hay prices?

Fordfarmer

Well-known Member
I know hay price tends to be regional and seasonal, but where do you see it going this year? Prices have been insanely high here since about last September, due to the drought, but I expect it will drop shortly as pasture and new hay become available. My two biggest hay customers have been asking about how much I'm going to have available this year, and price. Hard to know what to tell them yet. Also, the one customer wants to try high moisture bales - he'd pick them up the day they're baled and wrap them at his place. How would I price them?? I've never sold any h.m. bales before.
 
Not sure about hay prices. But i"ve done hm bales for years. Not a whole pile different to making hay except you don"t need to get it dry. Much easier if the weather is catchy. Here (Manitoba) i generally cut one afternoon and bale the following day. I"d charge the same per bale (if they are roughly the same size). Plus for you is less time and the bales moved right away, plus for the other guy, more leaf material (esp in alfalfa). HM bales can be hard on balers, need really good lacings for belts and they can be hard on bearings too... might have to turn down the pressure a smidge... Variable chamber balers are slightly better for HM bales simply because you can make a smaller bale... they will be heavy.
 
I hire my round baling done, and have done h.m. bales for 10+ years...just never sold any before. Dry bales are 5'x6', h.m. are 4'x4.5' or 4'x5', depending on moisture.
 
Fuel prices are up big time so that will also make hay prices a tad bit high. I can see it in the $50 or so per bale for round bales in this area if not a bit higher. In this area of Missouri round 4X5 bales where bring $75-100 this winter but hay was also hard to find
 
Just got home with a 5x6 bale of brome (around 1500 lbs) which I paid $80 for. Hay here in central Kansas is a little hard to get right now as last year's stuff is basically gone and the new crop is still a few weeks from getting put up. The guy I buy from only had a handful of bales left. He told me that there may not be as much demand down south this year (he usually sells many semi loads into Texas) since so many guys there have whittled down their herds due to the drought.
 
I haven't set my prices yet as the hay is still a ways off UP here so I'm not sure how the quantity or quality will be yet. I've had a few customers ask and I've been telling them it for sure won't be less than last year as fuel/oil/twine/fertilizer/tires/etc have all increased in price.

Without looking in my records I think last year I sold small squares for 3.50 and 1200+Lbs round bales for 55 or 60.
 
I know I'm gonna catch hail about this, but let me inject my take on this. While I have to float some with the market, I generally set a floor price that I can live with. It's usually about $4 for straw, $6 for hay in idiot cubes, and about $50 for a 700# (+/-) round bale. Or about $150 a ton, or more according to the market. I can wear out tractors, discbines, tedders, and balers, pay rent, fertilzer, twine and fuel bills and feel comfortable.

With the cost of everything today, if you sell hay for less, you are only cutting your own throat. If you lose a part of a cutting to rain, or have a major breakdown, there has to be money there to fix it. Money for the next load of fuel, or more twine. Green for the downpayment on replacing the baler, or new rubber on the tractor. All of these inputs have risen dramatically over the past few years. I don't care if one of the horsey set says , "It's 'dusty'". Someone else wants it, and I, for one, won't dicker too much about price. If they want to feed a horse or two, fine. Don't expect me to feed it. And I have to make a profit, just like them, or I'm out of business. The insurance man and the feed mill expect to be paid- so do I.

So, to stay in business, I charge for what I produce and sell. Don't ask me to take less. I have over $100,000 tied up in hay machinery- That's a lot of iron to pay for at a few bucks a bale.....
 
We were getting twelve dollars a small square bale and one hundred thirty five for a seven hundred pound midsize bale. Better raise your price.
 
If I tried to charge 12 dollars a small square or heck even 6.50 I would have people laughing to me and telling me to screw off. Have to charge what your local markets will bear unless you feel like trucking it.
 
Great if you can demand and get the money. I've a lot more invested in machinery than your $100K and sold 80 bu/acre wheat for $1.86 bu. Straw went cheap for so much per ton to round balers that then delivered/sold it to mushroom producers. Perhaps state contractors would give $4.00 bale for seeding highway projects or it might be common for the Chicago race tracks, but at that price in this area you would be selling a bale here or there to dog owners and like minded users. The wheat/straw check resulted in a pretty lean year but good years make the difference.
 
It is finally a sellers market out there for hay. I think prices are going to be pretty close to last year (high) here in S.E. Michigan. We had a hard Mother's Day frost and another hard frost last night and while the alfalfa came back after being curled, the orchard grass is pretty brown and curled right back in some fields. I am almost thinking first cut yields will be as low as last year (about 50%) of normal. I will need to get $5/small square out of the field) and am going to store as much as I can to sell in the winter and sell only what I need to keep cash flow. Problem is I have so many regular customers and don't know how to raise prices on them or get them to go somewhere else and buy hay from the idiots that will be selling for $3.50 out of the field.
 
this winter a neighber had some sq been in barn at least 25 years.sold them to guy to mix with new hay,got4.00 a bale,buyer did all work,hauling. as much as its raining here not very good chance of three cuttings this year unless late fall warm and dry
 

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