@daval ; I am going to preface this with saying I do not believe you are trying to be mean or even that you are being unfeeling... but your comments about the hay have just set REALLY WRONG with me... so here goes........
You are wrong if you think the hay isn't worth more than it was a few years ago. The cost of seed had increased... double or more, to establish a hayfield... existing fields will last about 6-10 years. Then the weeds start to take it over. The cost of any spraying has doubled to keep the weeds from establishing.
Fertilizer costs tripled about 3 years ago, so if you don't feed the ground, all the nutrients you take off in the form of the hay crop then you get less and less yield. Nature designed it so that if you do not take a crop away, then it feeds itself by dying off and then goes back to the soil. If you take the crop away, the ground needs to be fed to be able to grow. If you use only animal derived manures as fertilizer, the cost of say poultry litter has gone from $15/ton delivered to over $35/ton. We spread approx 2 ton PER ACRE..... and you have to balance what the ground needs so there are things that have to be added.
The cost of equipment has gone through the roof. To buy a new baler today is in the neighborhood of $30,000 for a square baler, and over $50,000 for a full sized round baler. We used to buy a round baler for $15-20,000 about 10 years ago. So what, you say, you already have them..... okay, buying replacement parts costs 4 times what they did 5 years ago... and things wear out... The belts on a round baler have a life span of about 4-5 years MAX... They used to cost $50 a piece and there are anywhere from 6-12 according to the size and brand of baler (4ft wide to 6 ft wide).... They are now $200 each for starters. You get tears in them, they can be spliced to get more time out of them... but they wear out.... they are under strain and carry alot of weight as they are rolling that hay into a round bale...
Baling string costs 3 times what it cost 5 years ago... A "bale" of string which is 2 rolls... used to be $20-25... now it is over $60... string that holds the bales together be they large round or small sq ones... that gets thrown away or recycled... never to be reused for it's original purpose.... a one time thing.
Then add in the cost of RUNNING the equipment... Diesel fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid, grease to use on the moving joints...Hydraulic fluid has gone from $25/5 gallon bucket to over $60.....
And the value of the person sitting in that seat to run the equipment... wages if you hire it done... and them having the knowledge and expertise to troubleshoot and FIX things so the hay can get made and in the barn before that rain comes to make it mulch hay instead of good quality hay for feeding.
We make alot of hay... have alot of OLDER USED equipment... and we figure now that we barely break even getting $60 a roll for hay . It costs us just in the value of time and all costs figured in, to custom roll hay for one neighbor at $12 roll... just the cost of actually going out there and running the tractor and baler around his field to roll his hay for him; not paying us for OUR WAGES, just the actual cost of the net wrap, the fuel and all that it costs to run the tractor/baler....
Sq bales of hay have been priced at $1.00-2.00 a bale since I was a kid... it is about time that farmers get the value of their time, labor, and equipment back. There are not the scores of kids that are willing to go out and buck sq bales for $2-3.00 / hr cash money like when I was growing up... You can't beg kids to work for $15/hr... so farmers have gone to more mechanized ways of doing it and it costs money to do so.
It is not a matter of profit corrupting anyone... It is the actual cost of "doing business"..... as farmers we do not set the price of what it costs us to do that business. It is the cost of inputs that we have to figure in to be able to just cover those costs and then try to also get a living wage out of it.
Maybe the way you are looking at it is fine... the "HAY" is not worth more... if you are satisfied with just any old grass to be your hay.... BUT everything else that goes into getting that hay to you costs 2 to 5 times what it cost 10 years ago.
You can always go out and cut it by hand with a scythe, rake it by hand or with a horse drawn rake, and pitch it on a wagon and bring it to the barn and then pitch it into a loft as loose hay...
HOW MUCH is YOUR PERSONAL TIME WORTH????
We make alot of sq bales to sell to people with horses and some llamas... if there is any trash in those bales, the people have a fit... any weeds and such... well, mother nature does not believe in a "monoculture" in a growing field... so we cannot sell hay made like that... and we deal with less than perfect conditions here in the east for making hay compared to places in the mid west and west where they have the perfect kind of drying conditions... but then they irrigate the crops to get optimal growth in a certain time period to get the hay made at the best quality... irrigation does not come free either... and farmers are getting cut off from water in many states....
Know what you are talking about before you judge that farmers are making such a big profit on the hay they are selling.
