DEBOLT, Alta. – When Shelley and Glenn Moore first started their hay
broker business, they were lumped in the same category as used car
dealers.
People had a sense they could get ripped off.
“We were treated like criminals,” said Glenn Moore from his DeBolt
home, where they operate their business, called Debco.
“The feedback we got was very negative.”
But after three years of marrying farmers and ranchers with quality
hay, the pair is winning grudging respect and recognition that
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sometimes letting the experts put together the deal can save money in
the end.
Moore said a farmer recently told him he found a great deal on hay in
Manitoba, but the 600-pound hay bales ended up being outrageously
expensive once they arrived on the farm.
It’s the small details – like knowing lightweight bales are no bargain
once trucking costs are added – that have earned the couple repeat
business.
“If a rancher is buying them from their neighbour and the weight is
slightly different, so what? But if it’s being trucked 500 miles, it’s
a different story,” Glenn said.
Their own lack of expertise when looking for hay to feed their own
bison three years ago prompted the Moores to notice a hole in the
market. There were producers who had hay to sell, but no trucks to haul
it. There were truckers willing to haul, but some didn’t know the
difference between straw and hay.
“We saw a void,” he said.
Over the past three years the Moores built a series of contacts with
producers, custom baler operators, truckers and feedlots to arrange a
steady supply of hay from areas of excess to areas of need.
Last year, Glenn arranged hay to be hauled from Saskatchewan to
southern Alberta, northern Alberta to central Alberta and southern
Alberta to central Alberta.
He arranged for more than 30,000 bales to be shipped from the Peace
River area alone.
He said for every 1,000 bales he inspects in the field, only about 200
meet specifications. The hay is probed and analyzed at a provincial
laboratory, and a detailed description of the hay is sent to the buyer.
“We guarantee it. If it’s not as described, don’t take it off the
truck,” he said.
“You can’t tell people they’re getting one thing and deliver something
else.”
Moore buys hay from farmers and arranges baling and trucking. Each
truck is weighed at a provincial scale.
Every sale and hay request, hay analysis, trucking schedule and payment
plan is entered in a computer.
“We couldn’t keep track of this in our heads,” Shelley said. “You have
to keep track of where it came from and where it’s going.”
A typical request for hay is always a nice mixed grass alfalfa bale.
Because there is no affordable nice grass hay left, Moore offers
alternatives. He suggests that a combination of poorer quality straw
can be mixed with higher quality hay for similar results. He even uses
a computer program to figure out animals’ nutritional requirements.
“We give them a solution.”
