The Rural Voice, 2005-04, Page 35provided good air circulation but the
floor needed strengthening.
Despite the best efforts you'll
always have some cull bales, Scott
says — some years more than others.
These can be sold locally for a
discount or he feeds them to his own
beef cattle.
His market varies from
neighbours to province wide but the
best returns are for export to the U.S.
through some trusted hay brokers.
He'd like to make some contacts with
U.S. buyers to create one-to-one sales
opportunities. If you go online to
www.hayexchange.com you can see
there are hay auctions in nearly every
state, he says.
Don Rowntree of Georgetown is
already sending one or two trailer
loads of hay to the U.S. each week.
You really need to know your hay, he
said, noting he grows 600 acres of
hay and buys another 20-30 trailer
Toads of hay a year. "You really need
to checkthe hay. In the U.S. it will
likely be retested."
At auctions, where there might
be 200 truckloads,of hay on
offer, the biggest factor in a
buyer choosing hay is its colour. In
the Pennsylvania auctions buyers are
also looking at the length of the
timothy heads. Buyers want shorter
heads indicating younger stalks.
He spent a week going from
auction to auction and putting ads in
local papers. Once you get
customers, he advises, call them back
to see if they need any more hay.
The tragedy of September 11,
2001 created more border red tape
for people shipping hay to the U.S.
Every third to sixth truck is X-rayed.
Things could get worse if there was
another terrorist attack. "If there was
another September 11, I think we're
going to be hard, hard pressed to get
hay or anything else across the
border."
There's plenty of competition
from hay producers on the U.S. side
of the border in places like the U.S.
midwest and Idaho where there are
13,000 acres of hay, he said.
Because of the high value good
green -coloured hay brings, Rowntree
said if he was building a storage
facility it would be completely dark.
As it is he uses bank barns with some
boards removed to create better air
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APRIL 2005 31