I thought I'd put this out there to get some ideas from the membership on how a person can move hay economically. I know a fella down here in Central LA that's sitting on 800 round bales of hay or so at the moment and can't seem to move them because where they're needed in the Country right now, the freight to get them there makes it cost prohibitive to the end buyer. Last year he rolled 8800 bales I believe. Sold every one of them relatively close to home because Texas had been so hard hit by the drought. This year, we've been blessed to get enough rain here and there to actually be doing pretty ok as far as pastures and hay.
I'd like to see this fella be able to move his hay, and I'd like to see the people that need it be able to get it for their animals. How do you move it though when Diesel is $4.00 a gallon and you're looking at $3.00+ per mile?
Appreciate the feedback...
The only help I can see is that permits have been waived on hay shipments. There was an article in a recent La. Market Bulletin addressing this issue. It would help to maximize the payload. Might not be enough to make it feasible with the current costs to haul.
I had wondered if rail would be an option. The payload is so much greater on a rail car. My past experience trying to get rail cars has been less than fruitful though. Unless someone had a connection ....?
The catch 22 for farmers is that if they don't have hay, then they're probably feeding grains which are most likely sky high right now with the drought too. If they were going to the midwest, and I thought a barge could get up the Mississippi right now I'd suggest loading them on a barge in Alexandria. He's right near the port. Wouldn't help much though for the folks in Colorado that need it.
Right now in central Ne everybody is baling up whatever they can get their hands on, including corn. I think good quality hay, if hooked up with the right customer would bring enough of a premium for 800 bales even with the trucking. Last year we had a pretty good year and all you saw was one TT load after another headed south, now everyone wishes they'd have held it over, this feed thing is getting really tough. Right now we're chopping silage bought from neighbors acres, going rate $40/ton with us doing all the chopping and hauling, needless to say not much grain value in it and covering a lot of ground for a little feed. Is this grass hay or legume? Silly as it may sound 800 bales won't go too far with a lot of operations if it's a bad winter, just depends on what other types of feed are available. Around here pretty well everything is shipped by truck anymore.
I'll ask him if it's hay or legume. What's preferable? Legume? Seems like legume would be higher in protein maybe? Actually, he has a ton more to cut. He got behind a bit because his baler caught fire and burned up. He was stalled waiting on the insurance company to come through with the funds to replace the baler. Sounds like he's made it through that though. He's got lots to cut, just needs a home for it ... and like you say sandhills ... there are definitely people out there who need it. I bet he could easily roll another 8000-9000 bales if he had a home for them. I could tell he was stressed today when I talked with him. It's one of those things where you know you have what people need but you just don't know how to get it to them economically.
As a disclaimer, I have no experience with them. Looks like a large square baler would be better for the shipping end of things. I have rolled a lot of hay, hard to get a truck to scale out without being too tall and wide. If he has that much hay available it might be the right time to invest in the square equipment. Maybe could comer the costs in one year. Just guessing.
Unless he is charging an arm and a leg for the bales to begin with he shouldn't have much problem finding somebody willing to pay for the hay and the trucking. Last year my neighbor sold his round bales down to Texas 55 bales at a time on a flatbed semi truck, and the buyer was more than happy to pay for the shipping.
55 round bales at a time? Wow ... that had to be a fat load. Was it double stacked and double wide on both layers?
He may have the square baler as well. I'm going to call him again today and see. I also didn't ask him what what he was charging for the round bales. I'll see.
Seems like if a farmer had a large enough operation it'd make sense for them to own their own truck and come after their own hay so that they essentially just have fuel cost, time, and maintenance on the truck.
I have a neighbor that bales his hay and puts it into a inclosed semi trailer and then he will truck it himself where ever it has to go. He has a bunch of trailers and this seems to work pretty good for him.
I know this is thinking outside the box. But might it not be cheaper for him to overwinter someone's cattle that has little hay supply? At least until calving season. You can ship the cattle a whole lot cheaper than the hay. With cows, you don't have much sickness. Financially it would make more sense. I wouldn't recommend him buy calves; they have too much sickness compared to mature cows, unless he has the facilities and the knowledge to start them. But about all you need with cows is a good electric fence, some bale feeders, a mineral feeder or two, and not much else to get them through the winter if they are spring calvers.
Well, he himself only owns 40 acres. But he leases thousands of acres for cutting and baling hay. Running cows on that rented ground may be problematic, although not a bad idea. I know some guys do that and they get paid by the weight gain on the cows.
Good quality 1200 to 1500 lb brome is going for $100+ right now and you can't find any. Depending on his price a trucker could make some decent money especially if they were deadheading up this way.
Bales were 2 wide and 2 high the entire 53' semi trailer, it was a wide load but they got the proper permits. A hay broker from down south arranged the trucking, and all my neighbor and I had to do was load the truck. When the drivers showed up they wanted as much on there as possible so we kept on stacking.
Big squares are definitely nicer to haul. I used to haul straw and hay and the 4x4x8 squares were sure nice! Alot will depend on the size of the round bales too...the ones I make are 5x5, the one neighbor has them 5x6, and another has them 4x5....
I pulled double "B" trains with the squares...66 at a time for 3x3x8 bales, and 44 of the 4x4x8 bales.
He needs so get hooked up with the right people. There are farmers from northern Missouri coming to southeast Missouri to bale rice and corn stubble. They are paying for the stubble, bringing their own equipment, personal, and shipping the bales back up north. I live on a major highway and I've seen more balers, 150hp+ tractors with fel, and bales going by on trucks than I ever had.
I don't know it loading on a barge would work to well right now. The Mississippi is low enough in places that barge traffic has been stopped and I know of several ports relatively close to around that are only a couple of feet deep. At the County Port Authority here they are piling corn on the ground because they can't load it fast enough to keep up since other ports are to shallow to load at.
Yep, that's why I figured barging it would be tough. River's down big time. Otherwise we could throw his whole inventory on a barge and get it moving North.
Are there websites that farmers frequent for resources? I'm no farmer, so I'm a little out of the loop.
Craigslist? I realize the BIG farmers you're looking for might not use it, but you never know.
landon,
call me tommorrow i have a phone number at the office of a large hay buyer in north texas looking for 20 semi loads atleast of hay. they have been buying from me so i know freight from your area will be alot cheaper.
Thanks Red Oaks Lumber. I'll call you in the morning. :)
Logdog. In the past my wife has gotten a contact number from one of there logistics people who handles the rail end of there shipping. I had passed it on to a person. Should I find out if this would be avaliable for hay? They ship plywood and OSB as well as lumber.
That would be great Woodchuck. The hay is actually down in your neck of the woods. :)