I sn’t it amazing that these gentle giants can survive on hay? Well not only hay, they also enjoy fresh grass, apple and oat cookies and mineral licks as well. What can we say? They love to munch! And we love to watch and listen to them munch!

But back to the hay, do you ever wonder how we get it and what it all costs? A few of our supporters asked us so I thought I’d share with you too. Behind the scenes goes something like this…

An hour each way to get around 60-70 bales of hay twice a month

Oscar hooks up the trailer to the truck and travels about an hour each way to get around 60-70 bales of hay twice a month. He loads up the truck/trailer with the help of the hay farmers and upon his return, stores the hay on the second floor of our barn to keep it dry and clean. He had been tossing the bales up to the second floor manually, crazy because each bale weighs between 40-50 pounds. Needing to be more efficient and practical we decided to invest in a hay elevator. Look at Lynn and crew going for it! You can see how much easier it is with the hay elevator and a few extra hands! As for the type of hay, we usually get second cutting hay which is more nutritious and sweeter than first cutting hay (well at least that is what our cows tell us ;)).

Here is an approximate breakdown because sometimes they eat more than the daily allotment. Up until now, we’ve been very lucky to get our Hay at $6 dollars a bale of second cutting in our previous area, hence the long trip to pick it up. We’d like to find affordable local hay but unfortunately there isn’t much second cutting available in our new area for the price we have been paying. The farmers had a challenging year with all the wet weather and they weren’t able to harvest as often as in previous years.The local going rate is $8 dollars a bale. So that means that the breakdown you see below may be increasing if and when we change hay suppliers.

Currently:

One bale of hay is $6
Hay for a day: 4 bales at $24
Hay for a week: 28 bales at $168
Hay for a month: 125 bales at $750
Hay for a year: 1500 bales at $9,000

Between all of the expenses the sanctuary has it is probably easiest to relate to a bale of hay. You can think of it like a cup of coffee and a muffin, which costs the same or more than a bale of hay. The cows love their hay and we would love your support to help them keep on munching. See the video of Brody showing us how to munch correctly 😉

Would you like to donate a bale of hay, hay for a day or more? Please click on our donate button. Any size donation would be super helpful to feed these beautiful beings!

JP Farm Animal Sanctuary is a nonprofit, tax-exempt
501(c)(3) corporation (EIN 83-1674833)

… they also enjoy fresh grass, apple and oat cookies and mineral licks as well. What can we say? They love to munch! And we love to watch and listen to them munch!

With loads of hay munching gratitude,

Britt