Marketing Inertia

Jun 16, 2008 3:30 PM

We have reached that point in the hay-marketing year where buyers are chasing an increasingly small supply. They are being forced to pay historically high prices to feed their critters. If you have ruminants who like to eat hay, they don’t suddenly go on a diet when your feed supply runs out a month before new stuff is available from the field.

Last week rolled around with demand still not quenched. The problem was that I didn’t have any full semi loads to send to the auction. My regular trucker — Billy — has a trailer that holds 23 round bales. He charges me about $150 to haul them 18 miles from my place to the auction. All I had left were 16 bales, though. Billy doesn’t adjust his trucking rate for me or the buyer just because he’s not carrying a full load. I had another option. I decided to haul the bales to the auction myself and have them unloaded onto the ground in the sale yard. Whoever bought them could then arrange trucking on their own.

For the first load of round bales, I was going to try a new route. It would take me from Ridgeway to Conover, and then back west toward Spillville before climbing a notoriously steep hill to come into Fort Atkinson from the northeast. Road conditions were free of ice and snow, so the slope didn’t scare me. This would be simple.

I climbed the summit with my load of bales with no problem. Then I turned onto the next blacktop to take me to Highway 24. For some reason, I looked in my passenger-side mirror. My shadow looked a bit odd. Where there should be four curves to the shadow of my round bales on each side in my mirrors, there were only three on that side. I pulled to the side of the road to investigate. My straps were still quite secure. So were the four bales they were holding in place. However, one of the remaining four bales was missing. It was in the third position on the passenger side, right between two bales that were strapped in securely. If I’d had a full load, I would have had three more bales on top to anchor everything. If I had sent Billy with a small load, this would be his problem!

Did I mention that I always strap down my load? Yeah, well, I did this time, but it sure didn't look like it was effective. There was no place to turn around a load of bales, so I had to bite the bullet and drive into Fort Atkinson with a partial load. You can get by doing that if you start filling your load from the front and only get part way to the back. You don’t look efficient, but that’s the way it goes. If you leave a big gaping hole in the MIDDLE of your load, however, you are obviously a moron who drives like a maniac.