At the side of Lake Shore Drive in the scorching Texas heat, 68-year-old Dick Espin sells small square hay bales for $7.50 each.

He might have a red left eye because of the heat exposure. He sits in his truck, fighting the blistering day, until customers pull their vehicles close to his trailer for a purchase.

“I stay (and sell) till I run out,” the Axtell resident said.

Dick Espin, 68, tosses a hay bale to his grandson Chip Espin, 15, while unloading his trailer off Lake Shore Drive recently.
Rod Aydelotte / Waco Tribune-Herald

Espin’s bales sell quickly, but even so he’s making less money this year because of a hay shortage driven by drought.

He said fields that normally would have yielded 150 square bales now yield about 49.

The shortage has forced price increases, but it’s not enough to make up for the smaller yield.

A year ago, Espin sold his bales for $5. Feed store prices have gone up as well, from roughly $7 they charged last year to nearly $9 or $10 now, he said.

Espin said he tries to raise his prices only when the market prices goes up. He tries to be as fair as possible.

“People find the cheapest (hay) they can,” Espin said.

The drought has not only hurt the overall hay crop, but also has killed the grass most ranchers let their animals graze on as well. With less grazing land, they need to buy more feed.

In late June, Espin sold two full trailer loads, totaling 240 bales, in just more than four hours. He made more than $1,500 in a day, he said.

He gets his hay from the area by cutting fields for others. Instead of them paying for someone to shred a field to cut the grass, Espin gets paid to cut the field for the hay.

He will buy hay from farmers at times, but only if he can resell it for a profit.

The retiree has sold hay for the past 8 to 10 years to “keep busy and keep out of trouble” and to make extra income to supplement his Social Security check.

He worked as a subcontractor for 40 years, framing houses and apartments.

His grandchildren occasionally help him with his sideline business when they are not busy, but Espin does most of the work alone.

He has no set schedule when he sells hay. And weather conditions dictate if he will have any or not.

“I might cut one field or I might cut 10,” said Espin.

He usually sells it in front of his home in Axtell or around the Lake Shore Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard area.

He does not have a permanent selling location and depends on passers-by in need of hay and maybe a deal.

Espin has years of experience bartering at flea markets and said if he can make extra money, he will trade just about anything, except horses.

“You couldn’t give me a horse,” Espin said. “It’s kind of like buying a boat. They get to be a money pit. They eat 24/7.”

lbarrett@wacotrib.com

757-5734