Raising your own hay, Does it Pay?

[Limomike]

I have been thinking and figuring quite a bit lately about this hay situation. Are you better off to just buy your hay and not have to worry about it? Or should you hedge your bets and try to raise your own, that way you know you have it. Trouble is, when your hay is ready to bale, so is every one else's. If you don't have your own equipment, then you are waiting in line for a custom baler.

You can buy hay on a normal year for 50-75 dollars a roll and i guarandamntee ya that youv'e got 50$ in a bale to raise it, If you fertilize, spray weeds and pay 25 a roll to get it baled

.And if you dont do all that. the cost is lower

Would you not be dollars ahead to just buy your hay and graze your hay fields, then you could run a few more cows/calves.
IN a perfect world.. yes, but then what if there is a lack of hay in the area, drought, etc.. then your costs go up


Just thought I would pick yall's brain a little. Let me know what you think.

BTW I'm in west/central Texas

[Stocker Steve]

Plus, I use the hay to build soil as much as feed cows.

If you are producing your own hay then you must be taking nutrients from some location. At best you are only moving them from one location to another. I might add it is a very expensive way to build soil. If you buy hay then any waste or manure would benefit the soil but again at an expense.

Cheapest way to build up the soil is to let the cows trample it in rather than spending money to bale it up, but kind of hard on your stocking rate for a couple years.
Does it pay depends... a lot on your time frame and your available labor. I usually make the wife haul purchased hay on the weekend.

[johndeerefarmer]

My cow's will let a bale of coastal rot if they have a choice between rye grass and coastal.

CB I found out a few years ago my cows would do the same thing given the choice between coastal and maize stalks. The coastal was the last thing they wanted.

Seems like a lot of people think that just because its coastal its great. Thing about it is that coastal is premium if you take really good care of it. If you dont take care of it, its as sorry as can be

I agree. If you don't fertilize it properly, cut it at the right stage of maturity and bale it at the right moisture content, you are wasting your time and money. As far as pasture grasses go, if you don't fertilize coastal, there is not much advantage to it. You are just as well to have common bermuda or native grasses.

[JSCATTLE]

I'm not sure what you guys are calling coastal . But my cows love the hybrid Bermuda called coastal . If cut properly it was very little stem . It smells sweet . And has a crude protien of around 12 % . It will triple production with fertilizer and I haven't found any grass hay better . I have coastal , tifton 85 bahia alicia . The Alicia and coastal make the heaviest rolls .

[johndeerefarmer]

With 125lbs/acre of actual N, I can get 16-18% protein and a RFV of 60-62. I have no complaints about my coastal other than it takes lots of expensive fertilizer. If I want more tonnage and less protein, then I can cut it at 6 weeks

[bigbull338]

With 125lbs/acre of actual N, I can get 16-18% protein and a RFV of 60-62. I have no complaints about my coastal other than it takes lots of expensive fertilizer. If I want more tonnage and less protein, then I can cut it at 6 weeks

i read a peice on costal 2 or 3wks ago,an it said that it was fert hungry.its been around since 1942 when fert was cheap.an yes it will produce good with fert an the right growing season.with high hert prices of today its not as popular.

[johndeerefarmer]

Yep, I use as much or more fertilizer on my coastal bermuda than the corn growers use on their corn. Still cheaper than buying store bought feed or somebody else's low quality hay.

[novatech]

With 125lbs/acre of actual N, I can get 16-18% protein and a RFV of 60-62. I have no complaints about my coastal other than it takes lots of expensive fertilizer. If I want more tonnage and less protein, then I can cut it at 6 weeks

i read a peice on costal 2 or 3wks ago,an it said that it was fert hungry.its been around since 1942 when fert was cheap.an yes it will produce good with fert an the right growing season.with high hert prices of today its not as popular.

I read an article that stated that Tifton 85 was one of the most water and fertilizer efficient grasses used.

At a recent producer program, hosted by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Dr. James Rogers from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation shared some information from his recent research about nitrogen use efficiency rates with various summer grasses. The take-home message from his talk was that not all varieties of grass respond the same to nitrogen fertilization. Therefore, we may need to re-evaluate the optimal rate of fertilization given the variety of grass we are growing. Additionally, we may want to consider the efficiency at which grasses use nitrogen when we select a variety to plant. The two improved varieties of summer perennial grasses that topped his list for nitrogen use efficiency were Tifton 85 Bermudagrass and WW-B Dahl Bluestem. It should be mentioned that there are many types of grasses that still have not been evaluated and that the Noble Foundation research only represented two years of data collection, but these two show great promise for producing more forage with less nitrogen.

[Suzie Q]

I don't waste it. Too fat cattle have problems as well as too skinny cattle. With the equipment I can make hay year after year if I maintain the equipment. Buy the hay and it is gone and I don't have anything for the next year.

Without the equipment and the hay we could not have as many cattle as we do. We don't have enough land.

However, this farm was already set up for making hay and we made a very good deal on equipment and managed to buy it very cheap and I have a very hand husband who is a mechanic. We also enjoy the process. It might not suit everybody.

[Lucky_P]

Figures I've seen indicate that unless you're running 600 rolls or more per year through your haying equipment, it's not paying for itself.
In general, there's at least $10 worth of fertilizer value in a 1500 lb roll; probably more with today's prices.

Sold my hay equipment in '90. Bought some local crappy 'holiday' hay for a few years(cut & rolled around July 4 or Halloween) - not much feed value. Hired guys to cut & roll here on the farm - same ol' story - they never show up when you need 'em to - usually a month (or more) later than whe it was at its prime - or, since they were getting paid 'by the roll', they rolled 'em so loose that they 'squatted' and rotted.
Finally found a guy who produces a quality product at a reasonable price.

70 head of mama cows. We buy in all our hay from a guy who does nothing but hay - irrigated & fertilized. My 'hay season' is over in one or two days - 4 semi-loads, unloaded, stacked and covered - and I'm done. We limit-feed ~10lb hay/hd/day + 8-10lb modified distiller's grain product during the winter feeding period. Graze the entire farm, rotating through 18 5-acre paddocks, from Feb 1 to October 1.
Works for us.

[Tim/South]

I raise my own hay, always have, always will.
I did have an interesting conversation with a man who said he sold his hay equipment and now buys his hay.
His reasoning was that money spent on hay was a tax deduction. Only the expense of growing/baling hay could be deducted. You could not deduct your time and labor.
Interesting aspect. I do not know if it is valid but is interesting.

[Brute 23]

I raise my own hay, always have, always will.
I did have an interesting conversation with a man who said he sold his hay equipment and now buys his hay.
His reasoning was that money spent on hay was a tax deduction. Only the expense of growing/baling hay could be deducted. You could not deduct your time and labor.
Interesting aspect. I do not know if it is valid but is interesting.

Not really unless I am missing some thing also. One... you never buy any thing for a tax deduction unless you are purposely trying not to make money. Two... assuming he had some kind of ranch account seperate from his personal account, he could have just wrote a check to himself for his time and wrote off the labor.

[Dave]

I buy my hay. I do it for several reasons. I use to make my own hay and custom hay for others. it seemed like all I did all summer was hay. Now my hay season is pretty short, just the time it takes to haul it home and stack it.
I have figured that here when you factor in all the cost, 4 out of 5 years I can buy hay as cheap or cheaper then raising it myself.
Because of the environment I live in the cows are locked up on concrete all winter. Thus all the manure is collected and the nutrients from the imported hay is spread on my pastures. So I rarely need fertilizer on the pastures. I let other people mine the nutrients out of their soil.
There is a lot of hay made around here. Grass hay locally, alfalfa from the irrigated areas east of here, and straw from the grass seed growning area down in the Willamette Valley some of which makes good feed. So although the price may go up or down there is pretty much lots available every year. Late winter it can get scarce some years but good planning and putting in some extra helps avoid a problem there.
Hay here is sold by the ton. Which is the best way to buy it. That way you are comparing apples to apples. A ton is a ton. A bale is? There can and is a lot of variablity in the size and weight of bales.
I am sure it doesn't work for everyone but it sure works here.

[James T]

I buy my hay. I do it for several reasons. I use to make my own hay and custom hay for others. it seemed like all I did all summer was hay. Now my hay season is pretty short, just the time it takes to haul it home and stack it.
I have figured that here when you factor in all the cost, 4 out of 5 years I can buy hay as cheap or cheaper then raising it myself.
Because of the environment I live in the cows are locked up on concrete all winter. Thus all the manure is collected and the nutrients from the imported hay is spread on my pastures. So I rarely need fertilizer on the pastures. I let other people mine the nutrients out of their soil.
There is a lot of hay made around here. Grass hay locally, alfalfa from the irrigated areas east of here, and straw from the grass seed growning area down in the Willamette Valley some of which makes good feed. So although the price may go up or down there is pretty much lots available every year. Late winter it can get scarce some years but good planning and putting in some extra helps avoid a problem there.
Hay here is sold by the ton. Which is the best way to buy it. That way you are comparing apples to apples. A ton is a ton. A bale is? There can and is a lot of variablity in the size and weight of bales.
I am sure it doesn't work for everyone but it sure works here.

I can appreciate paying by weight but, do you know anything about the nutrient content of what your getting? Producing your own allows you that opportunity (knowledge of the amounts of fertilizer, hay testing, grass type, etc). You could always test the hay your buying but very few people actually do it.

[Caustic Burno]

I buy my hay. I do it for several reasons. I use to make my own hay and custom hay for others. it seemed like all I did all summer was hay. Now my hay season is pretty short, just the time it takes to haul it home and stack it.
I have figured that here when you factor in all the cost, 4 out of 5 years I can buy hay as cheap or cheaper then raising it myself.
Because of the environment I live in the cows are locked up on concrete all winter. Thus all the manure is collected and the nutrients from the imported hay is spread on my pastures. So I rarely need fertilizer on the pastures. I let other people mine the nutrients out of their soil.
There is a lot of hay made around here. Grass hay locally, alfalfa from the irrigated areas east of here, and straw from the grass seed growning area down in the Willamette Valley some of which makes good feed. So although the price may go up or down there is pretty much lots available every year. Late winter it can get scarce some years but good planning and putting in some extra helps avoid a problem there.
Hay here is sold by the ton. Which is the best way to buy it. That way you are comparing apples to apples. A ton is a ton. A bale is? There can and is a lot of variablity in the size and weight of bales.
I am sure it doesn't work for everyone but it sure works here.

I can appreciate paying by weight but, do you know anything about the nutrient content of what your getting? Producing your own allows you that opportunity (knowledge of the amounts of fertilizer, hay testing, grass type, etc). You could always test the hay your buying but very few people actually do it.

James I operate under a different philosophy if the cow can't stay fat and raise a good calf on my grass and hay that I have. I'm getting a better cow that can.