Marketing hay?

[Hill Farmer]

Where is the hay market, and how do I get my foot in that door? I end up with about 80-100 4x5 mixed grass and Bermuda bales each year and barely cover fertilizer costs. The farm is in rural NE Arkansas, and local folks have plenty. I see loads of hay headed north daily. Where is it going? What is it selling for? How do I reach folks wherever "there" is? I'd love to move mine, and I'm not looking to make a killing, but a small profit would sure be welcomed.

 

[joeu235]

we get all our new customers off Craigslist.

https://killeen.craigslist.org/grd/5244671468.html

 

[boggen]

was also going to suggest "craiglist" see a lot of hay ad's when i use "searchtempest" to search multi cities at one time. and when i am browsing over "farm and garden" stuff on craiglist.

your local "AG" department / county / state doing might have some leads.

 

[5030]

CraigsList, BackPage or your local papoer classifieds.

 

[leeave96]

I've had good luck with craigslist and an occasional news paper ad. Also building some repeat customers.

Once the temps cool and pasture growth slows, whatever hay I have left over moves out quickly.

 

[joeu235]

We usually don't sell much until February and then by April it all gone.

 

[Jerry/MT]

Where is the hay market, and how do I get my foot in that door? I end up with about 80-100 4x5 mixed grass and Bermuda bales each year and barely cover fertilizer costs. The farm is in rural NE Arkansas, and local folks have plenty. I see loads of hay headed north daily. Where is it going? What is it selling for? How do I reach folks wherever "there" is? I'd love to move mine, and I'm not looking to make a killing, but a small profit would sure be welcomed.

Most of the hay is going to where they had a drought situation where hay production is down. Hay production in our valley is down about 40% this years and I could not find local hay to supplement my reduced output. I had to have some trucked in from the Bitterroot Valley @ ~$165/T.

If I have surplus hay to sell, I usually sell it around February when ranchers are starting to run short and it commands a premium price. I use the local newspaper and Craigslist. You can also talk to your local extension agent about local hay brokers that buy in big lots, but these guys want to make money so you won't get as good a price as you can get selling direct. if you produce good, clean, low weed hay, you can develop a market with return customers. Think about going to small squares to get into the horse hay market. You'll have to have good people skills to develop a customer base but they generally will pay premium prices for what they think they want. I had a neighbor that produced excellent quality hay for that market. When asked by his customers if he had this or that kind of hay his answer was always " That's exactly what I have!" They kept coming back year after year and buying his hay and he never changed the hay mix.

I'm getting a little long in the tooth to continue our small cow-calf operation and I'm planning on moving to producing hay on our irrigated ground. I never hayed before this year because it didn't pencil out and I could get the hay in via custom farmers. But I couldn't get anybody this year so I took the plunge bought a new drum mower, a new V rake and a used round baler . I'm doing large round bales but in the future I'd like to get into some small square bales and sell into the horse hay market. I'll need a different set of equipment but I figure I'll roll the first cutting and square bale the second cutting. I'll market round bales to ranchers and small squares to the horsey set.

 

[ultrarunner]

Most the horse hay is coming from far away... the 4 years of drought has taken a toll here in California and the prices are up to $18-20 a bale in small quantities.

Edit... I was wrong... just called the local feed store...

2x2x4 alfalfa is $22 per bale.

Horse and Livestock - Concord Feed & Fuel

 

[bigbull338]

the 2 best places are your local papers classifieds or craigslist.weve bought about 20 bales real cheap so far.we are feeding that and saving our hay to get through winter with.