# Picky Round Bale Customers



## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

I was just wondering if anyone has been having the same experience I have had with selling big round bales. This year there seems to be a lot of round bales in my area. Had a lot of rain and the hay season was a tough one. We have quite a few round bales and they are all stored outside. Our good small squares are in the barn. I have had several calls inquiring about our big round bales and they want them without mold. Hello! They are stored outside! Then today, I sell a couple of big rounds to a nice couple that drove over 50 miles to get some hay. They call me later in the day stating that one of the bales smells really bad and has mold all the way through to the middle. They are peeling off the big round bale layer by layer to feed their goats. Boss tells me to let them come back and get 2 more big rounds. I tell the customer this and also remind them that they are round bales, stored outside. We are fortunate that we got up some good hay this season (in small squares) but others did not get any good hay up at all due to the heavy rains this season, hence, a lot of big round bales. I am thinking I will need to get even more of a thick skin fielding all the phone calls from picky buyers. I describe the hay as honestly as I can but it is, after all, just hay and not a Swiss watch. I think its going to get rough out there for us hay sellers and picky buyers will either have to adjust their standards or go elsewhere!


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Where are you? Can't sell round bales stored outside here for the reasons you mentioned.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

When I field calls the first thing I ask is what are you feeding? If it is anything but bovine, I would not offer rounds that have been stored outside. That is just asking for complications....as you are now aware. Cattle, camels, and a few other exotics are about the only thing that can tolerate hay with some mold or dusty.

Anything else will need to be fed hay(rounds) that have been dry stored.

Regards, Mike


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

Yep that's right Mike. Cattle guys will buy them and they'll chew through about anything . that's all most people around here feeding cattle want is cheaper low quality hay. But sounds like your area may be saturated with that kind of hay.


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## Charts (Apr 3, 2014)

oh man no different up here in Canada. People want you to bale and take off the field immediately. Can I please risk my barn burning down so the colour of your hay is pretty?? about done selling to horse people. Nothing but complaints. Then they get upset that the price of a square bale has gone up. I barn store my rounds and people still look at the bottom of the bales when I load them up. One time a lady said "I hope I get a discount because the bottom is brown" I picked the bale back up but it on the stack and walked inside my house. She eventually left after standing there for 45 mins.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

We stopped selling horse people several years ago. The problem we had was they did not have any money; got stiffed once. Had one guy give us a horse because we could not afford to feed it; beautiful strawberry roan.


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## Apm1026 (Feb 11, 2012)

The buyers round here are only picky about price. Our hay, various hybrid Bermuda varieties are, irrigated , limed , fertilized for max production, weed free, baled without rain and dry stored. When I price them @ 65 per round they all say that's more than I was wanting to spend. After a guy told me that today I said that's why we don't want to bake and sell anymore rounds, everybody bales dry land non fertilized and weedy hay etc and sells for $40 , buyers here just look at price, cause all rounds look about the same , they are not professional beef producers and don't realize that feeding cattle low nutrient hay through the winter will cost more to improve body score later, or don't ask for samples and if they did could not decifer the data. So sometimes it's easier to sell the same quality hay in sm squares to the horsey folks for double the price per lb. To end, on top of all costs listed above we sprayed Bermuda more this year for worms and one field for bugs than anybody sprayed cotton.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

That's right where we need to be 130-140 a ton for round rolls, barely breaking even at that....ain't happening....doing good to get 100 a ton......


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

What I have begun to do is take my very best 100+ round bales out of the 1300-1600 I make and put them on pallets and under good tarps or in the barn. 
The next level down, say 200-400 bales go under tarps on pallets. I try to sell them to cattle owners. The final 1000 bales go to mushroom growers. I don't cover them, they just sit in lines at edge of field. 
I wouldn't try to sell any outside stored hay to a horse owner. Never turns out right.

One thing the OP needs to realize. 80% of all horse owners are self centered, egotistical idiots who don't listen to a word you say. So when you told the person who bought hay from you it was stored outside, they probably weren't even listening. They were only focusing on the price. You could have told them the hay was grown on mars and they'd probably answer "ok, so how much is it per bale"?


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I am glad we no longer sell hay.

The only way we could get $120 per ton is to make a 56 inch 650 lb. roll of hay and get $40 for them.

No one here that sells round bales make a true 4x5 roll. I do not blame them. Those that sell rolls do store them inside.

I store some of my lesser cow hay outside once the barn is full. I make them as tight as I can and net wrap. Very little moisture makes it into the bale.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Do rounds stored outside really mold all the way to the center as described in the OP? I mean I can believe other areas get more rain and humidity that would make it worse on rounds stored outside but I don't think I've ever seen a bale mold all the way to the middle from rain.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

After taking inventory last week and going thru another week of rainy weather I have started telling my customers that I don't have as much good hay to sell this year. Should have got another 30+ acres made but never had a chance to make dry hay in September.


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

Wow, I didn't intend this post to blow up so quickly. First, let me clarify a few things. I am not a greenhorn when it comes to the hay business and so I am very aware of persnickety hay buyers. Our business niche is actually small squares and over 75% of our customer base is horsey folks. Due to an ongoing lawsuit with the village the farm is located in we were unable to use our large barn to store this season's hay and have been forced to put up more big rounds than we would have like to. I've dealt with picky small square buyers a lot. In the past, the few big rounds we did sell went to people who understood that big rounds stored outside were not "perfect" and that they were just that, big rounds. We do have customers that have horses that prefer big rounds to place out in their pastures and I have not heard any complaints from them. The horse people around here prefer the hay to be "green" and then "cheap" in price. I have done a lot of research regarding hay and horses and being a prior horse owner myself (I was non-picky), I feel slightly qualified to discuss hay needs with my customers--if they want to learn. So, I was quite shocked to find someone so cheap when buying hay (they were peeling it off the round by hand and telling me they save on hay) and yet picky about a round bale. Our big rounds are best when purchased in the summer after they were baled but usually by January they aren't much good. We have had about 10" of rain since they were baled and so they reflect that in their appearance. Our best hay, the small squares, are stored in a smaller barn and most of our buyers want those. We normally don't have the number of big rounds that we do and so I have not had to deal much with picky round bale buyers. Apparently, "picky" is not the norm for those.


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

danwi said:


> After taking inventory last week and going thru another week of rainy weather I have started telling my customers that I don't have as much good hay to sell this year. Should have got another 30+ acres made but never had a chance to make dry hay in September.


We know a producer in the Lancaster area that hasn't been able to produce much good hay either. People like you farther north got really hammered with the rain most of the summer. Its going to be tough for folks to find hay in places.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Any rounds I have for sale are all stored inside, in the past I have sold my "cow hay" thats stored outside and didn't have problems. One loony tune even bought outside rounds for her clydesdales&#8230;.

She took almost fifty bales, must have been better than I though. Should have charged more I guess.


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

IHCman said:


> Do rounds stored outside really mold all the way to the center as described in the OP? I mean I can believe other areas get more rain and humidity that would make it worse on rounds stored outside but I don't think I've ever seen a bale mold all the way to the middle from rain.


I do not believe they can mold that bad in the middle but if they were baled a little on the wet side they might. We think we may have had that problem with a certain field and those bales are definitely of very poor quality. Plus we have had a lot of rain this summer. This customer is coming back tomorrow and tells me they have photos and also that the hay smelled bad. I don't see how they could have gone through a 5x5, 1500 lb. round bale enough to know its moldy in the middle. I showed the customer the bale before they bought it. Pulled some nice green alfalfa out of the middle too. Its kind of puzzling and annoying. Boss wants the big rounds gone and so we'll probably just give them two more. Its nutty to be in the hay business these days.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

If they are stacked in a pyramid outside it only takes a couple of rains for the bottom ones to go nasty to the core here.

Stack single file its about 3-4 months in above 0 weather. Below freezing you can leave them all winter with little change.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

I store rd bales outside down here in Texas and sell to horse owners. I definitely would not pyramid hay and want at least 2 ft between the rows. I'm amazed when my neighbors pyramid hay and many do just that. Hay rd baled at correct moisture & stacked correctly can last for several yrs stored outside in Tx with no mold or water damage on interior of the bale. The way some horse owners feel of & smell hay I keep waiting for one of them to "taste test" the hay!


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Last summer, I bought about 100 plastic pallets. They've helped with bottom spoilage, but they haven't eliminated it.

In my area, the best time to buy quality hay for the lowest price is in July. The bales have sweated, but seen almost zero rain.

The problem is, most horse people are too stupid to do that. They wait until their pasture decks are chewed down to dirt in October, then call for round bales expecting deep discounts even though they have a $1,000/month payment on their 3500 Cummins "Big Horn" edition.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

I am always amazed at how people go hunting for hay literally the day they are out or a day before..


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

I'm amused sometime at auction . With big squares guys will announce got a load of floor bales. So you would expect that would be a load with one of the edges of the bale , dirty musty maybe two three four or 6 inches in. I have seen guys bring loads to the auction that were bailed that tuff it was pathetic, moldy and rotten through and through. Then they try the old trick I have a load of floor Bales here. When they really have something on the trailer that isn't even good enough to be called multch hay.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Presently almost all of my round bales are outside and have been for years, all net wrapped. I sell 100-120 round bales to just one of my customers that runs a horse boarding stable. Last year sold 100 to the local scout ranch to feed horses. They were trilled with the difference of a net wrapped bale (they were using twine wrapped, junk 'hay'). I have hay that I will feed my cows this winter from 2015 crop, these will have some spoilage from the bottom, but not clear to the middle. Upwards of 80% of my hay goes to horse people and I presently do not small square bale.

If I place my bales in a row then they are North to South, 6 inch or more gaps between bales and as TxJim mentions 2-3 foot between bales (placed in a row or not). I tried stacking and found more spoilage, BUT this is all in MY area.

Wow, I have to say the differences in different areas is impressive.

Larry


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

Our hay is net-wrapped and in single rows with a few feet between rows. Anything closer or stacked invites mold. This customer that has the complaint is a goat owner. Tells me that mold will kill their goats. I don't think buying round bales to save a few bucks is a good plan. I am continually amazed at the ignorance of some people. I had one guy ask me what cutting some hay was and when we asked him why he insisted on 2nd cutting, his reply was, "I've always heard that you should never buy first cutting." The rumor mill is pretty expansive when it comes to hay "facts". I've put in a section on our website with a bunch of real facts about hay hoping to educate a few people.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

1st cut Bermuda grass hay in Tx can infested with Tx Winter grass(spear grass) or rye grass if preventive measures haven't been performed


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

haygrl59 said:


> Tells me that mold will kill their goats.


I have at least one goat customer, gets 1 5x5 net wrapped, 2nd or 3rd cutting bale every 2-3 weeks. I don't know how many goats he has, but if mold (which I am sure there could be on the bottom of my outside on the ground stored bales), kills goats, he must have a rabbit type of breeding goats. He does raise these goats for his Muslim market, maybe it doesn't matter how they die?????

Larry


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

r82230 said:


> I have at least one goat customer, gets 1 5x5 net wrapped, 2nd or 3rd cutting bale every 2-3 weeks. I don't know how many goats he has, but if mold (which I am sure there could be on the bottom of my outside on the ground stored bales), kills goats, he must have a rabbit type of breeding goats. He does raise these goats for his Muslim market, maybe it doesn't matter how they die?????
> 
> Larry


Larry, I think maybe this customer is basing their opinion on other opinions and perhaps not real hard facts. I know of a veterinarian/animal nutritionist that cannot sway the opinions of the horsey folks when it comes to what the best nutrition/feed is for horses. Apparently, his qualifications don't count when it comes to what is true and what is false. Rumors become "facts" and it seems no one does their own research anymore. They just take someone's word that certain information is true and usually that someone has no clue and probably based his opinion on someone else's as well.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I have a guy that owns the local KOA, he comes twice a year and gets one 4x5 of first cutting, he has a petting zoo at the campground, miniature goats, a donkey and who knows what else, he keeps coming for more so I guess you can feed first cutting to about anything.

Always an interesting conversation, him and his wife are originally from Switzerland, came here because chances of job advancement in Switzerland is nil to none.


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

I have had customers that suddenly find a reason to dislike hay I have sold. Sometimes it is my fault and a bale fails to be top quality. They can have a refund or exchange.

But if they ask for a particular grade of hay and it doesn't suit them then I am happy to refund their purchase price for all undamaged hay that is returned. I will not sell them another bale.

This year a guy feeding horses wanted real cheap hay, sold him a load. Two weeks later he complained that the bales were "too light". Delivered him a dozen to make up for the alleged shortfall. Heard him mutter so I could hear that he wouldn't buy hay from me again.

Well he was right. Hay got real hard to source and he rang looking for hay. "Sorry, none available, all I have is reserved for my regular customers".  

Funny thing is one of my customers hit hard times and cancelled his order. Had to advertise to get that hay sold.

On goats:

Goats are 'browsers', not 'grazers' and can handle all sorts of exceptionally rough sources of cellulose. Tree leaves, bark, twigs etc; that is one of the reasons goats are desert makers. They browse the growing tips of trees and turn vegetated arid areas into deserts by removing the cover/shade and stabilising plants. If not forced onto extreme mould then they will select the material that they can eat safely. Goats are particularly susceptible to listeria a bacteria that can develop in opened silage or haylage so any opened hay that has sweated brown or caramelised should not be fed to goats unless they have ample alternatives. Oddly goats do not eat "anything" but get this reputation from their penchant to sample everything in their environment.

A huge problem I have encountered with goat owners is that the goats are more like their children than critters of the field. Goats bond very closely. In fact the name 'nanny goat' comes from the 18th century when that they were used to wet-nurse foundlings. Foundlings were babies dumped by destitute parents, and in the days before pasteurisation, powdered milk, and baby formula nanny goats were trained to suckle the infants in the dormitories which housed these unwanted unfortunate children. Before pasteurisation the goats provided the safest way to feed these children.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Coondle said:


> A huge problem I have encountered with goat owners is that the goats are more like their children than critters of the field. Goats bond very closely. In fact the name 'nanny goat' comes from the 18th century when that they were used to wet-nurse foundlings. Foundlings were babies dumped by destitute parents, and in the days before pasteurisation, powdered milk, and baby formula nanny goats were trained to suckle the infants in the dormitories which housed these unwanted unfortunate children. Before pasteurisation the goats provided the safest way to feed these children.


So thats why it seems we have generations of the same family that are forever on the government teat.


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

Update: Customer returned today. We gave him 3 big rounds of grass mix instead of 2 more of the alfalfa rounds, per his request and okayed by the boss. I saw photos of the moldy alfalfa rounds he had bought. Apparently, he peeled off several layers and then pitchforked down to the middle and sure enough, there was mold in the middle. Perhaps the hay was a bit too wet when baled but considering all the rain we have had this summer, its very possible. Anyway, the customer was very understanding and I gave him some info I have regarding the hay requirements and nutrition for different ages/types of goats as well as copies of our hay test results. I told him our small squares are more nutritional but the overall cost is higher. I also said that I wasn't trying to tell him how to raise his livestock but just showing him some options to consider. He was very pleased with it and I am hoping they will continue to come back for hay. So all's well that ends well.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

Some People you can educate and you may have a customer for awhile. A good one with horse customers is they buy big squares and feed a slice at a time and once in a great while you run into a spot in a bale with a couple of moldy slices from a wet chunk along a fence line or something like that and they complain, but those same people will go and dump a whole round bale in the feeder and never look at it till it is empty.


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

There is no rhyme, reason or logic with these people. If only the horses, sheep, goats and cattle managed the wallets!


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## ozarkian (Dec 11, 2010)

haygrl59 said:


> I was just wondering if anyone has been having the same experience I have had with selling big round bales. This year there seems to be a lot of round bales in my area. Had a lot of rain and the hay season was a tough one. We have quite a few round bales and they are all stored outside. Our good small squares are in the barn. I have had several calls inquiring about our big round bales and they want them without mold. Hello! They are stored outside! Then today, I sell a couple of big rounds to a nice couple that drove over 50 miles to get some hay. They call me later in the day stating that one of the bales smells really bad and has mold all the way through to the middle. They are peeling off the big round bale layer by layer to feed their goats. Boss tells me to let them come back and get 2 more big rounds. I tell the customer this and also remind them that they are round bales, stored outside. We are fortunate that we got up some good hay this season (in small squares) but others did not get any good hay up at all due to the heavy rains this season, hence, a lot of big round bales. I am thinking I will need to get even more of a thick skin fielding all the phone calls from picky buyers. I describe the hay as honestly as I can but it is, after all, just hay and not a Swiss watch. I think its going to get rough out there for us hay sellers and picky buyers will either have to adjust their standards or go elsewhere!


*How did livestock ever survive through the millions years of existence without barn stored hay and the people and equipment to produce it?*


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

ozarkian said:


> *How did livestock ever survive through the millions years of existence without barn stored hay and the people and equipment to produce it?*


For the answer to this - we don't have to go back millions of years, we can look at year to year data for the past 10 years.

Some thoroughbred horse or goat owners want the very BEST for their family member.

Here's the price...... silence....

"Hay is not worth that much..."

... and so they buy the rained-on, bleached, dusty, sometimes moldy, trashy, milkweed infested, headed out seed stemmy "horse or goat quality" hay for $2 or $3 a bale and - somehow their pet lives for years and years!

It's truly amazing....


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

haygrl59 said:


> Wow, I didn't intend this post to blow up so quickly. First, let me clarify a few things. I am not a greenhorn when it comes to the hay business and so I am very aware of persnickety hay buyers. Our business niche is actually small squares and over 75% of our customer base is horsey folks. Due to an ongoing lawsuit with the village the farm is located in we were unable to use our large barn to store this season's hay and have been forced to put up more big rounds than we would have like to. I've dealt with picky small square buyers a lot. In the past, the few big rounds we did sell went to people who understood that big rounds stored outside were not "perfect" and that they were just that, big rounds. We do have customers that have horses that prefer big rounds to place out in their pastures and I have not heard any complaints from them. The horse people around here prefer the hay to be "green" and then "cheap" in price. I have done a lot of research regarding hay and horses and being a prior horse owner myself (I was non-picky), I feel slightly qualified to discuss hay needs with my customers--if they want to learn. So, I was quite shocked to find someone so cheap when buying hay (they were peeling it off the round by hand and telling me they save on hay) and yet picky about a round bale. Our big rounds are best when purchased in the summer after they were baled but usually by January they aren't much good. We have had about 10" of rain since they were baled and so they reflect that in their appearance. Our best hay, the small squares, are stored in a smaller barn and most of our buyers want those. We normally don't have the number of big rounds that we do and so I have not had to deal much with picky round bale buyers. Apparently, "picky" is not the norm for those.


Around here people got developed the attitude that rbs were low quality hay, largely because in the beginning they were. Even today, the vast majority are still crap, too wet, too mature or left on the ground for 7-10 days after cutting before baling. I sell full 4 x 5s 58.5" for 65 a roll but you are not ny money that way. I net wrap and only make for good appreciative customers or for my convenience when my wagons are all full of sqs.

I have managed my customer list very aggressively for over 10 years and do not hesitate to send a cull to someone else's business, those people are too valuable for me to keep to myself


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

Hayman1 said:


> I have managed my customer list very aggressively for over 10 years and do not hesitate to send a cull to someone else's business, those people are too valuable for me to keep to myself


I like it! Customers as livestock, to be culled if they don't perform.

Roger


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

JD3430 said:


> Last summer, I bought about 100 plastic pallets. They've helped with bottom spoilage, but they haven't eliminated it.
> 
> In my area, the best time to buy quality hay for the lowest price is in July. The bales have sweated, but seen almost zero rain.
> 
> The problem is, most horse people are too stupid to do that. They wait until their pasture decks are chewed down to dirt in October, then call for round bales expecting deep discounts even though they have a $1,000/month payment on their 3500 Cummins "Big Horn" edition.


Yup... and they're too damn lazy to mess with hay until they friggin' need it, and then they want it RIGHT NOW...

BTDT... never again...

Later! OL J R


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## Beav (Feb 14, 2016)

You need to be thick skinned to sell hay, i have been told more then once I did not know anything about hay, horses, cows or goats. Most of the time I say your right but this is the hay and this is the price that is the one thing I do know. It does little or no good to argue or educate a customer who is not interested in being helped.We sell both rounds and sm squares rounds net wrapped and stored inside. I stand behind everything I sell. I have even taken hay back that they bought from someone else. I sold a guy 1000 bales he bring back 10 that were crap I exchanged them, they were not mine because they were plastic twine and at the time I was using natural.It was worth making him happy and keeping him as a customer


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

r82230 said:


> Presently almost all of my round bales are outside and have been for years, all net wrapped. I sell 100-120 round bales to just one of my customers that runs a horse boarding stable. Last year sold 100 to the local scout ranch to feed horses. They were trilled with the difference of a net wrapped bale (they were using twine wrapped, junk 'hay'). I have hay that I will feed my cows this winter from 2015 crop, these will have some spoilage from the bottom, but not clear to the middle. Upwards of 80% of my hay goes to horse people and I presently do not small square bale.
> 
> If I place my bales in a row then they are North to South, 6 inch or more gaps between bales and as TxJim mentions 2-3 foot between bales (placed in a row or not). I tried stacking and found more spoilage, BUT this is all in MY area.
> 
> ...


 I think what makes the difference here is people do have a choice. You can drive down the road any day of the week here Goodwill hay auction or go to a feed store or there's at least twenty guys in my neck of the woods got a sign at the road hay for sale. And you got your choice of any size or quality Bale you want with my price range. Cash credit or plastic.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

PaMike said:


> I am always amazed at how people go hunting for hay literally the day they are out or a day before..


You just can't help stupid behavior


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

PaMike said:


> I am always amazed at how people go hunting for hay literally the day they are out or a day before..


I had a guy call couple weeks ago wondering about getting hay quick.I said not for 2 days I'm swamped.He said ok,then he calls me back the next day and said the load he had ordered from other guy finally showed up.He had went to my field and looked at the hay and said it would work in between.So anyway now he calls back again and tells me to bring a load tommorow.Dont know the whole story yet but I presume my hay was better.It sounded like I was higher priced.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

I had a lady a couple of years ago in a panic to get a bale of hay. She had bought a few before and was picking up one a month. So anyways a month goes buy never heard from her. Than a few days later she calls in a huge panic. I need a bale now. My horses have been with out feed for FIVE DAYS and they keep breaking out. So she came I loaded a bale for her. I was thinking you had a whole month to get another bale why wait till your animals break out looking for food to get the next bale. Cant she plan ahead.

So about a week goes by and she phones me complaining that my hay was not any good. The horses already ate up that bale. Will she bought several bales from me before that were fine. Than she goes on saying that adding two more horses shouldn't eat that much more hay. Again I was thinking. You doubled the number of horses, starved them for the better part of a week. Finally put food out and still expected the bale to last a month!!!

As my Grandma would say, "the joys of dealing with the public".


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I had one call in a panic because they just got a ticket for horse neglect and if they didn't have hay in front of them by end of day they were getting another ticket.

I think the ticket cost them $300


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

hog987 said:


> I had a lady a couple of years ago in a panic to get a bale of hay. She had bought a few before and was picking up one a month. So anyways a month goes buy never heard from her. Than a few days later she calls in a huge panic. I need a bale now. My horses have been with out feed for FIVE DAYS and they keep breaking out. So she came I loaded a bale for her. I was thinking you had a whole month to get another bale why wait till your animals break out looking for food to get the next bale. Cant she plan ahead.
> 
> So about a week goes by and she phones me complaining that my hay was not any good. The horses already ate up that bale. Will she bought several bales from me before that were fine. Than she goes on saying that adding two more horses shouldn't eat that much more hay. Again I was thinking. You doubled the number of horses, starved them for the better part of a week. Finally put food out and still expected the bale to last a month!!!
> 
> As my Grandma would say, "the joys of dealing with the public".


Are we talking big bales or small. Hell, one horse can eat 1/2 of a small bale a day. I bet she really did not have the money for hay. There are way to many people that have horses that should not, or other animals for that matter. Some of them treat their kids just as bad.

We stop selling to horse people because most of them don't have any money. Of course we live in the middle of a Indian Reservation, and most of them don't have any money. I won't do any construction work in the Res because if they don't pay there is almost no chance of collecting. I think most of their Government money goes to booze or the casino.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

CowboyRam said:


> Are we talking big bales or small. Hell, one horse can eat 1/2 of a small bale a day. I bet she really did not have the money for hay. There are way to many people that have horses that should not, or other animals for that matter. Some of them treat their kids just as bad.
> 
> We stop selling to horse people because most of them don't have any money. Of course we live in the middle of a Indian Reservation, and most of them don't have any money. I won't do any construction work in the Res because if they don't pay there is almost no chance of collecting. I think most of their Government money goes to booze or the casino.


They were round bales a 4x5 about 900 or so pounds.

Its funny they never have money for hay but have money for more horses , boots, hats, new trucks, riding gear, horse shows etc.


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

hog987 said:


> They were round bales a 4x5 about 900 or so pounds.
> 
> Its funny they never have money for hay but have money for more horses , boots, hats, new trucks, riding gear, horse shows etc.


It's all about priorities!


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

hog987 said:


> Its funny they never have money for hay but have money for more horses , boots, hats, new trucks, riding gear, horse shows etc.


Notice that everything on the list (including the horse) is for THEM. The hay is for the HORSE for which they do not really care...it is just another possession for their self indulgence.

73, Mark


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## woodland (May 23, 2016)

swmnhay said:


> I had one call in a panic because they just got a ticket for horse neglect and if they didn't have hay in front of them by end of day they were getting another ticket.
> 
> I think the ticket cost them $300


This person is obviously a cousin of my former neighbor . About five years ago we had a very dry summer and hay was hard to come by. I got a call in the fall from him asking if we had any "old straw or hay" that he could get to help him out with his horses. I informed him that my cows were taking care of all the old bales here but we had 1000 lb straw bales for $30 or 1200 lb grass bales for $60. He said that was highway robbery and called me a rich farmer and then hung up. About a month goes by and he hasn't fed them anything and the horses are constantly breaking down the fence to eat ditch grass and then the school bus hits one in on the road in the fog( everyone was ok). Then he's calling me up all apologetic since the spca are on the way out. I say cash only and he comes for two bales of hay. Two weeks later he comes for another one and wants to write a post dated cheque for $60. I tell him that's not going to happen and when rich farmers like us don't have enough feed, the cows go to town or we buy feed. His horses continued with the ditch grass ration till they disappeared after several more visits by the spca. I guess you "can't fix stupid ".


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

This year we kept 1st cutting for our horses. We had "large rounds" I'm not sure of the exact measurement of the bales but they are large in my opinion and very nicely netted. For the past 3 years we stack them single file in 2 rows of 14 so 28 total. Our horses eat them just fine!!! The bottom is usually black and the outside layer dirty.... we usually just strip the outside layer and let them have it. My wife is a vet technician and in her opinion horse people are largely ignorant on what is acceptable hay and what is not. I'm sure some horses are more sensitive to colic issues but we have never had a single issue.

Hell we had a couple rounds the horses didn't eat over last winter.... I rolled them out in the pasture and the horses were eating off of it over fresh green grass....


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

MyDaughtersPony said:


> My wife is a vet technician and in her opinion horse people are largely ignorant on what is acceptable hay and what is not. I'm sure some horses are more sensitive to colic issues but we have never had a single issue.
> 
> Hell we had a couple rounds the horses didn't eat over last winter.... I rolled them out in the pasture and the horses were eating off of it over fresh green grass....


I had a guy feeding roughly 21 round bales a month to his horses, he had like 30 or so, had an equestrian center. He claims he never had a case of colic caused by the hay they ate, rather was a lack of water intake.

I've sen people feed some real junk before, usually fed outside on the ground so respiratory problems are avoided from the dust.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

We have a local horse boarding/therapeutic riding place here that has bought hay from me before. He does not like the price though. He comments on how nice the bales are, how they have been stored inside, and that the hay he has been getting has been outside all winter. Been a couple years since he has bought hay from me. Will have to wait till he is in a bind again.

Always like the comment that the hay is too rich for horses. Blame the hay and continue slugging the grain to them. Just can't explain to them that the better hay you buy the less grain you need to feed. It is always the hays fault.

This year had a customer take hay from the field, said she was going to store it in a storage container. Called a week ago said the hay did not keep, it was too wet. Our fault because she does not know how to store it. Sure is fun to deal with customers.


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## haygrl59 (May 19, 2014)

IH 1586 said:


> This year had a customer take hay from the field, said she was going to store it in a storage container. Called a week ago said the hay did not keep, it was too wet. Our fault because she does not know how to store it. Sure is fun to deal with customers.


Hay stored from the field needs to breathe. Amazing how many times I tell people this when they buy "fresh" hay and how to store it properly that some just don't pay attention. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we recently had a customer complain that the hay was "too dry". They had taken a copy of one of our hay tests to their vet (the hay sample was received at 12.5% moisture--a good reading) and that is what he pronounced and the horsey person believed him. I think this was a young vet. Makes me wonder what they are teaching them in college! Rumors always seem to become facts once its spread around long enough in the circuit.


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## Cmm (Jun 5, 2016)

Alpaca customers are the worst
Last yr customer was begging for more hay
I told her we had hay but it wouldn't make her happy

Alpaca owners are unrealistic

She wanted to come look and decided 40 bales would work

After she liked the 40 she wanted 60 more and decided the ones that I didn't like would work

A whole yr later she calls me and says the hay she bought was bad (had horse nettle and I DISCLOSED)and she would not buy this year

I told her I would replace the bales I had beautiful 2nd cut orchard grass 18% protein 50lb bales with nothing but pure orchard grass in the bale

She said awesome can't believe your offering this

Well my 2nd cut orchard sells out to 6 states in a matter of 2 weeks

She called me two months later and wants her hay

Well I said as I told you on the phone it sells quik you better come on

She say what can we do now

I said I will give you credit for the cash you spent and replace them with a gorgeous alfalfa/orchard 
Not on a per bale basis but I will credit your cash toward the more expensive bale

She bows up immediately and says

That's not acceptable

I said first of all you waited a year to tell me
Secondly your full sh1t
Thirdly if you don't like what I offered you don't come back
Finished

Ain't heard from here since
Don't need her biz


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## skyrydr2 (Oct 25, 2015)

Boys aint it the truth... had a customer try to cheat us out of a dollar a bale.. during a sever drought..I told them ill bring back their money and come get the hay gladly because i was going to sell it for $3 more a bale in a week... she coughed up the difference really fast...
I have no mercy for stupidity....


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## The saint (Oct 4, 2015)

Just saw this thought it fit the conversion well. http://hayandforage.com/article-876-Abusing-round-bales.html


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

The saint said:


> Just saw this thought it fit the conversion well. http://hayandforage.com/article-876-Abusing-round-bales.html


That is a good read.


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