We have a fellow that will stop by with sample bales in the truck, he will leave 3 bales or so, tell you the price, if you buy, those are free. I really enjoyed dealing with him, good hay, fair price, no nonsense. His hay was always nice quality, 2nd cut really nice, more so if the weather cooperated, he'd tow in wagons, kids would help off load, stack. We are the anomaly, having horses, we put our own up for many years, so there's usually no fuss. I don't know how people get so crazy, if you are that concerned, then work with the farmer or hay producer, visit the fields before they are cut, see what it is, you can't tell by bales, then reserve what you want from fields you like, check it out when windrowed, do something other than the eccentric things people do, I've seen and heard about quite a bit of it over the years. I bought hay in my neighborhood here, knew the fields, a few years I even put it up myself with the farmer who produced it, cut raked baled with his equipment, filled my order, of course it was not all the hay, he had other buyers, he had some really nice fields, 2nd cut at times, there is nothing better than being involved like that to see what you have. I liked what grew locally, he sure knew how to grow nice clean stands of hay, darned weather was more of a problem than the hay itself. They sure were happy 30 miles north where it was delivered, his price was always fair, a few times he gave us really nice deals on 2st and 2nd cut, you just can't not appreciate that given what it takes to put it up. I would load the truck with 200 bales, drive it up there, given I unloaded the wagons, then stacked the truck, and also stacked the wagons behind the thrower so we could get more small squares, rest would be round baled, I let the help up there handle it, 2x was enough, but I sure knew what we got at the end of the day. Really, all it takes is checking the fields with the person putting it up, as long as they do not bait and switch you, you will know what you are getting, weather aside.
