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Something is worth whatever you can successfully sell it for. If the "country store" can get $4/bale for straw, I am guessing they are making something on each bale, but probably not a huge amount. Could you get more than $3.50/bale for your hay? Maybe, but if $3.50 is the going rate, and your neighbors are selling it for that, and there is plenty of hay in the area, then it is likely that you won't sell much hay if you price it higher. I happened to notice a sign at a feed store in the Spokane Valley today advertising new straw for $6.50/bale, which seemed kind of high to me. But that store is pretty urbanized and caters mostly to suburbia and horse people. I bet I could find straw for lots less in the surrounding country, especially if I bought a couple of tons at one time. But if I only needed a couple of bales, it would not be worth my time to go hunting around to find it at a cheaper price than the feed store. I don't know how much it would cost to bale and haul straw these days. While wheat straw is more or less a waste product, the modern varieties of wheat they grow around here don't have nearly as much straw volume as they used to. Most farmers just spread the straw and then plant over it with low till farming methods. So they don't mess with the straw at all after combining. And I bet it is hard to get people to handle the small bales these days, which would have to be handled several times to get them to the feed store. So maybe the convenience of getting a few bales at the feed store is worth the $4 or maybe even the $6.50. While I do see some hay put up in small bales around here, most is done in the large round bales, or the huge rectangular bales. The bluegrass seed farmers also bale their straw in the huge bales, to get it off the fields to allow next year's crop to grow. I see semis carrying those bales, I suppose to feedlots somewhere. But there is NO WAY those bales could be handled by a person, only a fairly large machine, like a forklift. One of those bales would completely fill a pickup bed, and would probably weigh too much for a half ton. And when you get it home, you have to unload it somehow. If you are set up to do small bales and raise some grain, you might consider baling and storing some of your grain straw. It might sell real good! And maybe you might research the local price of baled hay. You might be charging less than you could. Supply and demand, with a little correction for convenience. Good luck, hope it works out for you!
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