Shipping hay to drought areas?

unregistered168043 · #1 03/20/13, 08:48 AM

Has anyone done this or know how it works? We are trying to figure out if it would be better to sell local where $2-$5 for 40lbs square bales, about $30 gets you a 500lb round bale, and $60 for a large square, or ship it out of state. Just not sure how to go about it other than finding my own shipper and buyers.

unregistered353870 · #2 03/20/13, 09:02 AM

I cant help much on the selling side but I bought 90 round bales from Tennessee a few years back. I know there are hay brokers who specialize in this but I just found it myself on craigslist and the seller arranged the shipping. Just found this site that might help http://www.westernhaybrokers.com/index_interior.asp there are others just google hay broker.

Alice In TX/MO · #3 03/20/13, 09:06 AM

Where are you located?

Molly Mckee · #4 03/20/13, 09:35 AM

I think it depends how close you are to the drought area. We looked at shipping to our DD in TX year before last. The shipping costs were more than she could buy hay for, even if we gave her the hay. She got hay from southern Ill, from a friends family. She (and the friend) were going to bring the horses here or take the to our son's near Boise for the winter if they couldn't get hay. If you are near the drought area you could probably sell hay for slightly more if you advertized in the drought area.

Talk to some hay buyers and be sure your bales are the right size and tight enough for them to ship.

Wanda · #5 03/20/13, 10:35 AM

It is not feasible to ship hay due to the freight cost compared to the bulk of the hay. It is more economical to move the livestock to the feed. If you can figure a way to compress it to the point you could get the full weight allowance on a standard trailer it would help some. The only thing I see moving much is very high quality dairy grade alfalfa in the large square bales.

dkhern · #6 03/20/13, 04:17 PM

hay from many states are quaranteed due to spread of fire ants. may not be common knowledge but is accurate

farmerDale · #7 03/20/13, 04:29 PM

A thing you could do is call a trucking company, and find out what they would charge you to ship it. I can ship grain an hour away for 10 bucks a ton for example. Double the distance, and the price does not quite double, it is reversed exponential sort of! lol does that even make sense???

Once you find out how far you are going and what they would charge, you know if it is feasible. It often is not, but it can be surprising too. I know hay is not grain...

Some guys ship hay to illinois dairy farms from North eastern Saskatchewan! There is strong demand from Japan, for compressed timothy as well. It can surely be shipped, you just need to find out if it is feasible or not...