Orchard Grass Hay for Sale in Florida

Delmar Ropp is a co-owner of Farmers Direct Hay and Feed in Williston, Florida, and a fifth-generation farmer.

We keep three orchard options on the floor in Williston: straight Orchard Grass in a 3-string bale, an Orchard Alfalfa Mix in a 3-string bale for animals that need more protein, and a 2-string Timothy/Orchard/Alfalfa mix priced for a herd. Orchard is a soft, palatable grass hay that most horses and goats eat clean. Ordering is by phone, not online. Pickup is six days a week at the store, and delivery is flat rate at $35 inside 25 miles and $40 from 25 to 40 miles. Call (352) 528-1255 and we will tell you what is on the floor that day.

If you are looking for orchard grass hay for sale in Florida, the hard part is usually not deciding whether you want orchard. It is finding somebody within driving distance who has it, can tell you where it came from, and will still have the same thing in three weeks. This is a buying guide rather than a feeding guide: what we stock at our Williston store, what the current lot tested at, how orchard sits next to timothy, and how pickup and delivery work.

Where to buy orchard grass hay in Florida

We are Farmers Direct Hay and Feed, at 21091 NE US Hwy 27 in Williston, about 23 miles from Ocala. We keep three orchard options on the floor:

• Orchard Grass, 3-string bale, $37.25 a bale. Straight orchard, and the one most horse owners come in for.
• Orchard Alfalfa Mix, 3-string bale, $37.50 a bale. Orchard with alfalfa in the bale, for animals that need more protein than a straight grass hay gives them.
• Timothy, Orchard and Alfalfa Mix, 2-string bale, $20.00 a bale. A smaller bale priced for feeding a herd rather than one show horse.

Two practical notes before you plan around those figures. First, there is no cart on our site. Every product page says "Call to order" because a hay order gets confirmed on the phone: variety, count, pickup or delivery, and the day. Second, prices move, so the number that counts is the one rendering on the product pages when you look, not a figure copied out of a blog post. Call (352) 528-1255 and we will read you the current one.

What our current orchard grass tested at

We send hay samples to Equi-Analytical Laboratories on their Fast Track 600 package and the report travels with the load. We test the field, not every individual bale, so treat the panel as a description of the lot rather than a guarantee about one bale in your truck.

The published panel on the Orchard Grass page:

• Sampled: August 4, 2025
• Crude protein: 10.3 percent, as fed
• NSC: 11.7 percent. This is water soluble carbohydrates plus starch, added together. Equi-Analytical does not print an NSC line, so that figure is derived.
• Relative feed value: 104
• Report ID: 30889210, downloadable as a PDF from the product page
• Grown: Nevada

If your vet has given you a sugar ceiling to stay under, the number to hand them is the ESC plus starch line off the PDF, not a category label. A hay type is a starting filter. The lab sheet is the actual answer.

Orchard grass or timothy: how a buyer should think about it

Both are cool season grass hays, both come to us in a 3-string bale, and horses that eat one usually eat the other. The honest difference for most buyers is texture and protein, and we can put real numbers on the protein because both products publish a panel.

Comparing the two current published panels, sampled about ten months apart:

• Orchard Grass: 10.3 percent crude protein, RFV 104, sampled August 4, 2025
• Timothy 2nd Cut: 14.8 percent crude protein, RFV 107, sampled August 4, 2025

Those two were sampled the same day, so that is a fair side by side of the lots we published. Orchard tends to be the softer, leafier feel in the hand, which matters if you are feeding a horse that sorts and wastes a stemmy bale. Timothy is the more common ask in a performance barn. Neither is the better hay in the abstract. The one your animal eats clean, every day, without you fighting it, is the better hay.

If you want the longer version on timothy specifically, we wrote one: timothy hay near me in Central Florida.

Orchard grass hay for goats

Goats are browsers, not grazers, and they sort a bale for the leafy parts and leave the coarse stems. That habit is why orchard tends to work well for them: it is a soft grass hay with the leaf still on it, so there is less waste on the ground.

The rough split we talk through at the counter:

• Wethers, bucks and dry does: a grass hay like orchard as the everyday base
• Does in milk, late pregnancy does and growing kids: a legume in the ration, either the Orchard Alfalfa Mix or peanut hay
• Every goat, every time: a bale that is leafy, smells fresh, and is free of dust and mold

Owners of male goats should talk to their vet about the calcium to phosphorus balance in the ration before they move a wether onto a legume-heavy diet. That is a herd health question, not a hay question, and your vet knows your animals. The full breakdown is in our guide to the best hay for goats.

When to buy the Orchard Alfalfa Mix instead

The mix exists for animals whose ration needs more protein than a straight grass hay carries. Its published panel:

• Sampled: June 30, 2026
• Crude protein: 21.5 percent, as fed
• NSC: 9.1 percent, derived as WSC plus starch
• Relative feed value: 176
• Report ID: 31499500
• Grown: Nevada

That is roughly double the protein of the straight orchard lot above, in the same 3-string bale format, for 25 cents more per bale at current pricing. Whether your animal needs it is a conversation with your vet, not a price decision.

Pickup and delivery

Pickup. The store is at 21091 NE US Hwy 27, Williston, FL 32696. Monday through Friday 9am to 5:30pm, Saturday 9am to 2:30pm, closed Sunday. Come by and we will load you.

Delivery. Flat rate by driving distance from Williston, not straight-line distance:

• Inside 25 miles: $35 flat. Ocala is in this band.
• 25 to 40 miles: $40 flat. Belleview and Summerfield sit here.
• Past 40 miles: custom quote, call us.
• Hay by the container, roughly 130 bales, up to 40 miles: free delivery.

We run deliveries Monday through Saturday during business hours and ask for 2 to 3 business days of notice. Orders placed before 3:00 PM Eastern can be scheduled for the next business day. We cover Marion, Alachua, Levy, Citrus, Sumter and Putnam counties, including Gainesville, Dunnellon, Newberry, Archer, Bronson, Chiefland, Reddick, The Villages and Ocala. Full rate card and city list is on the delivery page.

Questions we get at the counter

Can I order orchard grass hay online? No. There is no checkout on the site. Call (352) 528-1255 and we will confirm the variety, the count and the delivery day on the phone.

Do you deliver a small order? Yes, delivery is the flat rate above regardless of how many bales are on the truck. Ask us on the call and we will tell you whether it makes more sense to add bales to a delivery you already have coming.

What if a bale is bad when I open it? Bring it back and we will exchange it. A full unused bale can come back for a refund or an exchange. An opened or partly used bale we cannot take.

Do you have it right now? Call and we will tell you what is on the floor that day. We would rather say it on the phone than write a number on a page that goes stale by Thursday.

Can I get a whole container of it? Yes. A shipping container holds roughly 130 bales, delivery is free inside 40 miles, and the first 30 days of the container sitting on your place are free. Details are on the hay by the container page.

The short version

Orchard grass is the soft, leafy grass hay that most horses and goats eat clean. We keep straight orchard, an orchard alfalfa mix, and a 2-string herd mix on the floor in Williston, we publish the lab panel on the lots that carry one, and we deliver flat rate across six counties. Call (352) 528-1255, tell us what you are feeding and how many head, and we will tell you which bale to put on the truck.