# best way to find hay buyers



## gerkendave (Jan 8, 2014)

What's the best way to find hay buyers. Tried craigslist but haven't had much luck. Thanks


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Word of mouth is the best way. Some depends on how much hay you have for sale.

Many do not want to drive far and would rather buy close to home. That is when a Hay For Sale sign on the road lets those passing by that your hay is for sale. Would be surprised how many people will see that sign and mention it to others.

If you have more hay than the local market can bear then news paper or magazine add might help. Just depends on how much hay a person is trying to sell.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Does your state Dept of Agriculture have a Market Bulletin? Many states do.

Georgia has one and for years, the print version was mailed to your home for a modest subscription fee ($10 / yr) and the online version was free. Now, they have added a subscription fee to the online version as well. It's not much, about $5 per year as I recall.


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## AndyL (Mar 9, 2013)

If you know people that are buying their hay. Go talk to them. Tell'em what you have. Be honest about your product. They might buy from you, might not, at that time. But you have opened the door. They may know someone that is looking for hay. Get it known that you make and sell hay. Like Tim said, word of mouth is best advertising. But always be honest about what you're offering. You might burn them once, and that advertising will spread like wildfire.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

I am in agreement on the word of mouth approach. Most of my new customers have come from friends seeing my hay at a show or in the customers barn and Then there is the "who do you get your hay from"? Problem is, until they find out you have plenty, they don't want to give out your name in fear of losing you as a supplier.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

sometimes if I take a load to the hay auction it will sell additional loads . So far this year the auction has been good for generating additional sales


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

The best way that I know to find hay buyers is to produce the best product in your area. Take a trailer load to a horse event, fair, hay sale, etc., have some business cards in hand and you will eventually get plenty of business. A great product sells itself.

Regards, Mike


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## shortrow (Feb 21, 2012)

CL is good and bad. It has worked for me though. A buyer from Florida who found me there has been a faithful customer ever since.


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## Dill (Nov 5, 2010)

Another good word of mouth way is make friends with the guy's building horse barns. I've picked up a couple great customer's that way.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

gerkendave said:


> What's the best way to find hay buyers. Tried craigslist but haven't had much luck. Thanks


Where in Nebraska are you at? If you are in western Nebraska you could advertise in the Denver on CL, but you have to price your hay less then local hay and be prepared to provide hay hauling.

If you are in other parts of Nebraska what kind of bales does your local market consist more of? Who are the big buyers? Cow operations? Horses, Sheep? What kind of bales and types of hay to they use or want?

Like said above find the big hay users and go door knocking.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Offer delivery if you have a truck/trailer. 
Many buyers can't pick up or are too busy. 
It also gives you a second way of making money.


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## AndyL (Mar 9, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> It also gives you a second way of making money.


That's the part I like!


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Know what you have and if it is sound for horses ,several years ago A good customer said she needed timothy . I had none went to buy some ,many advertised timothy and it was just orchard grass they were wrong . They said it was sound and there was small amounts mold on edge some of the bales . The one guy whispered to his wife we got a ding bat here because he did not understand what horse hay was . He did not even know it was not timothy or grass it was foxtail and weeds they had no clue .e If you are in the east sell by the ton and do not over price it . Most dairy farmers will not bother to call if price is way out of line


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## whitmerlegacyfarm (Aug 26, 2011)

I have done very well with CL. Got started with CL and that also helped with word of mouth from those initial customers. Also picked up 2 big bulk buyers off CL from down south that treat me very well. It's been a extremely tough and busy year for me. 2nd cut is to start now and it's all sold and I don't have it baled yet and it needs cut bad. I use CL for everything.


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## F350-6 (Mar 30, 2014)

I've had good luck with craigslist. Before that I used to use the local am radio station that had something calle trade days where you'd call in Saturday morning and they'd put you on air for 30 seconds to offer what you were selling.

Most of the time I couldn't count to 2 after I hung up before the phone started to ring. Then the phone calls would trickle in for a few weeks after from others who had wrote the number down. The other old technique was to leave a flyer or card pinned up on the board at the local feed, farm & ranch, or tractor store.

From what I hear, Facebook is the new thing. There's some sort of community for sale thing on facebook where locals can buy and sell stuff to each other. I don't have facebook so I really can't tell you any more about that.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

I have used a website called hayexchange.com in the past. You can post what hay you have and they also have an "auction board" where people looking for hay can post adds. Of coarse, I was looking for hay customers in another state, not locally. My father also helped since he is down in Florida. Now that I have a couple regular customers, I don't have to worry about it. It was tough the first couple of years though... a lot of lessons learned! (horse people can be crazy)


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## weatherman (Dec 5, 2008)

After I established clients through Facebook and CL, word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising, providing the product is good. Right now I'm sitting here waiting on repeat customer to pick up another 100 bales, he bought 350. He is a customer I got thru word-of-mouth. 
Only way to sell hay is to produce a good bale.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

We have a 4 county farm paper that goes to every farmer free.There are other local type farm papers also that are mainly for farmers and somewhat local.


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