Caustic Bruno

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Dusty Britches

Dusty Britches

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Joined
Jun 8, 2005
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City & State/Province
Branchville, Texas
CB -

You have a lot of experience and you probably know the answer to this better than anyone -

Why don't we sell / buy hay by the ton in this area? We always sell / buy hay by the measurements of the rolls.

Thanks,
Tracey
 
well im not burno.but may i can answer your question.the reason tha we sale hay by the bale insted of the ton is because of the weight.like her a guy has 4 by 5 bales for sale.wellhe wants $60ea. an the bales weigh 800lbs.so if you bought them by the ton it would be $200 a ton for just grass hay.you can buy top alalafa for less than that.
 
But how do you know they weigh 800 pounds?

I've seen 5 x 6 rolls that weigh 800 pounds, look great for the first few weeks in the hay pen, then settle down and look like crap.

I've seen 5 x 6 bales that weigh 1100 pounds that look the same the day you put it in the pen as the day you feed it. The bigger bale will also feed 2 - 3 extra cows a day.
 
you can tell by looking at them.as well as pushing your hand in the bale.if your hand goes in easy then the bale is very loose an light.then you can also tell the weight by the way the loader picks them up.
 
I think its because it is to time consuming to weigh hay. To me it would make sense to take samples of the hay for protein, energy then weigh the hay and pay accordingly.
 
If you buy it by the truck load it would seem that a weighbill would take care of any weight questions for buying it by the ton

dun
 
I think that most of the time round bales are bought and sold and not moved very far. For that reason, most round bales never go close to any scales. So, people price it and make offers for it in dollars per bale. The exception is alfalfa. Around here, the good round bales of alfalfa are still sold by the ton. Another reason is that to alot of people, a round bale is a round bale and they will give a certain amount of dollars for a round bale. Used to be, all the round bales here were 5x6. Then the 4x6 came in because it was easier to haul, but the hay was more expensive because there was less hay in the bale. Then people started using 4x5 balers and sellers found out that they could sell the 4x5 to people for the same price that they could sell the 5x6 and have almost twice as many bales. So, it has stayed so much per bale and most people still think of a round bale as a round bale, no matter what size.
 
Stocky is off the same opinon as me as most hay is sold locally and not trucked in. All round bales will squat if stored outside and depending on the baler. That is the reason I like the drum balers as they seem to be tighter rolls.
 
I sell patio stone and building stone by the ton. I've got very good scales to weigh anything.

I sell hay by the roll. You are welcome to look, touch, feel, poke and prod. If you want to weigh it you can. I'm not weighing it.

If there came a time that someone wouldn't buy my hay, I might have to go to another alternative. Right now it seems to work for me and for those buying.
 
Years ago we used to sell square bales by the ton. We took an average weight and did the math to get to a ton. What happened was some folks came back complaining that they were cheated. They would weigh a square bale on their home bath room scale and get a different number. We finally said enough and went to per bale price. Been doing it ever since.

I now have 5X6 rounds. Some folks want to know what they weigh and I tell them the baler makes a 1100-1500 pound bale and it's somewhere in there depending on if I fell asleep instead of watching the indicator. :lol:
 
BAGTIC":2r9scky4 said:
On the big bales weight can also vary quite a bit due to differences in moisture content.
Click to expand...

Yep, that and how tight you wrap them. Lat year mine were a little light/loose. I took a bar out of my my chain baler and they are much tighter/heavier this year.
 
Barn stored hay will weigh less than hay stored outside due to moisture content so you would penalize someone for keeping the rain off their hay.

I'd prefer seeing hay be sold by the MESS. You can cook a mess of squirrels or a mess of fish or even a mess of collards. I prefer this measurement - I like to be precise. :lol: :lol:
 
Because if you're going to sell hay by the ton you darn well better be PRECISE! I remember back about 89 or 90 they had a bad drought out around Junction in West Texas and a lot of guys were trucking in hay. One guy was selling by the ton and somebody felt like they were coming up short. The law got involved and started checking the weights and stuff and they ended up sending the guy to prison, seized his semi's, baler, tractors, equipment, farm, everything.

If you sell a 'bale' of hay, it's a packaged unit of varying weight. If you're going to sell it by a specific unit of measure you darn sure better make sure that it conforms to that unit of measure or you just handed em the rope to hang you with!

Yall take it easy! OL JR :)
 
I prefer to know the weight so when I test it I know what my cost per TDN, CP, etc. is. I test it so I know the quality and can determine how much and what type of supplement I need to plan for.
 

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