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Internet Hay Exchange
- luma 5y agoAs a city slicker who understands nothing of modern agriculture, can I get an explanation of what is going on here?
- colechristensen 5y agoFields are planted with things grazing animals like to eat then mowed, the plants are dried and baled and can be stored for a long time to feed animals when needed. It’s not really a commodity product like grains so the producer and consumer are much more likely to deal directly with one another. These are classified ads for cow food.
- wolverine876 5y agoWhy isn't it a commodity?
- cmclaughlin 5y ago> Why isn't it a commodity From a friend - in recent years draught conditions in California have reduced hay production
- colechristensen 5y agoPrice per volume is considerably lower than grain, material handling is much more complex (grain is essentially a fluid), it doesn't store as well as grain, it has far fewer uses and users, it isn't very standardized: bale size and type, what plants go into the bales, quality changes over time, seasonality, weather sensitivity... etc.
- JasonFruit 5y agoI love this about HN. I come from where everyone understands hay, and it's good for me to see that a) someone would not understand what a hay exchange is, and b) that someone will explain it simply and clearly to them. Everything about this is a good interaction.
- cracell 5y agoIs this because middlemen take too big of a cut? I work for an agricultural company that does a decent amount of hay sales as a middle man but I'm not too familiar with that part of the business.
- colechristensen 5y agoI think it’s also that middlemen can’t do much to add any value. Transport is quite expensive due to low density so you usually purchase local and the finished product is ready literally in the field, there is no amount of packaging or processing to be done, just moving.
- cmclaughlin 5y ago> These are classified ads for cow food. I was talking to a friend about this recently… he was stressing out about rain on his hay piles. He said cows will eat just about anything - even hay that’s been rained on. But other animals, such as horses, are more picky and need specialized feed. Just FYI as I found that interesting
- AngryData 5y agoHorses have a fairly delicate stomachs, you only really want to feed them the first and second cuttings of hay because later cuttings are too rich with alfalfa and lack the fiber from weeds and grasses and give them the shits. Cows however can eat basically any green plant matter and the later hay cuttings are packed with nutrients.
- walrus01 5y agoPeople buy hay for their cattle to eat. See dropdown menu for products, this is one large dealer: https://www.anderson-hay.com/ https://www.anderson-hay.com/ If you visit the area where that company is located you can see many full length flatbed semi truck trailers entirely covered in hay bales.
- mawise 5y agoIANAFarmer: Grazing animals like horses and cows need to eat something over the winter. You can plant fields of grass and harvest them into hay bales for storage. If you aren't devoting any/enough of your land as hay fields, then you need to buy hay from someone else.
- ahmedfromtunis 5y agoI read/watched some long time ago that for the majority of farmers wanting to provide hay for their animals, it makes no economic sens to grow their own. This means that most of the hay being consumed is purchased somewhere else.
- codazoda 5y agoThere’s a small (5 acres maybe) field by me where the farmer keeps horses. He moves the horses from one half of the field to the other and grows hay in the opposite side. I see him cut it down and bale it about twice a year. Looks like it’s pretty self sustaining. I’ve never stopped to talk to the owner about it.
- silisili 5y agoConfused by this comment - any more detail? My father had a small farm(20ish acres) with cattle, as did a lot of people in the area at the time. There wasn't really a cost for hay outside of time and equipment up front(which isn't a lot), they just let the grass grow, cut it, let it sit, hit it with tines, bale it, etc. Are you saying it's not efficient, and a full efficiency farm would use said grassland for crops instead? I can see that, but then where do the cattle roam?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mason55 5y agoMaybe it’s more efficient if you use all the grass for grazing in summer then buy hay in winter, vs letting some grass grow to use for hay later?
- glup 5y agoSimilarly naive follow-up: how much hay is needed per animal per month, assuming no other sources of food? (or does one always provide hay plus something else?)
- colechristensen 5y agoOf course it varies by quite a lot. But 2% of body weight per day is in the area. And what you feed is based on nutrition, cost, availability, and the specifics of your operation. It can be all one thing for a while, but there’s usually more of a strategy to it.
- RDaneel0livaw 5y agoThe answer to this also depends a lot on the ambient outdoors temperature. Horses can stay warm through the winter outside in almost any weather (down to single digits F easily). But in order to do so, they use their GI system like a furnace. So they basically are CONSTANTLY eating and pooping. So the colder it gets the more they eat.
- Ansil849 5y agoWhat does it mean that lots of the hay is listed as not being "tested"?
- User23 5y agoMaybe for pathogens or type of plant?[1] [1] https://extension.psu.edu/tall-fescue-potential-problem-for-pregnant-broodmares https://extension.psu.edu/tall-fescue-potential-problem-for-...
- floren 5y agoTesting for nutrient quantity. The quality of hay can vary hugely based on soil, weather, and other factors.
- aharris6 5y agoI thought this was going to be a Yo competitor
- Phileosopher 5y agoThe UX on this was so inspiring to me that I haiku back. --- Edit: I need space between all the sentences Or it doesn't work.
- zeckalpha 5y agoI was expecting this to be a pun about making hay, but was delighted by what I found instead.
- lettergram 5y agoHaha I have some hay in TN. Guess I’ll throw it up here
- JohnJamesRambo 5y agoThis is freaking beautiful. The internet could have been like this. I’m going to show my Mom, she is always wanting to find good hay. Perhaps a bit more info though like pics would be good haha. Some indication of the quality.
- ricardobeat 5y agoDoes she run a large scale farm? These are all dealt in tons / hundreds / thousands of bales.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y agoI assume you don’t have to buy the whole lot, if it is like other hay sellers we have known.
- samstave 5y agoHAAAAAAAY-There.com?
- pkulak 5y agoBig assumption. I've got a couple rabbits, but I'm also not gonna waste some farmer's time trying to buy 20 pounds of hay. It would be cool though.
- scoopertrooper 5y agoLooking at the site, most are dealing in large quantities, but this guy in Kentucky will deliver your mother a small square Teff bale for $5. http://www.hayexchange.com/display_detail_hay.php?id=295584 http://www.hayexchange.com/display_detail_hay.php?id=295584
- supermatt 5y agoyou dont need a large scale farm to use tons or hundreds of bales. 3 horses will eat ~350kg medium round bale in a week. 3 cows will eat slightly faster than that. 12 goats/sheep will eat a bale a week. They will eat more in cold weather (over 30% more in winter from my experience) or when producing milk. 1 medium round bale is about 15 square bales. 1 big round bale is about 2x medium bale. I'm not sure about big square bales, but id guess about the same as a big round. You would expect around 15% wastage in a decent feeder. Youre also going to discard some hay due to it not being of consistent quality, etc. Its also quite common to discard the first "layer" of many round bales if they have been weathered/stored incorrectly - especially when using as horse feed. That said - my understanding is that these sellers have that total quantity to sell. You will likely be able to buy small quantities. Some people go and pick up their hay weekly from producers as they dont have suitable storage. EDIT: Weights vary - the weights given above are about average from my experience, but vary depending on moisture content, types of grass, how tightly the bale has been compacted, etc.
- bargle0 5y agoWhy is alfalfa worth so much less?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- unixhero 5y agoReminds me of the game drugwars
- billpg 5y agoHay there. (I'll get my coat.)
- uorfyujfl 5y agoyou bitch
- mhb 5y agoHow come the wanted section isn't filtered by state?
- fouc 5y agoLove the simple design! Made me think of craigslist
- NegativeLatency 5y agoThought this was going to be about Hayes modems
- codeulike 5y agoBut hay is usually very local, yes? Because it's hard to transport it a long way. So normally a farmer puts a sign by the road saying 'hay for sale' and people in the local area buy/sell it to each other as needed. Under what circumstances would you need to get hay from a long way away? Are there specialist Hays?
- boomboomsubban 5y agoYou can live just miles away from a farm and never drive past it. I don't get the cross state lines sales but this seems like a reasonable replacement for a one line ad in the weekly paper/notice at the bottle shop.
- troymc 5y agoHere in Saskatchewan, it was unusually dry this year, so the amount of hay was way less than normal. I heard figures like 10% to 20% of normal in some areas. As a result, the price of hay went way up, and some people are getting hay from as far away as Ontario. Also, there was an increase in hay bale theft. The thieves typically come to steal the bales in the middle of the night.
- VWWHFSfQ 5y agoThis is the case in the northwestern areas of USA also. Washington, Idaho, Montana areas. Hay production has been down so the scarcity/prices have gone up. And that also means more theft. The farmers/ranchers are allowed to shoot the wolves that eat their cows, but they can't shoot the hay thieves! So they just grumble and make Uncle Sam pay for it.
- Turing_Machine 5y ago> But hay is usually very local, yes? Because it's hard to transport it a long way. Not necessarily. It's not at all unheard of to truck large loads of hay several states away.
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
- sushsjsuauahab 5y agoI wonder if know your customer laws apply to straw purchases
- Ancapistani 5y agoI understood - and appreciated - that reference. The next time I decide I need a straw bale for whatever reason, I’m sending my wife to make the deal :)
- seanherron 5y agoI own a farm, this summer we produced and sold about 1500 bales of hay. Had no idea hay exchange existed, the vast majority of our sales were via craigslist and Facebook marketplace, with most being small-scale (50 bales or fewer). The rest came from word of mouth and our local 4-H group. Producing hay at this scale is extremely difficult. The start-up costs are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you're typically barely breaking even. This year is unusual in that supply was way down, so prices were a lot higher than normal. The only reason we can do it is that we have a relationship with someone who cuts & bales a number of small fields for a per-ton fee. I could see a tool like this being useful for large-scale operations that are doing the big round bales yet don't have an established relationship with a buyer. For an operation like ours, where we are producing small ~60lb traditional square bales, I don't think we're going to find anyone local enough who wants to buy at the quantity and size we have. For instance, only two entries in the entire state of Oregon. That said, I'll post on here next season, I'd be really interested to see if anyone reaches out.
- vidanay 5y agoI've been cutting my own hay (10 acres) for 17 years now. My equipment investment was as bare-bones cheap as possible ($5k for a 1960's tractor, $2500 for a 1960's baler, $1k for a couple of wagons, $2k for a wheel rake, probably $10k in maintenance over the years). The one thing I can say with confidence is that making hay is the single most stressful thing I do all year. Finding clear weather, and then watching the weather hour to hour after it is cut, and before baling day is agonizing.
- seanherron 5y agoI wish used equipment was that cheap now! We are constantly looking and old balers in our area are still going for $7k+. For something relatively recent and in good working order, much higher. Also, don’t forget building a dry place to stack and store all of it!
- vidanay 5y agoI guess that's good for me. My last cutting ever was last Saturday. We are moving and all the equipment will be sold in the spring (or sold with the property.) Located in N. Illinois.
- ahmedfromtunis 5y ago> Alfalfa hay is an excellent source of good quality protein and fiber. [0] From a nutritional perspective, is consuming beef more efficient than directly consuming a dish cooked with these plants? [0]: https://www.anderson-hay.com/alfalfa-hay https://www.anderson-hay.com/alfalfa-hay
- Turing_Machine 5y agoThough it does have a relatively high amount of protein for plant material, most of alfalfa hay (and all hay, for that matter) is still cellulose, which people cannot digest and cows can (thanks to their symbiotic gut bacteria). Feeding grain to cattle is pretty inefficient, because people can eat grain directly, but hay not so much.
- unanswered 5y agoPlease stop disrupting the narrative!
- sour-taste 5y agoSlightly off topic: different areas use very different kinds of hay bales. The Oregon seems to use bale's while Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado seem to mostly use rolled bale's. I have no idea why this would be but it's what I noticed on a recent cross country bike ride (I had a lot of time to stare at hay bales)
- zikduruqe 5y agoIt is because the USDA determined that cattle were not getting a square meal. <Ba da dum, tiss.> I'll go annoy my kids now.
- flatline 5y agoThe link for New Mexico takes me to South Dakota, further evidence that New Mexico is not a state.
- ALittleLight 5y agoI see multiple entries where the price of the hay is listed as 0 but comments ask that callers inquire about the price - e.g. [1]. Is there some percentage of price that posters are charged by the exchange that they are trying to avoid, or is this because price changes in a complex way depending on quantity? 1 - http://www.hayexchange.com/display_detail_hay.php?id=294517 http://www.hayexchange.com/display_detail_hay.php?id=294517
- registeredcorn 5y agoDrat! This particular site isn't much use to me at the scale the hay is being sold at far exceeds my needs, but if anyone is interested in a similar concept, but on a much smaller scale (personal gardening), it might also be worth checking out getchipdrop.com The idea is that once a tree is cut down and turned into woodchips, it costs the tree company chunk of money to dispose of the woodchips. Chip Drop lets the requestor (you) get woodchips (and maybe tree stumps) at no cost. The trade off is that the tree cutter gets to dump a load of woodchips off for someone else to worry about at a much, much lower price; I think they still pay some sort of fee to keep the website running, but it's supposed to be drastically reduced in price compared to the normal fees they pay. The primary issue as a requestor is that, you CANNOT specify when or how many woodchips/stumps you're going to be getting. You might come home from work and find your driveway blocked by a gigantic mound of woodchips. There's also sometimes trash mixed in with the bunch. But, if you've got a solid gardening community in your area, some active neighbors, or a very large gardening plot to work with, it might be worth to take a look at.