“These are the times that try men's souls.” | Badger, I can't see a person paying those kind of prices for hay for dairy cows, let alone for stock cows. I know that is the market right now for hay in the west, the frt. is a real killer. Hay is a tough crop to sell at today's prices of equipment, fuel, etc. I guess not tough to sell, just tough to pencil at these prices. At $350 a ton for hay I would sell the cows, and buy them back at a later date, or keep a pen of heifers and grow a new set of cows on my limited feed on hand.
At the present time I'm getting $21 for my milk, but I'm just trading dollars at these high costs, and power, fuel costs. Milk should be at $40 right now to cover these high input costs. It is going to be a roller coaster ride for the next year or two. There will be a few more go out of business I project in the coming year. It's sad we are in a business if one side makes money, the other one is losing. I just cringe at the prices of windrowers, balers, tractors. It is a tough game to be in.
I'm hearing of the $300 a ton for hay in Cal., that's all fine and dandy but are these guys paying on time, etc. ? These big dairies around here don't pay on time, they run on everybody else's money for 90 some days. That drives prices up too, bigger isn't always better. It's a tough game, and only going to get worse. |
need hay
