Selling some hay .

Bruce from Can. · Jan 24, 2017

While back I made a post saying that I was offering some hay for sale, and that the local market was hot . Some fellas thought that I was exaggerating , and that the price of hay couldn't be as high as I was stating. I was offering premium quality second and third cut 4x4 wrapped hay for $100.00 per bale , and second cut grass hay for $70.00 per bale . Well I had one fellow come in with his feed dealer , and they took samples of the grass hay , and sent them off to be tested . Yesterday he called me and told me he would take all I had to sell. I would sure hate to be paying out this kind of $$ for hay , but some how , I don't mind selling it at this price. Guy buying the hay is local , and can only haul 5 bales per load, these things weigh like crazy, so he will pay as he picks them up. Big straw bales are selling at $30-35.00 per bale .Should have sold the cows , and just sold hay,lol. I don't see how anybody can pay these kind of prices for hay, but paying $10,000. pr acres for land blows me away too, so maybe I am just getting too old and out of touch. Bruce

Deere Scotty · Jan 24, 2017

No offense; but I would make my own hay... At that price! Now that said; I am very happy for You, & wish You well, & hope You are able to keep that customer for a long time. Most people seeing this probably wont be so forgiving. P.S. I wont pay $5000 an acre for land either!

W_B · Jan 24, 2017

(quoted from post at 12:14:14 01/24/17) I don't see how anybody can pay these kind of prices for hay... Bruce

When you have animals to feed you pay the price. I don't like paying what I am for hay but it's good quality and the guy stacks it in my loft so I don't have to touch it until I feed it. I guess it beats having to have thousands of dollars of equipment and finding hay ground and all that goes with raising a crop of hay.

Ken Macfarlane · Jan 24, 2017

It hasn't helped my prices here but someone I sold hay to trucked it from southern New Brunswick to Ottawa as there was nothing available there at any price. I was 150$ a ton landed at his place here as small square bales.

centash · Jan 24, 2017

I figure you took the risk of losing the crop, you deserve to get premium price for a premium product. Ben

2underage · Jan 24, 2017

Sorry Bruce, but here we would call that "price gouging". I have sold a lot of hay but I try to help my neighbors when there is a local shortage. This past summer we had a drought and the hay was short but I sold my hay to the locals at the same price as in the past. Just saying! Happy farming.

Ken Macfarlane · Jan 24, 2017

One persons price gouging is another persons market. I happen to hold set prices but almost all my hay is pre-sold. The cattle buyers don't hold set prices and neither do grain buyers.

NEKS · Jan 24, 2017

Sounds like Bruce is a business person. Knows he has a good product. Like BTO's that come to you and want your rent lowered because grain prices are down with his shinny red new pickup setting in your drive.

mjbrown · Jan 24, 2017

I learned the hard way cash in my hand before I load the hay. As for the price gouging comments, when the market goes the other way they don't mind stealing our hay for peanuts.

jon f mn · Jan 24, 2017

I agree, especially since he isn't a regular hay seller. If he had regular customers I might be simpathetic, but just selling some extra on a high market is the same as selling corn at $8.00.

Case Nutty 1660 · Jan 24, 2017

I live in a drier climate and we only get one hay crop a year here,, I have been getting 90-100 a ton for the last 4-5 years all hay is sold to one buyer 250-350 tons with the cost of equipment parts and at least fuel is back down,, I really do not think I am over charging as I am covering up to 600 acres to get that tonnage,, different areas different prices,, the ground rent I pay is not anything like where they raise beans and corn so I guess it all works out in the end, I always strive to put up high quality hay and I feel I should get a good price for it,,
cnt

Bkpigs · Jan 24, 2017

I understand the points on both sides. But you didn't force anyone to buy it and if you did have the drought to create the strong demand, your hay yield would be lower and you still need to put food on the table and the lights on. It is the free market. If you have the animals and can't afford to feed them you need to sell some. I keep my prices stable but I am just a hobby farmer so that point is mute.

Bob Bancroft · Jan 24, 2017

Yep. $120/ton for straw as it lays in the field behind the combine.

I don't remember if we talked about this. Mega-milk factory dairies sure have pushed that market by feeding straw! Since the vast tonnage of hay and corn is chopped here, it's so wet and hot that they're buffering the feed with straw!

I know you're joking about selling the cows, and I'm not ready to give up yet, but since they're still fighting over ground here, land price is still ridiculously high.

P.S. I still remember selling oat straw at harvest for $40/ton. And we baled it!

Brendon Warren · Jan 24, 2017

Send some of that business south. My hay has been moving slow down here. I've still got 10,000 small squares left. Two years ago I was out in February.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 24, 2017

Two years ago hay was high in my area this year mild Winter and cattle numbers down I see 3 columns in the local sale paper for hay priced at $25-35 bale mostly 4X5 bales and they aren't selling.I have about 2X as much hay as I'll feed.I'm glad to have it might be a dry Summer this year.You'd be crazy to sell the hay for less than market value regardless of what some have posted.

2underage · Jan 24, 2017

Remember Jon, It was to a neighbor, not a random sale on the open market. I do not disagree with his prices but just the same I would not wish to profit from my neighbors hard luck. Things will be different next year but I still will be living in this area and I am happy that I can help when I can. Next time it might be me that needs a leg up. Happy farming.

Ken Macfarlane · Jan 24, 2017

I didn't see any bad luck involved no mention of barn fire? The neighbour did feed tests, that means he is not desperate.

Bruce didn't have to offer it for sale.

Bruce from Can. · Jan 24, 2017

No offence taken, 2underage. And I understand your point, but I have had many calls from guys wanting to buy hay, and crying about the price. And I darn right well they are just buying the hay to resell it again. And nothing wrong with that, but why should I take a skinning just so some other fella can turn a quick buck flipping the hay he bought from me , at a reduced price , with some hard luck story. No thanks. When I sell grain at the elevator, they tell me their price, I can sell to them , or not. But if iI sell 100 tons of corn at $175.00 per ton , then come back tomorrow and want to buy 100 tons of corn , do you think they will sell it to me for the same $175.00 that they bought it for? Not on your life! They run a business, and sell at what the market can bear, I am just doing the same thing. Bruce

olgentdc · Jan 24, 2017

happy for you bruce ,..we got so much hay in Louisville ky area ,.. I am thinkin of draggin onevin here for breakfast and pouring milkon it for a shredded wheat breakfast cereal ,..but ibn a yr or two that will change tog the other extreme

farmerwithmutt · Jan 24, 2017

I remember a long ways back at a hay auction i guy made a comment i don't care what price the hay is I'm not paying for it. That was a drought year and the price was high and government subsidies kicked in and yes he had subsidies so he didn't care but i wasn't so fortunate . Several of us could not get subsidies being smaller and farming different got us in trouble what got me was when they asked how many bales to the acre i couldn't tell them because i was doing rotational grazing a friend got caught because he was green chopping being different doesn't pay apparently at that time if you didn't buy tractors,machinery and lots of fuel you were not supposed to be farming its funny how many of the guys that got a bailout eventually went bust.

DoubleR · Jan 24, 2017

I've been buying good 4x5 bales, net wrapped, of first cutting stored inside for 30-35 bucks a bale at the auction in mid Mi. Glad your getting a good price. After seeing how dry it was in parts of Canada in your neck of the woods, traveling threw last summer, the price doesn't surprise me. Happy for you but glad I'm not having to pay that. I'd have to break down and buy some haying equipment. I decided years ago it was more cost effective for me to buy my hay.

DoubleR · Jan 24, 2017

As my father use to say "You gotta make hay when the sun shines". As a buyer I don't expect someone to sell hay cheaper to me than what the market is. I sure hated paying 7 bucks a bu. for corn to feed a few years ago but it is what it is and you just have to make the necessary adjustment to compensate.

Bill VA · Jan 24, 2017

Bruce,

Good for you. I see no price gouging. The person looked at the hay, went to the trouble of having it tested and bought it - no gun pointed at his head.

We make horse quality hay and believe me the low ballers, including the folks flipping hay (with zero sweat equity) cry a river at our price. THEY are just as guilty of low balling as they claim my price is high.

Funny thing is - when someone buys a load of hay from us AFTER the emergency vet bill because they bought the over-ripe cheap, loaded with foxtail hay or bought some rich hay that their horse colic'd on or they bought hay that was really "green" (and dark green = quality right? ) only to find dust and mold later - all of these customers could have SAVED $$$'s if they had bought good hay from the start. But to the cheap horse owner - price means EVERYTHING and if you charge enough to cover your expenses and make a profit - you're gouging. It makes me laugh!

Haying is cyclical. When you have a ton of rain, everyone's got hay and they drive your price down. When there is a drought - price goes up. It's just supply and demand. They beat you down on price when there is plenty of hay and cry with hike in price when hay is short. I have no sympathy for the low baller buyer when they have to pay more for hay than they "think" it's worth.

Disclaimer - if you are a year in/out steady customer, you'll pay the same year to year.

YMMV

Bill

4520BW · Jan 24, 2017

One year when it was dry I sold a lot of alfalfa for the normal price. Next year when the production was up I called some of the same people up and they said they can get it cheaper elsewhere. So I will never sell to them again no mater how bad they need it or how much they will pay.

David from Kansas · Jan 24, 2017

Hay prices are low in this area. Can't hardly give away large rounds of wheat straw. As low as $16 per bale. Grass hay and alfalfa are low also. Lots of rain in this area last summer and good hay crop(s). I am buying some good quality first cutting alfalfa in large rounds for $80 per ton, picked up at the growers lot, and it is lower than that now as I contracted for $80 last fall.

farmerwithmutt · Jan 24, 2017

Reyonlds auction dodgeville wisc its a little west of Madison.
Grassy round 40 to 55 a ton
Grassy large square 90
1st round 40 to 70
3rd large square 75 to 115
Theres more on there website

SHALER · Jan 24, 2017

don't know where Traditional Farmer is, but I am seeing the same thing in Ohio- prices down at the auctions and lots of ads in the farm paper. This in the wake of what I would say was a slightly better than average hay making year.

Donald Lehman · Jan 24, 2017

Yeah, the last I knew, the fellow we buy TMR from raises oats, sells the grain and keeps the straw for fiber in the TMR.

BarnyardEngineering · Jan 24, 2017

Apparently lowballing the farmer is okay?

Mike(NEOhio) · Jan 24, 2017

I'm seeing the same thing.

tom stalker · Jan 24, 2017

(quoted from post at 20:32:10 01/24/17) Apparently lowballing the farmer is okay?

Look at the price farmers receive for milk compared to what it sells for at the market.

Price per hundred weight is close to what it was in the 70's here in NY.

If someone thinks the price of a commodity is too much...they won't buy it and look somewhere else

Bruce's buyer looked,[b:08433fe111] tested[/b:08433fe111] and then bought

Guess he was happy with the product and considered the price fair.

cool hand · Jan 24, 2017

Several years ago we had good quality alfalfa/orchard grass for sale at local weekly auctions. The buyer of one lot asked how much more of it we had. We told them how much, and they said they would take it all if we discounted it 50c /bale (small squares). We agreed, taking no more of it to the auction sales. They took about half of it by the time the auction sales ended and took no more, leaving us with a large amount of hay with no market. At that, I resolved to never again trust "horse people" in any kind of hay deal except strictly cash-in-hand!
Ironically, I correspond with a farmer in Sweden (my daughter in law is from Stockholm), and visited them at their farm several years ago. It just happened that the day we were there, they were dealing with some "horse people" for a hay sale. My friend said the same thing--strictly cash-in-hand before loading!

Nick m · Jan 25, 2017

When hay is cheap, people don't offer to over pay to help me out. When hay prices are good, I take full advantage. There's only been one year in the 10 I've been selling hay that it was high around here, and yields were terrible. Even at the higher prices, I wasn't reeling in the dough. A good example is Straw this year. There's a bunch of it around, so I'm only getting $2/square and $12.50/round. Not one person that has bought any of the 2500 squares or 100 of the rounds offered a dime more than I was asking.(Normally run $2.50- $2.75 and $20-25). It's how the market works, it's not price gouging. No different than the corn market.

Selling some hay .

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