# $10 a roll ! How do they do it?



## Grateful11

It's no wonder folks in the east and south can't make money off round bales. If we were closer we'd go buy them all.

http://roanoke.craigslist.org/grd/4046405627.html
4 x 4 rolls of hay...... - $12 (Covington, Va) 4 x 4 round bales of second cutting fescue / mixed grass hay for sale. Very tight rolls made with John Deere belt baler. 
Made this week with NO RAIN on this hay. Approximately 75 available.
$ 12 each or take them all for $ 10 each.


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## FarmerCline

This is what kills the round hay business here. I enjoy putting up hay but not so much that I would do it even if I was losing money. I could not make money selling a 4 by 4 roll for $25 dollars and that is what most people would pay as that is what others around are selling for, it's not the same quality of hay but try telling people that. I needed to be about $40 dollars per roll to make it worth my time. I never was able to sell one for that price.


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## ontario hay man

That guy is a complete retard. He wont last long and dont forget what he writes isnt what it actually is usually. Really stupid if it is as advertised.


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## somedevildawg

I believe I would buy them all....


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## Tim/South

I met a hay producer who will deliver 5x5 rolls to me for $22.85 if I buy a large amount. He is an hour away. ($20 per roll, 40 delivery for 14 rolls)

My son has been to his place. Beautiful grass hay fields. Limed, fetilized and sprayed. We bought a test roll to make sure it was not a bait and switch deal. Good hay. A friend has been buying from him for years.

If I knew he would guarantee the quality and price every year, I would sell my baler.

Around here the charge is $7 just to roll a 4x4.


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## Grateful11

With fertilizer running $500/ton and up I don't see how he's making money. Then add Lime, fuel and chemical, maybe he's doing it at loss for tax purposes and it keeps his land in farm tax bracket. I can't think of anymore reasons why anyone would sell good 5x5 or 4x4 bales for that matter for $20.


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## Tim/South

Grateful11 said:


> With fertilizer running $500/ton and up I don't see how he's making money. Then add Lime, fuel and chemical, maybe he's doing it at loss for tax purposes and it keeps his land in farm tax bracket. I can't think of anymore reasons why anyone would sell good 5x5 or 4x4 bales for that matter for $20.


He is older, retired and not hurting to balance his check book.

His main market are the locals who buy a few at a time for $30 - $35. He does not have storage. He offers the hay to us at that price because we will buy in quantity. I can not drive an hour each way to haul 14 rolls at a time for $40 he charges per load.

I ordered 100 rolls earlier in the Spring. He got busy making more hay and did not get it hauled, then monsoons set in and I told him I would rather have fresh hay as I store everything under a roof.

Right now he has over 300 rolls for sale.


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## Vol

You would be surprised at the number of folks that own acreage here in the Southeast that just want their fields to look pretty....they have no storage as Tim/South mentioned and they are pleased to breakeven and "get if off" their fields. This plays the devil with folks like us on haytalk.

Regards, Mike


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## endrow

here there is no market for round bales stored outside and the is no market for fescue .Right now with the surplus of hay in my area there is no market for round bales . If he is getting $50 to $60 per ton picked up maybe that is all it is worth . Lot of low quality hay has to find a home this winter


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## FCF

Have a neighbor that get most of his hay from free rental fields, meaning he pays nothing for the hay, and he doesn't sell hay this cheap. His better hay comes from fields he owns.


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## JD3430

I have a guy in my area who is a multi millionaire. I know him, been to his farm. My kids know his kids. He became a millionaire about 15 years ago, bought one of the most beautiful, historic farms you have ever seen when he hit it big. 
Guess what his new rich guy hobby is? 
Hay farming and bush hogging. 
He has only the finest John Deere equipment. Everything you could imagine. 
I just bid on a 70 acre bush hogging job. My price was $1,000. 
Woman who runs farm called me and told me I lost the bid to Mr. Millionaire. 
Guess what Mr. Millionaire bid? 
$500
He bush hogs "just for fun". I am trying to put food on the table and he is underbidding me so he can sit in a tractor and listen to Barry Manilow.

That guy in Roanoake selling hay may be a local millionaire, round baling just for fun.


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## somedevildawg

really....Barry Manilow? Wt....

Lol... ur killin me jd....don't he still play on the strip?


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## JD3430

somedevildawg said:


> really....Barry Manilow? Wt....
> Lol... ur killin me jd....don't he still play on the strip?


Yeah, I was probably kidding about the Barry Manilow thing, but he is a VERY wealthy man, but his passion is farm equipment, haying, mowing. He would do it for free if he had to. Try facing that for local competition. 
He was raising cattle, but I noticed he only has his wife's horses now.


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## mlappin

With ground around here renting for a minimum of $125/acre we don't have much problems with morons selling hay too low.


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## JD3430

Lowest I see is like $40/roll, which is REALLY low around here. 
Guy down street from me sells 4x4 400lb marshmallows for $70!!!!!!!


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## swmnhay

There will be some CRaP hay sold here fairly cheap.Or a swamp that has dried up and mostly cattails.But we are probably still in 60 a ton range for junk hay.


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## hayward

My plan is to sell hay until I can build a herd big enuf to feed all my hay to. I'm figuring
Out pretty quick making a return of money, muchless making a living selling hay( leasing land, fert,spraying, equip, mantinace,labor,cutting, tedding, raking, baling, hauling, storing, reloading) is not somthing I will pursue much longer. Doubled my leases, doubled amount of hay, totaling barely above dollar amount from last yr on hay. Make 2 bales one yr get 50$ pc, next yr mak 50 bales an you cant get 2$ for em.Realize just now, I never knew nor heard of anyone that made a living doing hay round here. I'm proud for the guy that one day may turn a decent living doing this, he'll deserve it!


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## somedevildawg

hayward said:


> My plan is to sell hay until I can build a herd big enuf to feed all my hay to. I'm figuring
> Out pretty quick making a return of money, muchless making a living selling hay( leasing land, fert,spraying, equip, mantinace,labor,cutting, tedding, raking, baling, hauling, storing, reloading) is not somthing I will pursue much longer. Doubled my leases, doubled amount of hay, totaling barely above dollar amount from last yr on hay. Make 2 bales one yr get 50$ pc, next yr mak 50 bales an you cant get 2$ for em.Realize just now, I never knew nor heard of anyone that made a living doing hay round here. I'm proud for the guy that one day may turn a decent living doing this, he'll deserve it!


Amen brother...


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## Tim/South

hayward said:


> My plan is to sell hay until I can build a herd big enuf to feed all my hay to. I'm figuring
> Out pretty quick making a return of money, muchless making a living selling hay( leasing land, fert,spraying, equip, mantinace,labor,cutting, tedding, raking, baling, hauling, storing, reloading) is not somthing I will pursue much longer. Doubled my leases, doubled amount of hay, totaling barely above dollar amount from last yr on hay. Make 2 bales one yr get 50$ pc, next yr mak 50 bales an you cant get 2$ for em.Realize just now, I never knew nor heard of anyone that made a living doing hay round here. I'm proud for the guy that one day may turn a decent living doing this, he'll deserve it!


Amen x 2.

I added 47 bred momma cows this past winter. All the cattle farmers I know raise their own hay. There is a limited demand for round bales for horses here. Almost no demand for round bales for cows. The countryside was once dotted with small farms and a few head of cattle. No more.

The best money I can make on hay here in the southeast is to feed it to my cows.


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## Grateful11

hayward said:


> My plan is to sell hay until I can build a herd big enuf to feed all my hay to. I'm figuring
> Out pretty quick making a return of money, muchless making a living selling hay( leasing land, fert,spraying, equip, mantinace,labor,cutting, tedding, raking, baling, hauling, storing, reloading) is not somthing I will pursue much longer. Doubled my leases, doubled amount of hay, totaling barely above dollar amount from last yr on hay. Make 2 bales one yr get 50$ pc, next yr mak 50 bales an you cant get 2$ for em.Realize just now, I never knew nor heard of anyone that made a living doing hay round here. I'm proud for the guy that one day may turn a decent living doing this, he'll deserve it!


I hear ya 

My wife and son sells no hay, they did give 34 bales to my wife's sister this season for her 3 cows. Everything my wife and son makes goes to the 41 mama cows and 1 bull. The herd size is pretty much maxed out for the amount of pasture acreage that's here. Right now there are no calves but according to the Vet they should start dropping them in a few weeks. So far except one everyone he's checked is pregnant, he's checked about 8 or 10 I think. They went short span with no bull for breeding. Son plans on getting into soybeans on a small scale next year as a cash crop. Everything is here that he needs except storage and hauling of the Soybeans. There's a good working pull type IH 82 Combine that the neighbor says will work fine with Soybeans with some very small adjustments.


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## RockyHill

Sounds like all of us in the south are in the same boat. The rolled hay market here will not cover expenses, even owning the land & equipment. Not just whining but the weather has made it impossible to have the quality of small squares that we want besides all the extra work to try to salvage what quality is left. Have had to give up and roll some this year just to get the fields cleaned off. Have worked harder, extra cost for all the tedding, quality is not up to our standards, abundant supply (although not quality) is going to drive price down, haven't been able to clean up any fields -- has not been a satisfying hay year to say the least. But in the true farmers spirit, we're talking about 'next year'.


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## foz682

JD3430 said:


> Lowest I see is like $40/roll, which is REALLY low around here.
> Guy down street from me sells 4x4 400lb marshmallows for $70!!!!!!!


The best I can get here is $20-35 for a 4x4 bale....If I priced them any higher I'd end up with a barn full of hay. On the other hand IF I could sell what I make for $60-70 , I could literally make a living at it...but the market just isn't here.

My plan is similar to 'hayward', build up my herd...I figure I can get a better return on feeders than hay, and if not, I'd sooner deal with a few extra cows than hay buyers that swear to be faithful but then buy somewhere else for $1 less.


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## JD3430

Round bales aren't exactly the rage around here, either, but I have found a few buyers and most are return buyers.

I had to laugh today. There's an older lady with 2 paints and she feeds them $8 small squares from the big hay seller in my area. She's out there every day and throws hay wafers on the ground and the horses eat them. She probably wastes 1/2 the hay. 
She could buy equal quality round bales from me and put them in a hay hut. She'd get hay for 1/2 the price and waste much less than tthrowing hay on the ground. She'd probably save enough in the first year to cover the cost of the hay hut. Wouldn't have to feed the horses everyday, anymore either. I could deliver the hay rolls to her paddock with my tractor one at a time. 
More money than brains, I guess..... Maybe she like lugging small squares around.


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## Hayman1

FarmerCline said:


> This is what kills the round hay business here. I enjoy putting up hay but not so much that I would do it even if I was losing money. I could not make money selling a 4 by 4 roll for $25 dollars and that is what most people would pay as that is what others around are selling for, it's not the same quality of hay but try telling people that. I needed to be about $40 dollars per roll to make it worth my time. I never was able to sell one for that price.


All the guys in the fertilizer and seed business around here say farmers don't charge enough for their hay. The Valley Trader-free ads, people buy to shop in it, is full of give away hay. However, if you go look at it, most of the advertised hay is anything but what was advertised. I pay a farmer down the road 15$per roll to roll mine since I am in the sm sqs business and don't have a round baler. Get 55$/4x5 of good quality mixed grass hay. Figure I break even on the rounds, possibly make 5$/roll. How can someone pay for fuel *or *depreciation at 10$ a roll?


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## Mud

I am tempted to buy it and truck it up here just to resell it.


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## traden86

Amen hayward!! Up in the Nashville area people are selling 4x6 rolls 3rd cutting for $18!! That is real close to my cost of just baling a bale... Just burns my britches to see people do that.


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## hayward

traden86 said:


> Amen hayward!! Up in the Nashville area people are selling 4x6 rolls 3rd cutting for $18!! That is real close to my cost of just baling a bale... Just burns my britches to see people do that.


. 
I know, it's a heck of a roller coaster in this hay market. Look a Craigslist hay forsale, little rock, Texarkana, Dallas n Shreveport, 500 ads on each for hay. Lots of people got some high priced hay on there (some cheap), starting to see REDUCED now. Im a small time hay operation . I had to drop my price on some of the last few hundred I sold, least I got it sold an it won't be sitting in barn or sitting outside with no wher to go. Bout thru with hay over here, maybe, 2-300 more if we get shot of rain?


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