Newbie to haying

[Darren from High River]

Hi all

I have a Kubota L4600. We have around 8 acres that the previous owner used to hay himself and, for the last couple of years, our neighbours have helped us to get hay off it. One year we got 26 round bales and last year, we got around 500 squares.

We much prefer rounds to squares but the neighbour that did rounds has moved away.

I am thinking of purchasing a mower and a baler myself, so that we have complete control over when the hay is taken off.

It is possible to obtain a drum or disc mower that leaves the hay in a state where it doesn't need any further conditioning until it is baled, or am I hoping for too much?

On a somewhat related question, we have lots of gophers and the odd badger that leave horrible mounds and holes. What would be the best implement to use to level these out without completely destroying the grass? Would something like a land leveler work?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Gee Ray]

Do you have a barn to store the equipment? Hay equipment stored out side will not last long. Have you checked on the price of the equipment? Do you have the time if you are still working vs retired?

Understand that 8 acres is not enough land to justify the cost of the equipment. If you want to do it anyway good luck.

 

[Darren from High River]

I am in Alberta, Canada, so we don't get much rain, but a fair amount of snow. We have a quonset so, keeping it indoors will not be an issue.

The cost/benefit analysis is something that I need to bear in mind. Currently, our neighbour splits the hay 50/50 which is, clearly, a good deal for us. I am not much of a mechanic either, so I would prefer to purchase new, rather than go for something that requires fixing up.

Any thoughts on the land leveler issue?

 

[stuckmotor]

My grandfather used to plant oats, cut them with a cycle bar mower and leave them on the ground until they were dry enough to rake and bail for hay. I've cut pasture grass with a 5' Woods Cadet rotary mower with the hay door removed. If it was damp after a day on the ground I might have turned it over with the rake once or twice giving it more time to dry before before bailing. The people who bailed my grandfarher's oats might have done the same thing. It depended a great deal on the weather forecast.

 

[stuckmotor]

I think they filmed part of The River of No Return in Alberta. Beautiful country, Marilyn Monroe didn't look bad, either.

 

[Jchonline]

Haying is an expensive endeavor. You will need to cut, rake, bale, and stack at a minimum. Timing is critical and can be stressful. With a 37 PTO HP machine you are severely limited in what balers you can use. If you have hilly property, even more limited. For medium sized round bales in TX the bare minimum is a 70HP tractor.

I havent seen a sickle bar that can also rake but they may exist. Balers are very expensive...if you find a cheap one its probably given the previous owner problems. You will spend more time messing with them than you do baling in some cases.

We have 150 acres and stopped baling our own a decade ago. Just not worth the hassle if you dont have a commercial level operation in my opinion. If you want to putz around with it I recommend a square baler....what type of livestock do you have?

For the gophers you need to get rid of them first. Traps.

 

[Darren from High River]

Haying is an expensive endeavor. You will need to cut, rake, bale, and stack at a minimum. Timing is critical and can be stressful. With a 37 PTO HP machine you are severely limited in what balers you can use. If you have hilly property, even more limited. For medium sized round bales in TX the bare minimum is a 70HP tractor.

I havent seen a sickle bar that can also rake but they may exist. Balers are very expensive...if you find a cheap one its probably given the previous owner problems. You will spend more time messing with them than you do baling in some cases.

We have 150 acres and stopped baling our own a decade ago. Just not worth the hassle if you dont have a commercial level operation in my opinion. If you want to putz around with it I recommend a square baler....what type of livestock do you have?

For the gophers you need to get rid of them first. Traps.

Our hay field is relatively flat.

The guy that used to round bale ours made bales that were around 1,100 lbs that our FEL could handle quite easily.

We have horses and sheep. The horses have seen better days so are simply living out their lives. Each year, we sell our male lambs and keep the females to increase our flock. Not for a commercial operation but what we get for them helps pay for feed for them during lean hay years.

Money is not too much of an issue as I work in Calgary. We were hoping that, if we were able to sell some of our excess (what we take off most years is usually enough to get our animals through the winter with some surplus) and, if we didn't have to give 50% away, we could sell that and use that to pay for any maintenance costs for the baler. We would be happy with a small round baler so that we could load into the back of trucks as not everyone has the ability to take round bales of a trailer when they get home.

We have 20 acres as do most of our neighbours. Gophers are everywhere and trapping them is not really an option. I thought that the small hills of dirt they make, and the larger one the badgers make, could be dealt with using a land leveler. Your thoughts?

 

[Darren from High River]

I think they filmed part of The River of Np Return in Alberta. Beautiful country, Marilyn Monroe didn't look bad, either.

We live a hop, skip and a jump away from where they film "Heartland", if you've ever watched that.

 

[KennyG]

Point one - You don't need a conditioner. Years ago, we cut clover and alfalfa with a sickle mower and just let it dry on the ground. You just need to plan ahead and find 3 or 4 days with no rain.

Point two - As pointed out, doing your own baling with 8 acres doesn't make much sense. When I grew up, there were lots of small farmers with 5 to 25 acres of hay. As I recall, there were 2 guys in the neighborhood with balers that did everyones baling. And they spent about as much time working on the balers as they did baling, which is why no one else wanted to own a baler.

 

[Darren from High River]

Point one - You don't need a conditioner. Years ago, we cut clover and alfalfa with a sickle mower and just let it dry on the ground. You just need to plan ahead and find 3 or 4 days with no rain.

Point two - As pointed out, doing your own baling with 8 acres doesn't make much sense. When I grew up, there were lots of small farmers with 5 to 25 acres of hay. As I recall, there were 2 guys in the neighborhood with balers that did everyones baling. And they spent about as much time working on the balers as they did baling, which is why no one else wanted to own a baler.

Thanks for your reply.

I understand that it doesn't make much sense but, if we have to pay for hay, we spend about $1,500 a year on hay. It's Canada and no competition. Recently, 1,200 round bales are selling for $200. Squares (65 lbs) are going for $12 each.

My thought is that, if I can get a relatively maintenance free drum mower and small round baler for around $10,000, in 6 years they will have almost paid for themselves and we would no longer have to rely upon others. I appreciate that I may be dreaming, but I thought I would ask the experts on here if I was.

The first year we moved here, our neighbour took 500 squares that, because he baled when he wanted to, got soaked and we had to pay him to do the work (long story), so we paid him $5 per bale and we could only sell them for $1 a bale to someone with lots of cows.