Outrageous hay prices

[houstoncutter]

This thread brings to me the thought of how to survive. You dont overstock, you buy and sell animals to harvest excess grass or make hay of it, and finally be ready to pull the trigger on liquidation of your herd if need be. You cant feed your way through a drought if you are having to buy feed and hay. Sadly we still have too many producers just trying to hang on. Some of these folks are going to have to make some decisions in about a month if we dont get any tropical moisture. I dont envy their plight.

 

[TexasBred]

This thread brings to me the thought of how to survive. You dont overstock, you buy and sell animals to harvest excess grass or make hay of it, and finally be ready to pull the trigger on liquidation of your herd if need be. You cant feed your way through a drought if you are having to buy feed and hay. Sadly we still have too many producers just trying to hang on. Some of these folks are going to have to make some decisions in about a month if we dont get any tropical moisture. I dont envy their plight.

Yessir, they go in debt trying to hang on and then when they do finally sell the cattle look like crap and they wonder why they didn't sell any better than they did. Selling out if often smart...not anything to be ashamed of.

 

[Suzie Q]

I am afraid I have to agree with above.

There are those who spend money on their land and their equipment, so as they can make their own feed and have enough water to get through a drought.

There are those who go out and buy cattle, without buying any equipment at all.

So in a drought those that you think that we should all be helping for free are those who have not thought ahead. After this drought, they will either learn and think ahead or they will not have cattle at all, or they will expect a hand out with the next drought. Or they will manage it with the selling of the herd and buying back. You choose which one you wish to be in.

We chose to be the former. We put down a new bore and when everyone else ran out of water we still had water coming out of that bore.

We bought a round baler and kept the bales and did not sell them. We have now made it to Spring and it has rained. We will make hay again soon and when we do it will be to replenish our stores before we think of selling hay to anyone else.

If I had given our hay away to people who needed it, they would not have bought hay for me at a higher price when I needed it.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Selling out if often smart...not anything to be ashamed of.

Some of it depends on your long range plans too. Sit through the sale barn a dozen times next spring and see what eared cattle cost. There will be several long haired short eared imports for sale and they aren't suited for thriving here. If you are going to stay in the cattle business, it is going to be cheaper to keep a core. Dump what you have to dump. Keep a good core that you can feed.

This is the 5th drought rodeo in our life time?

 

[backhoeboogie]

Selling out if often smart...not anything to be ashamed of.

Some of it depends on your long range plans too. Sit through the sale barn a dozen times next spring and see what eared cattle cost. There will be several long haired short eared imports for sale and they aren't suited for thriving here. If you are going to stay in the cattle business, it is going to be cheaper to keep a core. Dump what you have to dump. Keep a good core that you can feed.

This is the 5th drought rodeo in our life time?

Or - get completely out of cattle for three years. Sell and stock pile hay until then.

 

[TexasBred]

Selling out if often smart...not anything to be ashamed of.

Some of it depends on your long range plans too. Sit through the sale barn a dozen times next spring and see what eared cattle cost. There will be several long haired short eared imports for sale and they aren't suited for thriving here. If you are going to stay in the cattle business, it is going to be cheaper to keep a core. Dump what you have to dump. Keep a good core that you can feed.

This is the 5th drought rodeo in our life time?

That works great if you're willing to feed them all winter and have the hay to do it... just hope folks don't starve them all winter and then decide to sell out and expect top dollar. It's still not a disgrace to sell out. I sold out in March...had nothing to do with weather or market......was just something that had been in the works for several months..best thing I could have done. Nobody knows what cattle will bring next year or the next so it's all a gamble. Boogie...like it or not angus do quiet well in Texas. Your sale barn owner owns hundreds of them and they're sold all over the state. I prefer brangus but any good cow still brings good money.

 

[backhoeboogie]

If I wanted to run that breed, they'll be easy to come by. TB I have maybe bought a dozen head there thru the years. That is not the place I buy, as rule of thumb. Great place to sell because you can offer ear (brangus) at that place and add the variety. I did see close to 100 F1 brindles come through about a year back. Usually I just stop, unload, and leave.

I picked up all those lightweights 3 years ago at the Dublin sale.

 

[Goodlife]

I see a lot of posts talking about getting hay from long distance fields. How do you know the quality of the hay? Is it just a desparate situation requiring blind luck?

If you can go view the hay first, what do you look for to call hay good quality?

Thanks
Ed

 

[bigbull338]

if your smart youll go with the truck an trailer an look at the hay before you buy it.all though most buy it over the ph an when it gets there its pure junk.i wont buy hay without looking at it unless i know an trust the seller.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I see a lot of posts talking about getting hay from long distance fields. How do you know the quality of the hay? Is it just a desparate situation requiring blind luck?

If you can go view the hay first, what do you look for to call hay good quality?

Thanks
Ed

That is something that you have to take the sellers word for and trust your gut when you are talking to them
the ones usually that are trying to sell crap hay are the ones when you get off the phone with them make you feel like you have been talking to a used car salesman
Most guys who do it as a business are going to be upfront and honest with you about it

 

[bigbull338]

i know some guys that have sold hay for 30 or 40yrs,an i know 1 of them will gigg you while he is face to face talking to you.the other i pretty much trust what he says.

 

[backhoeboogie]

A few years back, everything that was shipped in was pure junk. This time around the imported hay is looking better.

A cattleman I know bought some hybrid crab gass out of Louisiana. Truck loads. Surprisingly it aint bad. The tests are right up there and the cows are working it over.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Investigate the "seller" of hay via Google, and other sources. Also beware of "Hay Brokers" who may have an impressive website showing photos who in reality don't have any hay themselves. The Brokers are often evasive in their "talk" and don't have details. And, some of them will never admit that they are Brokers as opposed to actual hay producers. (We've run into some of those people...).

Caveat Emptor...