Cow-Calf Corner: Questions To Ask BEFORE Buying Hay

Dec 28, 2022

By Mark Z. Johnson

Winter is coming and hay inventories are low. Given the current situation it can come as a relief to just find hay to purchase. In 2022 many of us in Oklahoma find ourselves making hay purchases from out of state that are not the typical harvested forages we use in Oklahoma. Regardless of the hay source you are considering, ask the following questions and consider the following before making purchases:

Ask for a FEED ANALYSIS REPORT of the hay before you agree to buy and consider the moisture, protein, energy and relative feed value of what you are purchasing. Also consider the nitrate levels if you are purchasing sorghum hay.
Purchase by the ton, not by the bale. In a drought year like 2022, there will be hay on the market from roadsides and abandoned fields. Some bales of low density depending on baler settings. In order to get what you are paying for base purchases on tonnage. All hay bales are not of equal weight or quality.
Ask how the hay has been stored. In a barn = less spoilage, stacked in rows on pallets is better than stacked on the ground.
Ask what type of wrap is on bales. Net wrap results in less spoilage than twine wrap.

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Border View Farms is a mid-sized family farm that sits on the Ohio-Michigan border. My name is Nathan. I make and edit all of the videos posted here. I farm with my dad, Mark and uncle, Phil. We also have a part-time employee, Brock. My dad started the farm in 1980. Since then we have grown the operation from just a couple hundred acres to over 3,000. Watch my 500th video for a history of our farm I filmed with my dad.

I started making these videos in the fall of 2019 as a way to help show what I do on a daily basis as a farmer. Agriculture is different from any other industry and I believe the more people that are showing their small piece of agriculture, helps to build our story. We face unique challenges and stressful situations but have some of the most rewarding payoffs in the end. I get to spend everyday doing what I love, raising my kids on the farm, and trying to push our farm to be better every year. I hope that I can address questions or concerns that you might have about farms and agriculture.