Around where I live a farmer may pay you to cut the hay. Friend of mine pays like a dollar a bail to take the hay from anothers field. Then he turns around and sells it for 3 dollars. Maybe more this year because of the drought.
Around where I live a farmer may pay you to cut the hay. Friend of mine pays like a dollar a bail to take the hay from anothers field. Then he turns around and sells it for 3 dollars. Maybe more this year because of the drought.
There is definitely alot of different deals to get it cut. I guess it depends on the farmer and on the area.
Thanks.
Some hay factors to consider... How much weeds, varieties of grass, protein content. Some varieties not good for horses. If it has lots of woody weeds it isn't so great for cattle feed. If the value of the hay isn't very high then you will have to give away over half to make it fair to the equipment guy. I had 80 acres cut a few years ago and retained 1/3. If it is poor enough they may not want to cut it for 100% of the hay and yo might have to pay some $ too. If it has been hayed much previously the obstacles may have been mostly cleaned up.
We have had a training class on controled burning and have helped others burn hundreds of acres of pasture/hay fields as well as 80 acres of my own and will burn another 80 in the spring. It is a highly recommended practice as per the extension service. It will help kill out weeds and brush and you will be amazed at how lush and green it grows back. It is actually a natural thing to do as before man intervened fires were common. Native grasses thrive when burned off every few years.
Too late this year for a controlled burn but something to consider for next spring. Talk to your extension agent. He may recommend someone to bail your hay or tell you about controlled burns (our extension agent comes out and helps with a burn when invited.) You will need to disk the periphery for a fire break.
I you want to do a controlled burn you should N O T bale the hay but leave it standing for fuel.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Hi Pat,
We did speak to a farmer that said he would cut it and bail it for us in mid June but then he didn't show up. Now the hay is not good for anything so if we are allowed to burn it then that's what we might do next year. If hay doesn't get cut down the year before...is it ruined for the next year? Apparently, they were bailing hay every year before we bought the property. I don't know what happened with the farmer behind us that was suppose to do ours. Maybe the heatwave in Ontario caused some issues. We were willing to give him all the hay but he even said he could find us a buyer.
Go figure.
Hi there,
Ends up our neighbor came to visit today and explain that he hasn't forgotten about us. Just shows, the moment I gave up on him...he came and told us he is still going to be cutting and bailing the hay. That's great. We told him he can have it all. We're not greedy. We would just like it down.
Thanks everyone for all the advise. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Ancient, Haying a field continuously is not neccessarily good land management. Tons of hay removed from the field means tons of nutrients removed. Land is not infinitely fertile. (Cattle actually remove less than haying as they leave considerable nutrients behind.)
Anyway, continuous haying without proper nutrient replenishment is a downhill spiral of declining quality. If you continue drawing on your lands nutrient account without making any deposits you will eventually bankrupt the land.
My 160 acres is in an area that was "over" farmed for coton for quite a while (until it wouldn't produce) It "played out" 50 years or so ago. Some parts are so poor it has trouble growing weeds but some is still pretty good. We try to maintain and improve while we are stewards of the land.
Hay standing in the field only looses a small percentage of its nutritional value to cattle the first season. I'm not sure what the losses are over multiple years, way to many variables. The nutritional losses over the first year are way less of a percentage of the value than the cost of cutting and bailing it. Where winters aren't really harsh it is more economical to leave hay in the field and feed it to cattle than to cut it, store it, and haul it back to the field to feed it to cattle.
In your case, to avoid depleting your soil, you would need to sell hay for enough to pay for feertilizing it. If you look around you might find someone who would fertilize and spray your field in trade for being able to have most of the hay. This is a common thing.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Thanks Pat. We didn't have it cut last year but it will be cut this year. I'm not sure what we will do in the coming years yet. We'll have to figure that one out. The land is in great shape right now. It grows a variety of things. We'd like to keep it that way.
Thanks for the help. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Lot of "If's" and "Maybe's" in this one. "IF" you have a neighbor that needs hay, and he's prepared to travel off his own property, you won't have any trouble giving it away. ("IF" it's decent hay) "IF" anyone has to travel any distance, that is marginal at best, as to being enough ground to make it worthwhile. "IF" that was in my neck of the woods, I'd be there today with mower and tractor!
I'd start by asking around with the locals. Put up a sign (flyer) at the local feed store, hardware store, farm supply store, ect. offering free (or even "on shares") hay. You MIGHT get it cut AND get to keep some for your own to sell out of the deal. At the worst, you might get someone to custom cut/rake/bale it for you. (going rate here is $1 bale left in the field for that service)(small squares)
In answer to your question, it wouldn't be an insult at all to offer it to a local for baling. In fact, they would likely be glad to get it.
Carpenter by day, Farmer by night, weekends, days off, spare time, holidays, vacations, ect...
Hi Farmwithjunk,
Luckily, the farmer behind us has cut it down and his buddy down the street round baled it and took it away. It was approx. 25 large round bales. They seemed happy and we're happy to have it down so that we can actually walk on that part of the land. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Got er made! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon
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