Hay

[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.

[Willowcreek]

I don't know if any of you have been monitoring the discussions on ranchers.net about the new feed and hay record keeping tracking laws that are going into effect in the states this year...

It was all news to me- Another one of those FDA rules that got slipped in thru Homeland Security..Not sure how it will affect most of Canada, but down here close to the border it will definitely be a negative impact to many Canadians who sell and ship their hay to the states- since they will have to jump thru all the hoops to get it across the border...Don't know what it will do with price- probably depend on how tightly its enforced- but the way its written it could require you to be able to identify the field each bale comes from, the day it was baled, date and location of every movement, name of grass's and/or alfalfas, etc. etc.

[Willowcreek]

Willowcreek is this being done to control the spread of weeds ?
It will be the haulers that will have to wade through the red tape so they better ensure that the people they are hauling hay for know the rules, or by the sound of it they will have their loads turned back.
I wonder why our government hasn't done this to protect against fusarium infestation.

[cswilson]

Cattleman- the guy I use is Ron Bodnar not sure if he's still doing it or not-is your small squares shedded-if they are outfitters might buy it for baiting this fall.

[cswilson]

Cripes brain fart here -Ron Bodnar's phone number is 306 933-2950

[Rodjam]

Great, the Americans want to track a bale of hay accross the country and yet they still cannot find a way to track a cow.

[cowman]

Well hopefully with the new government in Ottawa we'll get away from the sillier parts of the Homeland security thing? They are already talking about scrapping that stupid pass port requirement.
It must be good for Bush to finally have someone up here running the country who doesn't think he is a total creep and wants to work with him to keep things working, instead of using some phony legislation to ruin commerce between our two countries? I can imagine the protectionists in both countries aren't very happy about it though!
All I can say is thank God we got rid of those Liberals!

[Willowcreek]

emerald-1 Actually it is for Homeland Security and more for tracking a poisoning or terrorist tainted event??? But I guess it could be used for weeds too....

And your right- the truckers will be the ones catching the heat- either at the international or any state ports and weigh stations...

I'm starting to think the terrorists have won the battle over the independent producer thru all the stupid government rules...

Hell pretty soon you won't need to know nothing about cattle or farming anyway- computer will tell you everything...Learned the other day that USDA now has a satellite that can tell if you spread the manure too heavy on your fields (EPA violation)....They can set in their office and police you...

[Willowcreek]

I do hope that cooler heads will prevail between our countries if, as cowman says, the governments can beging working together vs at odds .

[Cattleman]

Thanks cswilson, I'll have to give him a call.

About half the hay is shedded. Most of the shed was full of the first cut grass hay we put up this year.

We have sold a few bales to a couple of people for baiting, but they only needed a few bales each.

Thansk again

[cswilson]

The bigger outfitters would go through a few hundred a piece I'm betting.