Custom Hay Baling

[ddivinia]

All new gear for under $20K? Really?

Tell me more,
D.

 

[HayDR]

All new gear for under $20K? Really?

Tell me more,
D.

Yes, Here are some prices of new equipment.

1. Vermeer 5410 baler- $14,500
2. HayMaxx 205 disc mower- $4,700
3. MayMaxx 190 drum mower- $ 2,900
4. HayMaxx 4 wheel Rake- $600
5. Sitrex 10' tedder- $1,500
6. Sitrex 17" Hydraulic Fold - $3,600

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

D,
What did you sprig it with? If you have horse quality hay, I think horse folk prefer smaller bales (some like only squares). While ranchers prefer big bales for cattle.

My neighbor just bought all new equipment and I know he spent about $40 K.
He bought a big Vermeer round baler with net wrap that was $29000. He said the Deere big model was almost $35K. He also bought a high end Kuhn cutter and a wheel rake that was about $7K and $3K respectively. He wants $29 to netwrap a bale 5 X 6. This is the highest I've heard of but my fields have lots of oak trees and so he has to drive like a Ferrari. I worked another deal with him where he cuts, wraps and bales and keeps half the hay after I bought the fertilizer.

He says the net wrap costs him $2.00 per bale alone. Another buddy says the netwrap is good unless you leave the hay sitting too long and it will easily tear due to age. He charges about $22 for large open fields with standard twine 5' X 5.5'

Conditions of your soil and rain will determine your bales per acre or acres per bale. The fertilizer bill will kill your profits if you have a bad year.

 

[Bird]

says the net wrap costs him $2.00 per bale alone

I wouldn't doubt that since I knew a couple of guys in the business 10 years ago who figured it cost about a dollar a bale more than twine, and that didn't count the extra cost of the baler equipped to handle twine.

 

[HayDR]

I wouldn't doubt that since I knew a couple of guys in the business 10 years ago who figured it cost about a dollar a bale more than twine, and that didn't count the extra cost of the baler equipped to handle twine.

The only 2 advantages of net wrap are:

1. Faster tying time with net than with twine- This means that you can bale more bales per hour with net over twine.
2. Net-wrap does hold the hay together better that twine- Hay stored outside on the ground and exposed to the weather will spoil more from the ground up than from the top down. You have the same spoilage rate with net and twine from the top down. It takes time to cut the net off the bales when feeding bales. You set the bale out with sisal twine.

Remember that over 50% of all the cattle are owned by part-time farmers and taking extra time out in the cold, cutting the net off a bale is a definite negative.

 

[ddivinia]

D,
What did you sprig it with? If you have horse quality hay, I think horse folk prefer smaller bales (some like only squares). While ranchers prefer big bales for cattle.
------

Coastal Brermuda

I need hay for my cows - 4 * 5 rolls.

In regards to tonnage - small square bales for the horse people is the way to go. Lots of labor and storage required. Of course I could do both round and squares.




My neighbor just bought all new equipment and I know he spent about $40 K.
He bought a big Vermeer round baler with net wrap that was $29000. He said the Deere big model was almost $35K. He also bought a high end Kuhn cutter and a wheel rake that was about $7K and $3K respectively. He wants $29 to netwrap a bale 5 X 6. This is the highest I've heard of but my fields have lots of oak trees and so he has to drive like a Ferrari. I worked another deal with him where he cuts, wraps and bales and keeps half the hay after I bought the fertilizer.
----

A new JD 468 is $28K
Cutter is around $7500
Cutter dolley $2550
Rake $3000


He says the net wrap costs him $2.00 per bale alone. Another buddy says the netwrap is good unless you leave the hay sitting too long and it will easily tear due to age. He charges about $22 for large open fields with standard twine 5' X 5.5'
-----
5 foot wide bales are harder to sell here - hard to transport. The cops bust ya pretty quick. You need special permits for a 10' wide load, etc.



Conditions of your soil and rain will determine your bales per acre or acres per bale. The fertilizer bill will kill your profits if you have a bad year.

There is a lot to this hay stuff. I am still sorting thru it.

One interesting note: Wrap is much quicker than twine. Some of these guys down here can crank out 60-75 bales an hour.

D.

 

[JESSE1]

If you're baling commercially net wrap might be the way to go, just from the speed advantage. If you're doing your own hay, twine might do as well.

 

[Bird]

If you're baling commercially net wrap might be the way to go, just from the speed advantage. If you're doing your own hay, twine might do as well.

When I was working with my neighbor baling hay, he mentioned on more than one occasion regretting the fact that he did not get the baler equipped to handle the net wrap. We did learn (from talking to others, but mostly from trial and error) that there are some huge differences in the different twines.

Now the neighbor who used the net wrap was full time in the hay business; 3 air-conditioned John Deere tractors, John Deere baler, a couple of rakes, tedder, his own 18-wheeler for delivering the hay, etc. He also used a baler that made 4' wide bales simiply because the flat bed trailer on his 18-wheeler was 8' wide. And of course, he was mostly selling hay to dairies by the ton instead of by the bale or roll.

 

[HayDR]

Just remember there are economies of scale in farming. If you are harvesting hay for 20-40 head of cattle do you need to have a $100k worth of equipment investment? No. Cab tractors are nice but not necessary. You do not need 100 HP tractors to bale hay. If you are baling thousands of round bales of hay a year then you need all the comforts you can afford. Getting back to reality most of the horse owner's and cattle producers own less than 100 acres. They just need equipment sized and priced to meet their needs. Bigger is not always better. If a mower that has the capacity of 7 acres per is sufficient then why do some say you must have one that will cut 10 acres per hour. You have 20 acres of hay and that 30% more capacity cost you and additional $50K and you save 1 hour of cutting time. Remember you the consumer do have a choice, smaller equipment does exist that will work fine and produce the same results as the larger equipment.

 

[LoneCowboy]

hay equipment breaks
all the time
It also takes time to bale, not just investing in all the equipment.
Diesel is about $3/gallon.
For a $20 a big round bale and someone else takes ALL the risk.
Shoot, let them at it.