Raising your own hay, Does it Pay?

[calfbuyer]

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

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.

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

BTW I'm in west/central Texas

[JSCATTLE]

For me it pays because of a few things .
I know that my hay is fertilized and how much was put on it .
I know when it was cut and how the hay was put up .
I also bale for a few people and paid for my bailer in 2 years by doing that .
And when every one was begging for 120 dollar hay during the drought my hay field produced enough to feed my cows through the winter .I just got a 100 acre place to bale for a man . 25 dollars a roll should make 300 rolls on the first cutting .

[rjbovine]

One way to look at it . Use the hay ground to run more cows, buy your hay . If you figuare cost of production its cheaper to buy. Interest alone on 4000 dollar ground will buy a lot of hay . For now around here 5x6 bales of grass hay are 40 to 50 bucks. Figuare 3 bale per acre thats 150 dollars you have used their ground and they baled your hay . Problem around here hay ground going to row crop . rj

[Caustic Burno]

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

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.

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



BTW I'm in west/central Texas

I quit baling my own two years ago and sold all my equipment, at that time it was costing me 36 dollars a roll to bale my own not counting labor. Now last year was an anomoly in there was no grass to be cut, off one of my little fields that usually yields 60 rolls a year yielded 7. That field had a thousand dollars worth of fertilizer on it.
Hay supplier called today I start hauling mine next Tuesday for 50 dollar's a roll.
Short answer no it doesn't pay for me.

[cross_7]

if your in an area like me then there isn't many custom balers so when/if you can get one to bale your hay it'll cost you.
then if you decided to buy hay it has to be trucked in and the trucking will cost more than the hay.
then if/when we get in a drought situation again you can plan on getting gouged on the price.

so depends on the availability of a custom baler and location of hay for sale.

[shaz]

I have 40-50 mamma cows and I make my own hay. Does it pencil out....not really but it gives me control over production. My production costs aren't bad.

It's insurance for lack of a better word and I pay accordingly. Plus, I use the hay to build soil as much as feed cows.

[Caustic Burno]

I have 40-50 mamma cows and I make my own hay. Does it pencil out....not really but it gives me control over production. My production costs aren't bad.

It's insurance for lack of a better word and I pay accordingly. Plus, I use the hay to build soil as much as feed cows.

When I was running 30-37 momma cows I did it for the exact same reason.
After cutting back due to a bad back and drought it made no sense at all to do it.
Hay is a lot of work and you really need to be a good jack of all trades.
Man could go broke hauling a baler back to the dealer.
It always amazed me the average car has 10,000 parts can be a piece of shyt and run like a sewing machine, and a hay baler can come completely apart for no apparent reason.

[shaz]

I have 40-50 mamma cows and I make my own hay. Does it pencil out....not really but it gives me control over production. My production costs aren't bad.

It's insurance for lack of a better word and I pay accordingly. Plus, I use the hay to build soil as much as feed cows.

When I was running 30-37 momma cows I did it for the exact same reason.
After cutting back due to a bad back and drought it made no sense at all to do it.
Hay is a lot of work and you really need to be a good jack of all trades.
Man could go broke hauling a baler back to the dealer.
It always amazed me the average car has 10,000 parts can be a piece of shyt and run like a sewing machine, and a hay baler can come completely apart for no apparent reason.

Ain't that the truth!

[calfbuyer]

Thanks for the input folks,

I just figured it up, with what I have spent in the last month fertilizing and spraying weeds, i could have bought 40 rolls for 60$ a roll and had a little cash left over. Let's just say that if I weren't worried about making hay I could run about 10 more cow/calf units 10 600lb calves at 1.50 per lb. avg., that's about 9K . So i have to buy an extra 20 rolls for the 10 extra cows that's 1200. 9000-1200 is 7800 back out the feed, vaccine and everything, your still about 4-5K ahead.

Is my math wrong, have i totally gotten out in left field here?

[bigbull338]

now your going to hear from some1 thats been on both sides of the fence.for almost 28yrs we baled our own hay.then like CB we sold the baling equipment as we was cutting back.an suffered by letting custom balers do it.an by that i mean cutting when itll get wet,letting it burn up.cutting what meadows they want an refusing to cut where we want.oh yeag an heres the big 1 telling them the hay is ready,an they take 60 days to get to it.by then hay is burned up.so if you can swing the equipment bale your own hay.i priced all new equipment this year,8ft cutter new $7000 8 wheel rake new $5000 4 by 5 baler $15000 to $17,000 with an w/o netwrap new.all can be pulled with 50hp tractor.we have a 85hp tractor but i sized everything to the 52hp 4x4 tractor.

[Brute 23]

To spray weeds, fert, and bale it typically costs in the $32-36 per bale range... not counting hauling them in and stacking... which probably only adds a couple bucks to each bale.

[calfbuyer]

I wish i could raise it for 36$.

[novatech]

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.
The best I have seen is the best one can do in pasture management for a no hay program. It may mean fewer cows or it might mean intensive grazing and stockpiled forage. Supplements cost money and hay is a supplement for lack of grass. Any way of reducing hay expense may make the difference between red or black ink.

[calfbuyer]

Ill agree with that. BTW if your from brenham, I grew up not far from there and my wife is from there.

[shaz]

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.
The best I have seen is the best one can do in pasture management for a no hay program. It may mean fewer cows or it might mean intensive grazing and stockpiled forage. Supplements cost money and hay is a supplement for lack of grass. Any way of reducing hay expense may make the difference between red or black ink.

Not really.
They hay field is in a flood zone across a state highway and serves no other purpose. Probably has more top soil that I would ever need. I'm not making or feeding very much hay at all.