Author	[Modern View]
kyhayman 12-10-2012 10:26:11 75.105.0.53 Report to Moderator	Just from reading your post the thing that jumps out at me is marketing. I gave up on trying to be the cheap hay guy. It costs me 12.75 per 4x5 round plus fertilizer. Somebody is always willing to work for less. I went the other direction, best hay I could make, advertise widely, have the ability to deliver any size load for a price. Packaged into a 4x5 so it hauls well in the back of a pickup, or two wide on a semi. I grow very little of what I sell anymore. People are willing to pay and pay well for inside storage and just in time delivery. But, its that way with any crop. I'd focus on taking the hay up a notch. Spend your money on a baler that makes a package you can transport, a spraying with Plateau every fall, see for good timothy and orchardgrass, and nitrogen fertilizer. There is no reason my trucks need to be going through east Tennessee to Florida and Georgia with hay at 55.00 for rounds and 6.00 grass squares plus freight at 3.00 a loaded mile and you selling rolls for 10 bucks. [Reply]   [No Email]
Jason S. 12-10-2012 17:02:51 174.252.158.185 Report to Moderator	Re: What is a good crop to sell? in reply to kyhayman, 12-10-2012 10:26:11   It may be I don"t advertise right. I also think because I don"t have new equipment like everybody around me people don"t think my hay is as good. I have older equipment but it"s good equipment. People frown because I mow with a haybine and not a disc mower and etc...but my stuff is paid for. I didn"t get to fertilize this year because spring came early here, actually it caught several people here by suprise. I figured it up and it cost me about $4.50 per bale to bale this year. That"s why I sold my hay for $10.00. I still doubled my money. [Reply]  [No Email]
kyhayman 12-12-2012 21:17:30 99.196.32.59 Report to Moderator	Re: What is a good crop to sell? in reply to Jason S., 12-10-2012 17:02:51   Nothing wrong with older equipment. My newest round baler is nearly 20 years old. My square baler older than that. Mower-wise, I did add a new discbine a couple of years ago but what comes out the back is the same as comes out of your mower conditioner. Thats fabulous cost control, I'm jealous. Off the top I've got a gallon of fuel in each roll, roughly. Just dividing up 565 gallons per week on an output of 500-600 rolls. Payroll runs about 75 cents a roll for the hired help and about 2.00 a roll for me. Rest is repairs, twine, and depreciation/replacement. Next year it wont look so good, big repair bills both in the production and trucking ends. Then I shoot for 10.00 a roll profit, actually insist on it. Fertilizer, seeding, and spraying puts a solid 10.00 more on it. I cant say that the fertilizer pays for me, in grass hay, in yield. Actually its almost break even. But it does pay in holding green color. Color sells and to a lesser extent smell sells. I work craigslist and all the online sales boards like a hawk. Plus I always keep a decent roll with a professional printed sign and my phone number by the road. Every truck I have has a sign on it, and the family cars have bumper stickers. I never say can't when someone asks for something, I simply price it at what I can make that happen for. Typically the service is worth more than the product. [Reply]  [No Email]
Shetland Sheepdog 12-11-2012 16:01:10 72.71.219.61 Report to Moderator	Re: What is a good crop to sell? in reply to Jason S., 12-10-2012 17:02:51   Another thing that I learned was that customers will always try to get your product a little cheaper thinking your product is worth just a little less than the price you are asking. So, if you are asking $10.00, the customer prolly thinks it's worth $8.00. On the other hand, if you ask $50.00, and let the customer have it for $40.00, he/she prolly will not balk! I sell idiot cubes that are not premium, but are dry when baled and I make a fair sized bale. I try to give good service and maintain a good rapport with my customers. I try to keep abreast of the going rate for premium product in my area, and typically sell for $0.50 less per bale. I haven't threatened any of the premium producers by stealing their customers, and most if not all of my customers have been with me for years. And, yes, they are "horse people"! JMHO, HTH, Dave [Reply]  [No Email]