FAIR price for hay for Texas and Okla

[2barmcattle]

If anyone knows of an hay producer that would sell hay at generous price or donate hay.....I would take all I can and sell it for exactly what I have in it. LOTS of people selling their herds due to utter price gouging. We have no WATER or GRASS and are running out of money and selling the herds we worked so hard to develop. Lots of folks making a bunch of money off of the drought conditions we are facing.

Hay this year has become a RACKET. Although there are guilty parties throughout.....The most guilty are the ones buying the hay and reselling it. Know of a case where some folks bought $35.00 corn stalk hay, transported it 2 hrs north and are selling it for $100.00. Don't know how they sleep at night. I got freight rates as low as $2.80 per mile a month ago and they gradually kept climbing to as high as $4.00 per mile so the truckers are feeding off of our misfortune as well. Grass rounds were bringing $65.00 not 4 weeks ago and are now bringing $90.00 to $100.00.

I would even consider selling it on consignment....direct from you to them with no income for me.......IF it is a good deal. I hate watching what is going on.

Seems like a few years ago there was thousands and thousands of TONS of hay being donated by Okies and Texans to the Colorado area and National Guard trucks hauling it. Haven't heard of anyone repaying the favor for Okies and Texans. Not that repayment was ever expected but???????

Sorry for the RANT. If any good offers out there please let me know.

Thanks

 

[Angus Cowman]

Sorry but the $3.50 to $4. range on freight sure isn't gouging anyone
$pr mile needs to be a little more than fuel cost especially if they are hauling oneway it needs to be just a little more than that
if you bought hay for $30pr bale and hauled it 400 miles at $4 then you would have $72 per bale in it figuring a 38 bale load

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Gonna be lucky to have enough for ourselves 2barmcattle. Hay is forty to fifty dollars a roll here now.

 

[CottageFarm]

I can certainly understand your frustration. Yes, lots and lots of hay came this way during those nasty blizzards that were trapping cattle a few years back, and I think alot of people would love to repay the favor and help out. I know I would if it were in my power to do so.
This might be why you're not seeing anything coming from Colorado.

http://cla.casauction.com/2011/08/hay-results-july-302011/

The prices have come down since last month, but they're still pretty high (I think) here.

North of I-70 had a really good 1st cutting with a very wet, cool spring, but July has been fairly dry & hot, so nobody knows what to expect for weather and many are concerned about an early and long winter around here.
South of I-70 is really dry, and prices are even higher down there. I think 3way could give you more info on that. Unfortunately I think the midwest is the only region that has cheap hay right now, and it sounds like it's cost prohibitive to get it down where it's really needed. I really hope someone is able to put something together for everyone that needs it.

 

[3waycross]

Hay is high here also and those areas that were destroyed by the heavy snows are burnt to a crisp right now.

My buddy who was right smack in the center of that blizzard has been dumping cows for 6 weeks already.

Those are good folks! They would pay you back if they could. My friend told me they NEVER greened up this spring and went from brown to gray around the middle of June.

 

[Caustic Burno]

What hay? Custom balers around here are in a real bind 100 to 150,000 dollars worth of equipment that is not working and those dang pesky notes just keep coming every month. After this year you will be lucky to find someone still in the hay business here to bale it next year. On a positive note there won't be many cattle to eat any.

 

[2barmcattle]

I may owe some an apology then. Heck....this drought is Baaad. I've had .3 since Oct. Cows are walking on roots and YES I have seen myself...people taking advantage of drought stricken farm folks. Good points from all of you and...$30.00 hay hauled 200 miles and sold for $100.00???? Just looking for an honest way to help folks and maybe my hands are tied. If $70.00 hay is the price this year vs the sprayed and fertilized 6x6's I bought last year for $40.00 then that is the way it is. BUT when these folks are selling the $70.00 hay for $100 I start to really wonder if they can sleep at night.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I may owe some an apology then. Heck....this drought is Baaad. I've had .3 since Oct. Cows are walking on roots and YES I have seen myself...people taking advantage of drought stricken farm folks. Good points from all of you and...$30.00 hay hauled 200 miles and sold for $100.00???? Just looking for an honest way to help folks and maybe my hands are tied. If $70.00 hay is the price this year vs the sprayed and fertilized 6x6's I bought last year for $40.00 then that is the way it is. BUT when these folks are selling the $70.00 hay for $100 I start to really wonder if they can sleep at night.

Seen hay going for 100 to 120 a roll the other day. I have people stopping by everyday asking to buy hay.
I have 50 rolls at the house and 37 over at the hayfield and I don't know if that is going to be enough to carry 9 cows and a bull until next spring, that's all I have left. I have never had to hay cows from July to March. Neighbor called today and ask if he could lease my hayfield down the road, told him just turn his cows in on it. His pasture backs up to it, told him to just cut the fence and let them in.

 

[3waycross]

I may owe some an apology then. Heck....this drought is Baaad. I've had .3 since Oct. Cows are walking on roots and YES I have seen myself...people taking advantage of drought stricken farm folks. Good points from all of you and...$30.00 hay hauled 200 miles and sold for $100.00???? Just looking for an honest way to help folks and maybe my hands are tied. If $70.00 hay is the price this year vs the sprayed and fertilized 6x6's I bought last year for $40.00 then that is the way it is. BUT when these folks are selling the $70.00 hay for $100 I start to really wonder if they can sleep at night.

Don't wonder they sleep just fine.

 

[kenny thomas]

We have more hay here than anybody can do anything with. Problem we are close to 1100 miles from the closest point in TX. Current trucking is 3.60 per mile. If anyone can make that work I can find some fairly cheap hay and will make sure it gets loaded. I just can't see it. Even if the hay is free it is too high by the time it gets there.

 

[Kingfisher]

Lots of folks making a bunch of money off of the drought conditions we are facing.
You know another way of looking at it is some folks have bet a lot of money to bring some hay here.........I saw a new "feed" lot 2 weekends ago. Last week they were out of stock.....

Hay this year has become a RACKET. Although there are guilty parties throughout.....The most guilty are the ones buying the hay and reselling it. Know of a case where some folks bought $35.00 corn stalk hay, transported it 2 hrs north and are selling it for $100.00.
I saw some 5 by 5 rolls last week and wonder how good that worked if they had crop insurance. Corn did not make but the silage is bringing 55 dollars wrapped here I think in the field I suppose. Thanks for your post.

Seems like a few years ago there was thousands and thousands of TONS of hay being donated by Okies and Texans to the Colorado area and National Guard trucks hauling it. Haven't heard of anyone repaying the favor for Okies and Texans. Not that repayment was ever expected but??????? It's still a business for most folks.

Sorry for the RANT. If any good offers out there please let me know.

Thanks[/quote]

 

[Howdyjabo]

I feel for you guys- but theres nothing here to help you with
We dried up and everyone is scrambling to find hay here.

I wish I could send some cash to offset the costs- but that dried up too.
We took the summer off because I didn't see a profit in feeding calves.
Looks like we might take the winter off too- if something doesn't give.

I even penciled out to see if cows could be shipped here to feed over the winter for someone out there. I don't think anyone could afford it and I am embarrassed to post what it would have cost /day.

I'm wondering what the cattle prices are going to do when ya'll stop flooding the market- by rights the numbers you are selling ought to have bottomed the market out. If this is the bottom what in the world is the top gonna be? With grain as high as it is(and I think its going higher) I don't see how anyone can make money feeding- at the prices calves are bringing.
Add to that an even smaller calf crop next year....

 

[Jogeephus]

Its a shame you can't get the railroad to freight it out there but it seems all they want to haul is automobiles, coal and orange juice.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Its a shame you can't get the railroad to freight it out there but it seems all they want to haul is automobiles, coal and orange juice.

One better on the news last night talking about the famine in Sudan and sending foriegn aide to them.
I feel sorry for those people but if the government has money to waste, they should be trucking hay to Tx, Ok, NM, and La.
Again tax us and send the money overseas to people that hate our guts.
I am all for helping my neighbor but that's a two way street. I am fed up up with this one way street.
Americans are hurting and again Washington does nothing to help the American.
This is going to wipe out a lot of rural communities, they have no clue how many hands a dollar from a cow goes through.

 

[spinandslide]

damn CB, truer words were not spoken.

I know some horse people in the TX/OK area were talking about organizing to get large loads of hay shipped in..first they looked into truckers..but alot of those guys are not wanting the pennies and hassle of hauling hay. Now apparently they were looking into the railroad, but Im not sure how much luck they will have there.

I am curious to see the effects this mass sell off of cattle will have on the industry in the coming months and even years...

 

[2barmcattle]

Its a shame you can't get the railroad to freight it out there but it seems all they want to haul is automobiles, coal and orange juice.

One better on the news last night talking about the famine in Sudan and sending foriegn aide to them.
I feel sorry for those people but if the government has money to waste, they should be trucking hay to Tx, Ok, NM, and La.
Again tax us and send the money overseas to people that hate our guts.
I am all for helping my neighbor but that's a two way street. I am fed up up with this one way street.
Americans are hurting and again Washington does nothing to help the American.
This is going to wipe out a lot of rural communities, they have no clue how many hands a dollar from a cow goes through.

What a great point.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

be nice CB, truer words were not spoken.

I know some horse people in the TX/OK area were talking about organizing to get large loads of hay shipped in..first they looked into truckers..but alot of those guys are not wanting the pennies and hassle of hauling hay. Now apparently they were looking into the railroad, but Im not sure how much luck they will have there.

I am curious to see the effects this mass sell off of cattle will have on the industry in the coming months and even years...

Agreed. It is a disasterous situation all around. We located couple of semi-loads of hay in Nebraska and paid for it. Problem is...so the producer says...trucks are there, hay is there, but they're trying to find a driver to bring it to Texas. Don't know what the problem is...drivers already have too much money to bother with a haul? Don't want to work? Don't want to earn $$ over their costs for fuel, etc.? Drivers too busy with "local" type hauls?

The whole hay, drought situation sucks really bad...

 

[spinandslide]

My "real" job, I deal alot with independent truckers..we've been having problems getting our material shipped to us, because none of them want to haul for what we are wanting to pay..they want more.

Im not going to begrudge a man his money..but afew months ago, they were begging for work and backhauls..very confusing.

I will second your "it sucks" sentiment...Am looking into options for our horses should they turn the irrigation off and we not get a third cut off of our hayfield. Me thinks Ill be peeling hay off rounds and supplimenting with a complete feed or alfalfa pellets. Extra work for me..but it will allow me to stretch the hay further.

 

[3waycross]

My "real" job, I deal alot with independent truckers..we've been having problems getting our material shipped to us, because none of them want to haul for what we are wanting to pay..they want more.

Im not going to begrudge a man his money..but afew months ago, they were begging for work and backhauls..very confusing.

I will second your "it sucks" sentiment...Am looking into options for our horses should they turn the irrigation off and we not get a third cut off of our hayfield. Me thinks Ill be peeling hay off rounds and supplimenting with a complete feed or alfalfa pellets. Extra work for me..but it will allow me to stretch the hay further.

As most of you know I work for Sysco foods out of Denver. We have been up the creek on transportation for a couple of years now since Coors opened a brewery in California. The no longer send refer trucks to Cal with beer and backhaul produce. Consequently the truckers pick and choose. We have had several loads left on the dock AFTER they were contracted because the truck line got a better offer on the way there and just didn't bother to show up to pick up our load....and they do not care

 

[spinandslide]

Wow ThreeWay...