store, or you'll pay about $6 for locally produced and barn stored - less chance of mold, but "weed seed free" wouldn't enter into it.

Alfalfa runs about $12 or $13 - and the quality was dubious (more stem than anything else). I know it was running about $260/ton.

Again, thank you for taking the time to reply.

[Reziac]

[cough*gasp*choke] And to think when I lived in MT, we thought $30/ton was terrible!

But fact is, anything that uses a lot of diesel to produce and process is going to follow fuel prices...

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by Reziac

But fact is, anything that uses a lot of diesel to produce and process is going to follow fuel prices...

Yes, but isn't funny how it's only a one way street? Last summer, everything went up from hay to our garbage collection and diesel was ... about $4-something a gallon. High fuel prices were blamed - "ya know, we can't just keep going the way we are when fuel has doubled."

It's now $2.20/gal (+/-) but I've yet to see a price come down.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by FiveHorses

Yes, but isn't funny how it's only a one way street? Last summer, everything went up from hay to our garbage collection and diesel was ... about $4-something a gallon. High fuel prices were blamed - "ya know, we can't just keep going the way we are when fuel has doubled."

It's now $2.20/gal (+/-) but I've yet to see a price come down.

Same thing with dog food. Decent dog food (I get it from Sam's Club) went from $13/50 lbs. to $20/50 lbs. in less than a year, and the higher-end stuff from $16/44 lbs to $29/44 lbs. in the same period. That may not sound so bad if you have one dog but I have a kennel, and my annual feed bill went from about $6500 to over $12,000 !!!!

Okay, so the price of diesel and corn explains all that, but now diesel is back down about where it was before (tho corn is still up due to the biofuel mandate) and yeah, commodities follow fuel by about a year, but shouldn't we see a drop by the time this year's crop is in the bins and going into the supply pipeline?

If not, then why not? because they've taught us to accept inflated prices as normal?

Meanwhile, if you make a living in livestock, you're starving, cuz no one has any money left over to pay for hunting dogs and trail horses, let alone training sessions or riding lessons, and ranchers can't afford the hay to winter those millions of beef cattle either -- and the critters still want to eat. So they reduce herds and the price of meat goes up as scarcity increases.

The fallout from the fuel price spike is still coming down on our heads, and will be for some time.

[Mt-7]

I wondered about the dog food increase as well. I thought just because we have limited shopping that I was paying the price for not heading out 150 miles to do the big store. Good thing my dashies are not to big. Are rather happy with table leftovers. I worry about the farmers with the different products and fuels they use. I notice all bread products are sky high also.