He's had them for a while now. Has a complete set of chutes and gates as he puts on sanctioned Rodeo's at all the county fairs around here and we get free admission as a perk. My wife likes Rodeo's. Me, not so much. I go to leer at all the 'cow girls' in the stands...lol He's been buying all the round bales I can make for years now. Never whines about the price either and always drops off a drop deck trailer in the field for me to load. I double stack them, he straps them down and off they go and he always settles up with me just before the end of the year, just like clockwork. In fact, last year I forgot about invoicing him and he reminded me that I didn't. Told him I'd just roll last years hay bales into this year. No big deal for me, especially dealing with a straight shoooter like him. Not like I'd go bankrupt without getting timely payment.
We get all our freezer beef from him as well. He raises his own bucking bulls as well as slaughter cattle and they all get fed from my round bales and I get to hunt on his ranch property every fall as well. Taken some huge whitetail does on his ground in the past.
I really 'lucked into it purely by accident. He is a farrier by trade and trimmed my wife's Percheron nags when we had horses and one day he asked me about the hay (I was doing idiot cubes at the time). Told me he only wanted rounds so I bought a NH round bailer and progressively switched over to rounds. The NH 4 series round bailer was a PITA, never netted properly or consistenty so I traded it on a new Kubota BV sileage special round bailer and never looked back I sold the square bailer on Tractor House, don't miss that either. I really disliked dealing with idiot cubes and all the grief that 'horsey people' like to do.
Got top buck for the NH 575 high capacity idiot cube bailer. I kept it like all my equipment, in tip top condition. Sold it for my asking price in 3 days to a fellow from out your way. He came up with a tractor trailer and we loaded the bailer up and off it went.
Now I have the ideal hay customer and the entire operation is 100% plug and play and like I said, wife likes rodeo's and I like leering at the cow girls.
He's a but miffed I turned back all my off farm hay ground and now just run the adjacent to the farm hay ground but at 76, it was past time to downsize anyway. The leasor that took over my leased ground, I believe he chiseled under the forage and is row cropping it but I could be wrong as I havem't looked at it since I cancelled the lease. The landholder had no issue with it either as him and his wife have been good friends with us for decades and he knows about my health issues (cancer) and he was expecting me to do it anyway. Just went to dinner with them last week. He's a retired Vet and sold his practice. he always took care of my wife's nags as well as our furry house pets and still does (furry house pets). Makes house calls always. Nice to be friends with a vet anyway. He always gets the prescription Heart Guard for the pups and flea stuff for the cats my wife adores and I don't.
Much easier on me to just run the farm ground, less fuel, less roading, less everything actually and I can stay on top of the herbicides and fertilizer easier. He wants almost pure alfalfa (vernal), which is what I grow. Considered Roundup Ready alfalfa but never followed through with that. Vernal is expensive enough as it is and my herbicide / pesticide regimen is 24D-B only plus liquid urea fertilizer I spay on between cuts.
The less grief I have the happier I am.
