Yesterday I saw several HUGE truckloads of hay, heading south for the winter. I used to just think that all those farmers in the south were just crazy – why didn’t they just buy hay from their own area instead of paying all the trucking costs to get it from way up here? But after the drought we experienced a couple of years ago, I completely understand, and I feel terrible for them.
During the last drought in North Missouri, my parents (and every other producer in the area) were thinking they were going to either have to a) buy more land with ponds on it to put the cattle on – not the most frugal plan, being that land is around $1,300 an acre, or b) buy some hay to feed because the grass was all burned up and the cows didn’t have anything to eat – also not terribly frugal, being that big bales of hay are around $60 each, or c) sell some cows – not something that anyone, anywhere, anytime, wants to be forced to do, because at that time the market had tanked.
But my parents held out as long as they could, and it finally began to rain. There really isn’t any good that comes out of a drought, except that the farmers who have extra hay get to make a little extra money selling it to farmers who don’t have any. Believe it or not, it’s become such a trade that there are even hay brokers who are in charge of such things. They kind of stalk around the areas of the country where there’s an abundance of bales sitting out on the hills, and they make offers to the guys running the tractors in the field. And this year especially, I bet those brokers are making some serious bank off the poor guys down south who have nothing to feed their cattle this winter.
It’s always a gamble, isn’t it? Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down, but because you love it, you keep on playing the game.
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