Haying for dummies

[bdog]

I plant wheat in the fall and haygrazer in the spring on my place. My neighbor bales it for $1/square bale. I can get about 200 bales per cutting or 400 a year total of my place. I can sell them for $4 each.

The baler is no problem, and I know it can run on my tractor.

He has a swather, which cuts and windrows the hay all in one operation. What do I need to be able to do this myself? A sickle mower and a hay rake? I only have 5 acres so I am looking for small scale cheap stuff. I figure the $400 I am paying him a year, if I could but the equipment for $2000 or less then after 5 years I would be making $$ plus having the fun of doing it myself.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

It is fun to bale your own hay and you CCM can help you out with what you need for a small scale operation.

Are you planning to buy a baler, cutter and rake for $2k? If so you might find you are going to put a lot of money into the equipment. You also have your fuel and twine to buy which for as few bales you are talking you should only need one bale of twine ($25 or so). Every little bit raises the overall price of things so it might take you longer then 5 years to see any return on your investment and that is figuring nothing major goes wrong with your equipment.

If you have a friend who knows haying equipment have him look things over with you as most of it is quite simple. The biggest thing is to make sure you get a decent baler and something you can get parts for rather easily as you don't want to wait a week or two for a part to come in if you hay is on the ground.

It is fun though and a small field is not that hard to do. Good luck to you and enjoy the equipment search (that is half the fun)

 

[Wannafish]

Especially with fuel prices the way they are, my suggestion...

Ask him if you can ride on the wagon and stack the bales. Even if he doesn't reduce the $1/bale price, it will still be cheaper for you than buying and fixing equipment to do it yourself...and you will have the "fun" of stacking them which, if you decided to "make hay" by yourself you will have to do anyway.
All the "fun" at none of the cost...or frustration. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
(Except for the Icy/Hot cream) /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Indydirtfarmer]

We square bale about 4000 bales of straw, and maybe (in a good year) 7500 squares of hay. (The rest gets round baled)

To justify having a newer baler, I started taking on a few "custom baling jobs". One neighbor has about 10 acres he has me bale, so he can feed his horses. He has 2 teenage sons....

A couple years back, he offered, and I took him up on a plan that I've grown to like VERY MUCH...

We calculate his "charge" at $1.25 a bale, when I bale his hay (I cut, he rakes, I bale) His "tab" is paid at $5 an hour in labor (from him and his sons) when we put up straw.

He gets his hay done without putting out any money, I get good help come straw season, and his sons get the "experience" of working their tails off....

We all win in this deal.

 

[slowzuki]

First thing, forget the notion of making money! Once you've got that out of your head, go ahead and have fun haying!

You need a bit more land to be profitible. We are on 35 acres, pulling 1500 bales of hay, looking to pick up about another 50-100 acres of fields worked.

Break even point is highly variable depending on year, weather and equipment.

 

[Wannafish]

"We all win in this deal."

Except the sons! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Probably the best "experience" they will ever have...but don't tell them I said so... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[HayDR]

bdog,
It can be done for $2,000 or less as far as a mower and rake and tedder but it will have to be used machinery.

"Haygrazer" and related Sorghum grass species such as "johnsongrass" can have toxic components in the fresh green forage. Nitrate poising is one problem you can have if have a dry season. Concerning dry or cured, "haygrazer" hay has shown no problems since there is no green forage in the bales. On the other hand, the "haygrazer" bales can have a lot of stemmy material in them that some cattle won't eat.

Sicklebar mowers can have problems cutting haygrazer. That leaves a disc or drum mower. Harvesting haygrazer with 1950's technology will not be fun it will be hard work. The problem with haygrazer is if it's a wet season it will get away from you. From strictly an economic standpoint it will be better for you to buy hay and or custom hire your hay out. If you really want to do your hay and not work yourself to death, purchase the best mower you can afford and a cheap functional rake. New drum mowers start just over $2,000. A used drum mower cost is 50%-60 of what a new one costs. Functional Used disc mowers range from $1,000-3,000.

 

[nomad]

What about an old kind of harvester; called rake reaper? See attachment. It is a combination of sickle bar mower and a rake. This is indeed fun.

 

[DMF]

We have a little over 24 acres but we are currently using less than half for hay at the moment. We have a mix of Orchard grass, Timothy and clover. Last year we got a little over 1,000 bales with two cuttings. I have a sweet deal with a retired man in town. He cuts, rakes and bales. He takes 60% of the hay and I get the remaining 40%. If I sell any of his bales for him, I pay him $1/bale. I generally get $3/bale and my customers pick it up off the field themselves. What the retaired man takes with him, I help load the wagon with him while his wife drives the tractor. He's happy and I'm happy. I am working at reclaiming more field area so production will go up over time. I'd like to do more of the "fun" stuff as well, but I have had enough experience at haying to know it ain't always "fun"! Besides, I'm sure I'll be forced into doing it myself someday when my friend gets too old to keep doing it.

 

[BB_TX]

Here is some good <font color="blue"> hay reading. </font>