Doug Ward Turn N Burn Hay Service

Our resident Angus expert, Doug Ward of Mabel, Minnesota has been overwhelmed with demand for his “Turn N Burn Hay Service” this year. We asked Doug a few questions and we‘re also wondering if he has slept lately...

What is your biggest enterprise on your farm? I raise over 225 acres of hay that is sold to various customers usually within a 25 mile radius of the farm. The Amish are my biggest purchasers of hay. I sell hay 5-6 days a week throughout the year. With the widespread drought this year, the phone is ringing off the hook! I am kind of getting numb to the amount of calls, but I do answer everyone of them. Calls from North Carolina, Texas, western North Dakota and northern Minnesota are a few places that are calling this week. In fact a buyer drove here from 300 miles north of me and wrote a check for a sizeable amount of money and said he will be back to get the hay this fall. Another guy drove from St. Cloud yesterday and just showed up and bought some hay. Today I heard from Ontario, Canada and sold them 2 semi-truck loads! Find me more as I need 1,000 5x6 bales for a fall delivery. Haha! What forms of hay do you put up?

My main size of bale is the 4x5 round bale that weighs roughly 925 pounds. Also 3x3x7 big squares are put up. Small squares are also packaged both in the field and by rebaling in the off season from round bales. What services do you provide? I do deliver quite a bit of hay to those that do not have the ability to do it themselves. I try and put up high quality, fine textured hay that animals like to eat. A little bit of financing is offered. If a person doesn’t have the funds available, I will hold a check for a minimal amount of time. What do you call your hay? Turn N Burn Forage is what I call the high quality hay. It’s a name I came up with as kind of a joke one night. Everyone else sells hay but I sell Turn N Burn. The name has stuck and is used in my social media posts. Turn N Burn is hay that is of high quality, good color and hasn’t been rained on. It is of fine texture and is very palatable. Not all hay will qualify for the name. Some gets rained on or is just a little coarse in texture. --->

What‘s your biggest challenges in the hay business? Labor is the biggest challenge. All of the hay is handled mechanically to reduce labor. All Turn N Burn is stored inside, so it is important to remove from the field ASAP. Having equipment that is reliable is important, plus having the ability to get custom balers to come helps. Weather is a challenge. Forecasts of the weather are watched continuously. I wish every weather person had 200 acres of hay of their own. They might be a little more accurate in their forecasting. Having a 24% chance of rain in the forecast everyday makes for some tough decisions.