Born to Bale $$$

[Stocker Steve]

Parked the baler this week. :banana: Have 1,002 round ones for 2017. Seems like a lot when you have to haul them. Now I have to do some feed testing and ration calculations to balance it out. Machinery repair can wait till after hunting season.

Cow hay here is running about $65/ton. What do you see in your area?

 

[cowgirl8]

Hay is dirt cheap here, around 30 bucks for 1100 pound roll. It was though a good custom year. Husband just finished up his hay season with a custom job. Worked 2 days and made good money. Equipment is getting put up and hay season is over. We baled over 3000 rolls, but some of that was for someone else. We have around 1500 of them plus what was left over last year. Everyone is like that this year around us..no one is buying

 

[Caustic Burno]

Bought it for 60 a ton today.

 

[ddd75]

35 - 90 for a round bale here.

 

[SmokinM]

Wow your grass sure turned out! Guess your ready for the snow now! If I could buy it for $65 a ton here I would have some nice hay equipment for sale and more time to fish. Starts at $100 for junk hay and reasonably good out of a barn more like $140. Unless you buy the 1000# 4x4 rolls that came out of a Krone soft core baler then you can buy it for $50 a ton.

 

[ddd75]

Wow your grass sure turned out! Guess your ready for the snow now! If I could buy it for $65 a ton here I would have some nice hay equipment for sale and more time to fish. Starts at $100 for junk hay and reasonably good out of a barn more like $140. Unless you buy the 1000# 4x4 rolls that came out of a Krone soft core baler then you can buy it for $50 a ton.

hahah.. i heard that.

about as much hay as a square bale.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Bought it for 60 a ton today.

Ready to buy back that line of haying equipment?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Bought it for 60 a ton today.

Ready to buy back that line of haying equipment?

Never again.
I would sell the few I have left buy heavies in the spring and sell pairs in the fall.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Wow your grass sure turned out!

Set up a lot of bale grazing, and filled one shed for next year.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Bought it for 60 a ton today.

Ready to buy back that line of haying equipment?

Never again.
I would sell the few I have left buy heavies in the spring and sell pairs in the fall.

It would be fun to roll with one of those zero turn self propelled Vermeer balers...

 

[RanchMan90]

Wow your grass sure turned out!

Set up a lot of bale grazing, and filled one shed for next year.

What's your logic on the profitability of this Steve?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Ready to buy back that line of haying equipment?

Never again.
I would sell the few I have left buy heavies in the spring and sell pairs in the fall.

It would be fun to roll with one of those zero turn self propelled Vermeer balers...

I was in the hayfield today helping a young man with his first equipment.

 

[pricefarm]

Ready to buy back that line of haying equipment?

Never again.
I would sell the few I have left buy heavies in the spring and sell pairs in the fall.

It would be fun to roll with one of those zero turn self propelled Vermeer balers...

I seen those online. They look pretty neat. But I know a lot of people who have wore out a couple rollers and still using the same tractor

 

[Nesikep]

I put up 3200 square bales at about 80 lbs.. they go for $8-12 / bale here so in the $250/ton area.. My 40x112' shed is full up, it's a great feeling.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Set up a lot of bale grazing, and filled one shed for next year.

What's your logic on the profitability of this Steve?[/quote]

Are you making fun of my hay hobby? ;-)

 

[RanchMan90]

Set up a lot of bale grazing, and filled one shed for next year.

What's your logic on the profitability of this Steve?

Are you making fun of my hay hobby? ;-)[/quote]
I guess it is cheaper than whiskey and women I take it you are just utilizing excess grass? Would a pot load of stockers not make better use of this opportunity cost?

 

[Stocker Steve]

Would a pot load of stockers not make better use of this opportunity cost?

This is a complicated order for a confused person like myself, but I will try. :?

 

[RanchMan90]

Would a pot load of stockers not make better use of this opportunity cost?

This is a complicated order for a confused person like myself, but I will try. :?

Opportunity cost being the equipment and loss of grazing.

 

[Stocker Steve]

We are in a forage surplus area with the decline of small dairies - - so market prices are usually low. Farm Business Management still usually shows a profit from hay making but figures lie. They don't prorate establishment costs and they don't capture mineral mining...

 

[Stocker Steve]

I periodically look at gross margin per acre. Smaller animals return more per acre during most of the cattle price cycle. The trade offs are higher investment and higher price risk. Also, you can not add one animal or one acre at a time. So there is a lumpy stepwise need for equity to stock new pastures.
This brings one to a Bud/Gordon moment where you either need to reinvest some profits each year in additional stock, or you need to increase risk even more by leveraging borrowed money. I don't want to borrow for cattle so I am retaining more calves each year and taking them back to grass the following spring.
The alternative is to subdivide and sell part of the last land purchase, and sell off some of the equipment, and go fishing. :idea: This would increase return per acre but I has some sentimental reasons not to go there. So I make some hay while I build the herd.