|
East of Broken Bow | I know a couple guys who sell hay every year, and are pretty successful at it.
Before they sell one bale, they get it tested, and test every cutting off every field. When they stack their bales they stack them by cutting so they are sorted and easy to tell what is what. The price is then determined by the test. We have local hay auctions 2X a month, and their price is based off of that. I don't know where they got it, but they have a chart that tells them what % of top price each cutting would be worth. Let's say auction price was $100 a ton for the top quality hay. So they look at the test results and say this pile of bales is worth $95, this one $90, this one $85 and so on.
We used to sell a little hay most years, and it is harder to sell hay when you sell some years and not others. Buyers want a consistent supply, and generally when you have the most hay to sell, that is when the prices are lowest.
Another thing, one of my hay growing friends has separated his customers into 3 tier groups.
Group 1 can buy whatever hay they need, and he'll send a bill.
Group 2 can get another load when they pay for the last one.
Group 3 shows up with a truck and a scale ticket with the tare weight. Grower follows the truck to town to that same scale, calculates the weight, and gets a check before the truck can move on.
Oh, and there is one individual who gets 'extra special' treatment. He sends a check for whatever hay he wants, plus a little more. After it clears the bank, the truck is loaded a little 'lighter' than the $$$ on his check, and after final weighing, they will refund him back the extra.
Also, beware of horse people. They were the biggest thorn in my side when I was selling hay. Ranchers were great, cowboys were easy enough to get along with, but beware of 'horse people'. They will drive you crazy. I had one buy about a dozen bales one time, about a month later, I got a call, they wanted either a refund or more hay as their horses 'didn't like it'. I told them I'd stop in and see what we could do. When I got there I looked around and couldn't see any of my bales, so I asked where they had put them. Oh, the horses are working on the last one now. Looked at the hay, it looked fine to me. In fact as we were there, a couple horses came and munched on the bale. I asked why they expected me to replace hay that their horses already ate. Their answer was their horses 'ate' it, but didn't seem to 'like' it. | |
|
Hay markets
