Hay buyers?

Does anyone have any experience with "big time" hay buyers? I'm in PA and am looking to make the jump from small to medium size producer, but I don't have any contacts. I've sold to horse people for years, in the range of 2000-3000 small squares per year, and I'd like to jump to 5000-7500 per year, but need solid buyers. I've been developing the extra fields I need these last few years. Maybe I need to jump to large square? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

- jhilyer

Do you want to sell straight out of the field or can you store it into winter? Here, some producers bring a trailer load every week to the local hay auction. That might be an outlet for any unsold surplus. A New Holland stack wagon could be a labor saver for that type of sales if one will fit in your sheds. Stop by a local sale barn, or hay auction and talk to the auctioneer to find out what their buyers want.

I sold out 20000 small squares last year and could've sold more if I had it. You're going to need storage and be prepared to wait a little while to sell it. There should definitely be a market for it. We are very dry here in NNY and I think were going to be short on hay.

The guys I sell to buy all year round - they do 5-6 loads a week, about 700 bales to a load.
They do buy some out of the field, but they would rather have you cure it in your barn.
I'm in central ny
Pete

I buy a couple hundred ton. But you can't get me to take small squares. Too much work. Small sqare bales are like butter wrapped in quarters. Too small a package.

Thanks for the replies, fellas!

Im not sure what a big time hay buyer is? I guess most people around here consider me one so I'll wade into the mix. As far as small squares go, that's not my market but several of my friends buy and sell several hundred thousand a year. Everyone's dream is to have a contract that guarantees someone will buy 100 percent of production at a premium price and take delivery when the weather is perfect and at the sellers convenience; me included. But that's not how the world works.

The end user wants his or her product when they want it, like they want it, and as cheap as possible. That's usually not realistic either.

As a buyer the cheapest product I buy and the one where I set price is hay purchased in season, that I take immediate delivery of into my storage. Every step of the process is discounted for my risk and opportunity cost. The next cheapest is what is paid in advance, and stored in the farmers barn for me to sell or move prior to the next season. But, it has to be loaded when I need it loaded. Not tomorrow, not the next week, sometimes on very short notice. Often times a freight broker won't have a definite truck for me until mid afternoon for loading that night.

Probably the greatest consideration to selling in quantity is all weather semi access. If the main roads are open I need to be able to get a 53 foot semi trailer with a sleeper cab tractor in, loaded, turned around, and out the DAY the main road is open. Even with 4 suppliers, plus my own barns, there were at least 2 weeks in March this year when we could not sell hay because we couldn't get it to the places we could load trucks. This was a real out of pocket loss to me of almost $15,000. Consequently, I've added more storage here, and road upgrades. But, the sale price isnt going up any so the discounts are at the farmer seller level. Im buying more hay in season delivered into my place and less at a higher price out of someone else's.

The biggest thing about moving a lot of squares, particularly alfalfa mix is being aware that January is when the thoroughbreds start out down in south Florida. If I have to own hay until then, its going to be cheap enough to cover my risk, insurance, and the money thats tied up. Because, just like everyone else. My want list is bigger than my bank account.

Most valuable of all is the hay I buy in season, by the load, out of the farmers barn that can make a semi load of like hay out of the same field of the same cutting. So.... all that and a bag of chips. In no way do I mean to sound harsh or condescending. I've got a guy wearing me out right now wanting me to buy a few thousand square bales left over from last year. He's stuck on $7 a bale, says thats what he sold he for all winter. Which is all well and good BUT. My retail is 8.50 and 50 cents of that is sales tax. Loaders and truckers eat up 2.00 of that to get it on the truck and to its end user. I'm going to make $2.00 a bale to mess with it. So that puts us at $4.50. And then the customer wants it put in the barn so there's another 50 cents that has to come from somewhere.

Not many squares in my area of Nebraska either. I buy more than that sometimes depending how dry it is, in addition to putting up a fair amount of my own. Feeding tons a day, a Haybuster works better than paying a premium for small squares and having more work.

"Big time" hay buyer is a relative term. I have a couple different neighbor families about 5 miles away that buy/sell/put up hay. They deal in several 1000s of big rounds yearly (1600lbs each + or - usually) and truck them all over the place. They do convert some of them to small squares to truck out. Most people have Deere balers. Guessing over a dozen used sitting on the lot there. 568 or 569 used one season, common to see over 10,000 bales on them (and they'd be the size I said, because that's what most people use).

Anyway, they would buy hay if I have any extra, which I never do. Also, the feedlots always buy hay, but generally they low bid and take older hay to have something mixed with it. Can advertise it on the radio, or in the papers. But generally not much around, and it sells very quickly when in high demand as it has been for several years.

No demand for round bales there? Not many big square balers around, never see any for sale. Quite expensive last time I looked them up. I have seen the neighbor do a couple hundred small round bales with his big baler, don't know what he does with those.

My friend who deals hay, mainly from Quebec, but also central NY told me that he buys only out of the barn so that he can be sure that it won't get dusty on him.