# Shipping hay out of state



## eastsidehayguy (Aug 12, 2013)

Thinking of shipping some first cutting alfalfa grass mix hay out of state as, the local market doesnt seem to want to pay what I am wanting, needing to get for my hay. I am currently asking $6 out of the barn, I am selling some but only my second year in business I am not moving it as fast as I would like, I have about 2000 bales to sell. It looks like I can get $230 plus freignt if I send it down south.. My concern is how do I gaurentee i get paid, yes I can tell the trucker not to unload until he gets the cash or check but, now I would be out freight if they have to ship it back, worse yet they unload and the check is no good or the cash is forged. I plan to send samples of hay out to make sure it is quality they want before I send a load out but, what happens if they dont want it when it gets there? There are a couple local hay brokers selling shipping hay but, they never seem to give clear answers on; what they pay and if they are going to take it. Lots of questions need a mentor to help me out. Thanks In Advance


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I would send that sample out and test the water....then have them pay a deposit of 1/2 and the remainder either to the driver or through PayPal upon arrival...


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Personally, I'd just sell it to a reputable dealer and let him deal with any problems on the other end.


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## NewBerlinBaler (May 30, 2011)

Virtually all my hay is sold at a local auction. These issues remind me that the 4% commission the auction house gets is worth every penny. I get a check from the auction house that I know is good. They have to deal with the buyer. If the buyer's check is bad, I wouldn't even know about it.

eastsidehayguy - Back in 1999, I spent about a month in Harbor Beach commissioning some large compressors (4,000 HP each) for Dow Agro Sciences. Nice area, nice people.

Gary


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

NewBerlinBaler said:


> Virtually all my hay is sold at a local auction. These issues remind me that the 4% commission the auction house gets is worth every penny. I get a check from the auction house that I know is good. They have to deal with the buyer. If the buyer's check is bad, I wouldn't even know about it.
> 
> eastsidehayguy - Back in 1999, I spent about a month in Harbor Beach commissioning some large compressors (4,000 HP each) for Dow Agro Sciences. Nice area, nice people.
> 
> ...


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## eastsidehayguy (Aug 12, 2013)

NewBerlinBaler said:


> Virtually all my hay is sold at a local auction. These issues remind me that the 4% commission the auction house gets is worth every penny. I get a check from the auction house that I know is good. They have to deal with the buyer. If the buyer's check is bad, I wouldn't even know about it.
> 
> eastsidehayguy - Back in 1999, I spent about a month in Harbor Beach commissioning some large compressors (4,000 HP each) for Dow Agro Sciences. Nice area, nice people.
> 
> Gary


I worked in the same location at that time driving semi we where dredging the edison area just behind dow.. Turns out Dow is a big deal up there as most of the small factories in the area have since closed, small town of Deckerville to the south used to have 5 factories dont know if they have one now... The upper Thumb area is beautiful, I live aprox 7 miles west of Lexington " the first resort North" is what the Detroit people call it..

When I first got started with hay I would take my nice 60 plus pound bales to Marlette for auction.. I would watch the auction and wonder why the ladies would not buy or bid up my hay just as nice as the nice looking stuff if not nicer selling for less then the not so nice looking hay. I just couldnt figure it out. After a while I come to the conclusion that the bales that i could walk up to and grab and throw with one hand no problem where the highest priced hay, talking to the women they educated me on the fact that they can not load or handle the heavy bales. At that point I lost over 80 percent of bidders! I noticed it also trying to sell hay out of the barn I would try to sell 60 pound bales for $5.50 and people would complain saying they can buy hay for $4 down the road. When you explain to them that the hay that weights 40 pounds for $4 actuallycost more they get a weird look on their face and think your trying to screw them over. When I started baling last spring I chose to keep them light, fortunitly I only did about 6 acres just to make sure things where going to work as they should before I dropped 40 acres. After close to 1,000 light bales costing me the same amount of $$ per bale to handle as 600 heavy bales I decieded I would just bale nice tight bales, forget about the local auction and bale for transport out of state. Fortunitely I have sold most my hay for 14, I am however looking to plant about 40 acres more and would like to "test" the waters on shipping out of state before I get it planted with no where to go.. Part of the problem is I keep telling myself if I am going to do it I might as well go all out and try to make money in all spectrums of the business I can as I have the investment now I cant see sitting back and doing it 1/2 aa..


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

What type of grass are mixing in with that alfalfa?


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## eastsidehayguy (Aug 12, 2013)

Timothy, orchard, some broam. I ended up selling it all through a broker he got me what I was asking and I dont have to worry about anything but getting the truck loaded...


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

Sounds like a good mixture...That's great news glad you got it all sold at the price you wanted..... That's the

kinda of mixture I'd like to have when I get back into haying.


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## PaCustomBaler (Nov 29, 2010)

Eastsidehayguy- If you're talking about sending semi loads out of state, safest way to guarentee payment without getting burnt is to have them send a certified bank check prior to loading. Money orders are OK but still can be a little risky. Other guys like to do wire transfers but our bank advised us not to...too many scammers out there.

Like somedevildawg said, send a small representative sample first, so the customer clearly knows what the hay looks like before the load is delivered.

I never used Paypal but thought about it. I haven't heard anything bad about it but still just a little leary.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I have heard recently of scams on paypal.....somehow a refund was mandated by paypal in the scam.

Regards, Mike


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