Hay West transportayion cost

[hgb]

Hats of anybody donating or involved in the hay west program. The government has announced another round of funding covering the transportation, On the news this morning it was stated that freight would cost between 260-450 dollars/T for the shipping of the hay. I just thought those figures seemed quite high, but dealing with government and the railroads you never know.

[pandiana]

Just talked to someone who won a load of hay. They had 3days to arrange trucking from Wainwright. They called every trucker they new of and eventually found one that would haul for $3.50 per loaded mile. We just had a quote of $2.50 per loaded mile a month ago. Windfalls all around it would seem.

[pandiana]

I think our district has about 500 bales so far to ship to alberta. We are hoping for about 1500-2000, but I think that count is a little to optimistic. Reality: probably around 900. But we need cars to haul the hay! Hopefully the gov. will donate some for up here.

[pandiana]

I think the lower end of that is probably pretty close. We figured we were getting about 25 tons on a car that we were told cost $3900 to ship. Add in the cost of fumigating and the bureaucracy and you're getting up there.

[pandiana]

Huh. Not signed in anymore, but that last message was me.

dalek

[wilbur]

This free hay thing is getting a bit carried away as there is no free lunch.
Nice if you or your wife wins a load but what does it really do? Set you up to feed a little longer on free lunch or deal with the realities that feed really has a value.
We hear one trucker delivered at semi load to one "winner" that had four horses. Other " winners" have "given" their load to others but we have as yet to hear of anyone selling their winnings.
This program has a lot of good intentions but minimum impact at best.
We hear the railroads are "letting" the government pay to load rail cars that went east with lumber and would return empty anyway. Now that they have suckered the "government" into paying freight we wonder who is on the line here.
Hate to be negative but the play on emotions is huge while the economic impact is close to one decimal place.
Moi!