Bales per Acre

[Lucky]

What kind of hay yields are y'all getting on good mixed grass fertilzed hay fields? We would be baling 4x5.5 1,000# rolls. We've always bought hay but would like to plant and fertlize a 60 acre field for hay. We hear all sorts of numbers. The guys I bought from this year claimed part of the field made 10 rolls to the acre. Looked more like 3 to me. We'd like to get 4 rolls if possible.

 

[dcarp]

What kind of hay yields are y'all getting on good mixed grass fertilzed hay fields? We would be baling 4x5.5 1,000# rolls. We've always bought hay but would like to plant and fertlize a 60 acre field for hay. We hear all sorts of numbers. The guys I bought from this year claimed part of the field made 10 rolls to the acre. Looked more like 3 to me. We'd like to get 4 rolls if possible.

So far I've gotten 3 bales per acre. That's 5' x 5'8" bales @ +/- 1800 lbs. Most of the time the folks that claim to make really high number of bales per acre are making marshmallow (soft) bales.

 

[kenny thomas]

When you talk size of rolls weigh a few. My 1000 lb rolls had been on a diet and weighed 750.
For here 3 ton per acre would be excellent hay. Probably 2 ton is more common. I see lots of fall hay that's more like 1 roll per acre. Its not the rolls per acre, it's tons per acre.

 

[Dave]

Here 2 tons per acre on a single cutting is about it. Over on the coast with multiple cuttings 6 tons per acre was done.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

2 to 2.5 tons per acre average here. I've had fields make 4 tons to the acre, also 1.5 ton per acre. That's on one single cutting.

 

[SBMF 2015]

We have great soil compared to some of you guys. On my alfalfa/orchid grass mix we fertilize for 5 tons per acre.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Our growing season limits us more than soil. Our snow is still melting in early May and our last frost is typically in mid June.

 

[Logan52]

I generally get about 2 tons per acre on the first cutting and about half that on a second cutting in September. I could up it to 3 tons with more fertilizer and decent rains, This is mostly orchard grass and red clover.
Here, timely rain is the key.

 

[cfpinz]

I generally get about 2 tons per acre on the first cutting and about half that on a second cutting in September. I could up it to 3 tons with more fertilizer and decent rains, This is mostly orchard grass and red clover.
Here, timely rain is the key.

Very similar to here.

Still haven't figured out how to order the timely rain on a regular basis.

 

[jltrent]

A warm spring with rain at the right time is what makes hay around here. This year I used fertilizer that had a slow-release chemical added and I am a big believer in it. Instead of the fertilizer pretty much doing what it does in two weeks it slow releases up to five weeks. Also, it is not near as susceptible to water or wind leach. I had one field around 45 acres that made over 200 5' x 4' bales and I had to run the baler in 3rd gear to roll it.

 

[Kthompson]

3-4 Bales an acre here on fertilized coastal/crab grass

 

[Brute 23]

3 is about avg. That's heavy 5x6 bales. A person could do 4 but you are probably giving up quality at some point.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Without an avg weight of bales any bale/acre number is kind of meaningless.

 

[cowman82]

i have some of the best riverbottom ground around and I get 5 tons+/ac. most ridge fields around here will get around 2 ton/ac.. if it hasn't been kept up you might get 1/2 ton ac. just depends how its been taken care of.

We have great soil compared to some of you guys. On my alfalfa/orchid grass mix we fertilize for 5 tons per acre

 

[gcreekrch]

2.5 tons on our best ground, 1.75 average this year. Flood irrigation and no commercial fertilizer.

 

[1982vett]

I had 25 acres 7baled the first of July that hadn't had cows on it since the end of April. It made 139 5x5.5 rolls.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I weight around 5-10% of the bales I produce, and more than that on bales I buy.

I've seen 4x5 bales weight anywhere from 500-900ish lbs.

I bale 4x5.5' bales that averaged around 1103 lb this season. If I crank the pressure down I can get them to weight 800lb...

I've bought loads of 5x5 bales that averaged 840lb one year, and as heavy as 1200 another year.

So bales per acre is kind of a pointless metric.

 

[Mrcopier]

It will also depend on how much fertilizer you put on it, back when it was affordable I could put 400lbs per acre and get 4-5 per acre. Now I couldn't afford 400 per acre. We have switched to chicken litter. It has pros and cons

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Several factors play into the quantity of hay that gets produced on any given acre of ground. Some of those factors are variable, some are not. Some of the factors you have control over, some you do not. These same factors come into play when I need to calculate stocking rate on a given farm based on pasture, and I have a couple additional factors I must consider when considering grazing vs haying, but I'll discuss grazing later if someone wants me to.

Given no other variables to consider, (there are many), the soil present at the site will be the determining factor on the quantity of hay that is produced per acre. I've seen values anywhere from 1.2 tons per acre to 8-9 tons per acre. These are averages and both values I've listed here are extremes. Neither are particularly common though. The soil is one of two factors that doesn't change. The second factor that doesn't change is day length or growing hours. These do not change from year to year. I 'could' refer to season in place of day length, but weather, another factor, also plays into season and weather is variable.

Weather is a variable factor playing into hay quantity produced of which moisture timing and availability make up part of weather. Weather is also composed of temperature which can be too hot, too cold, or just right (Goldilocks factor? ) as well as the time of day the temperatures are occurring at.

The one factor we do have control over (arguably not the only factor if you are irrigating your hay) is soil amendments. This includes fertilization but it also includes pH which affects nutrient availability to the hay plants.

Then you need to consider (or could anyway) the species, AND variety, of the hay that you are producing. Prior to me going south to play for awhile, I didn't consider variety within a species to have a whole lot of impact on quantity. Bermuda grass changed my thought on that, significantly. The quantity of forage produced by a variety of a particular species often only becomes evident when other factors that are normally limiting are adjusted in a way that they are no longer the limiting factor. An example of what I'm saying here, and I'll use the Bermuda I mentioned, is when the fields of Bermuda are fertilized, one variety will nearly double its production while the other variety of the same species might show only a 10-20 percent increase, if that in some instances.

Latitude and elevation I suppose are additional factors that come into play that affect production, although these two factors might have more of a role in being factor having an effect on the other factors already mentioned. Everything tends to have an effect on everything else and very little is truly independent.

 

[cowman82]

most i've seen is 950 bales out of a new mchale baler. wet bales, a tad over 4x4. 2 semi loads of hog manure and a cover crop mix. baled in early april on a 50 ac field.