Re: selling hay for under cost?

Posted by Hal/WA on November 07, 2006 at 18:12:11 from (66.45.175.118):

In Reply to: selling hay for under cost? posted by Tim Shultz on November 07, 2006 at 11:22:39:

It's all supply and demand. Basic economics. In a year with good moisture and conditions for hay to grow, everybody who produces hay has a lot of good, high quality product. And since the buyers have a lot to choose from in a large supply, they can expect to be able to pay less and still get the product they need in the quantity they want.

I would check around at dairies, to see what they are paying for hay this time of year. You might find someone who wants and needs the very high quality hay you have.

On our dryland in fairly arid Eastern Washington, we usually got a nice first cutting of alfalfa, and if we got enough moisture in early July, we sometimes got a much smaller second cutting, which was higher quality, because it had much less grass and weeds. But usually we just pastured the hayland in later Summer, to get rid of the later growth, and to pasture some cows.

If your alfalfa growing conditions are good enough so you get a decent 3rd cutting, you are almost stuck with cutting it that third time, just to get the excess vegitation off the field before next year's crop. That is going to cost you whatever it is going to cost you to cut, bale and handle the hay.

I would much rather get $1.50 a bale and get rid of my excess hay than I would to just keep it and get nothing. And I have had to deal with burning stacks of baled hay---not my idea of fun. You almost have to handle every bale and it might take weeks until you have them all out for sure. Sometimes you have to sell products at less than the cost of production, just to stay going. Maybe things will be better next year.

Another thought would be to buy cattle and feed the hay to them. We did that some years when we had extra big hay crops. We also had years when we sold cattle rather than buying high priced hay for them. That's farming.

Good luck in selling your hay. Have you considered trucking it somewhere? I bet there are areas that would LOVE to get your nice hay at a decent price.

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