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What is hay selling for in your area?.

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Jonfarmer

06-01-2006 08:07:10




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Wondering what hay sells for in the south and midwest?. I have always heard hay sells good in some areas of the country every year because there is always a drought or some sort of natural disaster that ruins hay production somewhere. Question, how much do people get for hay in areas like that?, I mean, with the price of fuel if I gave them the hay for free by the time it gets trucked cross country from Vermont, thats going to be some mighty expensive hay, so is there any money to be made shipping hay across the country?. Got a chance to possibly rent 150 acres of very nice hay and it sounds like there is going to be droughts this year, but the question is, can I make any money? and also, is it the small square bales that always sell good?.

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bobby simpson

01-17-2008 09:35:39




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 Re: Kubota L210 questions in reply to James D, 12-18-2000 16:55:27  
need price for starter and injectors and availability of parts



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MN Bob

06-02-2006 05:14:35




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
Kinda late to get in here, but if you are still there, Around here the good hay that is not bought up by locals gets loaded up and goes to a broker. Most of the guys hauling it say they get enough to pay for the trip as well as the local price. Usually 2.50 to 3.00 per 55# average bale. Some go with heavier bales. 150 acres is not unthinkable, just need to mechanize. I have a accumulator but if doing more would look at the hay wagons, maybe self propelled.

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Allan In NE

06-02-2006 03:04:01




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
A month ago, good hay was leaving this area headed for Texas at $65 a ton in the farmer's pocket.

Allan



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toomanycases

06-01-2006 22:47:56




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
Well, we just had 26,600 lbs alfalfa delivered. It cost just over $179/ton. then you add squeeze loader charges & tax, & end up with a bill of $2610.00. 220 bales & its a little higher than last year & is fine stem & the horses eat it so I guess we will live with it. The wife loves her horses. Oh yeah its Southern Calif.



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Seth_ia

06-01-2006 19:54:29




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
Idiot blocks are usually worth from $2/bale to maybe $3.50/bale for a 50-60# bale of good alfalfa. Not much uniformity in pricing in this area. There are not enough big squares sold in this area to give an accurate price. However big squares are the best way to ship hay, but then again I own a big square baler and may be a little biased.



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old fashioned farmer

06-01-2006 18:10:43




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
Howdy,
I've been baling and selling a portion of the hay raised on our farm for the past 4 years now. Most of that was alfalfa and all of it was done in small square bales. We have a problem around our area with discount shoppers. There are a few horse people that will pay good money but they are already established with farmers that they know and have dealt with.

I have been trying to get steady customers and have a few but quality and time are the two big strikes I've had. Living in the hay-killing capital of the U.S. (So. Ohio) I have to fight weather like a terrorist. Of course, blame lands on me too since the past four years we've tried to run hay with just a sickle mower and no conditioning. I'm hopin to change that this year if I can convince dad to allow some barn space for a 1209 JD that I'm planning on buying at our dealership. I also work till 5pm thru the week and drive a good 45 min to get home. Pair that with only havin dad and mom to help get it in, we've struggled to get really good hay in.

I've had some awfully good crops and then have people scoff at you when you ask 3.00 a bale. Sometimes they even turn away at 2.50. There have been times when my hay should have brought 4-4.50 a bale but no one would buy it. Matter of fact, I still have 166 bales of really nice straw that went from 3.00 down to 2.50 and still no takers. Advertised it at peak buying times for livestock and landscaping and just had no demand.

It's a crazy business and I'm glad I don't do it for a living. Heck, my own sister turned down my hay and went to my neighbor who does a lousy job of baling hay because mine was "too high". She came back after findin out my warning of "you'll be sorry" was a true one. Horses didn't touch the other guy's stuff. ha ha. God bless and have fun.

p.s. anyone know of any good 336, 24T, or 214T balers for 1500 or less in OH or KY?

--old fashioned farmer

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GregCO

06-01-2006 13:12:47




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
In our area of Colorado hay prices are all over the map. I can buy anywhere from $120.00 per ton to $200.00 per ton delivered. My last buy was 20 ton trucked in from Nebraska @ $140.00 per ton.
4 x 4 x 8 bails are common and easy to get but don’t fit my operation very good. 3 x 3 x 8 bails are getting more popular and easy to find as well. Small bails are what I go after but normally have to pay a premium to get them and most farmers have gotten away from putting them up because they take too much time to deal with. The horse and goat people all want the small bails here as well and most will pay a high price to get them. I can often have hay brought in from Nebraska cheaper then buying it locally and hauling it myself. The biggest problem I run into is finding real nice barn stored hay. Field stacks are cheaper to buy but not hardly worth the trouble of sorting and having to throw away the 15 to 20% that I cant feed.

Greg

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RickL

06-02-2006 04:56:02




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to GregCO, 06-01-2006 13:12:47  
I sell hay all time and specilize in small squares. Have shipped to your state several loads. Let ne know if you need some good stuff again. I ship in 53ft van trailers,find this workd best for travel that far. It also take all weather and tie down problems out of the senerio. Large squares so far I can't give away,way to much spoilage in them from one I have seen and for the cost of the unit it doesn,t pay back so far. In my market they run $3.00 out of field and go up from there. Straw is same starts $3.00 in the field and up. Large rounds are done on rained on stuff only. Currently am pretty well already prebooked but do hav eabout 1 semi load availble yet 540bales is normal load

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RickL

06-02-2006 04:54:09




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to GregCO, 06-01-2006 13:12:47  
I sell hay all time and specilize in small squares. Have shipped to your state several loads. Let ne know if you need some good stuff again. I ship in 53ft van trailers,find this workd best for travel that far. It also take all weather and tie down problems out of the senerio. Large squares so far I can't give away,way to much spoilage in them from one I have seen and for the cost of the unit it doesn,t pay back so far. In my market they run $3.00 out of field and go up from there. Straw is same starts $2.75 in the field and up. Large rounds are done on rained on stuff only.

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kyhayman

06-01-2006 13:04:29




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
Price of hay on a national scale is almost always dictated by the price of diesel fuel. Western irrigated hay typically has the most demand, but it takes the most money to bring it to the large concentrations of animals. If I was trying to move that kind of volume, I'd use a hay broker, preferably an international one. Let them take care of the transportation. Otherwise you have collection and billing to take care of from far off customers.

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Patrick_76

06-01-2006 10:06:22




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 08:07:10  
From what little I know about the hay market, I would say local customers, especially folks with a small number of animals like horses, sheep and goats, and small bales are the way to go. You are right, hauling hay across country is pretty expensive. I lived in Louisiana last summer. The drought situation in the Southwest part of the state was so bad that many farmers were selling off their animals (thus the explanation why more animals didn"t die during Hurricane Rita).

Small bales are easier to handle, and there is often more demand locally for them from the small livestock folks, thus the price is probably going to be higher per pound than for the big round and big square bales.

Patrick

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Jonfarmer

06-01-2006 10:44:22




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Patrick_76, 06-01-2006 10:06:22  
Getting established with customers is the big thing. Most horse owners have bought hay for years from the same farmer. There is alot of horses around, but I think the local markets is pretty well covered $125 a ton is pretty well top dollar for nice horse hay in this area, but this may change as corperate farms continue to take over the family farms. The trouble with small squares is it's so darn labor intensive to get them in the barn, you can't hire local help to do this as this is a job that falls under the "jobs that Americans don't want" category. I am pretty much alone, so small squares would be the most difficult to do. I have seen automatic bale wagons on the internet, and those do really intrique me as I have never seen one work, but nobody stacks them outside because they would be extremely hard to get at during the winter here, if they were covered with a tarp, it would be all covered with snow and froze down to the ground.

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Dave H (MI)

06-01-2006 12:08:49




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Jonfarmer, 06-01-2006 10:44:22  
Am I reading the wrong information "between the lines" here or are you relatively new to the hay game? The reason I ask is the talk about establishing a market, etc. If you have not done hay before you are in for a real education tackling 150 acres of good hay. ANY consideration that you could do that alone with small squares is...well...forget it. Small squares cut maybe 10-15 acres at a time and sold to LOCAL horse and goat people is your best bet for top dollar. That is how I do it. Don't think you could ever do 150 acres without a lot of help and some serious barn space.

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Jonfarmer

06-01-2006 12:19:41




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Dave H (MI), 06-01-2006 12:08:49  
No, I have done some hay, and realise that tackling 150 acres at a time would be 100% totally impossible and I know that I would have to cut it in much smaller segments, like you say 10-15 acres at a time. I have played around just enough to figgure I'd get probably around 40 bales to the acre and end up with probably around 18,000 bales off that 150 acres. Serious barn space, this guy has, in fact, he has two barns and both will be empty. He made square bales, round bales, and silage. I am fairly new to the haying game when it comes to selling hay, I have not made much hay to sell, but I do know how to make it.

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Billy NY

06-01-2006 10:21:40




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Patrick_76, 06-01-2006 10:06:22  
I'm probably not that far away from your area, 25 miles from Bennington. $3-$4 and up seems to be typical, depending how it is etc. etc. etc.

I do know that the horse industry has established itself in Florida in the Wellington area and other regions and that high quality hay does get shipped in, from Colorado and areas similar where the weather seems to cooperate for good hay production, they pay a premium for it, but it's not like they even feel the pinch of that cost.

The way I see it, you need to make a contact in that sector or similar where the money is and the desire for top quality hay is in demand, sell them on it, then be able to produce it and arrange shipping, while also being able to deal with the weather, equipment, baling and any help you may need to get it done.

Between all the horse farms, and show circuits there has to be a market, but it's really hard to say how much you could sell and what the end result will be profit wise, I'm sure there will be some good discussion on this one.

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Illinois Boy

06-01-2006 12:01:11




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 Re: What is hay selling for in your area?. in reply to Billy NY, 06-01-2006 10:21:40  
Not enough!!

Beats me hay prices stay so stable when everything else goes up like smoke!!



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