$10 small sq bales of Coastal

[Hay Dude]

I don't classify my as a marginal hay baler owner & I certainly don't intend to sell my hay at bargain basement prices. My squares sold for $10 & my rd will be priced at $100+ each this Winter. I just like making hay but I'm getting closer to quitting baling every time my baler enters the field.

We have a couple guys in my area with small square balers making 500-1000 small squares and practically giving them away. I quit making them as soon as I realized they were undercutting everyone. Thats completely their right to do so, too.
Went to round bales 15 years ago. Its a little “safer” with RBs because there’s less hobby guys with round balers. Then I merged into large square bales 5 years ago and have no worries there.
I love what I do, but the input prices are so out of control.

 

[shooterdon]

It seems to me if the little guys, who are selling at a loss, are supplying the market then people who do this for a living are going to be SOL. I don't do hay, but firewood might be a close example.

There is a local guy who scrounges dead or blown down trees and sells firewood at $180/cord. He has a pickup and trailer. His cousin runs a wood processor, buys logs, and sells for $225. The guy at $180 sells out fast but I doubt he sells 3% of what the other guy does. The guy at $180/cord has a higher margin as his wood is "free". But the market for firewood is too large for the little guy operating on a shoestring to service.

I would expect the hay market to be similar. The "hobby" hay farmers can only establish market price until they sell out. If the market is so small the cheap guys can service most of the market, you are screwed.

 

[Gee Ray]

It is the same in all businesses. I haul freight and the are loads posted on the load board that pay less then the cost to do the run. Yet these fools take the load because it is fuel money to get some where else. Then you get to hear "I only paid xyz last week for the same load." Pretty soon people think, "I should only pay the low rate for all the loads".

U-ship is a perfect example of an illegal company. Most of the loads I have seen can not be paying for the proper insurance and that is a big cost in the industry. I can not compete and remain legal. So you get to here about what a good idea U-ship is because it is cheap. Not legal but cheap.

 

[Hay Dude]

Good points by Shooter Don & Gee Ray.
Many buyers only look at price. When it comes to hay, you can get anything from moldy, baled weeds up to perfect alfalfa. The variance is tremendous. I would not believe most small times carry any kind of insurance, so when they cut hay off someone elses property, they could create a situation that causes harm (fire, injury, etc). Bigger farmers carry insurance. I pay $5,000/year for liability & casualty insurance. On a 10,000 bale (small squares) season, that’s 50 cents per bale, right there.
5,000 bales would be your typical small timer 35-40 acre operation doing 2 cuts per year.

 

[Hay Dude]

It seems to me if the little guys, who are selling at a loss, are supplying the market then people who do this for a living are going to be SOL. I don't do hay, but firewood might be a close example.

There is a local guy who scrounges dead or blown down trees and sells firewood at $180/cord. He has a pickup and trailer. His cousin runs a wood processor, buys logs, and sells for $225. The guy at $180 sells out fast but I doubt he sells 3% of what the other guy does. The guy at $180/cord has a higher margin as his wood is "free". But the market for firewood is too large for the little guy operating on a shoestring to service.

I would expect the hay market to be similar. The "hobby" hay farmers can only establish market price until they sell out. If the market is so small the cheap guys can service most of the market, you are screwed.

Thats exactly right. It all depends on how many small timers and how long the “off season” is. In my area, small timers will sell everything they’ve got in November-February. I still have supply now into June, from last season. I make a lot of hay and can outlast them.
However, that’s MY area. I know just west of me 20 miles and beyond, everyone and their mother makes 20-75 acres of hobby hay for extra money and they run the markets there.

Feed hay in my area shrinks every year as the cost of living rises dramatically in the past few years and the prospects of horse ownership become less appealing. Even to the wealthy, they are a gigantic expense.

 

[Tx Jim]

It never cease to amaze me the horse owners in my area that just feed horses but don't use them or ride them. I think inflation & shortage/cost of hay in my area will "eliminate some horse ownership" this year.

I had horses for over 40 yrs that I rode for pleasure, gathering & roping cattle. When I received nerve damage in '96 & could no longer easily mount a horse & had very poor equilibrium it only took me a couple of yrs to become a non owner of horses

 

[WM75Guy]

My horse hay supplier went from $8 to $10 this year for coastal square bales. I just bought 100 bales. That and what I have left from last year will get me through to next year. We are feeding our older horse alfalfa. A 3-string bale is $30 from the feed store.

 

[Gee Ray]

Had to go to the feed store today. Bad news. Sweet feed $15 a bag. Chicken scratch is $21 a bag. Coastal hay $12 a small square.

 

[TheMan419]

Right now in Northern Indiana we are not seeing hay prices skyrocket. Just got a load of small squares delivered. About 80% alfalfa. Paid $7/per delivered and stacked. Seller brought his skid and used his grapple to unload and stack in my barn. Good looking hay too. We are just a hair below on rain for the year but nothing exciting in that regard. Hay supply is pretty regional. Hard to truck large quantities of it out to other regions.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Right now in Northern Indiana we are not seeing hay prices skyrocket. Just got a load of small squares delivered. About 80% alfalfa. Paid $7/per delivered and stacked. Seller brought his skid and used his grapple to unload and stack in my barn. Good looking hay too. We are just a hair below on rain for the year but nothing exciting in that regard. Hay supply is pretty regional. Hard to truck large quantities of it out to other regions.

Fertilizer must not be as high there as it is here, but there are quite a few around this area not fertilizing their fields and cutting and selling the hay which to me is nothing but a filler with little protein, good for you though for being able to get hay at that price.