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Selling hay

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rem_243

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When selling hay, what is the best way to ensure you get paid. Do you require a cashier check for every load as it leaves the field or require a check for several loads of hay, and then let them haul when the check clears? Just looking for some input. Also, is there anywhere in the country this year that is short of hay, or did most places have a good hay year?
 
rem_243 said:
When selling hay, what is the best way to ensure you get paid. Do you require a cashier check for every load as it leaves the field or require a check for several loads of hay, and then let them haul when the check clears? Just looking for some input. Also, is there anywhere in the country this year that is short of hay, or did most places have a good hay year?
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I think most places grew an abundance of hay, with the exception of Wyoming. It was pretty dry there and hay is higher than about any place else I know of. Parts of Colorado was dry too, as was talked about on this forum. One thing in your favor, if you are selling hay is the fact that most of the holdover hay was depleted, so ranchers/farmers are replenishing their hold-over hay in case we have another year like 2012.

We ran an ad in the classifieds right here on ranchers.net and sold some hay into Wyoming. What they did, was when the hay was loaded and weighed here before leaving for Wyoming, the Mrs. went to their bank and wired the money to our bank. That worked pretty good. There has to be a certain amount of faith in these transactions. Sometimes you can tell if the people receiving the hay are sincere or not. We felt these folks in Wyoming were sincere. We've gotten stung more BUYING hay than we ever have SELLING hay. :?

Getting back to the ad on ranchers.net classified; that must go out into some industry type papers because that's where they found the ad, but the only place we advertised was on this site.

We also sold some hay to a hay trucker(broker) and he made a down payment and then paid for the rest of the hay when it was all hauled and weighed. He was more or less a local trucker tho.

Hope this helps!
 
Unless it is a neighbor, or a good friend in need. I would do as FH has done in the past with a wire transfer or I would get a certified check. 99% of ranchers are trustworthy people but there is always that 1%.
 
Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, probably eastern Washington are all in a drought and short on hay. Heard hay was 285/ton in Nv.
 
We sell strictly to a local hay broker. We go ahead and load him out then bill him. Works for both of us, never had a problem.

As mentioned above, we've ended up on the short end of the stick buying in hay. Seems to always lose a bunch of quality on the semi ride here :?

bart.
 
I always asked for cash or cashiers check. 2 years ago I sold 10 tons of grass hay and was paid with a cashiers check. The gentleman sent trucks to get the hay and one of the drivers paid me with a cashiers check. When I went to the bank I was informed that my cashiers check was fake and could not be deposited. Apparently, cashiers checks and postal money orders are very easy for forgers to duplicate. I contacted the local sherif and he took a report but told me I had a slim chance of recovering my money. I went searching for the feller to bring him to a tall oak tree but never could locate him. I guess the shot of it is be carefully. I will no longer release the hay without cash or a wire transfer that I can verify has gone through the bank. I guess I was naive, but I never thought I would be robbed by a fellow ag producer. God Bless.
 
I haven't done this with hay, but I always thought I wanted to try to sell my heifer pairs direct and save hauling them and commission. But I always worried how to keep from getting hosed. Wire transfer seems about the safest, but some get offended that you won't take a check. So I just haul them to town and don't have to worry about that, and you know they bring the most that particular day anyway.
 
I have bought and sold lots of hay in the last couple of years. I have done wire transfers and paid with a personal check. My best advice is to only do business with a reputable buyer. When I bought hay through a broker and had to pay by wire transfer, I had enough information on him that I could knock on his door. I asked for his bank information and a reference from that bank, home address and verification that he had been at that address for a reasonable amount of time, etc., etc. There is nothing to say you won't get hosed on a wire transfer either. I prefer to pay by check and pay for the hay by the load after it is weighed. By paying that way I limit the risks and hassle. I pay for exactly what I get and if the hay is not acceptable I am only out one load instead of 10. On the selling side, if you handle it the same way, if you cash the check right away you know the money is good and you can still call the their bank and get a reference. Of course the bank can not tell you a person's personal information, but you can tell them that you are selling their customer $10,000 worth of hay and wanted to know if they had the money to cover the check. The bank will simply tell you yes or no.
By the way remember it can take a couple of days for a wire transfer to go through, it is secure but someone else also has your bank information. You can see that a transfer is there in a couple of hours and it should be as good as cash. I don't like paying all the fees associated with wire transfers, it all adds up. The other thing is that if I pay for hay the same way I do with a check, I have to wait around for my truck to get loaded and weighed to send the money. If I were a seller I wouldn't let the truck leave until I verified the transfer was complete. I know lots of people that have been stuck on hay deals. On other word of advice, verify that you know every truck that loads and it is a good idea to write there information down including DOT number. One gentleman I talked to had sold a lot of hay to many different customers. He was loading several trucks a day for several days in a row. One of the customers called and said he was sending trucks, the seller was out of hay and had none for him assuming his trucks had already been there. Some trucks had seen him loading hay and just pulled into line and loaded like they were supposed to be there and the guy loaded his own stolen hay for them. It wasn't just a few loads either. It was his own fault but just assumed all the hay was going to the same place.
 
pay up front is the best. we have some guys who are always late payers, those guys were paying $275 when everyone else was at $225... I am not a banker, you want to take forever to pay, then I will add interest.


several of our guys like to put down $1000 per load, buy 20 loads.... then as we load out we bill them the total owed, minus the down payment. keeps me from selling out from under him, and keeps them from stiffing me



CASH IS KING !!! I never turn down a man with an empty truck and a stack of hundreds!
 
We have a state certified scale, and I can tell you hay jockies are the worst. It got so bad that now I discourage everyone that wants to weigh, that our scale is not a public scale. And tell them to go weigh somewhere else. Hay jockies are the worst for not showing up when they say, if at all....Leaving me to hang around waiting on them to show.. ANd they don't call.... I got into a jam with two locals one was hauling to the other.. There was some conflict. But do to the fact MY name was on the scale ticket I was responsible. I just don't weigh people anymore period..... I've even had people tell me how they were going to weigh at our scale...... nope....don't ask to weigh here.
 
jigs said:
pay up front is the best. we have some guys who are always late payers, those guys were paying $275 when everyone else was at $225... I am not a banker, you want to take forever to pay, then I will add interest.


several of our guys like to put down $1000 per load, buy 20 loads.... then as we load out we bill them the total owed, minus the down payment. keeps me from selling out from under him, and keeps them from stiffing me



CASH IS KING !!! I never turn down a man with an empty truck and a stack of hundreds!
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very similar to the way we handle thing's. if it ain't paid for it's fair game to sell. a lot of our customer's don't have room to store their whole years supply so we deliver as needed however if they want hay all year long it has to be paid upfront
 
katrina said:
We have a state certified scale, and I can tell you hay jockies are the worst. It got so bad that now I discourage everyone that wants to weigh, that our scale is not a public scale. And tell them to go weigh somewhere else. Hay jockies are the worst for not showing up when they say, if at all....Leaving me to hang around waiting on them to show.. ANd they don't call.... I got into a jam with two locals one was hauling to the other.. There was some conflict. But do to the fact MY name was on the scale ticket I was responsible. I just don't weigh people anymore period..... I've even had people tell me how they were going to weigh at our scale...... nope....don't ask to weigh here.
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Smart gal!!!
 
Either i must be one naive sun of a gun or ya'll must live and deal with lots of crooks! :shock: If its not a hay deal going south on some of ya, it's a bad purebred outfit screwing ya over. I'd hate to go through life feeling like everyone is dishonest. In 45 years of being raised around and now doing business for myself i have had 1 bad experience. A guy still owes me $350 for a couple of pigs he bought and didnt pay for. But the ratio must be 10000-1 for the good. :? I guess i live in an area where a man's word means something. Sorry that ya'll have such bad luck in your dealings. :?
 
leanin' H said:
Either i must be one naive sun of a gun or ya'll must live and deal with lots of crooks! :shock: If its not a hay deal going south on some of ya, it's a bad purebred outfit screwing ya over. I'd hate to go through life feeling like everyone is dishonest. In 45 years of being raised around and now doing business for myself i have had 1 bad experience. A guy still owes me $350 for a couple of pigs he bought and didnt pay for. But the ratio must be 10000-1 for the good. :? I guess i live in an area where a man's word means something. Sorry that ya'll have such bad luck in your dealings. :?
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Here's one for ya, 'H.
Many years ago, like in the '60's in Wyoming--a couple of brothers came to pick up some horse hay. We were selling it for $40/ton: small square bales.
One brother was the 'good' brother, the other was, well, the 'other' brother. :wink: This was when we were just getting started and there never was any extra money for anything.

Mr. FH went with them to load the hay. They each got 1/2 ton of hay and owed $20.~even tho Mr. FH and the good brother loaded the hay for the 'other' brother. :? They were going to pay and Mr. FH kindly told them they didn't need to pay til they got the rest of their hay. The good brother came and got the other 1/2 ton and paid up for his. The 'other' brother, never showed back up. I saw him in the grocery store a few months later and asked him for the money for the hay he had gotten. "Aw," he says, "your husband said I didn't have to pay til I got the rest of it."

Of course, he never did come back. :D :lol: :lol: :lol:

That is the only money for hay that we never collected. Repeating the story all these years made it worth more than the $20. :p
 
leanin' H said:
Either i must be one naive sun of a gun or ya'll must live and deal with lots of crooks! :shock: If its not a hay deal going south on some of ya, it's a bad purebred outfit screwing ya over. I'd hate to go through life feeling like everyone is dishonest. In 45 years of being raised around and now doing business for myself i have had 1 bad experience. A guy still owes me $350 for a couple of pigs he bought and didnt pay for. But the ratio must be 10000-1 for the good. :? I guess i live in an area where a man's word means something. Sorry that ya'll have such bad luck in your dealings. :?
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You've lived a charmed life. :D :D
 
Sell it by the bale. It's easier and takes all the weighing game out of it. Just make sure the bales are baled right.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
leanin' H said:
Either i must be one naive sun of a gun or ya'll must live and deal with lots of crooks! :shock: If its not a hay deal going south on some of ya, it's a bad purebred outfit screwing ya over. I'd hate to go through life feeling like everyone is dishonest. In 45 years of being raised around and now doing business for myself i have had 1 bad experience. A guy still owes me $350 for a couple of pigs he bought and didnt pay for. But the ratio must be 10000-1 for the good. :? I guess i live in an area where a man's word means something. Sorry that ya'll have such bad luck in your dealings. :?
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You've lived a charmed life. :D :D
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Just for you buddy, i will make you a heck of pig deal. It's called the "Butler Plan".......no money down and no payments ever. :wink: And if i am charmed the devil musta done it. :D :D
 
jigs said:
pay up front is the best. we have some guys who are always late payers, those guys were paying $275 when everyone else was at $225... I am not a banker, you want to take forever to pay, then I will add interest.


several of our guys like to put down $1000 per load, buy 20 loads.... then as we load out we bill them the total owed, minus the down payment. keeps me from selling out from under him, and keeps them from stiffing me



CASH IS KING !!! I never turn down a man with an empty truck and a stack of hundreds!
Click to expand...
You sent hay a pretty fair distance on a promise. :lol:
 
leanin' H said:
Nicky said:
Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, probably eastern Washington are all in a drought and short on hay. Heard hay was 285/ton in Nv.
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Add Utah to that list. Hay starts at $200 a ton. :?
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I knew that, didn't mean to leave you out!
 

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