Posted 2006-08-03 12:15 PM Subject: **Please be SMART when hay shopping**
"Spaz-tacular"!!
Posts: 20309 Location: Bennett, CO
Some unsolicited advice: PLEASE make sure you are sure on bale weights before contracting hay this year. I will be honest. I have seen some fishy weights lately. Im shopping for small squares to use during bad weather and hauling etc... I went out to see some hay yesterday. Thankfully I brought my handy little scale.
The hay was advertised as good 2nd cutting alfalfa for $6 a bale.... not a bad deal! I did ask what the hay weighed, and he guessed about 50-60 lbs.
I got there, and weighed 5 bales. They ranged from 36-42 lbs, with an average pretty close to 40 lbs. I pulled bales from diffrent parts of the stack. Now recognise, I normally buy bales in the 65-70 lb range...so I knew these would be light.... But quite HONESTLY....I dont know if I could have identified how much they weighed, and probably would have guessed them to be about 50 lbs.
My point is...Do the math. at $6 a bale...that works out to $300 a ton. Wow...talk about out of the galaxy! Had I figured those bales to be 50 lb bales I would have only paid around $260a ton . I know that does not seem like much...but add it up over the 10 tons I am shopping for.
Posted 2006-08-04 1:09 AM Subject: RE: **Please be SMART when hay shopping**
boon
Posts: 4
I agree and I see this all the time. I am a grower, broker. transporter and I always come up against people who say well so and so is selling hay for 3.00 /bale while yours works out to $4.00 because I sell by the ton. I say to them check the weight of the bales and do the math.
Posted 2012-01-21 11:13 AM Subject: RE: **Please be SMART when hay shopping**
boon
Posts: 3
I've been making hay for a long time and I find my bales will vary in weight depending on a couple of things. the most variation i get with size & weight is with grass hay simply because of the grass being different from here to there. I set the baler and go. When i bale straw they are almost always exactly the same when i bale grass they arent. Just sayin.
**Please be SMART when hay shopping**
