leasing land for hay

[juddspaintballs]

I have 10 acres, mostly clear, but slightly hilly. It's been grass for years and the old guy that owned the property mowed it all like a lawn. I don't want to mow 10 acres. I have the tractor, but no implements for making hay and no desire to do so either. The predicament I'm in is that I'd like to get the farm exemption for my property so my taxes are a lot less. All I need to do to get the status here in WV is to have $1000 worth of agricultural products sold. I'm thinking of leasing out 8 acres or so for someone to do hay on. What should I expect in pricing, terms, etc? A friend told me that with someone doing all of the work, they typically pay $1/bale around here. Does that sound right?

 

[JSanders10]

You may find someone locally who will cut/bale on halves with you, that's pretty typical.
He takes half for all the work, you get half to sell or do whatever.
That's the deal I have... had been cutting close to 40 acres and one day a man stopped me on my tractor and said he was cutting it 15 yrs ago, same deal for my uncle and would like to again. It was the easiest deal I ever made.

 

[ch1ch2]

When I bought my 25 ac, the seller leased back the hay rights. He baled 35 to 70 bales a year. He paid $250 a year. Several people told me he was ripping me off. After 12 years I up-ed the price to $500. He quit me and I looked for someone to replace him. No one want it...Bahia grass and weeds. I finally found someone to bail it. They take 2/3s. I got 45 bales this year leaving me 15. Sold them for $40 a bale for $600.

 

[bigbull338]

the best way to sell hay from a meadow is to sell it standing by the bale.around here thats $5 a bale.

 

[sixdogs]

You have to figure the loss of soil nutrients on a lease deal. Add back what it would cost to replace the fertilizer, lime and trace minerals and most cases it would be a better deal to simply bush hog the field. For example, my 20 acre hayfield with 3 to 4 cuttings a year cost around $4,500 just to maintain fertility and that's without lime. So to be honest about it I would have to charge the land rent and then have a written agreement to maintain soil fertility---and I did. Had I not replaced the fertilizer I would have, in effect been subsidizing the guy cutting my hay and depleting my soil. Just my two cents on this.

 

[bigbull338]

sixdogs that would not fly around here.most wont lease a meadow if they have to put $225 an ac in it every year.because no land will make enough hay to cover that cost.with money you could buy 150 round bales.

 

[ch1ch2]

the best way to sell hay from a meadow is to sell it standing by the bale.around here thats $5 a bale.

The new guy cutting it for me did offer to pay $5 a bail cow hay $10 a bail horse hay. Mine was cow quality. Worth $225, even at horse quality it would only be $450. And that is how I would have sold it if I did not already have a buyer. My brother has a place 200 miles to the West where hay is going for $60 to $80 a bail. Transportation was not an issue because we regularly have business reasons to be at the halfway point each week. It is truly nice to have blessing from above.

 

[bsrfarms97]

You have to figure the loss of soil nutrients on a lease deal. Add back what it would cost to replace the fertilizer, lime and trace minerals and most cases it would be a better deal to simply bush hog the field. For example, my 20 acre hayfield with 3 to 4 cuttings a year cost around $4,500 just to maintain fertility and that's without lime. So to be honest about it I would have to charge the land rent and then have a written agreement to maintain soil fertility---and I did. Had I not replaced the fertilizer I would have, in effect been subsidizing the guy cutting my hay and depleting my soil. Just my two cents on this.

Well one might argue to the land owner that he can also charge the land owner for keeping his property mowed and cleaned up. Thats wear and tear on ones equipemnt also. Ive been on both sides of that fence owning the land and leasing land from others. Around here in East Tn, if a guy can agree to fertlize and at most help pay ones land taxes that seems a fair deal if the land grows a decent hay crop. If you dont own the equipment to keep your land cleared it can get quiet expensive buying it or paying someone else to mow it. Dont get too greedy or the farmers in your area may band together and that would leave you hiring someone to come in and bushhog it. That has been done more than once here.

 

[sixdogs]

An asset needs to have a return to the owner to make it work and the asset finds a price level that supports the investment return expected. It's one thing to be a homeowner with some idle acreage but in the farm belt the cost to rent is a given dollar amount and an agreement to maintain soil fertility and take care of the property. Depending on your ground, rents of $225 to $450 an acre are typical PLUS the cost to maintain fertility. That can cost another $225 or so an acre. There are lines of people looking to rent acreage on the flat ground since the economics of scale in large farming can yield a decent return at those levels.

You are right, this is different from the rolling hayfields of the central part of the country and yes, you pretty much get what you can in that situation. But you don't want to deplete your soil fertility just because the renter doesn't want to pay for it. Why should the landowner foot the bill and subsidize the renter?

Farmland sells for $5000--$7000 or more an ace in the black dirt of the Midwest so a rent of $250 an acre is really a pretty good deal for the tenant. You can get 225 bushels of corn or 75 bu of soybeans per acre and if you're farming 2000 acres or so the math works for everyone involved .

 

[doall]

As you can see, it's according to where you live.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

I've had this conversation on a previous "haying on Shares" thread, but for the most part I agree with Sixdogs. Unless the field was close to my own ground I wouldn't be interested at all. Can't drive or haul eqiupment 20 miles for 8 acres. If it was close to home being limited to grass hay only, no pasture, or row crop options really limits its lease value to me. Consider not all lease agreements involve cash. I've traded firewood for some, a beef for the freezer for some, graveling roads for some. Be creative. What is the land ower willing to risk/provide? Money for seed/fertilizer/lime? He said he has a tractor, is he willing to rake/tedder the hay? If small squares are an option can he provide labor? Are there any barns I can use? Pull a soil sample first so everyone knows where they are. This protects everyone and insure the ground is not getting worse.

 

[bsrfarms97]

yes it definitely depends on where you live. A plot of 40 acres of river bottom land here will only rent for $75- $100 an acre. In an area that is more abundant of farms I can see why it would be higher. Rolling hills here are usually less desired because some are too steep for a tractor to be on.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Around here it would be hard to give away 8acres to hay on,like said just have to be down the road. Folks would rather you just take it and in trade they keep the ag exemption. Works for both... My deals are aslong as I fertilize it and cut it twice,if weather permits,I pay nothing,cause they know what I have in equipment cost/maintance,time,weed spraying and fertilizer. When you get into charging rent then it gets cut somewhere,either how much fertilizer put in it or on weed spraying cause you can only put so much into a place where it comes out profitable to hay it. Then the guy leasing it takes care place,gets it looking good,yielding good and then owner decides not to lease it anymore or someone comes in and offers $, or it gets sold. A lot on the other side of the deal also.

 

[HEC]

I have about 20 acres of good hay and let the farmer have the hay . After a couple of years I asked him if he would put some lime and fert. on the land and he never did . All he wanted was free hay . I now mow it myself with a bush hog along with another 15 acres and let it rot on the ground for what ever nutrients it can get that way .Being retired I enjoy being out there with the rc. anyways , if I don't the wife loves to do it .Most all the dairy farmers have gone under , in fact there is only one left in my area .

 

[Will_C]

Locally, here in upstate NY, farmers don't pay for such ground. Most landowners are happy to have the land kept up, without the cost of mowing it yourself. I could not find a farmer that would hay my 8 acres regularly, so I mow it several times a year myself.

Will

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[mattv1]

my 2-cents here.

I lease a couple fields of ~10 acres and i pay $200/year for those plots. I fertilize, etc...and these fields are right near me, no road time in the tractor just cut across one leased field to get to the others.

I have another field just under 10 acres that is "free." Owner asks me to spray his lawn with 24d to keep the dandelions out and run my sickle mower around the edge of his lawn (steep hillside) so he can have a good view. As long as I do that yearly, the field is mine to hay for no cost and I'm responsible for fertilizer,etc.

I stack my barn as full as I can to feed the horses through the winter and I sell whatever is left. Large horse arena so I can stack the hay on trailers and keep it inside if it takes some time to sell. This year I made enough money selling excess to cover lease fees and fertilizer costs.

If I had to pay any more for leases, I wouldn't do it. It's just too much work and the fields are of the size that nobody else would really want to mess with them. It ends up being a good deal - i get enough ground to feed the horses in our stable, landowners get ag. exemption, and they get a few bucks to buy some beers

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Mattv1, sounds like a good setup to me. I'd give $10 an acre for some small fields close by. Like I've said before not all lease agreements involve cash. Especially if the landowers are older and need a little help from time to time. I've lost some good fields to folks willing to pay $200 plus an acre for it only to get it back when it became obvious they weren't good stewards of the land. (Ditches washed out, ruts made, grass waterways sprayed and killed, fertility not kept up, etc) Everyones situation is a little differant and its not always about the dollar but its not going broke either.

 

[smstonypoint]

Checking USDA/NASS QuickStats Ad-hoc Query Tool, average cash rents are not reported for your county (Morgan). That county is located in the Eastern District and the average cash crop rent for that district was $44/acre in 2014. I don't think that you can expect to obtain $1,000 in cash rent or crop shares on 8 acres.

Looking at your proximity to population centers, it seems to me that you could obtain $1000 in gross sales from growing sweet corn and marketing it via farmers markets, etc. Whether you want to put the time and effort into it is up to you. Avoiding the higher property tax rate isn't going to be easy.

Steve

 

[kevin37b]

Pallet storage might be a another option ?

 

[msmith]

I lease fields for hay and will not pay for them. I have people begging for me to do the hay for the farm tax exemption. If they would share on lime and fertilizer, I would do shares with them, but as it stands, without at least a 5 year lease, I can't afford to lime and fertilize one year then lose the acreage the next. I leased approximately 40 acres for a while so the guy could get the tax exemption. He thought he was doing me a favor. I had as much in fuel, twine, and equipment wear than what the hay was worth. I sold most of it and after figuring my time, I did a little better than breaking even. If he would have limed and fertilized, I would have gladly paid him or done it on shares. Honestly, I am about to get out of the hay business and buy what I need. A lot less headaches not having to worry about the weather and equipment breakdowns. Last year I had about 20 acres down and ready to go up. When I went to dump the first round bale, I blew a hydraulic line. By the time I got back to the garage, got it off and was ready to go have one made, it was 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoon. Fortunately a local oil field supply opened up their shop on Sunday after church to custom make me a hose and change the New Holland end on my hard line to get me back in the field. I got about 15 acres in before it started raining.