haying equipment

[cowboydoc]

I know some of you guys hay on here and John Deere is ending their 36 month no interest deal on Aug. 31st for all haying equipment. I just bought a new 328 baler for $10,900 and got a 1991 1219 mower conditioner in excellent shape for $4900. The dealers here are making all kinds of deals right now on equipment.

 

[mlmartin]

Boy, am _I_ glad I don't cut hay!

I spent about the same amount for my JD 870, 440 FEL, 8B back hoe, a new 68 inch Walco snowblower _and_ shipping from just outside Toronto CA to just outside Worcester MA.

I know you have a lot of horses, but how long does it take for that capital expense take to pay off? I'll be buying 250 large square bales of timothy hay for $4, delivered and stacked in my loft. That should take care of our three horses (of course, only two of them eat hay, the 33 year old pony has no useful grinding teeth left) until October of 2002.

Matthew

 

[cowboydoc]

Matt,
I put up about 1500-2000 bales a year and then sell probably that many as well. It doesn't take long for it to pay for itself. Around here it's a $1 a bale to custom bale so it pays for itself. I just sold some horses for some high dollars so I had to do something with the money or pay taxes on it. Right now I've got 38 horses and close to 200 head of cattle. That varies but I go through alot of hay. In the winter I go through about 2 ton a day between the horses and cattle.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Around WNY we pay between $1.50 and $2.00 when we were buying from a friend of ours. He turns his fields over every few years and replants so it is good high protein hay. It doesn't take long for a baler to pay for itself, if you only go thru a couple hundred bales a year it is easier to pay someone to bale your fields and let them keep whatever extra there is.

<font color=blue>Robert Turk Jr.</font color=blue>
<font color=blue>Whitetail Splendor Deer Farms</font color=blue>
<font color=blue>Silver Creek, NY</font color=blue>

 

[Gatorboy]

Richard,

Can you tell me approximately how many square bails I could yield from an 11 acre field per cut?

I am thinking about growing and bailing hay, but would like to know a ballpark figure so I can determine if it is worth buying a bailer and mower/conditioner.

Regards,
Dave "Gatorboy" Hoffmann
Fallston, Maryland

 

[Bird]

Dave, Richard knows a lot more about this topic than I do, but I can safely say that unless you find a fantastic bargain in old used equipment, there's no way you can financially justify buying a baler and mower/conditioner for 11 acres.

Bird

 

[cowboydoc]

gatorboy,
It's going to vary on your ground, how good of a stand you get, how well you take care of your fields, etc. With that said I get about 5-7 ton per acre from my fields per year. I take excellent care of my hayfields and fertilize, spray, etc. My square bales are about 50 lbs. a piece so 40 bales per ton. I get about 200-280 bales per acre on squares. With 11 acres that would be 2200 - 3080 bales per year. If you figure it's going to cost you about $1 a bale or more to condition, rake, and bale that's about $2200-3080 per year. Figure a decent mower conditioner is going to cost you 7-12k and a good used baler is going to be 5-10k and figure out how long it would take to pay for itself. New you should be able to get a moco for $18k and a square baler for $10,000. That's almost 30k new. It would take 10 years or better to pay for the equipment that way and that's not counting your tractor wear and tear and fuel, time, etc. Used of course that will go way down. Tough choice. Good used stuff is really hard to find and that that someone is trading in has usually been used really hard. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[PaulInMi]

Here is a interesting website that I came across. Probably nothing new for the veterans, but interesting reading for those w/less farming knowledge.

http://members.home.net/18james/rural/hay.html

Good luck.

Paul