Calling China

[sdholloway56]

blue light special in aisle 14!

[RJG640v8]

to heck with China ........... the Hay market is fabulous, has been , and will continue into the future.

[sdholloway56]

Yeah, I tried to convince a young farmer with a small land base to go that way but he just wants to "be a farmer" and is willing to pay money and go up against the big boys in the grain game.

Although commercial scale haying in the ECB takes a 6 month 24/7 commitment, not for everybody.

[rickgthf]

Back in the nineties when a lot of the smaller dairies were going out of business, a number of those retiring farmers thought they could make and sell some hay to pay taxes and expenses.  Unfortunately, it didn't take much to saturate the hay market and hay was $40 per ton if you could sell it.  It took a few years for those fellows to die off before the hay market could come back.

  Now, 25 years later, a new crop of dairy farmers are calling it quits, buying fancy new round balers and trying to make it selling organic balage.  There's a great market for organic balage, the organic dairy farmers are more than willing to buy the balage but they have a hard time paying for it.  I know a couple of those balage producers who literally have thousands of dollars out to organic dairy farmers and I'm not sure they'll ever get their money.

  Many a crop farmer has learned a hard lesson selling produce to dairy farmers.  The dairy farmers may have the best intentions but the milk processors have other ideas.

[sdholloway56]

If you're close to a population center and are equipped to make small squares, that's the way to go.

Cash on the barrel.

[RJG640v8]

I’m my own banker but nobody else’s.  My dealings are cash on delivery on smaller sales. On larger sales there is a signed and dated contract from both parties, with a feed value analysis report from Rock River Labs , confirmed wire transfer of funds , then the truck is loaded and product is delivered. No ticky no washy.  My repeat customers have never shafted me. Early on I made the mistake of extending credit to a buyer, the first delivery, when they called again , a few months later I refused to service their request. I wrote that 800ish off and cut the cord.  If it gets to the point that I can’t sell it, i’ll buy more cattle and use it myself.

[sw363535]

Good description of why I quit the hay business.  Too hard find good customers. 

[k-289]

Interesting,  to  hard  to  find  good  customers  -  accounts  receivable,  maybe  - ?  

[r3020]

The trouble with horse people is every time a horse gets sick the first thing they do is blame the hay. They're just not worth the trouble. Life is too short.