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 Career in Looney Tune Land
Posts: 1717
  
Location: the high desert | What kind of hay is best to get in the King county area? I have been looking around on craigslist and seems that the "local" hay is not so great?? I currently feed orchard grass hay (beautiful central oregon orchard grass hay, boy will i miss it) but it (orchard grass) doesnt seem to be as easy to come by in the King county area. Is timothy hay decent? What about oat hay? Are you better off to feed alfalfa/grass mix in this area? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 411
Location: Smack in the middle of WA! | I'm no help for the west side but if you are able to haul hay you can get great hay here on the east side of the mountains! There are also many hay delivery people over here as well. I know many people come this way to get hay! And I'm sure you would like the quality much more:) |
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Career in Looney Tune Land
Posts: 1717
Location: the high desert | Im thinking thats what i may be doing. |
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boon
Posts: 1
| You can buy good orchard grass at many feed stores. King Feed in Enumclaw for one, but it is super expensive. We started buying local orchard grass from farmers that take hayleage off in the Spring. Theis makes the hay they sell in the summer a second cutting and it is much better than the normal local hay. The problem is that many of the farmers smart enough to do this are only selling round bales. I can give you the number of the guy we buy from but he is in Rochester, which would be a healthy drive for you but not near as far as eastern WA. The hay from Sequim is also outstanding and I know some dairy farmers in the Lynden area that have great hay too.if |
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 Veteran
Posts: 287
| I live right in the middle of dryland hay country in WA state and we sell almost all our hay to either dairies or feed stores on the west side so I'm not thinking you will have an easy time finding good hay since they all seem to drive over here. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 540
Location: WA | King county area will be high priced for good hay, good as in E. WA. Local hay is ok for some horses but from what I understand...due to it raining so much on this side of the state the ground is very acidic so it makes for hay that has less nutrition in it and not very good quality its a good filler hay. Our horses do not do well at all on it. We haul ours from E. WA. yakima area we stock up before winter, we buy Orchard Grass. Good hay will be as much as $20-$25 a bale this winter if you buy on the west side of the state, 80lb bale or so. My mom and Aunt live in King County and they said their local feed store is already $18 for orchard grass. compared to the $9ish we pay and then haul over our selves. Good luck, look on craigslist in the yakima area if your going to haul over, Ellensburg will also be higher priced, I think because its right off I-90 and a straight shot over the mountains. Drive another 30min and the price seems to go down alot.
eta:
you have to figure out how much you have to haul at once to make it worth it. We do a MIN of 3 ton a time, with 3 ton and the price of fuel it adds about $2 a bale. so $11ish is better then $18 but a lot better then paying the $20-$25 this winter. With 5 horses & $18 a bale I wouldnt be able to afford or do anything. Hope this Helps.
Edited by Roxie 2014-09-02 11:47 PM
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Career in Looney Tune Land
Posts: 1717
Location: the high desert | Thanks everyone. Does anyone feed timothy or oat hay? |
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 Firecracker Dog Lover
Posts: 3175
| Timothy hay is great if it is cut at the right time and baled at the right time. If it is cut too late it can be on the stemmy side but you can easily look at a bale and know if it's going to be decent (and I always ask if I can open one up to look inside. If it's nice and green, has a "sweet" smell to it, and bales solid and not loose (it can dry out easily otherwise) then timothy is good stuff. I am with the others, if you can haul you may be better off driving to Moses Lake or Othello to purchase hay. |
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 Strong Willed Woman
Posts: 6577
Location: Prosser, WA | I've fed oat hay in the past and there was a lot of waste. I've got some good Timothy now that I'm feeding with alfalfa and it is really good hay. |
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Career in Looney Tune Land
Posts: 1717
Location: the high desert | Anyone ever heard of vetch hay? It looks nice, its timothy/orchard/vetch mix. What the person says in the add makes since lol. I have just never heard of vetch. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | We hay our own hay, so not much help there...and I'm in Grays Harbor county. You might try looking in other counties, because I know a lot of people that put up hay and then sell it. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| Iwish - 2014-09-03 11:12 PM
Anyone ever heard of vetch hay? It looks nice, its timothy/orchard/vetch mix. What the person says in the add makes since lol. I have just never heard of vetch.
While I don't currently live in WA, I grew up in the area. Vetch is filler when talking horse hay. Expect the protein content of that hay to go down when compared to Timothy/orchard grass mix. It will be decent hay, just know you'll probably have to add alfalfa to it as well or feed more concentrates (grain) to make up for it.
I know a couple guys south of you quite a ways that carry really nice grass and alfalfa - they bring it from the west side and sell to horse and livestock people in SW WA. For a fee, I'm sure they'd deliver to you as well. PM me if you'd like their info.
Because you are in King County, everything is gonna be more expensive. Try looking around Puyallup area or a bit further west and I'm betting you can find some.
Good Luck!
EDTA - Try Ellensburg area? I'm not sure how far you are from there but they usually have really nice hay in that area too ....
Edited by lindseylou2290 2014-09-04 10:50 AM
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Career in Looney Tune Land
Posts: 1717
Location: the high desert | Hmm interesting. Well im going to post some adds of hay I have found and hope you guys can help me pick lol.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/grd/4627998390.html (vetch mix hay)
http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/grd/4651907423.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/grd/4647089799.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/grd/4649563428.html
Im so use to the orchard grass over here its hard to pick new hay.
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Firecracker Dog Lover
Posts: 3175
| Yes to all but the Vetch mix. That stuff is filler and doesn't have much nutrient content. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 540
Location: WA |
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Career in Looney Tune Land
Posts: 1717
Location: the high desert | thanks for the help. I will stay away from the vetch hay. |
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