# This is What We Have to Deal With Locally



## Tim/South

Some of us in the deep south have mentioned the low prices of hay. I have copied some of the ads on CL. If I knew I could get quality hay at these prices I believe it would be cheaper than baling my own.
I am not sure if the pictures will work. I did not load them, tried to copy/paste the ad.

* Horse and cow hay - $20 (Westover)*

 






 Good barn stored horse and cow hay. 4x5 starting at 20 and 4x6 starting at 30.
and

* Hay For Sale 4x4, 4x5 and 4x6 Rolls Net Wraped - $15 (Cullman AL )*

 








​ 4x4, 4x5 and 4x6 Rolls of Mixed Grass hay for sale starting at $15 per Roll. Net Warped with John Deere Cover Edge Net Wrap. Hay is a mix of Bermuda, Fescue, Orchard grass, and clover. Second Cuttings, and has been stored outside.

4x4, $15 per roll ~20 left
4x5 $20 per roll ~Sold Out
4x5 $25 per roll ~14 left
4x6 $20 to $25 per roll call for Availability.
and

* HAY FOR SALE - $15 (Rodgersville,Al)*

35 4 by 5 round bales of mixed grass hay $15 a bale......cash only 

and

* Hay For Sale-Square Bales Coastal Bermuda - $4 (Hanceville)*
Horse hay, coastal bermuda square bales.
Sprayed, fertilized, and baled without rain.
$4.00 each picked up at barn.


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## vhaby

Thanks Tim. These must be hobbists; not in making hay for profit. No one can make money selling hay at these prices. However, I'll still pay for the fertilizer and haying costs to grow my own grass hay and have it baled instead of buying hay at these prices to keep my meadows relatively weed free. And I don't sell my hay. What our cattle don't eat stays in the barn for the next winter or drought. I'll always try to feed it out of the barn in two to three years.


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## slowzuki

Similar ads here:
Date Listed 17-Jan-13 Price $2.75 Address Burtts Corner, NB E6L 2R8, Canada
View map 
3000 bales clean dust free hay.good colour cut early july.can deliver for gas.phone

and: 
Date Listed 16-Jan-13 Price $2.00 Address McNamee, NB E9C 2C9, Canada
View map

If anyone is looking to buy hay to feed your horses or cattle, I am selling it by the bail for $2.00.

Make its hard for me.


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## dubltrubl

That's exactly the type of market we have to compete against here in our area. No way there is any decent amount of fertilizer in that grass, or the folks are willing to throw alot of money away otherwise. I just can't afford to spend money on fertilizer and lime just so someone can buy it and then fertilize their horse or cattle pastures with it! Hell, at that price we don't even get a spreading fee! Like someone said on here before, you can hide a lot of sins in a round bale, especially net wrapped!


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## JD3430

At that price, I could bring a tractor trailer load up here and "broker" it for less than I could grow it.
That's ridiculous low. Even if it's a 700lb soft bale, it blows me away on price.
None of them have large quantities left, so maybe they're just trying to blow out the weedy stuff from the summer. One even says "stored outside". One of the ads says "stpred outside". If it's been outside for 7 months, it's not going to look like what the picture looks like.
I'd bring a moisdture probe along and see whats going on inside them. Could be full of dust.


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## Teslan

Those rounds from Alabama look rather brown... Is that how it normally is in Alabama? But still $15? Why would anyone bother baling it? In this area I've rarely seen a round bale look as good as a small square or large square from the outside.


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## somedevildawg

Damn it Tim, makes finding and educating...... or finding educated people (prolly easier to do the first) customers a top priority. They r over here in this neck o the woods as well, dumb sob willing to work for nothing, prolly getting a big fat check from the gov every month, and ebt.......just some pocket change for them, $ to buy cigs and beer and who knows what else.


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## Tim/South

Teslan said:


> Those rounds from Alabama look rather brown... Is that how it normally is in Alabama? But still $15? Why would anyone bother baling it? In this area I've rarely seen a round bale look as good as a small square or large square from the outside.


The color depends. Bahia is almost impossible to get any green tent even if fluffed and baled early as possible. It will look brown and sorry. 
Bermuda will have the green tent if the person knows how to put up hay.
We do not have any alfalfa here that I know of. Mostly grass hay with some clover as the legume.


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## Tim/South

somedevildawg said:


> Damn it Tim, makes finding and educating...... or finding educated people (prolly easier to do the first) customers a top priority. They r over here in this neck o the woods as well, dumb sob willing to work for nothing, prolly getting a big fat check from the gov every month, and ebt.......just some pocket change for them, $ to buy cigs and beer and who knows what else.


Reminds me of the saying: If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.


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## Tim/South

JD3430 said:


> At that price, I could bring a tractor trailer load up here and "broker" it for less than I could grow it.
> That's ridiculous low. Even if it's a 700lb soft bale, it blows me away on price.
> None of them have large quantities left, so maybe they're just trying to blow out the weedy stuff from the summer. One even says "stored outside". One of the ads says "stpred outside". If it's been outside for 7 months, it's not going to look like what the picture looks like.
> I'd bring a moisdture probe along and see whats going on inside them. Could be full of dust.


I was at the cattle sale and saw a pictured ad of some nice Bermuda. They had opened a roll and it was green.
5x5's stored inside, $25.00. The ad said around 2000 left.

I believe some of these growers are business owners who bale what they need and take a farm loss on what they do not need.
My friend just bought a 2010 458 Deere baler with net from one of these guys. Paid $17,000, had 2000 rolls on it, looked new, barn stored and had a new roll of net. The man said he was down sizing and going back to his older equipment. Could not make any money baling and selling hay after paying help. Guess the loss was more than acceptable.
My friend went back and bought his 9'2'' Deere disc mower for $4700.


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## JD3430

Guess I lose just a little more sleep tonight!


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## Tim/South

JD3430 said:


> Guess I lose just a little more sleep tonight!


We are sleeping in the same boat. No deals like that when I was baler shopping last year.
My friend who bought the baler already has a 458 with net. He is a hay farmer/cattleman. He had been looking to trade his other baler but at 8,000 rolls they were not offering much for a machine he paid $30,000 for. At the deal he got, he is not going to keep the other baler as a back up.
He is a good guy, hard worker and deserved a break.


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## JD3430

Tim, 
No I was talking about the guys selling hay for $25 per roll! 
Never saw hay less than $40/ 4x4 roll up here. 
I couldn't imagine being a southern hay farmer actually competing against that nonsense!


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## Tim/South

I understand JD. Thanks for the clarification.

One reason I am back into cattle is because of hay prices in this area.
If I can not get $120/ton for hay then I am going to feed it.


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## jdhayboy

Those type of ads are why I don't look at craigslist hay ads. All they do is piss me off.


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## somedevildawg

Tim, you ever tried calling one of those folks and buy a bale? Might be fun just to see what kind of hay it is, make sure to tell them you want the net wrap, stored inside, 1000# bales like in pic.......


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## JD3430

Is the Deere cover edge wrap tinted green to make the rolls look green?


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## Tim/South

somedevildawg said:


> Tim, you ever tried calling one of those folks and buy a bale? Might be fun just to see what kind of hay it is, make sure to tell them you want the net wrap, stored inside, 1000# bales like in pic.......


No, just do not have the patience.
It would be fun to call and ask it they offered a volume discount.


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## Tim/South

JD3430 said:


> Is the Deere cover edge wrap tinted green to make the rolls look green?


When I had another guy roll mine for me, he used green net. I moved them to the edge of the field to let them cure some more.
I had a guy stop and ask if he could buy some rolls while they still had the green tint. The hay was nice but not nearly the tint of the wrap.


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## NDVA HAYMAN

I honestly think that I would park my hay equipment and raise more cattle. Buy their hay and make a lot more money. Actually, in my area, it's about the same as you Tim. That's why I went to more row crops and bought more cattle. Now I feed all of my hay and buy all that I can. I have bought over 500 rounds this year plus what I baled.


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## JD3430

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> I honestly think that I would park my hay equipment and raise more cattle. Buy their hay and make a lot more money. Actually, in my area, it's about the same as you Tim. That's why I went to more row crops and bought more cattle. Now I feed all of my hay and buy all that I can. I have bought over 500 rounds this year plus what I baled.


And what are you paying per round bale?
It's funny, with all the land I see around here going to corn and the drought effects from previous years, I would think hay shortages and therefore higher prices, would be more prevalent.


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## endrow

JD3430 said:


> And what are you paying per round bale?
> It's funny, with all the land I see around here going to corn and the drought effects from previous years, I would think hay shortages and therefore higher prices, would be more prevalent.


You and i live in the same area and I would agree with you on the shortage thought ..but..I have never seen so much hay at Lancaster County Pennsylvania hay auctions also tons of hay for sale private in Lancaster Farming weekly paper ..I said we get a good year from coast to coast theys gonna be some cheap hay . But my mom and dad are saying drought cycles run in 3's and we have only had the last 2 years dry so we got one to go .


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## JD3430

I think central PA is a different market than Philly or Wilmington suburbs. 
Transportation costs are a very big factor. Most guys want $3 loaded mile. If you drove hay 150 miles down to me, you'd have to add $450-$500 to deliver 20 round bales. That would add about $25 to a load of 20 round bales. 
The price for shipping per bale would go down if it were a load of 40 round bales, but it still adds to the cost.
Like others have said here, what goes on in your area could be totally different a town or 2 away. 
I still hate seeing hay sell that cheap. I don't know how in the hell anyone could even be breaking even.


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## NDVA HAYMAN

JD, I normally pay from $15-20 per 4x5 bale of good quality O/G and Timothy hay. Good for cattle but my finicky hay producers say not good enough for their horse owners. If these 2 guys hay is not perfect, they will roll it just to take it off. What I buy from them varies each year but they know I will pay cash, take it all, and pick it up. They even supply me with a tractor to load so I don't have to haul mine. Good deal for me.


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## JD3430

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> JD, I normally pay from $15-20 per 4x5 bale of good quality O/G and Timothy hay. Good for cattle but my finicky hay producers say not good enough for their horse owners. If these 2 guys hay is not perfect, they will roll it just to take it off. What I buy from them varies each year but they know I will pay cash, take it all, and pick it up. They even supply me with a tractor to load so I don't have to haul mine. Good deal for me.


Unbelievable. I bet there's $15 in fuel and net wrap in a 4x5 round bale. Fertilizer, equipment payments and a little something for the guy that owns the business???? Ummmm, no.
I dont see how there can be that big of a disparity in bale price.
You are paying $15 for a 4x5 round bale, and MLappin is getting what sounds like about $90 for a 4x5 round bale.
I might want to get ahold of your seller. At $15/bale, I can send a truck to him and sell it here for more profit than growing hay.
How your seller isnt losing money by the wheelbarrow, I don't know....


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## slowzuki

That the price on rounds around here too, except one or two guys up at the 50$ mark. I couldn't even sell any when I had a round baler. Great when you're feeding your own cattle, can have your choice of hay if you're willing to pay even a couple of bucks more.

My sister gets a discount on the hay she buys from me since its stored in her buildings. I sell it at 3$ a bale and don't usually have a problem selling out but she has boarders that even at 2.75$ will bring their own hay from who knows where to feed instead because they get it cheaper.


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## NDVA HAYMAN

I ain't gonna give you any names. Don't wanna mess up a good thing. Like I said, they know I will buy it all and my cattle are really eating it up! Lol


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## askinner

WOW!! I charge $12/bale for custom work over here lol!! $15 for the whole lock stock and barrel is just plain stupid!!


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## JD3430

Maybe they are taking the "home depot" approach to selling hay- sell mass quantities at a loss until the mom & pop competition (like me) goes belly up. Then they have all the customers to themselves and start raising their prices?


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## endrow

JD3430 said:


> Unbelievable. I bet there's $15 in fuel and net wrap in a 4x5 round bale. Fertilizer, equipment payments and a little something for the guy that owns the business???? Ummmm, no.
> I dont see how there can be that big of a disparity in bale price.
> You are paying $15 for a 4x5 round bale, and MLappin is getting what sounds like about $90 for a 4x5 round bale.
> I might want to get ahold of your seller. At $15/bale, I can send a truck to him and sell it here for more profit than growing hay.
> How your seller isnt losing money by the wheelbarrow, I don't know....


one broker we deal with says sell it by the ton takes care of all this bs.


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## NDVA HAYMAN

There main product is small squares. If it is not top quality hay, then they roll it and sell it to me. They rotate their fields every 3 years or so. We all have been having issues with italian ryegrass and one other weed in hayfields for the last 5 years. I have been able to take care of the ryegrass but they have not. They do not square if there are many weeds present. They are very particular and I don't mind a few weeds for my cattle. Mike


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## JD3430

endrow said:


> one broker we deal with says sell it by the ton takes care of all this bs.


Yeah, but even if the guy NDVA buys from is selling a marshmallow 500lb roll for $20, that's still only $80/ton. I cant come close to meeting that price.
What amazes me is that even the "bottom feeder" in my area will give you $110/ton in my area for fair quality hay.


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## swmnhay

Supply and demand!!

Poor grass hay here is $125-150 a ton.

Cornstalks $80-100 a ton.

Nieghbor was at sale and some 4x5 cornstalk bales brought $40 per bale.I'd estimate 500-600 lbs
some 5x6 brought $50.1000-1200 lbs??
Rule of thumb a 5x6 is twice the wieght of a 4x5.


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## JD3430

You know, I got really bummed out after reading this thread, but a couple of positive points seems to over ride the negatives:

1. 2 years ago, I was talking to a cheapskate ol lady down the road from me. I asked her if she'd buy hay from me. She asked me what price? I told her $5/bale + delivery. She said "are you kidding? I go down to the XXXXX farm and buy it out of the field for $3/bale." I thought I'd never be able to sell hay around here for much more than $3/bale. It turns out I sold all my hay for $5-$6.50/bale. My fears were unfounded.

2. Those sellers selling round bales are quite a distance from me. Based on what I learned from lesson #1 above, I'm not gonna let someone who wants to give away hay hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from me worry me too much.


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## NDVA HAYMAN

It's all about supply and demand as Cy stated. It depends on how much hay is in the area, if it was dry in your area, and the guys that don't know what it cost to bale their hay. Most guys that I know cannot really tell you how much it cost to put up a bale. They do not have a clue.They also worry about having hay left over. That is why they start dropping their price so much. I am almost of the opinion that every hay producer should own livestock so that they have a source for their hay that they don't sell or is not up to snuff for their horsey customers. The livestock guys know more about hay than the vets will ever teach the horsey people. I know that there are exceptions, but not that many.Rant over. Mike


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## JD3430

I'm kind of glad to be mostly done with horse people. The only ones I plan to keep selling to are a few that arent overly fussy, either.
Demand was high in my area. I got a lot of calls after my hay was all sold. I will keep more this time around, avoiding the temptation to sell lower to make money sooner.

As usual, great advice from the big hitters here at HayTalk.


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## Tim/South

JD3430 said:


> You know, I got really bummed out after reading this thread, but a couple of positive points seems to over ride the negatives:
> 
> 2. Those sellers selling round bales are quite a distance from me. Based on what I learned from lesson #1 above, I'm not gonna let someone who wants to give away hay hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from me worry me too much.


Region plays a big part in all Ag production.
In the south we have a long growing season and a short feeding season. We do not have the small time hobby cattle farmers we once did. Thus less demand for hay, more so in my area than the counties north of me. Most all of the older farmers have sold their cattle. Just not the people here looking for hay that once were.
Then you have the fly by night guys thinking they are going to get rich by going into hay. Had one pestering me all last year to help him get started. He showed me the over grown fields of weeds. He was convinced would sell for $40 a roll. I informed him that he had no hay.
It must look easy from the road.
A sucker is born every minute. They come in shoddy growers and cheap buyers. Neither lasts long, yet do seem to reproduce.

It is the good producer that is the backbone of the industry. They have values and a willingness to learn. They will grow, adapt and suceed.
It once bothered me that our cattle sold for .12 to .15 cents a lb. less than out west. Trucking and handling cost. I realized I was still making money.
We all have to find our niche in the hay business. Mine has evolved over the last 30 years as the local market dictated.


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## swmnhay

Tim/South said:


> Then you have the fly by night guys thinking they are going to get rich by going into hay. Had one pestering me all last year to help him get started.


Yep help a guy out and have him turn around trying to sell hay to your customers at a lower price.After they borrowed







your machinery.


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## somedevildawg

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> Region plays a big part in all Ag production.
> In the south we have a long growing season and a short feeding season. We do not have the small time hobby cattle farmers we once did. Thus less demand for hay, more so in my area than the counties north of me. Most all of the older farmers have sold their cattle. Just not the people here looking for hay that once were.
> Then you have the fly by night guys thinking they are going to get rich by going into hay. Had one pestering me all last year to help him get started. He showed me the over grown fields of weeds. He was convinced would sell for $40 a roll. I informed him that he had no hay.
> It must look easy from the road.
> A sucker is born every minute. They come in shoddy growers and cheap buyers. Neither lasts long, yet do seem to reproduce.
> 
> It is the good producer that is the backbone of the industry. They have values and a willingness to learn. They will grow, adapt and suceed.
> It once bothered me that our cattle sold for .12 to .15 cents a lb. less than out west. Trucking and handling cost. I realized I was still making money.
> We all have to find our niche in the hay business. Mine has evolved over the last 30 years as the local market dictated.


Words of wisdom


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## dubltrubl

Here's a couple of more examples:

http://beaumont.craigslist.org/grd/3646789438.html

http://beaumont.craigslist.org/grd/3647445825.html

Without a test, there's no way to dispute if it is in fact fertilized. If it is, then they're losing lots of money. A guy could buy it and feed it to his livestock way cheaper than growing and baling it himself and transplant some good nutrients onto his pasture to boot!
Regards,
Steve


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## urednecku

This year I baled all the best stuff in squares for my square customer, rounded & kept the worst, (weeds, etc) for myself, and bought the rest I felt I needed for myself and 1 round customer/friend that's bought from me from the start. The calculator says I made money that way, and what I bought, if I have any left over (and it looks like I will) I can rebale to square & still make money on it.


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## whitmerlegacyfarm

I ended up selling 40 sm sq about 45lb/bale last sunday for $3.00/bale. Thought i'd never get that but i advertised it exactly what it was and even said my horses don't like it, and still had 2 horse people call next day after posted. Was broomsedge and some O grass. I figured up on my 2nd and 3rd cut o gras bales at 45lb/bale, sold it for 5.00 a bale delivered to my aunt for alpacas i still didn't make much money if any at all. I put on about $300 of Urea after 1st cut, sprayed 2,4-D, so on this small field 120 bales at 5 is what $600. Equipment, fuel cost, delivered and labor intense on loading, storing, blah blah.... sure aint doing it for the money... would love to do it and make a little money would just make it even better. This year should get interesting. I'm redy to go!


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## farmin14

Green net wrap and blue twine on small squares are the way to go. We see 200k bales of hay a year. If I think it looks better with green and blue, you know some random horse woman thinks it looks amazing. Seriously, its marketing but thats an important part of business.


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## Tim/South

I actually had a guy stop and ask if he could buy some hay before it faded. It was the green tint on the net wrap. I am not sure what the brand net it was, that was when I had a friend rolling mine.

I do like the green net wrap color better. It looks more like freshly baled hay.


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## somedevildawg

farmin14 said:


> Green net wrap and blue twine on small squares are the way to go. We see 200k bales of hay a year. If I think it looks better with green and blue, you know some random horse woman thinks it looks amazing. Seriously, its marketing but thats an important part of business.


Did you mean green net wrap on rounds and blue twine on small squares? The blue twine is that Bridon brand...


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## AmericanWestern

With the business I do across mutiple states, from what I see, the southeast does have fairly low prices compared to the plains, upper midwest, and Texas. If you need to sell hay, try to ship to an auction in another region. Or sell it to a broker. My suspicion about those really low prices is a lack of quality. I have not bought any hay at those prices despite my need for more hay because every time it is either a Craigslist scam of some sort or the hay is just absolutely worthless which is a huge problem not only for feeding cows, cattle, etc but especially horsing stables where highy quality is a must!


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## somedevildawg

I agree, I recognized the need to ship hay out of this region very early, alot of hay is produced down here by local folk who don't bother to fertilize or cut when forage is optimal, market here accepts it for the most part. I can't accept it, I'll go broke......


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## FarmerCline

Same problem here I am the only one right around me that makes quality hay. What everyone else calls hay is just weedy wild grass and broomsage that they don't fertilize, lime, or spray. The worst part about it is that it drives the local market price down especially on round bales, square bales it doesn't hurt as bad because most of the ones that put up junk hay are too lazy to do square bales.


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## Aurora_Ranch

Part of the problem is the droughts and vultures out there. We have had many in the area think they would get rich off the poor people suffering from drought conditions so they bought what ever equipment they could find and cut anything that grew. We litterally had people cutting the side of the highways, city and county properties and trying to sell it. Now we have people darn near giving it away just to get rid of it.

I had a local feed store owner tell me he was having a hard time selling his horse hay (because he was one of the guys cutting the side of the road.) So I offered to sell him clean fertilized coastal bermuda 65# squares for $5.00/bale delivered and he said it was to high. I laughed at him and told him that the reason he was selling no "horse" hay is because it was trash and "horse" hay buyers were particular. He actually said he would give me $3.00/bale delivered I laughed again and said no thanks but I will put a sign up on the feeder road to your place. I guess he dosen't realize if he put some good quality horse hay in his store that it would create more impulse buys since the customers are already there buying hay.


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