Who We Are

NorthEast Missouri Hay is owned and operated by Bob Horner, a 4th generation Missouri farmer, born and raised in the Hannibal area. I grew up baling hay, working cattle and raising crops with my dad and brother on some of the same land that we work today. Like a lot of farm kids, I started driving tractors at a very young age (about 7 years old), and absolutely loved it. And back in those days, our tractors were worn-out, simple open cab machines. It was a very uncomfortable experience, with chaff and dust from the baler and waves of heated air blowing back at you from the radiator. Open cab baling was how real farmers did it, no air conditioning here - no power steering, no pleasant radio or nothin’, just out in the chaff and the hay, baling in the heat. And yet my favorite job back as a kid was to mow, rake and bale hay. We made hay the old fashion way, with a sickle bar mower, side delivery rake and a square baler pulling a hay wagon with a person on the wagon stacking hay. We finally got our first round baler when I was 15, and that was one of the best things to happen to the farm. Sure, the round baler produced even more dust and chaff, at least we didn’t have the back-breaking job of bucking square bales by hand in the heat.

I loved it, and still do to this very day.

Today our focus is on producing quality hay for NE Missouri cattle and horse owners and ranchers. Although NEMOHay uses modern equipment, tools and techniques, some things will never change: we are still always racing the rain trying to get the hay baled before we run out of time. Still checking the weather report every two hours from four different sources trying to decide if we should bale today or tomorrow. And still stressful, we have to drop everything when we get a weather window. Making hay is really an art, and requires a lot of good judgement, and sometimes luck when dealing with things like the weather. Farmers don’t get a lot of sleep when working hay during the summer.