I'm in East Texas and we have a little piece of family land that's mostly pasture. We have never sold hay , but I was wondering what it sells for per round bale. I'm sure it's highly dependent on the rain and supply…

And type/quality of forage being baled.

Check Facebook marketplace for prices on comparable hay. That will at least get you in the ballpark. I'd say $60-$120 a bale depending on quality.

110 ish for oat
125 ish for coastal

Round bales going for about $150 in the Hill Country

We are up here in the Piney Woods. No idea what kind of hay it is. It's about 75 acres of beautiful pasture though..

It depends on the type of grass and if it has been weeded or fertilized.
Fertilized horse hay like coastal or Timothy will bring a premium.
I know of some quality big 5x6 round bales of Timothy horse hay that is in Kentucky that can be bought for $30 a bale if someone wants to haul a semi load for.
I also have a source of fertilized coastal horse hay in Burleson that will be around 70$ - $80 bale of net wrapped 5x5 bales.

Have you priced out custom baling and what you would spend?

You could potentially work something out where they get every other bale or something in return to cut at no cost.

Has this pasture been fertilized?

We have a guy who cuts it now. He fertilizes it with chicken house turds. He keeps all the hay in return for some fence building and doing all the cutting/bailing. Once the fences are in good shape, I don't think this will be a good deal for us ..

What we do, and have done for many years, is that we have our custom bailing guy bale the hay and he gets 1/2 of watever we make in hay (the number of bales) and pays me an agreed price (a price that we talk about and agree on per year) per bale on my half that I do not want or use. Some years I need some hay for our horses and some years I don't. I do all the spraying and the applying of fertilizer and we figure that cost into the price of the bales every year.

I would caution you on the use of the chicken turds as, depending on the chicken grower, some of the chicken turds have good fertilizer value and some of it does not. It should be sampled and tested to tell you the value.

Thats just what we have done and that way our pricing changes per the market value.

I would say that if you had receipts from him on what he has spent on fence upkeep over the years does not come close to what he makes on the hay.

Agreed on over doing the chicken litter.

Usually it's done every few years.

Hi! I have 25 acres that I lease to a guy, who bales coastal hay on it. I can't seem to find standard data on the price I should get in the lease for when he sells his hay. I see that a Large Round "bale" can be sold at $105; I also see "Large Round" "roll", not bale, sells for $140 - $170. So there is that confusion... And I get $7/large or small "roll" he produces; I also get .30 for each "small square" per "bale". I've been over all the local ag sites and am only getting more confused. Any thoughts on what rates I should ask for? (I understand the cost to produce hay is up, and so, the cost to buy hay is up, too).

Round bale and roll are the same thing. The difference in price is location, quality, type, and to a lesser degree, weight. Hay is sold in bulk amounts by the ton but that isn't as common in Texas.

I don't know what hay leases are going for right now but margins are always pretty low for the producers. Your ag exemption is being covered and your land is being cared for. Both are big positives if you have the right person leasing.

There are so many variables in production agriculture that make it difficult to answer the OPs question, but I'll take a stab at it. The quality of the hay dictates its value, coupled with the local supply/demand ratio, which can vary greatly year to year, and even within a year depending upon the weather (drought). Rolls of high quality coastal are bringing $125 + in and around San Antonio area. It used to be standard for a landowner to get 1/2 the crop, but that's negotiable, along with who pays for the fertilizer and weed control.

Everything's negotiable, and can be adjusted year to year. The more involved you are with the expenses (it can be a large investment in money, time, and risk) the more entitled you will be to a larger % of the total. You might make a lot one year, then lose it all back the next. It's difficult to make a profit long term without close management. Good luck!

I get $8/roll from the guy who cuts and bales mine. He is required to fertilize "almost" after every cut. Been working fine but only got one cutting this year so far due to the rain.