Our hay grower flaked on us big time.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

After 6 years of doing business together, outta no where our hay grower just "flaked" out. Pun intended We were all set for our winter load after being put off for 3 months. And when the day came for our load to come, they didnt show up. No call or email. I tried for 3 weeks to contact them. Even having people with different numbers and locations try to call them. Made a new email with a totally random name just to see if they were avoiding us for some insane reason. Well a few days ago I sent an email informing them that I was sending the sheriffs out to make sure they were alive and got a reply finally of "No, we are ok."
Best I can figure is because of the massive amount of business they were getting from as far away as Florida and they didnt have to haul the loads, they just decided to cut ties with their smaller clients. Thats the only thing I can come up with.
In any event, that left us without our winter hay and I have been having to hunt for hay locale. Been getting it from a larger grower here but its over priced, light weight and the quality is rather bad and random. From over dried to baled to damp to thin flakes to flakes so big you get maybe 8 outta a bale. There are a few bundles that are decent but nothing I would call premium like they are calling it.
Had to swing by the feed store to get a few bales to cover till Monday when we are trying out another grower and OMG! 19.00 a bale from the feed store! I almost crapped my pants. But I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. No real point to this post other then to vent a bit and to say, if you are located in eastern Oregon, stay away from Deleon Farms.

[SMaxwell]

$19 a bale ! Ouch!! & you got a lot of mouths to feed. I bought some premium stuff locally & paid $11 bale & I thought that was bad. Tractor Supply in Durango has some fairly good looking hay for $12 a bale, which IMHO is twice what it should cost. Luckily there are a few growers here who are letting the locals get first dibs, but most of it is still going to Texas. The growers all say that the Texans are wanting everything they can get and will pay any price to get it.

[Huckleberry]

Well that just plain sucks, I'm really sorry to hear that. That's a lot of stress and like SMaxwell said, you do have a lot of mouths to feed. A few weeks ago we were really in a bind when my husbands truck was totaled by someone who ran a red light. Long story short the insurance companies were big jerks about everything and wouldn't give us a replacement truck in the meantime. We have all of our orchard grass purched for the year up north and drive up and bring it home 25-30 bales at a time, which lasts us awhile with 8 goats. We weren't going to drive the distance north for a few bales and were forced to go to the feed store and bring home 2 bales at a time, wrapped in a tarp inside of my rig. They wanted $22 a bale for good orchard grass when we pay $5-$7.50 depending on the cutting. You have everything all planned out and do your part and then someone else screws it all up. I'm sorry and hope you run across a good deal for your goats.

[Nanno]

Dang... that's just plain bad business on the part of your hay supplier! The should have honored your agreement for this year and even if they had to switch to out-of-state business for financial reasons, they should have let you know well in advance. There's no excuse for people to behave that way, and karma will catch up to them eventually.

I had to pay $11/bale (delivered) this past year, but at least the hay is very good and I wasn't exactly shocked by the price. We've had such bad drought here for the last few years that the hay is scarce, and good hay is almost impossible to find. Quite frankly, I'm glad I didn't have to pay more! My hay costs have tripled in three years. Hay went from $5 to $11/bale and I've had to buy more because the pasture hasn't been reliable. Last year I was scrambling in the spring because I had to feed for an extra month so the pasture could come in.

[Saltlick]

Seems like hay is a big problem right now in a lot of areas. I was lucky to find some at 11 a bale, but now I can't even find plain grass hay, so I may end up having to buy it at the feed store where it is a whopping 25 bucks a bale!!!! Insanity!!! I can't afford that... I'm going to have to make those goats get a job!