Hay

[cswilson]

Even last year some hay sellers were expecting record prices, they have row upon row of hay still lined up in their fields.

[cowman]

I'm on both ends. Raise hay hopefully for the horse trade, if it gets rained on it is instant cow feed. If it is good stuff the horse boys get it.
Sometimes you get lucky sometimes not.
There is always a buyer and a seller...never had anyone hold a gun on me and demand I either buy or sell? In the drought we got fairly lucky and got a decent hay crop all put up dry. Almost ashamed to say what I sold it for! Scrounged around and bought some slough hay and greenfeed at pretty stout prices, but the horse hay more than paid double! Sold off every cow that even hinted she wasn't top notch and actually lucked out there as the next year BSE hit and cows became worthless! Ended up with a young cow herd which was helpful as no cows sold for three years now.

[Shonravin]

Emrald1! I find it hard to beleive anyone would buy hay from a stanger without looking at it.

[wmoebis]

Aren't we talking the simple basics of supply and demand? Short supply the price goes up over supply the price goes down.
I have never heard of anyone taking there product home from the market place because they were getting too much whether it be hay, grain or cattle. The highes help to off set the lows. Buying and selling.
I once had smutty barley the local colony looked at it and said it was over priced. I told them I had cheaper barley but, it had been through the cow once. I sold it 200 miles away for my price buyer paid trucking. Supply and demand.

[grassfarmer]

wmoebis, I'm agreeing with you on this one. My policy is to buy feed and I accept that in years of short supply I will pay more, it's all supply and demand. I don't get bent out of shape over what happened in the drought years, I couldn't buy locally so I hauled feed in from as far apart as Lethbridge and Manning. I don't bear any resentment of the locals who wanted more for their hay - I buy from them at the lower prices now. It's no different to any other inputs - do you always get a guarantee when you buy a used truck or tractor or bull or bred cows? I'd call it business risk - buyer beware. I think many of the outraged stories of poor feed buys during the drought stem from first time or naive forage buyers - that's their problem I'd say, business risk in a free market. Feed sellers are no different to us when we sell our calves - we want as much as we can get for them.

[grassfarmer]

its fairly difficult to look at hay when the seller won't keep it for more than a day and the hay is located an 8 hour drive from your farm.

I have no problem with people charging whatever the market will bear but I do have problems with people misrepresenting the product...there are those that still try it, indicating their hay had no rain etc.
I have one neighbour that advertises his hay as having no rain, when everybody in the community has driven by and seen it lying in the swaths through a week or downpours !!
Suffice to say he never sells hay locally !!!

I have had good luck buying hay sight unseen, the same way many people buy bulls sight unseen. If they are treated right they will be back, if not, then they buy elsewhere.

[cswilson]

I actually started using a broker for just that reason-I've got a couple I use and the hay is always how they say it will be. For every bounced hay cheque there are a dozen crooked hay sellers-really watch those guys trying to sell you hay in 500 tonne lots-amazing how 1600 bales turn into 1300 bales on their way to the scale. lots of good hay producers but some real gypsies out there too.We can al deal with supply and demand but no one demands the screwing some guys are trying to supply.

[Cattleman]

cswilson, just curious who your brokers are, we are looking at selling some feed, have some (about 4000) small square second cut alfalfa hay for sale, not having much luck moving it. Grass hay is all gone, but still have alfalfa.
If you prefer feel free to email me at bjp935@ekit.com. Or anyone else know of someone! Thanks in advance!

We are in North Central Sask.

[grassfarmer]

Emrald1,
"its fairly difficult to look at hay when the seller won't keep it for more than a day and the hay is located an 8 hour drive from your farm."
Fair enough, I wouldn't dream of buying under these conditions. I wouldn't buy a used tractor from someone under those conditions either. It's a management decision if you want to enter into this kind of deal and people were not forced to buy under those conditions if they didn't want to.
I suspect that more people are conned by short weights than by poor quality. Out in the West country here people still trade hay at $20 or $30 per bale with no idea what a bale weighs. I sent one outfit packing before they unloaded after promising me weight tickets with the load and none arrived. Their bales didn't look the weight they should have been either. If in doubt I'll pull off a bale or two and weigh them - they don't try that trick if you tell them you have a scale!

[grassfarmer]

The hay hauler I use has a scale on his truck so I know what the bales weigh.
I agree that there are many people who still by hay by the bale and have no clue about the difference in weights depending on the type of baler or hay.