Hay prices and hay customers

I've just started to look at current hay prices as I have most of last years crop in the shed. I have sold all my animals, so all the hay will be sold.
This is all upland hay, grass and clover mix, one field has a bit of alfalfa in it yet, not much. All put up dry, as I got pretty lucky this year with the weather. I went to the local hay auction this past weekend, similar hay sold for $90-$100 per round bale or $7 per small square. I have some of each. I then went onto craigslist to compare pricing, seems a bit cheaper on craigslist, I found rounds for $65-$70 and squares for $5. Looks like I'll be hauling a bunch of it to auction to get the higher pricing. The other nice thing about selling at auction is that customers never come back with ridiculous complaints or anything like that. I also do not like strangers in the yard, selling at auction eliminates that as well. About the only downsides of selling at auction are the commissions and having to haul it down there about 20 miles. This is Central MN, Zimmerman auction

Do you typically sell directly to buyers? or take to auction?

Is it typical to see higher prices at an auction center?

Should I wait a month or so, is it likely for prices to rise yet?

Thanks for your opinions.

Well it is a gamble if hay prices will rise or not. It all depends on what the weather will do and what the stocks of hay are like this year. I really do not know of many that are short on hay. Most had fair crops. Some had great crops. I would sell at least some of it now and not gamble on all of it.

I see too many guys ride a high price down because they get greedy. Did you get $90-100 and $7 for the rest of your hay??? If not then the current auction price is better than you did then.

Hay price is down this year from last. So there is very little hay going for the BIG dollars it was last year.

As far as auction or direst sale. I quit selling directly 5-6 years ago. It is much simpler to deliver the hay to the auction and have them mail me a GOOD check!!!!! Way less bother and no getting beat out of my money.

You will get higher at auction but how much to you pay the auctioneer? Also lock in price for hauling if you have to haul i have seen it both ways piled on ground or left on wagon.
I sold hay once and the guys kid told me they used the wagon to haul there other hay home i dont know how many loads but it was 20 miles round trip. but as you said checks are good and there is less hassle i have done it both ways. i usually try and build a good coustumer base guys you know and trust but use auction too

Prices are up around here. Too much rain in the spring and when it quit, it really quit. About 20% of normal for the second crop.
I don't know anyone selling hay in this area for less than $7.00 for a small square and around $90.00 for rounds.

I enjoy the auction. I load on Friday and sell on Saturday morning. Get my check on Tuesday. Made a lot of friends at the auction, that counts for somethng. This past summer was really nice, good prices so I sold everything by the end of summer. No storage work. The wife helps me and she likes it this way.

Hay around here usually sells by the ton, odd lots might sell by the bale. How heavy are those $7 bales? Since my wife helps me, I make the bales light and a lot of customers seem to like it that way.

I'll agree with JD take it to an auction. Last bales I sold privately was 11 big square stalk bales. He paid me for three and I ended up donating the rest. Could never pin him down and then he and his dam horses evaporated into thin air. Jim

I'm on the other side of it as a buyer. I enjoy buying direct from the grower and hate the auction. Just don't like crowds.
I take stacks as they come top to bottom, front to back and never gripe about condition. I had the chance to look at it before stepping up and writing the check. After that I own it no mater what and take all I said I would. I have two growers I buy from most of the time as they have it available. One will not sell at auction and the other will if the price is higher than what he can get off the farm.
The auction does tend to bring better prices for the grower, but there is transportation and auction fees. Not sure if it works out for the grower or not, but the sale is over and done in a day and the check is on the way. Around here $7.00 small squares is a great deal. Most are asking $10.00 and up for alfalfa. Grass goes higher for some reason.

Greg

Funny you bring bale weight up, around here we have horse lady bales and cow guy bales. Many horse people like light bales so it is easy to feed and move around. I generally have a retriever bring my stacks home for me when I can so I like them heavy. They store and feed better. Animals like the heavy bales. More like hay steak I guess.

Greg

If I could get those prices at auction I'd never sell another bale direct again. Period. I've got 2 loads on the road right now, one 400 miles one way and the other 600 miles one way. Both loads will arrive, horse quality, at less than those prices with me paying the freight and thats not to mention the 200 miles I drove today making 4 deliveries. But, there are no auctions around here. If there were, and I could get that, there would be a thousand rolls sitting there and I'd be done for the year.

Neighbor called and asked if I could come over with the skidsteer and unload three 2000# pallets off of a semi for him. After I unloaded them I asked what was in the bags, he said "compressed, dried hay"! He said it is the latest and greatest...animals waste less, near zero loss...$500 a ton! I think they trucked it in from New Mexico. They were going to feed it to their goats!

I sold brome hay for $5.50 to $6.00 a bale (wire tied) in the field last summer. Looking on Craigs list a lot of brome seems to be selling in the $3.50 - $4.00 range now. NE Kansas - Manhattan/Topeka area.

I"m in central MN. Just sold 80 tons of decent upland grass hay for $150/ton that would be $82.50 per bale at 1100#. The buyer will haul the hay. The two closest auctions to me are 30 and 50 miles away. I haven"t went to auctions yet with my hay, I run a repair shop full time so hard to make it work unless I have someone else haul it. I figure by the time I"m done paying commission, hauling to the auction the 10-20 less a ton Im taking is worth it, for now anyway.

I have three good customers that take most of my hay. One dairy guy, one beef guy, and one guy that raises some Holstein heifers. If I sell to anyone with a few horses that I don"t know well, its cash only.

I"m not a horse hater, in fact we have seven of the things. Around here we have a glut of folks that have 2-3 horses, and run non stop to gaming events and shows. They are all the same, flat broke, but will spend hundreds of dollars a weekend just to win a belt buckle, then bounce me a check for the hay that keeps their critters alive. Oh, and they always need one bale, usually in the middle of a snow storm. Sorry for the rant.



I wouldn"t be afraid to head to an auction with it for the reasons you mentioned. My FIL buys a lot of dairy alfalfa big squares at auction and has always had good experiences. He usually buys from the auction in Sauk Centre, but has bought in Litchfield as well.

I set up a nice staging area about 1/4 mile from my farm for my hay that is being sold. Like you I don"t like everybody and their brother pulling through my yard.

If you are gonna keep making and selling hay now that the cattle are gone, word will get out. In no time, you will have a few reliable buyers who will want to come to you directly for hay. BW

With the weather in central MN this past year I know some people who are in trouble and short of hay. Kinda bad when guys with 100+ head are begging to buy just a couple of bales. They will all be at the Long Prairie hay auction this week. I'm thinking that hay is going to go higher yet in the mid MN area yet this year. I think the hay auction is the easiest way to sell. I know one guy who quit raising hay because of the people he had to deal with and the "bale kickers".

Rick

I put up 3200 this year. Have about 400 left. $5.00 bale picked up. I have two main buyers. One buys about 600 bales the other about 400. Real nice. They will generally call and come get out of the field.( I help pickup ) The rest is craigslist sold. I use to take to sale barn years ago. But After I paid gas to haul 40 miles round trip and payed his % didnt see that working for me. I havent hauled to sale barn in couple years now. Most folks that buy only want 25 bales at a time. So I have 25, 50, 2, 8, 10 bales at a time down to 400 left..lol

Very true. My farm site is 1/2 mile off the road. The only spot you will see it from is a hill on the road about a mile away. The only hay I move to my yard is what I feed. Last year, by March I had at least a dozen messages and another half dozen people stop by asking if the hay in my yard is for sale. Most of them I had never seen before. If guys are driving around and looking that hard to spot the hay sitting in my yard, it must be in short supply. Don"t think it"ll be any better this year. BW

I wish we had an auction around here. Here I am selling squares for $1.00 a piece out of the field and 4x5 rounds for $10.00 a piece. Of course it"s not alfalfa but it"s Timothy and clover.

(quoted from post at 20:46:43 01/13/14) I'm on the other side of it as a buyer. I enjoy buying direct from the grower and hate the auction. Just don't like crowds.
I take stacks as they come top to bottom, front to back and never gripe about condition. I had the chance to look at it before stepping up and writing the check. After that I own it no mater what and take all I said I would.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you're the exception, not the rule.

(quoted from post at 10:49:35 01/14/14)

(quoted from post at 20:46:43 01/13/14) I'm on the other side of it as a buyer. I enjoy buying direct from the grower and hate the auction. Just don't like crowds.
I take stacks as they come top to bottom, front to back and never gripe about condition. I had the chance to look at it before stepping up and writing the check. After that I own it no mater what and take all I said I would.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you're the exception, not the rule.

Click to expand...

Boy you got that right. The one guy I know that quit raising hay I helped some. Some of the customers were really hard to deal with. They wanted perfect hay. One guy came and looked at the hay, bought 20 1600 pound rounds and then a month later called up claiming that the hay was bad. We drove out to the guys place to see what the problem was. He'd fed it all. Was needing more but wanted some for free to replace the "bad" hay the was now laying in the feed area as brown steaming lumps that looked a lot like manure. There was more than one buyer like that.

Rick

Here in Pahrump, Nevada - priced 1 week ago at Home Depot - Alfalfa: a stack of 10, 80 pound bales on a pallet - $18.00 per bale.

Doc