Hay sales?

[cowman]

One good thing about the drought of 2002 was it taught us the value of alternate feed stuffs. We found out you can actually feed a lot more straw in a ration and hay is usually overpriced?
Last year we baled up the rained on stuff in round bales and sold the "horse hay" in small squares. This year we were lucky in that we got it all up in squares. We cut it and a custom operator bales it and stacks it for 60 cents a bale. We cover it. He pays us $2.75 and he sells it and delivers it...I assume he is making a decent profit on top of the $2.75?
This year it worked out to 102 bales an acre. We put $42/acre of fertilizer on. I charge myself $10/acre to cut it. Net profit is in the neighborhood of $160/acre which is fairly good in my opinion....I wish my darned barley would do as well!
The point here is this hay is going to the pleasure horse trade! The horsey set will pay whatever it takes to have old Dobbin rolling in clover, while the feedlots/hogbarns will be as cheap as they possibly can! So why not grow a product that people will actually pay for instead of something nobody wants?

[farmers_son]

I would point out that you only get the $160 per acre if you get the hay up without rain. Which was an accomplishment this year, as you point out you were lucky. More like winning a lottery than marketing per se.

The horse hay market is a premium niche market. If your advice is sound then you should be advising the auto makers that they should produce Jaguars and Hummers because they are the products that people will actually pay for instead of Chevys that nobody wants. However the truth is that there is a market for Chevys, a larger market than for Jags and Hummers, as there is a market for cow hay. Just because the going price is lower does not mean that there is not a demand for the product. It is just a different product and a different market.

In one breath you are saying hay for your cows is overpriced (thinking of yourself as a buyer) and in the next breath you are saying why produce hay for the ag industry (thinking of yourself as a seller). That is what makes a market. Somewhere in between it gets sold.

[farmers_son]

farmers_son I enjoy your logic although sometimes you lose me in your reasoning !!!

I am a hay purchaser and have been for years, some years it has been pretty rough, but this year things are a lot more attractive as far as getting good cow hay at a reasonable price. A few years ago the grass seed farmers in the Peace region were raking in a kings ransom selling fescue and timothy straw that people down here were trying to winter their cattle with. After a wreck or two, the market for that stuff is virtually non existent around here.

[cowman]

farmers son: Without a doubt the weather can turn a profitable crop into a loser real fast, but that doesn't stop you from trying? No different than growing a malt crop?
You don't grow hay thinking "Great I can expect to get it rained on and get $50 ton for it!" Without a doubt that is a possibility but that is not the goal!
At 3 tons to the acre $50 hay is only worth $150? Take off your $42 fertilizer you have $108? Cut($10), bale($40) and haul($12) and what do you have? $46.
Is that enough? Land rents around here for $60-$80/acre. So I guess you get the pleasure of working and it only costs you $14-$34? Cheaper to buy that kind of hay...in reality?
Is cow hay at $50/ton cheap? When barley is only worth $1.75 bu.? I don't think so. Barley and straw pencils out a lot cheaper, I believe?

[Cattleman]

Yeah cowman, we also have found a good market in small square bales. My name would almost be better as forageman, as that is our cash crop, and we know just have a smaller cow herd around just to feed the rained on hay to...it is funny though how the market has changed. For years we have focused on Alfalfa hay for the local dairy farms, but all the small guys are gone, so now the demand is for grass for horses. We have have a fair bit of first cut alfalfa, that I am not really sure what we will do with. I guess the cows might actually get some green hay this year! Good second cut alfalfa should move out quite well though.

[cowman]

Cattleman: I often wonder how many cowherds are maitained to just clean up the garbage from the haying operation? I know of a few!...and that is not a bad thing!
My focus has always been cows...it is my reason for plowing along! However I like to think of myself as more than an idiot and if someone wants to pay me to grow hay for a better price...then so be it! I'll gladly sell hay for a premium and buy cow hay for a discount.
I refuse to buy hay from someone who might potentially pollute my land with weeds? I buy from the local yokels...sort of thing? Where I know what I'm getting?
I believe, in my own simple way, that I am adding value to my product and maximizing my profits?

[farmers_son]

I worked out a couple of rations. The straight hay ration was 64 cents a day for a 1200 pound cow. The cow would tend to gain weight, .7 pounds per day. Feeding a straw grain ration would be the same cost, 64 cents a day if the same amount of energy was supplied. However if only enough energy is supplied to see the cow gain .2 pounds per day the straw grain ration was cheaper at 49 cents per head per day.

[farmers_son]

Emarld1: To explain my reasoning...

I was responding to Cowman's comment regarding why grow something nobody wants. Agricultural producers need to realize that they produce what is unquestionably the most wanted and needed product in the world. Food.

The problem is not that our products are not wanted, the problem is getting paid for them.

And it is not a matter of supply and demand. It is the same supply and demand for our products right from producer to consumer yet everyone else in the value chain is making competitive returns except the actual producer.

If we were getting paid our fair share of the consumer’s food dollar for our live cattle we could afford to pay more for hay. No one should mistake the low price we receive for our production as an indication that no one wants food.

However no one is going to just up and pay us a fair price for our production because they are nice guys. We have to learn how to play the competition game and make the marketplace work for us instead of us work for nothing.

[farmers_son]

just as an info item I bought JD greenfeed bales put up with no rain for $20.00 each. I intend on feeding good mixed hay and some greenfeed to the three year olds which is all I am keeping once I disperse the rest of the herd.

Heifer calves will get hay and a light grain ration.


I feed daily unless I am required to be away for several days at a time, then I feed in custom built feeders that have as little waste as possible.


The cows are fed over a 20 acre field until two weeks prior to calving.

[Cattleman]

Cowman, I am just curious, your hay buyer, how does he transport your hay? Does he have a self unloading system of some sort? Our trucker sold his self unloading rig, so we are looking for a self unloading trailer.

[cowman]

cattleman: He has a self loading unloading Freightliner that hauls 160 bales. It is a pretty slick unit without a doubt and he sells in 160 load lots.
farmers son: At 64 cents a day you would be feeding 25.6 lbs. of hay at 2.5 cents/day? Which would probably be enough? However I am assuming you might want to bed them as well?
Now I will admit if you have to buy straw it is a whole other ball game, but if the straw is basically free plus the cost of baling/hauling...then your straw can be pretty cheap? Theoretically both might work out the same but in the real world of what comes out of your pocket I believe straw can lower your feeding costs in a big way.

[dalek]

Prices here are ranging from $50-75 per 4x5, with the cheap stuff being crap hay.Straw's almost as bad. We decided to forget about combining 60 acres of corn for a cash crop and chop it instead, looks like a sure bet that we'll get a lot more cash out of it that way when we sell it mid-winter.