# One More Hay Customer Story



## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

Just one more on the subject of hay customers and then I will let it rest, until. . .

We had a regular hay customer for several years, a horse dude. He fancies himself a cowboy and does some team roping. When I say regular customer I mean regular customer in the sense that he would go buy hay wherever he could find it cheapest, complain about the price, complain about delivery costs, try to renegotiate the price while we were unloading etc. also it was exceptionally difficult to get in and out of his place with a 25' gooseneck, and we had to use a bale conveyor to get the hay into the barn and so on. But anyway they ordered hay from us on a regular basis. I think the only reason we delivered to him as long as we did is that his wife was/is truly a gracious person, if it was just him I wold have cut him loose without question. We have long sold and delivered hay by the bale, not by the ton unless we are selling a semi load-which is quite different than selling to the average horse owner. I explained (and still do) to our customers that since we didn't (and still don't) have scale at our place it isn't fair to us or them to sell by the ton, because someone is going to get a raw deal and, if I told someone they had a ton on their trailer and they went across the scale light. . . well you know how that would go. We weigh a good sample of bales from each field before we set our per bale price. I can and do tell folks about how many bales/ton and about how much per ton the hay costs, doesn't seem that complicated. In any event no one has ever had an issue with the way price or sell our hay, well no one except this guy. I get a call from this regular customer (yes he has been buying our hay by the bale off and on for quite some time) and he asks how much our hay is per ton. I gave him our bale price and told him we're around 24 bales per/ton give or take. He says he wants the price per ton, not per bale. So I gave him the approximate price per ton. He asks why can't I just give him *the *per ton price, since he, "always buys hay by the ton not by the bale." I said, " I thought I just did, but unless you want to pay extra for me to drive 30 miles out of the way to get an actual weight on your load, approximate is going to have to be close enough." or something to that effect. As I was offering to throw some more hay on the trailer so he wouldn't be short, he interrupted me saying, "When you can figure out how much the hay is per ton, give me call." Then he hung up just like that. I did not call him back. A couple days later another area hay farmer (and friend) stopped in to get about 6 tons of hay from us. After I got the hay squeezed onto his trailer, I found out he was hauling the load to the customer that had hung up on me. I laugh about this regularly. Our hay has been going to this guy's place for several years now even after he thought he changed hay providers. The fact that he doesn't know it is our hay, and that he pays more for it, because my buddy tacks on a little extra to make it worth his while is poetic justice at its finest . The customer has also told my friend that the hay he delivers is much better than the stuff we used to bring-if he only knew. At least I don't have to deal with him anymore, something for which I am quite thankful.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Thanks for lightening my day.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I have one.

A few years ago we still sold horse quality Alicia Bermuda square bales. We went through a dry summer and hay was scarce. I took a chance and fertilized with a 30% chance of rain and it worked. I was one of the few who had quality squares to sell.

I was talking to a lady I knew and she said she could not find horse hay. I offered to sell her some quality hay for $5 a bale. She did not accept the offer and changed the subject.

The local feed stores were selling good hay for $9 a bale when they could get it.

The feed store down the road offered me $6 a bale for all I would sell him. He would come here around dark and get a pick up load every other day. He sold it for the going rate of $9 a bale.

I saw the lady mentioned a few weeks later. She told me she had found some great hay at the local feed store. Said it was the best Bermuda she had ever fed. She figured the store owner had it shipped in because no one around here grew hay that good.

I congratulated her on the wonderful news.

We supplied the feed store after then until we quit small squares and went to rounds for our own use. Our price to the feed store went down when yield went up and he adjusted the price down for his customers. Neither of us ever shared the hay was grown 1/4 mile down the road.

When we quit squares, the lady told me the store owner had lost his supplier and asked if I had any hay? I told her that I hated no longer being able to supply the store with hay, that we were now all round bales.

The look on her face as her mind processed where her "wonderful" hay had come from all this time was priceless.


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## dubltrubl (Jul 19, 2010)

LOL! I can't help but laugh since we've recently had almost the exact same thing happen to us with a couple of customers. Since a lot of folks around here have had a very hard time of making good hay this year, the local feed store could not get enough squares to supply demand and they started buying from us this summer. By the end of summer they switch to us exclusively. Horse gal that buys a little from us turned her nose up at our hay and has always been the type that wants to get it for less than asking price. Anyway, after our first load to the feed store, she drops by to get a couple of rounds and is sooooo excited because the feed store finally has some "great" hay at a "reasonable" price. (They sell theirs for about double what we sell it out of the barn for) LOL! Another comes by after also going to the feed store, and comments that the store has some great hay that they must have shipped in from TX, because nobody around here make that kind of hay!!!! We resolved not to say anything locally about our arraingment with the store, because they are a very nice account and good people to boot, and we refuse to undercut them. Needless to say, when I hear these things I can't help but chuckle inside. 

Good for you guys! and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Steve


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I had an old blue hair call me on a Sunday looking for round bales , while my wife and i were enjoying a walk together. Despite the fact that the price per bale is clearly posted on my ad, she asked me the price for indoor stored 2nd cut horse hay. I told her the price again ($75) and she changed the subject. After about 10 minutes of blathering on, she asked me what I would charge for delivery. she said she wanted ONE bale. She also asked me if I would set the bale out in her pasture on a pallet supplied by me, and cut the net wrap off. I said I would do that for $50. I also encouraged her to buy 2-4 bales, since I would do the same for $50 delivery & set up charge. She openly admitted she would need 1 bale every 3-4 weeks. 
She said she only needed one bale and complained about my delivery, pallet and set-up cost. I told her to load, deliver, drive out to pasture, include pallet and my fuel costs and 2 hours time invested, I thought $50 was pretty reasonable. After about 1/2 hr of the nonsense, she said "thanks I will buy elsewhere". Her neighbor bought 12 bales from me for his hobby cattle and was very pleased with my hay. She said she knew him well and he said my hay was excellent.

I swear these horse people are frickin nuts. They don't have the ability to think rationally. She cannot understand that if she bought 4 bales, her $50 delivery charge (including 1st bale set up in pasture on my pallet) would be $12.50. She could only focus on the $50/ bale delivery charge. WTF is wrong with these idiots?!?


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Probably should change the title of this thread to "The More I Deal With People, The More I Like My Dog".

There is a quote attributed to Albert Einstein that says: "There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity - and I'm not sure of the former." Sorta sums it up right there....


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

The horse hay buyers that get my blood pressure up are the one's that state the smallest amount of Johnson Grass will cause their horse to colic or better yet cause their horse to get diabetes.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Lady next to one of my farms will NOT buy hay from my field because "I don't trust round bales", yet she has no issue turning them loose in that field to graze when her little paddock turns into a dust bowl.
Then she pays 8.50/small square, cuts the strings and throws it on the ground!!!!


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

I love good stories after a good Thanksgiving meal, btw we didn't have turkey, we had a venison roast from the Doe I took down the road last week. Dressed out at 110 pounds. I believe in keeping them off the bumpers of cars, others and mine.

Horse people are a strange breed, my wife included. In her case, she gets whats leftover that I run. That ain't all bad.

Happy Thanksgiving all....


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## country boy (May 27, 2010)

had a lady call about squares out of the field a few years back told her the price and she must have called me a dozen times in four days making sure when i was going to bale, day came and of course she was a no show, few days later she called and asked if the hay was cheaper now out of the barn since it was older and when i told her it was 1.50 higher she was very offended, so i asked how much she was looking to buy and maybe we could work a deal her reply was oh just 1 for bedding for my goat. I hung up on her and haven't heard from her since


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Similar thing happens to me for last 3 years. Same woman named Tara calls me. She explains to me the same story every year that she has 2 sheep and that she's concerned that a 4x5 RB won't fit into the back of her suburban. Then she starts in on the price and asking me to deliver it to her for free.
Then she tells me the access to the sheep pasture requires 4WD. Then I tell her the price and she starts complaining it might not be good enough quality.
I swear this has happened 3 years in a row. I don't think she knows she calls the same person every year.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Yep... sounds familiar.

I used to do custom cutting, raking, and baling around here. I have older equipment (Zweegers CM212 drum mower (1989), 256 and a 258 NH rakes on a double hitch, and a Ford (Gehl) 552 round baler (about 1981-2 model), and I realize that old baler can't put up anywhere near as pretty a round bale as the newer machines, but it's paid for. SO, I worked "cheap"... Started off getting about $12-13 dollars a roll for cut/rake/bale and would usually come move the bales to one side/end/edge of the field as a courtesy. I didn't do a TON of jobs, but that was okay... I wanted to make sure that I got there when folks wanted me there, not leave them hanging for a couple weeks or something while their grass turned to cardboard. I also cut one day, usually raked (in our normal hot weather) the next day (when the windrow from the mower wilted flat) and then could usually bale the next day (while the hay was still a good green color, but properly dry for a good-storing bale). I got plenty of business just by word of mouth. In fact, one customer up the road, an older gentleman who's long since passed on, paid me an extra $2-3 dollars a roll, because I did a nice job for him. (Sorta convinced me I was working too cheap... a few years later I just started charging $15 a roll, with diesel prices increasing...)

I cut a lot of hay, and wasn't particularly picky about what I cut... The one neighbor had Bahia grass with some smutgrass mixed in (which is actually fairly high in protein if it's not too old, so his brother told me-- cows eat it in hay, so "good enough"...) and I had a black guy who I baled for that had a pasture that looked more like broom weed than hay... but so long as he's paying, oh well...

I had a BTO stop by in his big dually one day wanting to hire me to cut his place... He was running a lot of cows down in river bottom woods, but had about 40-50 acres of pasture in front of his log house by the highway that he wanted cut. I rode out with him to look the place over. Now, this stuff was mostly dead, dry, standing grass and weeds with a little low-growing stuff underneath, native mostly... I figured it'd make decent yielding if VERY low quality hay. So he showed me what he wanted cut and told me about some stumps and stuff to watch out for (with the fallen trees still attached it was hard to miss...) and then inquired about what I charge... "$15 bucks a roll to cut/rake/bale, and I'll put them at whatever end of the field you want as a courtesy." This guy starts the "chew you down" routine... "WHAT??? I saw in the paper a guy selling fertilized Bermuda hay DELIVERED for $20 a roll!! You gotta come down from that!" I just looked over at him... it wasn't hard to figure out what he was calling me for-- same as the black guy with the broom weed, he wanted the pasture mowed but something to show for it... he'd pay more to have it bush-hogged than I was probably charging him to bale it, and he'd have some (albeit sorry) hay to show for the cost as a bonus... So I said, "sorry, nope. I know my expenses and what it costs me to do it, and it's $15 a roll... If you can get $20 bucks a roll for "fertilized Bermuda", then why are you wasting my time and yours?? Sounds like a h3ll of a deal!" He looked at me, shut up a minute, and then said quietly, "okay, when can you start?" SO, I came over that afternoon or the next morning and started... thing was, he only took me on the SMOOTH part of the field-- the REST of the place, probably 90% of it, was SO full of deep hog-wallows that my old 5610S was rocking and rolling like a schooner in hurricane seas! I cut for about two hours and it nearly beat me to death at 5 mph-- usually I cut at 6 mph all day long, but I could barely stay in the seat at 5mph... then the breakaway drag link on the mower snapped, and since the mower folds STRAIGHT BACK for transport, with it running it swung back and snapped the U-joint yoke. So, I shut down and had to limp home with a busted mower and a couple hundred dollar repair bill. After that I told the guy the place was just too rough and I'd come rake and bale what I'd cut, but I wasn't messing with the rest of it-- too hard on the equipment. I pretty much broke even after the parts for the mower.

I used to drive a schoolbus, and my boss had some cows and a hayfield he rented up the road from his place. He usually had some local guy on his side of town cut it for him, a BTO custom cutter, and he was griping one day at the bus shop about how his hay had been ready to cut for about three weeks and the BTO cutter had promised to cut it 3 weeks before and hadn't shown up. He asked me to come cut it, and we agreed on the $15 a roll price. This was $3-4 bucks a roll cheaper than the BTO was charging. He also had a second place right across the road from his house he wanted cut, too. SO, I get over there and start cutting, and within an HOUR the BTO races by on his tractor with his mower and pulls in the other field, to get it laid down before I can get done with the first field and get over there... So I cut the first field, about 20 acres, and go on home. Next day after the bus route, I drove out and checked it, found it about ready to rake, went home and put the rakes on and greased them, and went over and raked it just before the afternoon bus run. Next day about 10-11 I went and checked it and it was *almost* dry enough to bale, but a little bit too damp in some heavier spots with Vaseygrass invading the field (like super-tall Dallisgrass but much stemmier, not very good stuff, but a lot of good stuff growing around and under it). So I let it dry an extra day and checked it again... Pretty much spot on. I came over and started baling, and got a pretty good rain after getting about 2/3 of it baled. Let it dry out a day more and brought the rakes back and flipped it over, let it dry out the rest of the afternoon, and came back before dark after the evening bus run and baled the rest up. Came back a day or two later and moved the bales to the end of the field. They had a nice green color to the hay and it smelled sweet and good, like flue-cured tobacco.

Now, the BTO that came running over to cut the other field to keep me from getting it, he let that field (which was better looking grass anyway) lay there flat on the ground for over a WEEK before he finally came back, running the rake right ahead of the baler. By this point, in 90+ degree temps and blazing sun, that stuff had bleached out to about the quality of cardboard. BUT, running a big Vermeer double rake and a newer Vermeer baler, he was putting up some pretty rolls, to be sure, even if there was little more than CRAP in them. My old Ford baler has a pressure-relief valve that you set the bale density, and with it screwed all the way up (but still able to open) it's still pretty soft bales... you can force your hand into the side if you push hard... I've seen some new bales that are hard as wood; hit them with a hammer and it'd bounce off! BUT, that's why I only charge $15 a roll instead of $18-19 a roll like the other guy (that and I'm not making payments on a then-$30,000 baler!). I got my money from the boss, and he was happy about the quality of the hay, commented on how good it looked and smelled, and all that... but he started whining about "can't you make those bales any heavier?? Turn up the density or something??" "Nope, sorry..." says I, "that old 1981 baler was one of the first ones to come out in this part of the world, and they don't make 'em as tight as a new baler-- why I charge less" (I was rolling a 5x5-5.5 foot bale, where the other guy was rolling like 5x5's... this was before netwrap really came out or caught on). I could tell he was more worried about the way the bales LOOKED than the fact that I put up some really good quality hay for him, and the other guy was letting it burn up in the sun until it was cardboard, and charging him more for it besides!

One thing I've learned, it doesn't matter what you do, you just can't please most people. My dad told me stories from the 60's when they were square baling and selling hay to pay for the Shiner farm-- didn't matter how cheap you sold hay, tightwads would STILL try to chew you down on the price... one guy even told them "I don't see how you can call yourself a Christian charging that much for hay" even when they were cheaper than most everybody else...

Oh well... I don't custom bale anymore... good riddance. I just do our own.

later! OL JR


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Wow that was long,good thing I had a full cup of coffee before I started it.

@ $15 a bale for your soft bales and $18 a bale from the BTO with solid bales the farmer was getting a better deal probably from the BTO at higher rate if you actually weighed the bales and figured it by the ton.Tifght solid bales are just better period.shed water better,haul better,sell better.

Cost per ton is more important then cost per bale.It is in my world anyway.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I've said it in other threads--It don't make any difference if I price it by the bale or by the ton.

For my own usage, I always figure price per ton because I figure my yield by tons/acre which translates into weight/bale. I can then figure my costs/ton of yield by cost/acre.

So, I know what it cost/ton to produce which translates into cost/ton to sell. I know my weight/bale, so I can then get to my cost/bale easily.

I also try make my round bales at 1,000 lbs, squares at 50---makes the arithmetic easy.

Easiest "weigh" to get the weight, weigh a sample. 1/2 dozen round bales, 10 squares randomly picked. For squares, I weigh my self on bathroom scale, then pickup and weigh 10 bales, total it up, subtract my weight x 10, divide the result by 10. Anybody that wants to get more accurate, can py for the trip to the scale.

Ralph


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Up here the hard bales go dusty better too.



swmnhay said:


> Wow that was long,good thing I had a full cup of coffee before I started it.
> 
> @ $15 a bale for your soft bales and $18 a bale from the BTO with solid bales the farmer was getting a better deal probably from the BTO at higher rate if you actually weighed the bales and figured it by the ton.Tifght solid bales are just better period.shed water better,haul better,sell better.
> 
> Cost per ton is more important then cost per bale.It is in my world anyway.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Shoot this will not do a copy & paste of a long reply.


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## rajela (Feb 15, 2014)

One time at band camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## troyplan (Jan 26, 2011)

I've got all of you beat. I think it was three years ago when hay was really scarce, I had sold all of my decent hay to Texas. A lady calls me from here in the state and wants some hay, cheap. Well, there wasn't any decent, cheap hay but I had cut a field just to get the crud off. Even this junk was valuable that year, but I just couldn't bring myself to sell it.

Anyway, she was a widow, and trying to keep her deceased husband's herd going, and I felt a little sorry for her. I agreed to sell her the hay for $10/bale loaded at my place. I offered to haul it to her place, 20 miles distant, for another $5/bale, and she says she will call back. When she did, she said that she had a friend of her husband's that would haul it for free.

When the pickup day came, she and the hay hauler showed up with a tractor rig and a lowboy. The guy obviously knows equipment, and I needed to go to town so I told them to load the bales themselves and lock the gate when they left.

I started to town, remembered that I had forgotten something, turned around and went back. The truck, trailer and tractor were sitting in the field when I drove in, but I couldn't see anyone or any activity. I stopped my truck on the entrance drive, and walked the 200' to the truck which was sitting there idling, windows rolled up, and A/C on. Did I say it was 95 degrees. As I approached the truck, I could see the man's sitting in the driver's seat, head reclined but no sign of the lady. I stepped up on the truck's step, looked in the passenger's side window and was met with the upturned bottom of the lady who seemed to be searching for something in the gentleman's lap.

Well, I eased down, walked to the truck and went to town, forgetting whatever it was I had forgotten. Apparently, they never saw me.

That night, I told my wife that I was obviously in the wrong end of the hay business as a producer because from what I could see, hay haulers were much better paid.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Wow! Whats that old biker saying? Something, something, or cash? No one rides for free.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I guess the "widow lady" had to make some "adjustments" for the "free" haul bill.

Regards, Mike


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Vol said:


> I guess the "widow lady" had to make some "adjustments" for the "free" haul bill.
> 
> Regards, Mike


She did not have grass or cash to spare.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

She must not have missed her deceased husband very much.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Did she pay? Did they use the tractor responsibly? I don't care what a good paying customer does!


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## PaCustomBaler (Nov 29, 2010)

LMAO! Great story Troy!


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Rather funny to see the grass or cash comment.As a swathes I bought back in 82 had a bumper sticker come out from under the floor mate Gas Grass or XXX nobody rides for free.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Well, yeah... never said tight bales weren't better... just that I don't have a new enough baler to make them rock-hard. Be nice if I did...

Nothing is really done "by the ton" around here... I know there are areas where EVERYTHING is done that way, but around here its all pretty much "by the bale".

Guess it depends on your priorities, but personally I'd rather have hay that's cut and raked and baled at the RIGHT time, even if it's in a softer, scruffier-looking bale, than a bale that looks PERFECT with corners tight enough to cut glass, but it's full of hay that's weeks over-ripe and been left laying out in the sun for a week or so before its baled and has turned to cardboard...

That's just me though... LOL There's plenty of guys around here that just won't buy anything but Bermuda hay because they want "quality", but then buy it from guys that cut it late and leave it lay flat on the ground over a week in the blazing sun before they rake and bale it up in one step... and this "good hay" is sun bleached to the point it looks just like wheat straw... and about as nutritious...

Oh well... to each his own I guess...

Later! OL JR


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Now that's funny right thar... LOL

Reminds me of a story my BIL tells...

Amish/Mennonite all around him in N Indiana. He was telling about a neighbor somewhere in the general area that had a lot of cows to milk and he worked at a welding shop full time, so the wife was in charge of the cows. The Amish preacher came on to "help her out". Yeah, he helped her out alright-- guy came home one day from work and found his wife bent over a hay bale in the barn with the Amish preacher putting it to her...

There was some milking going on, but it weren't cows! LOL

Oh well... takes all kinds I guess...

Later! OL JR


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