Should I Start Haying?

[crackerjack222]

I think you would need to be baling many more acres than you have to pay for even used equipment. I would probably divide your acres in about three paddocks and fertilize heavily, let livestock harvest the grass on pasture rotation, and if you had any excess grass let someone else bale it on shares or for a fee per bale.

 

[sammyd]

Here I take 75% of the hay and the landowner gets the rest. If all you are going to have around is a few hobby animals this and pasture would probably work out best for you.

I bought my first haymaking stuff when I had less than an acre of hay. I used a sickle mower to cut the stuff and hauled it in loose.
Later after having 5 acres of nice hay turned to bedding when my baler guy didn't show twice I bought my own baler.
Used a 400 dollar sickle mower a 150 dollar crimper and a 750 dollar baler all behind my 550 dollar tractor.
Made 2 cuttings on 10 acres of hay for a couple of years then upgraded to a bigger tractor and a haybine. Total investment so far around 4000.
I have been making up to 80 acres of hay a year for 10 years or so and contrary to popular stories, my stuff doesn't break down every time it gets out of the shed, I don't have to retime it every time I use it and I don't have perform magic spells to get the hay made.
I honestly don't understand all the big scary about haying and hay equipment. I grew up on a dairy farm in WI we made thousands of bales every year, and can only recall one breakdown. The baler was pretty bullet proof. Just hook up, grease up and go.
Making hay isn't a mystery or that hard at all.
I work 3rd shift and it fits haying to a tee. I get home and make sure stuff is lubed and fueled and take a nap. Up around 11 to haybine. I lay the hay out as flat as it will go. even removed the wings on my old 467 haybine all together. In a couple of days I go out at 11 to flip the hay into windrows and back out at 2 or so to bale it up. I used to stack on the wagon but now I have a son that is big enough to do that and that is really nice...
Get the wagons home and hay stacked that evening or in the morning if I don't have to work that night.
I only cut what I can get baled in one day. Has worked out quite well for many years.
http://www.sefsufficient.com/drill/2013/baling2.JPG

 

[zzvyb6]

Haying is fun, work, can be a money maker and a great tax dodge. You'll need equipment (used preferably) a welder, drill press, grinder, torches, a huge anvil, expensive vice, a refrigerator or two in the barn and maybe a bass boat (150+ hp ought to do).

Now is not really the time to buy used equipment, though. Best to buy just after last cutting in late Fall. Haying is all about timing as previously mentioned. I only do 100 or so bales per day. Sell to neighbors for their horses. Deliver to friends who only carry $100 bills in the 'satchels'. Now is tax time. Dang. I lost money again in the hay business. Might have been that new insulated garage door and opener on the barn. Or maybe the JLG T350 boom lift for trimming the trees in the hayfields. Best situation is for neighbors with horses and teenagers ordered to work. I have a NH stack wagon and can drop it off in their yard. Trade for money (cash only please).

This also helps me keep my 'agricultural' status for township property taxes.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Should I Start Haying?

Yeaaa, I just looked out and the sun's shining.....sooo, go ahead...

SR

 

[Gary Fowler]

Haying is fun, work, can be a money maker and a great tax dodge. You'll need equipment (used preferably) a welder, drill press, grinder, torches, a huge anvil, expensive vice, a refrigerator or two in the barn and maybe a bass boat (150+ hp ought to do).

Now is not really the time to buy used equipment, though. Best to buy just after last cutting in late Fall. Haying is all about timing as previously mentioned. I only do 100 or so bales per day. Sell to neighbors for their horses. Deliver to friends who only carry $100 bills in the 'satchels'. Now is tax time. Dang. I lost money again in the hay business. Might have been that new insulated garage door and opener on the barn. Or maybe the JLG T350 boom lift for trimming the trees in the hayfields. Best situation is for neighbors with horses and teenagers ordered to work. I have a NH stack wagon and can drop it off in their yard. Trade for money (cash only please).

This also helps me keep my 'agricultural' status for township property taxes.

Those little square bales used to be ok when labor was cheap. I don't know of anyone who bales them today. Everyone is into big round bales=no physical labor involved to pick up, move and stack AND they will store outside in the weather with minimal loss. Cons are that the round balers run $10K used, you need a larger tractor to run them and a larger tractor to pick them up and store them.
Around here price to bale is in line (or out of line with reality) with cost of the baling equipment. Most guys will charge $20-25 per bale to cut/bale on your hay patch and many of them want to cut your hay for the hay without any compensation. I think this is due to the excess of acreage that folks allow it just so their field don't get overgrown and they don't have to lay out $25-50K for the equipment to do it themselves. The neighbor across the road from me just "rented" 40 acres of slightly abused (overgrown) hay field that he had previously had cut by a local haying guy. The "rent" is keep the field weeds mowed down. He cut is last fall and has bush hogged the weedy spots this spring already. He plans to have it cut and baled this year and grass his entire pasture on rotation. I allow him to graze 4-5 acres of my property that I don't mow as part of my lawn and he has 30 more acres of pasture. I think he will get enough good hay from the neighbors property to get all of his winter hay needs.
We discussed buying some hay equipment and doing it ourselves. Between the two of us we have all the tractors that we would need but the pencil just wasn't sharp enough to make the cut. TOO many invested dollars for little return and there is already 2-3 guys baling around here with established customers for any competition.

If you could find some good deal on an old square baling equipment + tractor to pull it with, you might make $$$wise sense to do it yourself as a hobby, but don't expect to save any money vs just buying it from someone. Remember also that every bale of hay taken from your hayfield needs to have the equivalent energy returned to the land in the form of fertilizer and fertilizer ain't cheap by no means, also unfertilized hay is not a rich in nutrients for your cattle as what comes from a fertilized field.

 

[zzvyb6]

Square bales for horses all around me is and has been $4.00 to $5.50 per bale for the last 3 years. All you have to do is search Craigslist in the Ann Arbor or Detroit area. Delivery, extra. Horse people here have no use for round bales, don't have feeders for them and can't manage them (move them around). Round bales done by a few locals stay in regiment formation at the edge of their field and slowly rot away. Their contents tends to be poor quality for horses, too.

I searched for horse hay in your area. Bales are also around $5.00 with some premium hay selling for $9.00 a standard (small) square bale. Your round bales are going for $15 - $18. Same premise I would guess: Horse people (if there are any) don't want them. I looked around Cabot / Lonoke, Honey Grove and Ravenden Springs. Even some marketted from Corley Texas.

Bottom line is there appears to be a strong market for horse hay. If you have horses, buying small square bales is not a good option if you already have a tractor and a truck and can spend a few thousand bucks (maybe 5) for a mower, a rake, a baler, and a delivery trailer. Ideal setup for a few teenagers (men and women) who have energy, goals and sisu.

 

[TractorToolsDirect]

A few thoughts:

1. Making hay, especially square bales, is hard work. If you don't enjoy the physical labor of it, you will grow to hate doing it. On the other hand, there is no more satisfying feeling than a barn full of square bales of high quality hay as the sun is setting.
2. Your Kubota BX tractor is a bit small for that much acreage, but you do not have to have 40+ horsepower as stated by others in this thread. There is high quality compact hay equipment out there that can be run efficiently with a 25-30hp tractor of 2000+ pounds. In fact, your Kubota BX can make hay, but the production rate would be too slow for 30 acres.
3. Every time someone takes hay tonnage off your fields, it is costing you, one way or the other. The nutrients either have to be replaced (some kind of fertilizer), which is expensive, or you are going to end up with a field that won't grow anything but weeds. If your field is hilly, you are asking for erosion problems in the long term.
4. With some time and studying, you can make better hay than you will ever get having the farmer down the road do it. Why? Because he/she will not have the same motivations as you will. If you are feeding your own animals, you have a big incentive to make sure you have quality hay. That means you will make hay when the timing is right for the hay, not when it is convenient. Most contract hayers bale for quantity per cutting, which means they will generally cut too late. It is more work to cut earlier and more often, but it will greatly improve your hay quality.
5. There is always a market for quality hay. If you want to sell your extra hay, you can quickly build a reputation if it is good quality. You will have repeat customers and they will tell their friends.
6. Old equipment is cheap (relatively) but is generally not dependable. And repairs may be difficult, costly, or maybe impossible. And remember, equipment only breaks when it is being used, which means you are in the middle of the job, that now urgently needs to be finished. New equipment, on the other hand, is expensive, but will be ready to work when you are and will still be operational at the end of the day.

 

[cat fever]

A few thoughts:

1. Making hay, especially square bales, is hard work. If you don't enjoy the physical labor of it, you will grow to hate doing it. On the other hand, there is no more satisfying feeling than a barn full of square bales of high quality hay as the sun is setting.
2. Your Kubota BX tractor is a bit small for that much acreage, but you do not have to have 40+ horsepower as stated by others in this thread. There is high quality compact hay equipment out there that can be run efficiently with a 25-30hp tractor of 2000+ pounds. In fact, your Kubota BX can make hay, but the production rate would be too slow for 30 acres.
3. Every time someone takes hay tonnage off your fields, it is costing you, one way or the other. The nutrients either have to be replaced (some kind of fertilizer), which is expensive, or you are going to end up with a field that won't grow anything but weeds. If your field is hilly, you are asking for erosion problems in the long term.
4. With some time and studying, you can make better hay than you will ever get having the farmer down the road do it. Why? Because he/she will not have the same motivations as you will. If you are feeding your own animals, you have a big incentive to make sure you have quality hay. That means you will make hay when the timing is right for the hay, not when it is convenient. Most contract hayers bale for quantity per cutting, which means they will generally cut too late. It is more work to cut earlier and more often, but it will greatly improve your hay quality.
5. There is always a market for quality hay. If you want to sell your extra hay, you can quickly build a reputation if it is good quality. You will have repeat customers and they will tell their friends.
6. Old equipment is cheap (relatively) but is generally not dependable. And repairs may be difficult, costly, or maybe impossible. And remember, equipment only breaks when it is being used, which means you are in the middle of the job, that now urgently needs to be finished. New equipment, on the other hand, is expensive, but will be ready to work when you are and will still be operational at the end of the day.

I agree with all of this;
I grow my own hay because I enjoy it. Total cost for me last year was 70 grand to get set up. That includes a new tractor and the barn in my avatar. The rest of my equipment is old and needed a little work but everything works great at this point. I could have bought hay for a couple lifetimes for that much money. But, it is so satisfying to watch the hay grow and the equipment work. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. You'll have to look at your situation and see if you feel the same.

That little ugly bale is the first one I ever grew, cut and baled with my own equipment. Still makes me smile.

 

[RPW]

I started haying about 4 years ago. Last year was the first year that I actually got anything baled. Even with the very wet spring last year which basically destroyed my first cutting I still went ahead and baled what I could. More for practice than anything else. My horses still eat what I produced and this last year my total cost for purchasing hay was $0.00. Now it still cost me, fertilizer etc. But it felt good not to have to drive every couple of months to pick up 8 1500lb rounds. This year is shaping up better (I hope). Only new piece of equipment was my tractor everything else was old worn out machinery. In some cases probably would have been better off selling for scrape. But with some TLC time and a modest budget I have brought back a JD350 9ft sicklebar bower and old IH16 side delivery rake and a Vermeer 605C baler back to life. Last year I was almost at the poìnt of scraping the 605 and go in debt for a new baler but things worked out.

It's a lot of work but I enjoy it. Hope to make a little money this year.

 

[HeribertoParker]

You can start having it is good idea...