Hay - Grow or Buy?

[fenneran]

With our small acreage (12.5), we have sheep and horses with the intent on getting a couple of calves in the spring. About 8 acres is now open field that the previous owner grew hay on. I currently buy 100-150 square bales of hay in a season. The question is: Is it worth me looking into purchasing the implements to make my own hay? By my back-of-the-napkin calculations, I should be able to get about 300-400 bales out of the field, meaning I would have some to sell from each cutting (assuming the drought ever ends) to offset the cost of the machinery. There is a used farm implement auction in a couple of weeks that I plan on attending, but would like some advice on what to look for, and look out for.
Do you all have any advice and counsel?
Thanks in advance.

Frank in Virginia

I would have to say ABSOLUTELY NOT. Unless you like breakdowns, fixing machinery all the time, worrying about the weather, having to cut and bale hay at the worst times, ie you have a wedding to go to and you have hay down and it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Unless you like trying to find what to do with a crop of hay that got too much rain and is ruined.

IF you only 100-150 bales a year it's definitely worth just buying it and not messing with hay. I don't care what anyone says it's a royal pain in the you know what. Plus the fact that you are going to be buying someone else's problems with old enough equipment that you could even halfway justify. A new square baler is over $12k for the low end one. Then add on that the fact that parts are extremely expensive. You will more than likely pay twice or better in parts every year for the hay that you do get.

A much better idea in your situation would be to just cross fence the pasture and do rotational grazing. Ten times less effort than haying and you still get to enjoy your weekends [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[EJB]

At what point then would you consider it worth doing it yourself then? i.e., if 150 bales a year is too little, how many would you need to produce to justify the cost and hassle of doing it yourself?

Also, curiuous to hear what others are getting/paying for square bales of hay around the country?

I pay $1-$2 bale for mulch hay, $3 for first cut, $4 for second-cut and $6 for "certified organic". (haven't bought any organic [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] )

[egon]

A friend of mine paid $4000 for a truck load of large round bales [ 800# ?? ] I think there are 34 bales per truck. This is in western Canada were there has been drought conditions.
Pricing would seem to depend on the supply/demand principal.

As for putting up your own hay do some math and figure out the cost versus income and how much land is required. This can vary from year to year and very definetly from agricultural zone to zone.

Follow Cowboydocs advice as about the only enjoyable part of haying is the evening smell of fresh cut grass. The rest is just plain hard work unless you are totally mechanized and if you have that kind of money why bother.

Egon

That all depends on what kind of equipment you want to buy. Just in square baling equipment I've got $40,000 and the only new thing I have is my square baler. For my round baler add another $16,000 for the baler and then I use a different tractor for it, although you could use the same tractor, that's $56,000. You do the math and figure where it would pay you to do it. My 4430 is 25 years old and my 4020 is 35 years old. I put about $1000 into them this year. My mower conditioner is a 1460 that is 8 years old and my rakes and 15 and 10 years old. I go through 300 tons of hay a year. I put up about 600 tons a year and do 100 acres, so yes it does pay for me. But if you do it on a small scale it doesn't.

If you want to buy junk equipment then yes you can do it. But with junk equipment you are constantly working on it. I only do about 3000 bales a year with my square baler and it was hard to justify a new baler but I spent more time working on the dang baler than I did baling. It was just a constant hassle. Even with the new baler you still have problems.

[Scott_IN_WVa]

I agree with the Cowboy on this,buy that hay.All you have to do is go get it and put it in your barn,if you are buying out of the barn versus the field it is even more conveniant yet,but you may pay about 25/50 cents more on a bale out of the barn.
You do not have the "overhead" to worry about,no equipment/weather etc.....

[fenneran]

Last year I paid $2/bale for alfalpha/Timothy mix. This year, with the drought, it was $3 per bale, and wasn't nearly as good. That was what got me thinking about trying to make my own. I guess I figured a small square baler could be picked up pretty cheap, but never considered it would be a maintenance nightmare. What about paying someone to make the hay for me on my land? Do any of you do that? What would you expect to pay? Would you pay per bale? per hour? Per acre?

Frank

That's what I would do in your position if you didn't want to rotational graze it. Around here it can be done on halves. Farmer does all the work and you get half of the crop. Or the rates are: $10-12/acre for mowing/conditioning, $3/acre to rake, and .35-.45 cents per bale to square bale. Round baling is $8/bale with twine and $10/bale with wrap. With this method you keep all the hay.

[Carl]

In answer to your question what should you look for;

- Sickle bar mower 3PTH mount $600-1200
- Hay Rake (Wheel or PTO driven) $800-1000
- Std Baler - No Thower (PTO or engine driven) $1200-3000

This is the basic setup and pricing will depend on condition, then you need to figure storage of the equipment, something to pickup the bales (wagon or truck) and if your tractor can run a baler (30HP range).

Based on your numbers it would take forever to break even with selling half your crop when you factor in time and repairs so the smart move is to have it done for you.

Carl

[RichZ]

If you want to be practical, Cowboydoc gives good advice. Carl also gives good advice of what you need to start haying at a minimum. I'm far from an expert. This was my first year at attempting to hay. I only got one cutting, and it was a ton of work. And yet, for me, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I ever had. I've wanted to farm my whole life, and this is my chance. Yup, Cowboydoc is right. I got used equipment, had to get my farm mechanic to come and fix my used baler once. It wasn't expensive to fix it, but it did conk out in the middle of haying a field, but it worked fine after that![img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

With your property, rotational grazing is the way to go...unless...you've always wanted to try your hand at farming. I'll probably never make any money, but I sure do have fun!![img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]