standing hay

[tweaker101]

We have some standing hay that we would like to sell. I said to my neighbour I would like a penny per pound and he thought that was kind of high. Looking for some help here folks.

[dfarms11]

doesnt sound high to me, if it is tame hay and a decent stand

[wilagro]

If you sell for less than a penny a pound, you'd might as well give it to him.

I would start at a minimum of 1-1/2 cents a lb.

I'm sure you didn't grow it to give it away. don't sell yourself short.

[grassfarmer]

That's easy to say from a grower point of view but as a forage buyer you have got to realise there is risk on our side too. I only buy standing grain crops close by to put in the silage pit and usually pay $15 a ton(.75c/lb) standing, corrected for 65% moisture. With silage there is little or no weather risk, with hay that is not the case. If you could offer a price differential to account for the weather risk standing hay may be more attractive. Say 30% or 50% discount if more than 3 inches of rain falls in the 3 weeks after it's cut. If you were next door to me I would offer $15 a ton standing corrected for 65% moisture and make it into silage. Growing up in a wet climate I never got too fond of making hay - as they used to say "make hay when the sun shines and silage when it doesn't."

[wilagro]

Actually, a far better way is to sell by the acre. Name your price per acre...buyer takes ALL weather risks.

Some areas $25 per acre...in this area $30 to $40 peracre.

Very easy and no counting or weighing or guessing.

[whiteface]

Sell me the land that the standing hay is on. I'll pay you a hundred times what you'll likely end up giving your crop away for...
You'll make money and won't have to worry about trying to sell a commodity that no one wants anymore and I'll make money developing it into something people do want these days.
Don't anybody start shootin' at me. If y'all get mad at my offer than give the man his money for the standing crop, if not let me offer him a logical and ability-to-retire way out.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the moisture! Have a good day all!

[cswilson]

Talk about a circling vulture lol. No commissions involved for yours truly I'm sure-not every day you ask about a commodity price and get a retirement offer. I can see where your coming fromthough if you never throw your hook out your not going to catch many fish.

[whiteface]

You getting some rain, Wilson?
Black as hell around here and lighting strikes everywhere I look. Just waiting for the "excitement" of a tornado like poor Manitobas been haveing. Enjoy the moisture all! Thanks for reading!

[coppertop]

Lots of moisture here, but thankfully we have missed any severe storms. Lots of pasture, cows are happy.

[tweaker101]

Seems that another person in the area wants the hay, so all will end up good in the end. Interesting on the different views, thanks for the input.

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Interesting reading about what others get or pay for their hay. If we've got excess, and not enough time to bale it, we generally sell for $10 - $15/acre for a single cut, which is about the norm for our area. This is alfalfa/grass mix hay that generally yields 2 ton/acre on first cut.

Rod

[kato]

We pay a wee bit less than 1 cent / pound. This may sound cheap, but we also have a long term deal where we pay the same price every year, even in years where you can't give the stuff away. The hay market around here can be wild. Some years you can buy it for $15.00 a bale, (already baled for you) and some years you pay $60.00.

The guy we buy hay from would rather see a steady reliable income, and not have to go shopping for buyers every year, and we want a steady reliable supply. Hubby gets pretty frantic if he thinks feed might be short.

The deal works for us both. You also have to factor in what it will cost to bale it and get it home. Cheap hay with a long haul isn't very cheap.

[DiamondSCattleCo]

We work our baled hay similar to this. We work off a base price of 2.5 cents/lb, with a half cent slide for market conditions. On years when hay is cheap, we drop to 2 cents. When hay is up high, we go to 3 cents. Our customers come back year after year, even on years when they can buy it cheaper, simply because they (and their bankers) put a value on knowing what they'll have to fork out for feed costs each year.

Rod

[dballan]

We rent land that has standing hay on it. We fertilize it and pay up to $55 per acre. Fertilizer this year averaged about $68 per acre. We are praying for excellent haying weather to dry the ground enough so that we can start cutting. We have had about 19" so far this spring and summer. We weren't able to seed about 500 acres of land to wheat or barley. Water is laying everywhere.