# Anyone use Craigslist to advertise hay?



## Teslan

I use Craigslist a lot to advertise hay and it's become very effective. Gone are the days of spending $100 for a 3 line ad in the local paper. I put the pictures of my hay on craigslist also. But in the last month in the Denver Craigslist if you advertise small bales of hay and price them over $10 a bale (that's a viable market price now) some disgruntled hay buyers are flagging and having removed every one of those ads. There have been rants of some disgruntled hay buyers about how hay prices are out of control due to greedy farmers and hay brokers. I guess that person doesn't understand when we don't have any significant moisture for awhile there is going to be less production, but people still love their hay burner horses so the demand stays the same.


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## swmnhay

I use CL once in awhile but tend to get the horsey type folk that want cheap hay.We have a local farm paper that covers 4 counties that every farmer gets for free.And line ads are free also for 2 weeks.I've had a ad in it for 20 yrs and they just charge me $100 per yr so it is cheap.

For first time in 20+ yrs I pulled the hay for sale ad,I don't have enough hay for the demand currently.

I do like CL to sell unwanted stuff,I've had fairly good luck with that.I wish they would seperate the Farm stuff from Garden stuff.And Horse stuff.


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## Tim/South

There are several hay ads on our local Craigs List.
The better ones include pictures.


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## mlappin

I've used it as well to get rid of junk hay I didn't want to be seen hauling to the auctions.


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## urednecku

Tried it last season, didn't work.
I do watch it for any equipment I'm thinking about buying. I use search tempest, I find it's easier searching the areas around me.


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## HWooldridge

I sell off CL regularly (when we have hay) but I write a very descriptive ad with no surprises. In my 15 years of doing this, the only person who ever bought but then later returned some hay was a "friend of a friend" deal that happened a couple weeks ago. She was a horsey woman and decided our hay was not suitable after looking at it very carefully and paying by check. Within 30 minutes of leaving, she wanted to return it (but never broke a bale). After restacking in the barn, she walked out back and saw our horses eating the same stuff - the funny thing is that her hired hand told me on the side that our animals were in much better shape than hers.

She then asked me to call her when we cut again but that ain't happening...LOL


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## JD3430

It's the only form of advertising I use other than my website.


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## steve in IN

I tried it once and all I got is people asking price and then hanging up.


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## mlappin

I haven't advertised at all this year, but I've already had people who seen my ad on Craigslist from last year call me this year as well as those who bought from me off craigslist last year, I haven't sold any to them this year as I have no "cheap" hay this year, and for tax purposes I most likely won't sell any until 2013.


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## HALLSHAY

I have really got alot of hate mail and flagged constantly. I priced some hay for 380-400 just to see what happened and have been called everything. I had a lady today say " i hope you starve to death you greedy son of a bitch." 
I remember why I sell to resalers again, cause of the horsey lady BS. I think it is funny myself. What do they expect in a drought area where grinder hay is $200 in a round bale?


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## Bob M

If it doesn't rain that 380 to 400 might be cheap!! Most of our customers understand that our expenses are going up. I try to be understanding if they think our hay is too expensive, but I have told a couple that they are correct and we are too expensive, and they should go out and buy some land and equipment and they too could make lots of money. Have not seen any of them try it yet.


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## Teslan

Tim. Are you doing your craigslist ads in the Denver Craigslist? Or trying to anyways? I've gotten mine flagged also earlier this year when I advertised at $10 a bale. So has my cousin. She apparently doesn't read the Fort Collins craigslist or other area craigslist to flag those ones. Many other's have gotten flagged also from what I see. Earlier this year there was someone putting ads on there damning greedy farmers and their lies about drought that there was no drought. And that Texas had rain and no need to gouge people anymore. It's all supply and demand. Some don't understand that. I haven't got the hate mail, though I haven't advertised since the first part of June.


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## mlappin

bid4hay said:


> Craigslist is an easy to use/easy to post form of advertisment, but a pain for users because they have to search all the different regions.


Searchtempest.com, easy peasy


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## urednecku

mlappin said:


> Searchtempest.com, easy peasy


Yep. Hardly ever got to craigslist, but visit searchtempest almost every day. Much easier finding things on cl.


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## HALLSHAY

oops


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## mlappin

I went to all round bales from all square bales years ago just to get away from having to deal with horsey people, worked for several years too, then one of them figured out no matter the shape of the bale, good hay is good hay and you can feed round bales to horses. Darn it. Wonder if big squares would scare em off???


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## ETXhayman

I know of two different guys in our area that use CL and have had success selling their hay. I'm thinking about trying it myself.
As far as people comlaining about price I tend to think thats just a part of the business. We always have a couple customers complain but they come back year after year because they know we only sell high quality hay


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## JD3430

steve in IN said:


> I tried it once and all I got is people asking price and then hanging up.


I'm finding this al lot more often now, too. I will get someone calling me talking about buying 500-800 bales AFTER I tell them the price, then I never hear from them again.


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## LeadFarmer

mlappin said:


> I went to all round bales from all square bales years ago just to get away from having to deal with horsey people, worked for several years too, then one of them figured out no matter the shape of the bale, good hay is good hay and you can feed round bales to horses. Darn it. Wonder if big squares would scare em off???


Yeah they don't like big squares. Not at all. We usually bale about 20 acres twice a year, once at 4th cutting and once on our last cutting, for a couple local horsey people, in small squares. The small balers sit and rust all year, we only fire them up twice to make the horsey people happy!


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## JD3430

mlappin said:


> I went to all round bales from all square bales years ago just to get away from having to deal with horsey people, worked for several years too, then one of them figured out no matter the shape of the bale, good hay is good hay and you can feed round bales to horses. Darn it. Wonder if big squares would scare em off???


Funny you say that. I actually covinced one of my small square customers to try a round bale. She had a large feeder that would hold a 4x5 round bale. At first she was reluctant, but she tried it and found the horses ate it happily and she saved some money & hassle.
No if I could just get all horse people to buy covered feeders and feed them round bales instead of little bales.


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## Teslan

I've found this year that plenty of horsey people like the 3X3 bales. (I'm new to the 3x3 bale scene) They don't like the 4x4 bales as the flakes are to big. I have a customer that runs a boarding facility of 80 horses that bought most of my 1st cutting 3x3 bales of grass bales. I will admit she is in the minority of stables around here. Most want the small bales so they can put then in a loft and throw the hay down to the horse or something silly like that.

Now as for Tim's messing with horsey people. I never have run the numbers really for one horse how much it costs a month even at very expensive hay. $133 a month is pretty cheap. One could have 3-4 large dogs and pay more then that in decent quality dog food.

Tim is also right about the 40 acre hobby hay farmer selling hay for $5 when the real price is $9 going away. If it were a bunch of hobby farmers with their 40 acre fields then the hay needs would never be met in this area. If not for the professionals.

As for what I'm seeing on craigslist now here in Colorado is that there are more Hay wanted ads then hay for sale ads. But the difference is all the hay wanted ads are wanting hay for $7-$8 a bale, but the hay for sale ads are about $12 a bale. But so so many people want it delivered for free or very little.

I feel if you don't own a truck or something to go buy hay then you shouldn't have a horse.


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## somedevildawg

Yea put in ad "you come pick up" not very many will show if the have to pick up and load and unload.


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## Teslan

I never have delivered small bales myself to anyone. This year I bought a truck and a trailer for delivering large squares, but I haven't had to do any yet and they are all sold. Though I will deliver some alfalfa in December and January 5 miles away to a dairy.


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## Mike120

I only sell round bales and I only make them if the hay is too mature/weedy/stemmy/etc to make the squares that I feed. This year I've sold almost all my rounds on CL. I put the price in the ad. If they're interested they call, if not then they don't. I usually get a few calls asking me if it's "horse hay" and I usually ask them to define "horse hay"......I get some pretty weird responses. I have to deal with horse owners every day, so the last thing I want to do is try to sell them hay. None of our boarders know anything about hay, all they care about is that their horse's ribs aren't showing when they go to shows. Tim's numbers are reasonable for the hay-only portion of their upkeep, at current prices with no grass turnout. When you figure in pellet feed, bedding, labor, farrier, barn operations & maintenance, etc, it's somewhere between $250 - $300/month depending on the horse.


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## Teslan

Generally when people ask me if my hay is horse quality I tell them that I think so, but they need to come and look themselves to see if they think so. Plus I have pictures on every craigslist ad I post of my hay. I've been fortunate not to have cow hay or worse to sell the last few years since internet advertising has come around.


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## Chessiedog

Teslan said:


> Generally when people ask me if my hay is horse quality


I think what their really asking is it human quality. My horses will eat the same as my cows . They'll eat pure green alfalfa one day , then I may feed them a some fescue grass the next . They seem to have no problem cleaning either one up and it's not like they are skinny . If the cows won't eat it , neither will the horses.


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## JD3430

When I got my new baler delivered, the salesman commented "why aren't you square baling this?"
I thought what was he talking about...decent amount of weeds, dogbane, milkweed, etc., but he grew up on a dairy farm and made 10's of thousands of bales.
I swear I've never seen a trade where the quality of the product was more widely varied than hay !!!
Enough to drive an inexperienced guy like me nuts! lol


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## Chessiedog

JD3430 said:


> I swear I've never seen a trade where the quality of the product was more widely varied than hay !!!
> Enough to drive an inexperienced guy like me nuts! lol


Well Jd I like to look at it like people shopping for anything else . Some go to the Dollar General store , some Wal-Mart , then you have ones that only shop at Eddie Bauer or *Ralph Lauren . Of course like a lot of us, we want Eddie Bauer , but can only afford Wal-Mart . LOL*


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## Nitram

Last year we had extra...put in a ad had one caller say "we will buy them all if you remove the ad today, We will send some out to pick them up in TWO WEEKS OR SO" My brother told them when the money is in his hand the ad will be removed! Ended up selling to a cousin who was 1. short on hay 2. extreamly happy to find it so close. Martin


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## IslandBreeze

Just checked out searchtempest.com after I seen a couple of guys talk about it on this posting. That has to be the coolest thing since craigslist. I have spent hours searching for something & go thru every city in the surrounding states. Once again, haytalk is a place to learn things. Thanks guys. Randy


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## mlappin

Yep, searchtempest is da bomb.


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## Itsalwayssomething

I sell only to horse owners. I don't need to do much advertising as word of mouth works fine. When I do advertise, I use Craigslist. It has worked great for selling last minute hay out of the field (back when it used to rain). It's also great for buying and selling equipment and tools.


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## jdhayboy

HALLSHAY said:


> I have been messin with the horsey people lately. Here is something I posted that fired a bunch of them up!!
> 
> Hay, lets do some math! 22 pounds per day of hay x 365 days = 8000 lbs per year. 4 tons per year @ 400 per ton is $1600 per year. $1600/12 = $133 per month.
> This is the EXTREME price in a DROUGHT year. If you cant afford that, you have NO BUSINESS owning a horse! If you do not have a pasture big enough to supplement your feed, you have NO BUSINESS owning a horse!
> Corn is pushing $8 a bushel now and hay will follow. Grinding hay is over 200 a ton for rained on junk round bales.
> 
> 1 response:
> 
> In response to the below ad- I am not the one that flagged you, though I understand WHY you were flagged if the ad below is what you posted., I don't have a pasture to supplement my feed, so you are saying that I have no business owning a horse? That is like saying because you are a dipshit and ugly, you shouldn't be having children
> Yes, we ARE in a drought. Yes, prices on EVERYTHING are going up. BUT, it is the greedy brokers and the lazy people that want their hay delivered and stacked(I am not talking about the people that cannot physically do it, just the ones that don't want to get sweaty!)that are causing the problems we are having now. Last year...you greedy SOB's literally DOUBLED your price, half way through the year, AFTER your hay was up and stacked, just because some of you schmucks hauled hay down to Texas and then tried selling hay here, to your LOYAL customers for the same prices you charge to haul to TX! I hope that your loyal customers have gone somewhere else to get their hay and that you choke on your hay as it spoils in its stack.
> 
> My response:
> 
> Thank you, Thank you for showing the attitude of the bitchin! back yard horse owner!! I didn't say every horse owner! You mean to tell me that your horse lives in a bare dirt 30ft round pen? A horse is a grazer, nothin there to graze. That is your choice, but you are accepting the responsibility of providing full feed to meet the nutritional requirements of your horse. With nothing green to supplement, your horse is going to require the best quality feed you can provide. SOOOO, this is where you have chosen to skimp? Do you want poor quality hay or "horse hay"? Do you want Purina, Triple Crown, or Standlee $15-$20 a bag feed? You are obviously very passionate about your animal so why do you have a problem paying the price to get what you want? Whether you believe it or not, there is a "market" for hay. That is set based off what the next guy is willing to pay. You want us to take money out of our pockets when the market is favorable for us? Horse hay is no longer a by-product of the cattle ranch. Horse hay is highly marketable product worldwide!! You have no idea how much hay leaves Colorado and the other western states each year to other markets in the east that are willing to pay for the quality. Commercial producers will continue to seek the high dollar markets and the farmer bob type with his 40 acres and $5 bales will slowly dwindle away. Consider yourself fortunate enough that you live in the rocky mountain west where some of the highest quality forages are grown and available. Water is the precious commodity that drives everything and the irrigated acres are switching to $8 a bushel corn. Municipalities continue to buy surface water shares to provide for the masses and the front range hay patch is drying up.
> Oh, by the way, our loyal customers are in South and the East.
> Fire away!!!


BOOM!! Well said


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## haybaler101

Just started advertising some round bales on CL. Three inquiries so far and they can't figure out why I have to charge delivery to haul them a round bale 200 miles!


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## urednecku

haybaler101 said:


> Just started advertising some round bales on CL. Three inquiries so far and they can't figure out why I have to charge delivery to haul them a round bale 200 miles!


Then don't charge them delivery..
"I have 2 stacks of hay. Stack 1 you pick up here for $X a bale. Stack 2 - I deliver for no charge, but it cost $XXX per bale, because the quality holds up to the airflow during delivery better."


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## Chessiedog

Hay sales is retail to the public and it is what it is . Horse or cattle it's still retail sales . What I learned when I was working at a full service station when i was a kid is some customers are really nice,some you hope don't come back . I have one customer that may have brownies baked and waiting on us when were done unloading . I have others that I may not see other then to hand a check to me when we are done . When your working with the pubic, who knows what you'll run into , can make this a really interesting businesses or a real pain in the rear .

When I was at that gas station I had one little ol lady that was a regular . No matter how hard I tried to clean her windshield , she would no doubt reach up and point to a spot I missed . I finally decided that it was probably on her glasses ! LOL But I would wash it again any ways ! Oh by the way we had to change her summer air in her tires one time to winter air . Was easier to do that an charge her a dollar then try to tell her different . LOL


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## JD3430

haybaler101 said:


> Just started advertising some round bales on CL. Three inquiries so far and they can't figure out why I have to charge delivery to haul them a round bale 200 miles!


Isn't it amazing?!?!
People in general are so dumb in this country. Most think delivery truck and fuel are free for me to run, when in fact I bet my truck is a $1,500/month expenditure in payments, insurance, repairs, fuel and depreciation.
As of right now, I'm charging $60/900lb round bale picked up and $75/900lb round bale delivered within 20 miles.
I think that may not be enough.


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## urednecku

> $75/900lb round bale delivered within 20 miles.
> I think that may not be enough.


Only if you are delivering several bales @ a time. You are loosing $$ if you are driving 40 miles...round trip...for even 4 bales. How much fuel does it take to drive 40 miles...and how much time does it take to drive. That's time you could be doing something else...time on the clock.


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## FCF

Chessiedog said:


> .... What I learned when I was working at a full service station when i was a kid is some customers are really nice,some you hope don't come back ....


What I say when working with the public is " Everyone brings happiness here; Some when they arrive, others when they leave." LOL Just depends on the point of view.

For some people trying to educate them helps and they are glad to learn, others couldn't care less and fall into the latter group above.


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## JD3430

urednecku said:


> Only if you are delivering several bales @ a time. You are loosing $$ if you are driving 40 miles...round trip...for even 4 bales. How much fuel does it take to drive 40 miles...and how much time does it take to drive. That's time you could be doing something else...time on the clock.


Yep, that's a load, not a few. Usually if someone needs 1 or 2 they come get them.
I'm not hitting the road until I'm making money.


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## haybaler101

urednecku said:


> Only if you are delivering several bales @ a time. You are loosing $$ if you are driving 40 miles...round trip...for even 4 bales. How much fuel does it take to drive 40 miles...and how much time does it take to drive. That's time you could be doing something else...time on the clock.


I will haul them 1 bale at a time, but I will bring them 30 for the same price. I quoted $2.50 loaded mile for pickup/gooseneck and $3.00 for semi. Goose hauls 11 and semi takes 30. Also have $50 minimum on the goose and $100 minimum on the semi for delivery.


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## cmd

I use c-list a lot. For me, hay auction is just not an option, I don't have time and money to waste, gambling that my load will bring enough to not have to bring it home and be worth while driving around.

I have advertised on hay exchange, local farm newspaper, and c-list, I have sold the bulk of my hay the last 3 years on c-list, the farm paper and hay exchange have gotten me a bunch of calls from jockeys that don't call back when I mention certified check or wire transfer. I have picked up some jockeys on c-list that are good and some good local customers I'd have not found otherwise. This year I sold a small load of squares to a guy who was in virginia on work and traveling home to ohio, he found me on c-list and said I was the only one who listed a phone number so here I am.


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## peaches

JD3430 said:


> Funny you say that. I actually covinced one of my small square customers to try a round bale. She had a large feeder that would hold a 4x5 round bale. At first she was reluctant, but she tried it and found the horses ate it happily and she saved some money & hassle.
> No if I could just get all horse people to buy covered feeders and feed them round bales instead of little bales.


 I haven't, but know several people who have been very successful using Craig's list.


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## John Deere Green

Personally I have a mixed experiance advertising on CL. Most of the people I loaded were very friendly and paid the going price, however, the one bad experiance I had was bad enough that it makes me very cautious about advertising there again.

It seems to me that you get a even mix of genuinely good people looking for hay and will be willing to work with you and bottom feeders looking to S#&*w you. If you can put up with sorting through them then craigslist is the way to go, but I find for me it works better to advertise in the local paper instead and not have to sort through the people who think your hay is not good enough and your just out there to take them for a ride.

Just my two cents,

John Deere Green


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## dbergh

Word of mouth is the best way here. After six years in the small bale business we have a reputation for supplying quality hay and service and I find that is all the advertising I need for our local markets. Have used CL a bit in the past with the above mentioned problems of bottom feeders and low life's mixed in with some good repeat customers. If you need to advertise it puts your product out there for all to see at no cost to you so from that standpoint it is a good resource. Coverage is broad and it is a "go to" resource for many people for all kinds of different products.


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## swmnhay

dbergh said:


> Word of mouth is the best way here. After six years in the small bale business we have a reputation for supplying quality hay and service and I find that is all the advertising I need for our local markets. Have used CL a bit in the past with the above mentioned problems of bottom feeders and low life's mixed in with some good repeat customers. If you need to advertise it puts your product out there for all to see at no cost to you so from that standpoint it is a good resource. Coverage is broad and it is a "go to" resource for many people for all kinds of different products.


Word of mouth is good.We also have a 4 county paper that goes to all the farmers in 4 counties.I've been running a continues ad in it for 25 yrs.I just had to pull the ad because I'm out of hay.


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## Teslan

I think the success of advertising on CL also is determined to the area you live and sell the hay. If there isn't that much of a market in your area for hay in general then CLwon't help much. In my area there are many many horse owners, cow owners,small farm owners so it works very well. I used to use internet hay exchange, but it's so limited in how you can advertise. No pictures and you can't describe the hay to well. Word of mouth is the best of course and I didn't have to advertise much to sell the small bales, but now that I've gotten into large squares CL came in handy last year. I would like to think that from the new customers I got last year that the word of mouth will be nearly enough to sell it all this coming year. If we have hay to sell. CL doesn't help with getting rain and moisture.


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## foz682

Craigslist doesn't seem to be very well used in my area, but I have posted ads on Kijiji selling hay and it usually turns out well. I've probably sold nearly 400 4x4 round bales in the last few years soley because of my ad on there. It's a great way to create a customer base.


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## whitmerlegacyfarm

I have bought all my used hay equipment on CL. I am not making enough hay to sell at this time but i have sold a few thousand bales of small squares for my neighbor that just started baling his 20ac and using a lot of my equipment. As of now i only sell a few hundred bales that i have extra from 2nd and 3rd cut O grass to my aunt who has like 25 some Alpaca's. I really don't know what the going rate is on hay in our area right now, i see a very wide range of price on hay on CL in our area. I'm guess $4-$5 a bale is avg but maybe a little higher.


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## Teslan

whitmerlegacyfarm said:


> I have bought all my used hay equipment on CL. I am not making enough hay to sell at this time but i have sold a few thousand bales of small squares for my neighbor that just started baling his 20ac and using a lot of my equipment. As of now i only sell a few hundred bales that i have extra from 2nd and 3rd cut O grass to my aunt who has like 25 some Alpaca's. I really don't know what the going rate is on hay in our area right now, i see a very wide range of price on hay on CL in our area. I'm guess $4-$5 a bale is avg but maybe a little higher.


 Alpaca owners are normally very picky about their hay in my area. Especially the ones that are breeders. So if your aunt's alpacas like the hay and are in good health then you must be making some premium hay. But then I also suspect alpaca owners like horse owners are more picky then they really need to be.


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## whitmerlegacyfarm

Teslan said:


> Alpaca owners are normally very picky about their hay in my area. Especially the ones that are breeders. So if your aunt's alpacas like the hay and are in good health then you must be making some premium hay. But then I also suspect alpaca owners like horse owners are more picky then they really need to be.


Thanks a lot that means a lot. Last year was my first full year making hay, still much to learn, thanks to haytalk and talking to whoever o could about making hay i put it all together n tried to use some common sense and got fairly lucky with mother nature. I would call it a hay addiction, i just cant seem to ever get it off my mind its so much fun. The wife n i have horses n are now able to feed our own hay. They are not very picky n neither am i but i still try to make the best hay i can. Im trying to figure out the side of planting new n better stands of hay.


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## JD3430

It is addictive! I want to make a living doing it and "retire" from my other work!!! lol


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## askinner

JD3430 said:


> It is addictive! I want to make a living doing it and "retire" from my other work!!! lol


Ditto! Working with the general population these days frustrates the heck out of me. At least when things go bad in haymaking, there's only two people you can blame - yourself, or that crazy lady we call Mother Nature! Oh, 3 if you include the weather forecasters!!


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## Teslan

askinner said:


> Ditto! Working with the general population these days frustrates the heck out of me. At least when things go bad in haymaking, there's only two people you can blame - yourself, or that crazy lady we call Mother Nature! Oh, 3 if you include the weather forecasters!!


There are the buyers of the hay, but the bad ones can be just a temporary annoyance and then you just hang up the phone or ask them to leave your farm.


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## jcole87

Usually when I put my hay for sale I just use Hay Country or http://www.haycountry.com/ they sometimes will even throw my ads up on CL for me if I ask the admin of the site to do it for me. And when I dont have anymore hay for sale I just contact the admin on Hay Country to take the listing off of CL if I start to get to many phone calls. But about the people crying about expensive hay, hell even I dont make as much when I sell my hay for higher prices since im not getting the same production as I would on a normal year.

Cole


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## Dill

I've also had mixed luck advertising on craigslist. Got some of my best customers off there. But have also had plenty of no shows and general PIA dealings as well. I started with no customer list 6 years ago. And it was handy then. But for the most part I use word of mouth and friends of existing customers now.
And I agree, Alpaca and Llama people are way more picky about hay than they should be. Most seem to be more hassle than worth it.


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