You’re ready to trade off a piece of farm equipment, or trade for another farmer’s iron. You’ve looked at the “blue book” value and searched similar sales on various internet sites. You think you are fully prepared to make a bid. But you’d be wrong. You’re not prepared until you’ve made some inspection of and determined value for the tires.

Editor’s Note: Follow along as Progressive Cattleman editors share conversations and news learned from the road in the new ‘Trail Rides’ blog.

“This has been one of the few years in history when every segment of the industry made money. And that doesn’t happen very often,” said Duane Lenz, general manager of CattleFax, at the California Cattleman’s Association annual convention in Reno, Nevada. Generally, one segment of the cattle market makes a profit at the expense of another segment.

Seth Hoyt, Western hay market analyst, said the bottom line for the 2018 hay market projection is that “export buyers could be more of a driver in the alfalfa hay market in the West in 2018 than dairy buyers – similar to the 2017 season.”

Let me cast a little light. There’s a robot hall of fame (yes, who knew?) established in 2003 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

With 500 acres of dallisgrass, bermudagrass, fescue and johnsongrass, David and Lisa Long will take one to four cuttings a year and put up 650 to 700 round bales in Waldron, Arkansas. If he had a market to sell the hay to, it still wouldn’t provide enough to make a living, but additional land isn’t as available as it once was. Long knew something at Peaceful Valley Farms had to change.

Cori Wittman is the daughter of Dick Wittman, owner of a 20,000-acre dryland crop, range cattle and timber operation in northern Idaho and private business management consultant (Wittman Consulting).

Creighton University released the October Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) with unfavorable results for the agriculture community in a 10-state area.

Jerry Cherney, researcher with Cornell University and a New York forage specialist, said, “We know forage quality is being improved; the question is how much,” as he addressed members of the National Hay Association in Canandiagua, New York.