hay prices

[duke401]

cow hay or as we call it grinding hay in sw kan, is 53.00 an real good [200+ rfv] 90 to 110, was just woundering what the price is back east.
duke

[DanG]

Haven't gotten around to checking yet. Gotta buy enough to get my 4 horses through our short winter. Probably high around here with all the weather difficulties. Most folks only getting 2-3 cuts, as opposed to the usual 4-5 cuts. You know the drill...drought followed by floods. :-/

There used to be a website called  www.haynet.com  that had some pretty good indicators. Might give it a try.

[DanG]

Well, shucks! I just tried the haynet link and it was a wash. I guess they ain't around no mo'. :-/

[ksu_chainsaw]

here is a site that I found interesting

http://hayandforage.com/

It is for a free magazine for hay and forage growers and also has several good links, such as the USDA market report

Back home, in NE Kansas, i'm selling brome for 40 a ton, and horse alfalfa for 120, and our grinding hay is about 45 a ton.

Our brome turned out pretty short this year, but they ended up with 2 cuttings thankfully.  They had to keep dodging rain to get 4 cuttings of alfalfa in, but we the second cutting was all dry.

Charles

[Corley5]

$2.00 bucks a bale for 60lb bales picked up

[redpowerd]

2 bucks a bale, deliverd

i overheard dad saying beans jumped to 33 bucks the other day?: ;D ;D ;D 8) 8) 8)

[Dana]

We sold some of our 4' X 5" round bales for $15.00 each. Good first cutting timothy, brome, alfalfa mix never rained on.
(Charlevoix Mi)

[Roxie]

Our area hasn't had good 'hay' weather for the past two years, but this year no one had more than 3rd cut of anything.  "Cow hay" is going for $3.50 a bale.  Horse hay is $5.00 a bale.  Alfalfa hay is bringing around $165 a ton and good grass hay is bringing $200 a ton.

[Kirk_Allen]

My dad has about 200 square bales of alfalfa for sale if anyone needs it.  He wants $2.00 bale if anyone is interested.  

This is good stuff that he feeds his horses.  

Kirk

[SwampDonkey]

I don't get it guys, hey was $2.00 a bale back when I was a kid 25 years ago. They musta been making big bucks then cause the gas was only 20 cents a litre and the labour $5.00/hr. Actually, I worked for $2.00/hr when I was 12. I used to work 3 weeks straight in harvest time picking potatoes and only make $150.00, I bought a bike one fall   . Gee I'de be able to buy one now after a days wages. You can still buy a bike now for $150. :D Something don't add up.  :

cheers

[slowzuki]

Hay Swampy, we're selling our hay outta the barn for 2.75$/bale with people complaining saying they can get hay for 1.50$ a bale elsewhere.  I figure it costs about 1.50$ a bale to produce if you account for every thing.  You're right something don't add up :D

[Frickman]

First cutting out of the field is $1.25/ 35 pound square bale and $12.50/ 4x4, 400 pound round. I end up giving a little extra for free in the round bale since it is much cheaper to bale and handle. Second and later cuttings go for a lot more, depending on the quality. Hay out of the barn is double the field price, regardless of quality. Some people gladly pay me to store hay for them this way.

Roxie is right, it's been tough the past two years in PA to make hay. We only got 1 and 1/2 cuts this year, some once and some twice. Usually we get 3 and sometimes 4 in a good year. I can't figure hay prices out either, I'm selling hay for what I charged twenty years ago. The only thing that has helped me stay in business is increased mechanization has cut our labor expense. There are alot of small producers in the area who don't know their true cost of production and thus keep the prices down. It's a free country so they can do what they want I guess.

Many customers, especially the pleasure horse owners, are very cost consciouse. They spend $40,000 on a dually and $20,000 on an aluminum trailer with living quarters and then can't afford to buy the horse good hay. We round bale our rained on hay for mulch hay and store it outside. This year we had alot. I have customers who buy it instead of good hay out of the barn to feed the horse, and then wonder why the horse gets the heaves.  

OK, I'll get down off my soapbox now.

[SwampDonkey]

Frickman, believe me I know where your coming from. Those kinda folks that keep the prices low don't realize their putting themselves under untill its too late. Its a cut throat world and there seems to be little unity between farmers on price. Too bad to.

[WH_Conley]

    I could not give hay to anyone for free this year. Mixed grass. Cut it and let it lay. Other neighbors did the same. Northeastern Ky.

[SwampDonkey]

That's a shame too WH_Conley cause they ship hey across to the states continously when its in season and sometimes in the off season from the barn if there's demand. Do you guys know of markets that use the hey for mulch along new highway construction. Alot of hey gets used for that purpose.

[Frickman]

WH Conley,

If you have good, grass horse hay, and can make small square bales, you should have no problem selling hay. I send alot of hay to Virginia and North Carolina, especially Asheville and Charlotte. We contract with trucking companies to haul it from the field to the customer. Over the winter take a little vacation over to North Carolina and stop when you see horses. You should make enough contacts to move all your hay next year. I would sell all my hay down south, as it pays better, but it's hard to find workers to load trailers. There is only one way to load a 53' box, and that's by hand. I gladly pay $100.00 for a team to load a trailer. Two guys can do it in about three hours, for $50.00/each, or $17.00/hour. If they load two trailers in an afternoon/evening they make $100.00 each. Most work an hour or so and quit, they say it's too hard.

Swampdonkey,

I'm not looking for unity among farmers, that would border on collusion. It would be nice though if the ran their business like a business, not a farm from 75 years ago. It's kind of like the portable mill guys who compete with someone working on the weekends for nothing but expenses. When word gets out about their low prices the public expects it from everyone.

[SwampDonkey]

I was under the frame of mind that it was the buyers that would be in collusion. But, I guess your right. Now that I think of how all the pumps change their gas price at the same time for the same price in town. ;)

[Kirk_Allen]

My father usually gets 3-4 cuttings each year.  The first cutting he round bails and sells it to his neighbor for $5.00 a bail for his cattle.  This is way less than others but he does it for a reason.  In our area the locals do a lot of back scratching.  When a neigbor needs something we all pull together and help them out.  Dad doesnt need the money so its his way of helping a neighbor who is struggling with a small cattle operation. He's been doing this for the last 6 years.  

Another example is one of his farm renters.  We know that we could get more yeild from a better operator who was up to date but the person who is farming it has been a freind to the family for 65 years.  Rumors that this person doesnt report all the grain properly and skims off the top simply roll off my fathers back.  Dad says. "If its true, then he needs it more than I do and he will have to answer for it when the his time comes".

I consider myself a weekend sawyer.  I do it for the love of woodworking.  I enjoy making a few extra bucks here and there but first and foremost its my hobby.  All things considered I do understand that if I were to simply do this to cover expenses I may upset other mill owners and creat an expectation of cheap lumber, however I strive to be competitive and fair.  By operating a hydraulic mill over a manual I am able to produce more lumber and offer lower prices.  This is simply an example of better equipment making the difference.  

[redpowerd]

im not understanding how he can sell hay for five bucks and still male a living?
theres gptta be some overhead involved?

[SwampDonkey]

Red:

I here ya. I think the pencil needs some sharpening. No man can run their business like charity for very long. In my experience, the more you give the more the neighbors come to expect it. That's just human nature, and I don't care where ya live. Sometimes, it can contribute to negative feelings when some day you decide your not so charitable. ;)

The only exception may be some type of cummune, like which exists between a group a folks near here with religious affiliations. But, they don't contribute to the community as a whole. I don't intend to mention who they are cause they are good neighbors and don't bother any one. All I know is that it's a miracle that some people can do so little and have so much. :D

[Roxie]

"Ruined" hay in this area is never wasted.  Our first recourse if the weather takes out a field is to sell it to the Amish for 'stuffing' (or silage) at about $1.65/bale.  We've never run out of takers for that price in the Amish community.  Other area farmers sell 'down' hay to the mushroom compost industry which is huge in the nearby area.  
We've seen the duelly's with the horsey motor homes attached pull in the drive and argue the price of hay.  We tell them to get off our property.   :D

[slowzuki]

:D we have that neighbour!  I unloaded a semi-truck of 5$ a bale hay for them one time as a "the trucks here and only me here to unload it" job / favour.  Worked my buttocks off in their mow with no ventilation for 2 hours.  Fellow says thanks and heres 10$ for your trouble.  I didn't complain but I "haven't been available" to help for a number of years now.  I would have been happy to do it for nothing if they were the type to do a favour in return but they aren't!

We've seen the duelly's with the horsey motor homes attached pull in the drive and argue the price of hay.  We tell them to get off our property.   :D

[SwampDonkey]

I have one uncle that I have no trouble helping out when needed. Used to help him put in hey when I was around, as it was trucked to his place from another farmer. But, my other living uncle is a different storey. He's one of the types that like to disappear when its time to work, including his sons. They are on opposite ends of the family tree. You know, the orangatangs.  ;) :D

[L. Wakefield]

   I've been dealing with the same fella for 3 years. $2.50 a bale- 25-40# bales- if it's real light he'll let me adjust the count that I pay for and I take my bathroom scale down to the barn at the first load or so til I get used to how they feel. He got me started getting it by the kicker wagon load- I love it! I used to pick it up in the field and get it for $1-2/bale. My husband wonders out loud why I don't still do that- but now I'm buying like 1000-1100 bales/yr. Next I'll think about a conveyer.

   I'm still thinking about how good Bro. Noble's round bale barn and operation looked- but with the Maine winters I'm just *not* set up for that- not yet.

   I did sell almost all the cattle I wanted to this year- bought Mike a fertilizer spreader, paid for part of the hay, reduced the # of mouths to feed- planted my first little attempt at winter wheat- got it in kinda late but they are just starting to sprout..lw

[bighoss550]

WH Conley,

If you have good, grass horse hay, and can make small square bales, you should have no problem selling hay. I send alot of hay to Virginia and North Carolina, especially Asheville and Charlotte. We contract with trucking companies to haul it from the field to the customer. Over the winter take a little vacation over to North Carolina and stop when you see horses. You should make enough contacts to move all your hay next year. I would sell all my hay down south, as it pays better, but it's hard to find workers to load trailers. There is only one way to load a 53' box, and that's by hand. I gladly pay $100.00 for a team to load a trailer. Two guys can do it in about three hours, for $50.00/each, or $17.00/hour. If they load two trailers in an afternoon/evening they make $100.00 each. Most work an hour or so and quit, they say it's too hard.

Swampdonkey,

I'm not looking for unity among farmers, that would border on collusion. It would be nice though if the ran their business like a business, not a farm from 75 years ago. It's kind of like the portable mill guys who compete with someone working on the weekends for nothing but expenses. When word gets out about their low prices the public expects it from everyone.

how much do the trucks charge to go to asheville, if u dont mind tellin????

[SwampDonkey]

They started the farmers on that winter wheat up this way several years ago when we used to get alot of wet fall weather. In late years its been fairley dry. This harvest season we only had a couple days of sprinkles the first 3 weeks of harvest when 99% of the folks got everything in under cover. This last week it has started to rain a bit more, but its tolerable. At least its not freezing and become a grease slick.

Anyway, the idea behind that winter wheat was for humous for crop rotation with potatoes. I can remember the years before when the fall and spring rains left washouts in fields deep and wide enough to drive tractors through. : In our region the wheat has never been of high value, and that's mainly due to marketing and lack of wheat coops in the region. They tried to run a local grain terminal, but the folks there couldn't run a wheel barrel. Then it finally became a lost cause due to mismanagement and unneccessary hassles to the farmers. My father got awards for his fine wheat he grew, but they didn't want to pay a good price for it. He finally found a small market at a gris mill where they made flour and cereal from my father's wheat and from 2 other farmers as well. The problem was, that you sometimes had to wait a year to be rid of the grain and get your money as it was a small operation. Still it was better than giving it away as cattle feed. Funny how some people have to starve in the world and no one wants to buy good milling wheat from this region. Why do I pay $2.75 for a loaf of good multigrain bread? That enriched bread isn't enriched at all. They remove about 30 nutrients and essential elements from the flour during the bleeching process. Then they at 9 nutrients back, calling it enriched, plus ya get to eat the chlorine, and arsenic used in the process.. :

Ok, enough on this post :D

[Kirk_Allen]

 Dad doesnt need the money so its his way of helping a neighbor who is struggling with a small cattle operation. He's been doing this for the last 6 years.  

He does it because he wants to help those in need.  He wont go under from doing it.  He is a retired school teacher and farmer and again, HE DOESNT NEED THE MONEY.  

He believes that he has been bleessed and this is part of his way of giving back to those that need.  

[slowzuki]

Hey Swampy, there is a resurgance of interest in grain in our area.  I've heard sometime in the 90's the wheat subsidies to ship grain east were removed.  A neighbour has set up his own feed mill and most farms local to me now own a combine.  Strange to see wheat and other grains growing here, the old farmer we bought our land from said it used to be popular here when he was young.

They started the farmers on that winter wheat up this way several years ago when we used to get alot of wet fall weather.

[SwampDonkey]

Most of our bread now is produced and shipped from Canada Bread Co, based in Etobicoke, Ontario. Which is mostly owned (84 %) by Maple Leaf foods owned by the McCain Family of Florenceville, NB. I was finding Ontario bread even in remote areas of BC. I guess the rest of the country forgot how to make bread in late years. : The larger bakery factories have aquired all the local bakeries, like Karnes in Woodstock, aquired by Eastern Bakeries in Moncton, NB. Levesque in Grandfalls is now owned by Ben's, which is again Canada Bread Co.

http://www.mapleleaf.com/Investor/CanadaBread/default.aspx


Here's some photos from the old Karnes bakery in Woodstock, NB
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nbcarlet/karnesbakeryphotos.htm

cheers

[slowzuki]

Swampy, Haven't paid attention to where my bread comes from to be honest!  Kind of a shame!  We do buy much of our cereal and all our flour from the Spearville NB mill but much of their product in the past is milled from western grain.  I know they are using some local grains too.

We only buy multi grain breads so I suppect they aren't local either.  The Farmers Market in F'ton has some good local bread producers!

[Frickman]

BigHoss500,

I can't tell you offhand what it cost to go to Ashville, but I think around $900.00 from our place. It's bound to be more withthe increased fuel prices. I deal with several local trucking companies and whoever has the best price gets the load. It pays to check around as sometimes their prices will be all over the board. I never worry about trucking prices when selling hay, I seperate the hay, loading, and trucking charges on the bill and charge the customer 100% of the cost, including fuel surcharge.

[duke401]

i can rember helping out an all getting together to get somthing done them days are gone. unless its your brother or something like that.its dog eat dog out here in the sw just about everybody is gone, farms are big an no time to help if you wanted to enyway its kind of sad. on my farm there are 7 homestead sites. in our town my class of 1978 had 27 kids this year ther are i think 9 an in the 60`s they av. around mid 30`s.
duke

[duke401]

i send hay back to summerset pa. it is 1253 miles, with back haul trucks it is costing about 1.30 a mile .
duke

ps figure24 ton

[SwampDonkey]

duke:

When I went to school the buses where over crowded and they had to make a new highschool for the northern part of the county. Now they are closing schools and there are not as many kids. Our high school had to have 2 -  1 hr noon hours, back to back to accomodate all the kids. I went to grades 1 and 2 in one school, then 3-5 in another, then  6-9 in another, then 10-12 in yet another. And the classes had over 30 each.

[redpowerd]

swamp, take that scenerio and add a yearly tax increase of around 5% for the budget and then scratch your head and wonder why smaller farmers cant pay taxes on their land. these farmers sell out, move away, and take their kids with them, decreasing class sizes and increasing tax burdon to cover the inflated salaries and previous expansion costs. these puplic schools are as liberal as they come, and their teaching our youth on the same pirncipal.

[SwampDonkey]

Our schools no longer teach the trades such as wood working, automotive and machining that they used to when I attended school. Our government seems to think someone sitting in front of a phone and a computer promotes economic growth. All it's created is emmigration out of the province and into the US or further west, because these telemarketing jobs are low paying. Our population has declined for as far as I can remember and outside of the large farming centres alot of the shops have closed up and businesses have been swallowed up by Montreal or Toronto area. Much of this has occured during intergenerational transfers, the sons and daughters aren't interested in running the family business. When you take farming, the cost is too high for a son or daughter to buy out the old man and continue farming, so as has been since the days of Louie Real, the government brings in immigrants to displace the family farms. They are subsidized by our government and their governments to come here, but no such breaks for our sons and daughters. Go figure that one out and ask government to explain it. I'de love the hear the reasoning. ;D

[Timber_Framer]

Hey Swamp
I have an old friend that sells machine tools who's territory includes India and Pakistan. After returning form one trip a year or so ago he told me that nearly all the major newspapers over there had advertisements by the Canadian government trying to get professionals to immigrate to Canada! They were willing to foot the moving expense and set them up with temporary housing as well!!!!!!
Have you heard anything about this up there?

[SwampDonkey]

The government is so tight lipped on this, you'd think they were reinventing the atomic bomb. Well, it might actually get the reaction of one if the general public knew and cared. But, the attitude is that if it doesn't effect me, I don't even care. Also, there is this strong held myth by some, and its almost a religious conviction,  that these immigrants are harder workers than Canadian born folks. The good Lord himself only knows who started that notion.  :

[slowzuki]

I wouldn't be surprised, the "brain drain" is what they have named the emigration of highly educated Canadians to major US centres.  Attracted by $$$ they leave in droves!  Foreigners are willing to work in Canada for less $ than the US due to the huge improvment over their home land.

In NB, young people leave to get jobs in Ontario and out west.  There are jobs here but people don't want low paying ones.  As far as I can tell my friends out west aren't better off, things just cost more to match the salaries.   Average home here is around 100K $, in Calgary its like 250K$.

I guess I'm an oddity, in my mechanical engineering class many left the country and or province.  In the job market though I could have made more money and had an easier time finding a job with a trade instead.  Plumbers the same age as me make 1.5x what I do, of course they would have been working an extra 2 years on me but...

Best friend is a power plant operator (boiler ticket etc).  He got a job about 6 months after me, he now makes double my salary.  He only went to school 2 years...

Ken

Hey Swamp
I have an old friend that sells machine tools who's territory includes India and Pakistan. After returning form one trip a year or so ago he told me that nearly all the major newspapers over there had advertisements by the Canadian government trying to get professionals to immigrate to Canada! They were willing to foot the moving expense and set them up with temporary housing as well!!!!!!
Have you heard anything about this up there?

[SwampDonkey]

I have talked to a furnace repair man about younger fella's providing that service. He told me he's tried apprenticing a couple guys and they don't seem to be ready to learn from the experienced guys and it also shows in the quality of their work. They generally have a tough time of making a business for themselves and don't last long. Its getting hard to get servicemen to fix your furnace now. Once those guys in their 50's are done (retired), we all better know how to fix the furnace ourselves. I couldn't even get the company that installed the furnace (Irving Oil) to service it.  :