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[RC] hay prices in CA - k s swigart

Heidi said:


I still get a jolt whenever I see hay prices discussed as

"by-the-bale"

prices.  Except for buying the occasional bale from a feed store,

where

one expects a bit of a retail markup, I've always bought hay from

either

the producer or from a hay broker, by the ton.


Here in Southern California you have, pretty much, three ways to buy
hay: by the bale, by the load, or out of the field.

If you buy it by the bale, the price includes delivery and stacking it
in your barn.  If you buy it by the load, it also includes delivery and
stacking it in/or near your barn....assuming you have enough space to
store a full load of hay, and the place that you want it stacked is
accessible with a "squeeze" (one of those trucks that picks up 100 bales
at a time off the semi and then sets it down somewhere else).  If you
buy it out of the field, you go get it yourself and pay all the
transport costs yourself as well as doing all the labor yourself.

Since I now don't have the room to store a full load of hay, and in my
last place, the hay barn was not even remotely accessible with a
squeeze, I have never bought hay by the load.  Once, thinking that I
could save money, I DID buy it out of the field.  Notice I say ONCE.  I
didn't save any money (after figuring in the cost of gas), I sure as
hell didn't save any time, and I now consider it WELL worth it to just
let the FEED dealer hire and pay people to shift hay for me.  I make a
lot more per hour (and they are much better at it can can shift more
than twice the amount of hay in half the amount of time that I can) than
what it costs to (indirectly) pay them.

I am long past the time where it is either cost effective or fun to buck
hay myself, and therefore am perfectly willing to pay somebody to do it
for me :).

However, if I ever keep my horses in a place where I have the space and
the access for a load of hay, I will buy it by the load (assuming, of
course, that I can come up with that kind of cash up front...not small
change, by any means).

kat
Orange County, Calif.

p.s.  Here in california, pretty much ALL the bales are 3 string bales.



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