# Buying and re-selling hay



## 4horses

Does anyone do this? What licenses are involved/ how did you get started and how difficult is it to make a profit?

I live in Florida. The hay we have here is very poor. The only thing that grows here is coastal. Everything else must be shipped in. Alfalfa goes for $22 to $25 a bale. Orchardgrass is $14 to $22 a bale. 

I know a guy who is willing to ship me orchardgrass for $10 a bale or orchard alfalfa for $11. He would cover shipping, I would only pay per bale. He already has a truck coming to this area on Monday. 

I think this is a great deal, given the cost of hay in this area. I would probably need to hire someone to help load/ unload. I could buy some to feed my own horses and maybe re-sell the rest to friends/ neighbors. 

What do you think? How many bales can I fit in 2 stalls? I don't typically buy hay in bulk. My tack room holds about 25 bales, stacked 3 tall. Maybe more if I hire someone to stack them for me.


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## HombresArablegacy

How big are your stalls? 10 x12 or 12x12, and how high? You would need a vapor barrier under pallets before you stack the hay. And even at this time of year, in Fla, you have to worry about the hay molding if you don't sell or use it fairly quickly. 

Make sure you have buyers lined up before committing to buying a large quantity of hay.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## churumbeque

Well the expensive bales of hay are 3 string and weigh about 110 pounds. Have you seen the hay? I would buy what you need and can resell with a friend.


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## horselovinguy

4horses said:


> What do you think? How many bales can I fit in 2 stalls? I don't typically buy hay in bulk. My tack room holds about 25 bales, stacked 3 tall. Maybe more if I hire someone to stack them for me.


_My stalls are 12'x12' box with a 4' wide stall door that swings in....
I have 3 large metal garbage cans, a 2-step plastic mounting block, muck fork, rake and a few extra flat back buckets....
So, a idea of what is in my stalls.
I can stack 80 bales in my stall with all of the above items listed in it and open fully and close the stall door so my horses not make a mess {I have enough room so my horses even stretching their necks can't reach those bales!!}...
I put down a plastic sheet for "sealing" out ground moisture, then put down pallets and then stack my hay bales. Leaving room all the way around for air flow...
I tarp my hay so no bird poop, minimal dirt/dust can get on or in the bales from sitting.
My bales average 50 pounds so 80 bales is 2 tons of hay stored.
I have not had any hay spoil as of yet but am very picky who I purchase from and how and when it was baled...
So, if you have 2 stalls about the size of mine....4 tons of hay you can store.
Depending upon how many horses, how much hay you feed, your ability to stack hay properly and the amount of dust and dirt in your barn area should be a factor you use in determining if it is worthwhile to "stockpile" hay for future consumption or purchase as you need.
:runninghorse2:....
jmo..
_


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## horselovinguy

4horses...
You need to look around for your hay.
In Florida besides Coastal grown, there is Tifton 44 and Peanut hay grown in the state in many areas.
Tifton is like a Timothy hay, higher nutrient levels though.
Peanut is equivalent to Alfalfa.
Even Coastal has various actual types from fine stem to a fuller stem more like a Timothy look to it....If your hay is off of fertilized fields it is better hay.
Fertilized fields offer better nutrient hay quality no matter where or what kind of hay you could refer to.
I don't know where you are in the state but I see Coastal advertised for $5.00 a bale, Tifton for $6.50 a bale and Peanut starting at $9.00 a bale.
Locally grown you can go get it yourself and it not need shipping costs added, just sweat equity to put it in your barn...

Read Craigslist Farm & Garden section and you will see advertised hay and prices...
Prices for Coastal, Tifton, O/A, Peanut, T/A, Alfalfa and a variety of other hay being shipped in by brokers already.. 
Those already advertising will at least give you a idea of what prices are being charged and paid. That information should give you a chance to figure if it is good to broker for yourself or not..

Please remember you are also buying sight unseen unless you know this person and their product, trusting their judgement on selecting quality and properly baled hay bales...beware and be careful!
:runninghorse2:...
_jmo.._


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## Saddlebag

That much for hay? I think I'll take my hay man and his wife out for dinner as I pay only $55 delivered for a 6' tightly wound bale of Timothy, a grass hay.


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## greentree

Two stalls is not going to hold enough hay to make any money on... He is going to have a truckload...so 53 feet long, 8 feet wide, 110 inches tall. If he can roll off a container load at your place, it sounds more likely to work, but you need to figure YOUR time....are you available to load 2 bales of hay, or able to load a trailer full?


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## stevenson

If you are buying and reselling , and there is some bad bales are you replacing them ? also, if someones horse gets sick and it is found hay related are you going to be held responsible ?
A lot of growers and resalers have a million dollar bond . The hay I have now, if I had bought this from a resaler it would have been returned and I would have my money back ! But my dh pointed out the wrong stack to the to the delivery guys..


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## horselovinguy

Saddlebag said:


> That much for hay? I think I'll take my hay man and his wife out for dinner as I pay only $55 delivered for a 6' tightly wound bale of Timothy, a grass hay.



_*Yes Saddlebag....that much for hay!!*

I miss my T/A bales. 3 strings or wire baled so tight and heavy it took 2 of us to lift and stack 3 high at most.
Today, I throw my hay when stacking it 5 high over my head to my son who gets to sit on the top of the stack and stack {he lost the bet!}
Obviously bales are not as heavy.....

Hay is expensive down in Florida as only Coastal, Tifton and Peanut are grown local and then the farmers think they have gold and charge accordingly.
Another reason why those of us with pasture take such good care of it. 
I reseed it, then weed & feed it and mow accordingly.

Round rolls average in price from $55-$80, you pick them up. This is Tifton or Coastal hay rolls.
Rolls are about 800-1100 pounds depending upon who rolled.
*I did rounds once, not again... *
I had to much waste...__{yes, it was in a horse feeder ring}
 
Oh...I forgot we also have Bahia grass some roll and try to sell as hay.
Bahia is what is "green" on my septic system to make it look "pretty"...I mowed it, took it to my horses and offered it as a "treat"...:icon_rolleyes:
Right...I cleaned it up 2 days later as they did not touch it at all...and this is when they had been closed off pasture and wanted pasture grass.:wink:
:runninghorse2:.....
_


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## Saddlebag

Grass begins to ferment almost as soon as it's cut and that is why horses often won't touch it. My hay man has been bringing hay without fail for 8 yrs now. If he goes away he either brings his big trailer with 3 or his son brings it. They have never let me down. I suspect sometimes it's an excuse to get out of the house as he's happiest when outside. He uses a bob-cat to load the bales, a great toy.


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## Joel Reiter

horselovinguy said:


> _
> *I did rounds once, not again... *I had to much waste...__{yes, it was in a horse feeder ring}:runninghorse2:....._


I only feed round bales, because I don't have any inside storage for hay. I don't use a feeder and I don't have alot of waste. I push the bales out of the back of my pickup so they are standing about six feet outside the pasture fence, like big wheels. I take off the net or string, and proceed to push the bale along the fence, leaving a ribbon of hay as I go. When I have 6-8' on the ground, I tear that off and throw it over the fence.

Where I unload the bales is slightly uphill and about 50' from the corner of the pasture. By the time I get to the corner the bale is light enough for me to roll back to the starting point to start over. Kind of like the round bale was a giant roll of scotch tape. I've been doing it that way for about ten years.

My brother is in the hay business. When he sells small square bales to cattlemen they buy hundreds of bales at a time and come back year after year. If he is delivering the hay it typically goes in a large open hay shed. When he sells to horse owners, they show up with a horse trailer or a pickup and buy 10-20 bales at a time. Sometimes it takes as long to load them up as it does to load a truck for the cattlemen, only he ends up doing most of the work. My brother doesn't like selling hay to horse owners. I try to keep that in mind when I deal with sellers.


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## Saddlebag

Unwritten rule here, seller loads the hay. Before you order advertise that you are having a load brought in and will have extra for sale. Have it that they be there when the truck arrives so it's not handled twice.


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## GracielaGata

Joel Reiter said:


> I only feed round bales, because I don't have any inside storage for hay. I don't use a feeder and I don't have alot of waste. I push the bales out of the back of my pickup so they are standing about six feet outside the pasture fence, like big wheels. I take off the net or string, and proceed to push the bale along the fence, leaving a ribbon of hay as I go. When I have 6-8' on the ground, I tear that off and throw it over the fence.
> 
> Where I unload the bales is slightly uphill and about 50' from the corner of the pasture. By the time I get to the corner the bale is light enough for me to roll back to the starting point to start over. Kind of like the round bale was a giant roll of scotch tape. I've been doing it that way for about ten years.
> 
> My brother is in the hay business. When he sells small square bales to cattlemen they buy hundreds of bales at a time and come back year after year. If he is delivering the hay it typically goes in a large open hay shed. When he sells to horse owners, they show up with a horse trailer or a pickup and buy 10-20 bales at a time. Sometimes it takes as long to load them up as it does to load a truck for the cattlemen, only he ends up doing most of the work. My brother doesn't like selling hay to horse owners. I try to keep that in mind when I deal with sellers.


I like your imagery of the Scotch Tape hay!
Oh, and what our hay guy must have thought of us the 1st time we bought!! We were fairly new to the horse game, esp. ones living at home. We used our horse trailer... that was the worst!! Trying to Tetris puzzle in 90+ pound bales in the heat, no thanks! 
We always bought what it fit- 2ish tons- at a time, 1x a weekend, repeat the next, until we reached the 6 or so tons we aimed for. 
Then we bought a very nice flatbed... oh buddy was that gold!! 3 tons, and no Tetris in the process! 

Then this past summer, our friend with a 7ton+ flatbed volunteered to help us get the hay, AND we got to use another friend's hay elevator... we did over 7 tons of hay in just maybe 5 hours, with really only 2 people, sometimes the driver friend as a 3rd. We are looking to buy our own elevator now, as we are only getting older. 

.... I too have never understood how some horse people buy so few bales at a time... don't they worry they might not be able to get hay one day?! Our hay guy calls us in the spring to confirm the tons we want, as he is figuring out how many tons he has to sell (had a bad year once, and he had maybe 1/2-2/3 his normal tonnage... he wanted to be sure he covered all his regulars.  )... 

Anyhoo..


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## Rain Shadow

Florida here, and yes our hay is awful and so expensive. 

I feed Tifton 44 round bales, 5' by 4' tightly rolled bales from an amazing seller. $63 a roll and you have to pick it up. I get 10 days out of a roll with 4 horses on it. 

We actually rigged up a hay feeder that has almost no waste.

Put down a tarp then a pallet over it. Take the roll and flip it onto the pallet so the flat part faces up. We then bought a 16ft section of cattle feed lot panels and used two of those to make a tightly fitting hay feeder. As the horses eat the hay I pull the ropes holding the feeder tighter and tighter. This way they can't pee on it or poop, my biggest waste and the feeder squeezes it so they can't yank out a ton at a time. I also leave the webbing on so they can only eat from the top, until it gets to low and then I cut it open. 

Honestly OP very few horse people I know feed alfalfa or orchard. We all feed Tifton because otherwise its just to expensive.


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## Cherie

There are several things to think about :I have bought and sold a LOT of hay. I have grown hay and baled it, have had is custom baled (both small squares and rounds) and brokered hay.

If I sold any hay for 'horses hay', I had 'Product Liability Insurance'. It is much safer to sell it as 'cow hay' and tell people you are selling it as cow hay. They can feed it to horses if they like but that is their choice. Their receipt always read "X number of bales of cow hay @ $$$$ per bale." Then you have no liability. 

If hay was baled a little too green (not cured well enough) it can have mold that causes heaves in horses and can cause sheep and goats to abort. Alfalfa can have blister beetles in it. Cattle can eat almost anything so if you sell it as 'cow hay' you are off the hook. 

I always brokered or bought hay by the ton. A ton is a ton is a ton. A bale can weigh whatever has been crammed into it. A 2 string to 2 wire bale can weigh anything from 35# to 80#. A 3 string to wire bale can weigh anything from 80# to 130#. Alfalfa bales usually weigh more. Mature grass and straw usually weigh less. Most retailers buy by the ton and sell by the bale. That is for obvious reasons. 

I was supposed to buy 100 round bales of hay a few years ago from a ranch near here. The rancher wanted to sell it by the bale. I asked how much he thought the bales weighed. He said they were around 900#. I doubted that they were, so I asked if he would set a price by the ton and we would run a couple of loads across the big scale at the feel mill between his place and mine. He said that would be fine. He wanted $80.00 a bale so he said he would take $180.00 a ton. I was to buy 100 bales. Well, I hauled the first truckload and the bales averaged 650# instead of 900#. If I had paid $80.00 for each bale, the hay would have cost almost $250.00 a ton. 

The guy was livid and accused me of cheating him when I got it weighed. So, I told him he should load the trailer (10 bales) and follow me to the certified scales. Well, they averaged just under 650#. He let me have that load and refused to let me get the rest of the hay he said he would sell me. This was in the middle of the big drought and this was poor quality grass hay that would have sold the year before for $60.00 a ton. 

I would not mess with it unless you know exactly what the bales weighed or you bought it by the ton. Then, considering where you live, I would want it sold before I got it.


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## verona1016

It's a pretty small quantity of hay you're talking about in the larger scheme of things. Rather than try to re-sell to friends/family, why not see if any of them want to go in on a bulk order with you? Hay sellers generally give a lower price for larger orders; you'll usually pay less per ton if you buy 4 tons than if you buy 1, for example. 

So you'll pay less for your hay (especially compared to buying by the bale from the feed store!) and so will your friends. And you don't have to worry about providing any kind of 'guarantee' on the hay yourself. You'll probably need to have it all delivered to one place to get the larger discount, so whoever goes in on the order with you could come pick it up from your place.

Keep in mind that each horse will eat 3-4 tons of hay per year (assuming no real pasture), and you'll generally save the most money by buying a year's worth of hay at once as long as you have a good place to store it. Prices are also best right around the time it's baled in the summer.


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## Joel Reiter

Rain Shadow said:


> I also leave the webbing on so they can only eat from the top, until it gets to low and then I cut it open.


I love your idea about the cattle panels.

Might want to be careful about netwrap on some round bales. I found this after I noticed my horses had torn the wrap on a bale I put out in the field.
Two horses from the same farm were admitted to the Large Animal Hospital in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida two days apart with colic symptoms. Both horses underwent surgery, revealing an identical hard impaction in the large colon. The impaction was removed in each horse and was found to consist of plastic netting material. Both horses had eaten the netting around a round bale on which they were feeding. The netting became lodged in the intestine, resulting in the colic. Both horses made a complete recovery.​I expect it's very rare for a horse to swallow that much netwrap, and there are various kinds and some might be more digestible than others, but it's a little frightening. I ran right out and cut the wrap off the bale after I read the article.

Warning after two horses colic from eating bale netting - News - Horsetalk.co.nz

You can buy slow feed hay netting for round bales that reduces waste and is safe. Large Bale Cinch Net 6' I Hay Chix


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