Delivering hay pics & stories

[Hay Dude]

Thought I would start a little thread about hay delivery. I have several hay delivery customers and I thought I would share a few pics.
If you have pictures or stories, share them.
Last night, I picked up the tractor from my shop/home base and drove it about 7 miles to one of the more remote farms in my area of service. This morning about 6AM, I drove the RAM to the location where I dropped off the tractor. My mission was to load (26) 850 pound 4x5 round bales and take them to a customer about 50 miles away for his beef cattle operation. It was about 18 degrees at 7AM in the barn, but it was going to be a bright sunny day and I looked forward to extracting the bales from the barn (aka rolling them out by hand and they can be pretty heavy).
I used the tractor with the dual bale spear and had the truck loaded the truck 2 bales at a time by about 10AM.
I hit the road and arrived to be unloaded in about an hour. I met my customer and his friend at his barn. Took a few pictures of some nice beef cattle and made my way home.
Loaded and ready to roll

 

[Hay Dude]

Driving to customers place I saw a fellow farmer cleaning up some blow down debris and then a little double nickel cruise out to western Lancaster county. Cummins pulls so nice :thumbsup:
The others are nice (dmax & powerstroke) but the Cummins pulls at such low RPM. Torque real nice off pedal down low. Feels like it works a lot less than the other 2.
Southbound & Down!

 

[Hay Dude]

Pulled into customers farm driveway and unstrapped. Begin the unloading process

 

[Hay Dude]

Heres the customers waiting for my arrival snapped a few pictures while the unloading continued.
We finished up and shared a few stories and a few laughs. Gave some fertilizing advice and thanked my customer for the check. Made it home by 3pm to beat the traffic!

 

[Thomas]

Thanks for the ride along. :thumbsup:

 

[Peter 315]

What's the yellow light in the dash on for?....Regen..

 

[Peter 315]

I would put 2 straps on the rear bales.....

 

[deezler]

So what does a big round bale, delivered 50 miles in the middle of winter go for? If you don't mind sharing....

Almost no snow on the ground eh? Getting more now?

 

[Hay Dude]

What's the yellow light in the dash on for?....Regen..

No silly. It means exhaust brake on :laughing:
Yellow means full exhaust brake, man itll slow that truck down with out touching the service brakes.
Green mean auto-exhaust brake, a little less than full on.

 

[Hay Dude]

I would put 2 straps on the rear bales.....

After a couple thousand loads of hay, I discovered it doesnt make a difference
If the bales are hanging 1/2 way off the back, might do 2. Pretty rare
Never lost a load off the back.....side is a different story. Almost lost a load off the side.

 

[Hay Dude]

So what does a big round bale, delivered 50 miles in the middle of winter go for? If you don't mind sharing....

Almost no snow on the ground eh? Getting more now?

Just one would be crazy expensive. Probably $200
Yes! Getting more snow as we speak (type)

 

[Fuddy1952]

I got a load of hay yesterday for our horses. It's quality first cutting, the fellow I get it from has lots of equipment. Last one bundles square bales 21 to a bundle with steel bands. I could place it in barn with my tractor forks but I like the exercise and stacking them criss-cross on pallets.
He's putting up yet another huge building so enough to hold 150,000 bales total.

 

[deezler]

Just one would be crazy expensive. Probably $200
Yes! Getting more snow as we speak (type)

Well no, I guess I meant per bale on your full load there. Enjoy your snow, probably wont stick around too long this time.

 

[Hay Dude]

Well no, I guess I meant per bale on your full load there. Enjoy your snow, probably wont stick around too long this time.

Oh its sticking :laughing: the tractor trailer in the picture was only a single axle drive tandem tractor and the front drive axle was spinning real bad. I was only doing 15mph in the X5.
Just drove to Philly in snow this morning. See pics below.
That load of hay including delivery was $2200. It was 11 tons ($200/ton delivered)

 

[EddieWalker]

Great pics. It's interesting to hear what it's like selling hay from the person who's actually doing it. I'm a buyer of round bales. I seem to find a good source every year, and it's like a curse or something, but then never last until the following year. Right now I have a guy about 20 minutes away from me with true 6 foot bales that are really nice hay for a very good price of $65 each. Here in East Texas, 5 1/2 foot bales are going for $50 on up and 5 foot bales start can be found for $35 for cow quality on up to about $50 for horse quality, or more. I have two feed stores that I rely on when my regular guy retires, or just quits baling hay. They are both $80 a bale, with the one that's closer to me in Lindale, having better quality hay. It's kept indoors and always weed free. The other guy has it under a carport that gets some rain on it, and I've had issues with weeds, small branches and stickers in his hay. I have to be really desperate to buy from him.

This is a picture of how I haul hay. One in the bed, four in the trailer. These are six foot bales and it's easiest the heaviest load of hay that I have ever hauled. He said that he would deliver 10 bales to my house for an extra $50, which I think is the deal of the century. I have a fresh bale out and one more waiting, so I'll give him a call in a week or so and see if he's still in business and if he will still deliver the ten bales for $50 extra, or $700 for a load of ten. For me, this is the best deal that I've come across since I started buying round bales about five years ago.

 

[senecak19]

Thanks for posting this. I'm going to take a stab at asking some naive questions. I grew up on a farm that my parents operated without tractors. IE: nothing to inherit. We always bought hay. As of late, I've been wondering what it takes to get into the hay business? Seems every person I know around me doing hay is elder and I don't see many folks lined up to continue the businesses either. How much equipment is required to get into the business? Tractor of course. Something to cut it. Tedder to turn it? Something to put it in rows? And something to bail it. Am I missing something. Do you plant anything? I ask the question because my office job pays the bills, but not something I want to do forever.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks for posting this. I'm going to take a stab at asking some naive questions. I grew up on a farm that my parents operated without tractors. IE: nothing to inherit. We always bought hay. As of late, I've been wondering what it takes to get into the hay business? Seems every person I know around me doing hay is elder and I don't see many folks lined up to continue the businesses either. How much equipment is required to get into the business? Tractor of course. Something to cut it. Tedder to turn it? Something to put it in rows? And something to bail it. Am I missing something. Do you plant anything? I ask the question because my office job pays the bills, but not something I want to do forever.

The two big things that you forgot is fertilizer and pesticides!!! If Army Ants show up, your hay will be gone in a couple of days. If you do not have fertilizer, your hay will not have enough protein for us horse people to want it. If you have a place to store it, you will make more money once the weather turns and everyone with hay sitting out in a pasture is losing money, you can still sell your hay for top dollar.

One issue that I've ran into is the seller has a broken tractor and he is unable to load the hay. I had a good source one year that never could afford to get his tractor running, so all his hay just sat there and rotted on him.

You also have to be available to load the hay when a buyer wants to buy it. Or be able to deliver it when they are home to unload it. I'm absolutely terrified that when I buy that load of hay, and he gets here, my tractor wont start, or I bust a hose, or something happens and I can't unload it at my place. What then? As a buyer, I really need to buy another tractor just for backup so I can unload the hay, or bring the hay out into my pasture if my big tractor isn't working.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thanks for posting this. I'm going to take a stab at asking some naive questions. I grew up on a farm that my parents operated without tractors. IE: nothing to inherit. We always bought hay. As of late, I've been wondering what it takes to get into the hay business? Seems every person I know around me doing hay is elder and I don't see many folks lined up to continue the businesses either. How much equipment is required to get into the business? Tractor of course. Something to cut it. Tedder to turn it? Something to put it in rows? And something to bail it. Am I missing something. Do you plant anything? I ask the question because my office job pays the bills, but not something I want to do forever.

It would take many replies to answer your questions, but I would NOT advise getting into the hay business. Its insane, to put it bluntly. You have to want it bad.
The minimum equipment to do like 25 acres of hobby hay is; tractor with loader preferably, haybine/discbine, baler, rake, tedder, wagons. Unless you can afford new, it breaks OFTEN.
Its not for the faint of heart. Weather is a huge factor. You need to be a gambler to make it in hay. Its not really the equipment, its the knowledge of farming-when to plant, when to bale, fertilizer, etc.
I am farming for a living, and giving it all I have with 10 pieces of machinery and a couple helpers, I can do it, but it is VERY tough work. IF you want to plink around hobby farming, thats cool. You don’t have to worry if theres no hay, wet hay, hay with weeds, etc.

 

[Hay Dude]

Great pics. It's interesting to hear what it's like selling hay from the person who's actually doing it. I'm a buyer of round bales. I seem to find a good source every year, and it's like a curse or something, but then never last until the following year. Right now I have a guy about 20 minutes away from me with true 6 foot bales that are really nice hay for a very good price of $65 each. Here in East Texas, 5 1/2 foot bales are going for $50 on up and 5 foot bales start can be found for $35 for cow quality on up to about $50 for horse quality, or more. I have two feed stores that I rely on when my regular guy retires, or just quits baling hay. They are both $80 a bale, with the one that's closer to me in Lindale, having better quality hay. It's kept indoors and always weed free. The other guy has it under a carport that gets some rain on it, and I've had issues with weeds, small branches and stickers in his hay. I have to be really desperate to buy from him.

This is a picture of how I haul hay. One in the bed, four in the trailer. These are six foot bales and it's easiest the heaviest load of hay that I have ever hauled. He said that he would deliver 10 bales to my house for an extra $50, which I think is the deal of the century. I have a fresh bale out and one more waiting, so I'll give him a call in a week or so and see if he's still in business and if he will still deliver the ten bales for $50 extra, or $700 for a load of ten. For me, this is the best deal that I've come across since I started buying round bales about five years ago.

View attachment 686934

When you buy bales, one of the ways to tell if a bale is dry inside is to make sure its almost perfectly round. If the sides bulge out, its damp inside and it’s gonna be moldy.
If you feed enough hay to pay for it, a hay hut is a great investment and it saves a lot of hay over the years. It also keeps whathay you have inside the hay hut green and dry.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Farmer I buy our hay from has a few hundred acres, and a few $mil in equipment. A few generations of farmers.
That last baler he bought is a mechanical marvel and I almost fainted at the cost.
There are a few around who are small scale, hay for their cows. It's anything but profitable.