I 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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>That said, I'll post on here next season, I'd be really interested to see if anyone reaches out.
This is freaking beautiful. The internet could have been like this.<p>I’m going to show my Mom, she is always wanting to find good hay.<p>Perhaps a bit more info though like pics would be good haha. Some indication of the quality.
I 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?<p>1 - <a href="http://www.hayexchange.com/display_detail_hay.php?id=294517" rel="nofollow">http://www.hayexchange.com/display_detail_hay.php?id=294517</a>
Slightly 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)
But 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?<p>Are there specialist Hays?
> Alfalfa hay is an excellent source of good quality protein and fiber. [0]<p>From a nutritional perspective, is consuming beef more efficient than directly consuming a dish cooked with these plants?<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.anderson-hay.com/alfalfa-hay" rel="nofollow">https://www.anderson-hay.com/alfalfa-hay</a>