Continue Baling or Change Course

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We custom bale and our own. We also bale land for weekenders who want their place looking good. We have a few places like that and they arent small. We get the hay, they get their place looking like a show place. This year we invested in 300,000 of new equipment, mainly because its getting hard to find, interest was at 0, and we got around 3000+ acres to bale from the solar farm. A couple months ago, it looked like we invested badly, but, got a few downpours over where we did first cuttings and its looking much better. We're probably at about 4000 rolls now and have only cut a portion of this solar farm. Anyone in our area needing hay, shoot me a PM.. You can get it out of the field, its all easily accessible.. If we move it before, it will cost more. Right now, we're holding onto most of it. We have a lot of people wanting it. Just heard our son in law sold 50.. My fear was being stuck with thousands of bales... but, looking like we wont have any trouble selling it. Good tight 4x5 1/2 rolls of mixed grasses, mainly johnson and there are some weeds, but, its mostly grass..
You should be able to truck it out by the 18 wheeler loads to south texas.
 
We put up 100 beautiful alfalfa rounds at the beginning of the month, not one issue- a wobbler bushing and a bent bar, big deal. Field went smoothly, all delivered, hauled equipment to our home fields and now its been one thing after another. I watch my husband struggle with the breakdowns every year and am blessed he is an amazing mechanic and can work on the older equipment. BUT in the end is it worth the loans, the fuel, the travel, the bitchiness from customers when you cant get to 3 fields all in the same week or a part is being waited on... Much like raising our own beef, we feel the same way about the hay- we know how it was done, where it was baled, the quality etc, and most years that outweighs the option of purchasing.
 
Jim Gerrish and most ag school budgets came to the same conclusion of buy/not bale 25 years ago. Better yet, stockpile and use less/none.
There would be custom balers who would now have enough acreage to justify owning and operating the equipment required. Do an accurate assessment of your hay costs, including fertilizer, and see what you could pay for hay. Don't even count the nutrients you are bringing on to your place. Don't even count the additional animals you could graze on your hay ground. You may not eliminate hay totally, as some Canadians have, but reducing hay feeding a month on the front end and a month on the back end would be a tremendous savings. Because you haven't done it, doesn't mean it can't be done. Think outside the box. Good luck.
 
If I wanted to buy the volume of hay needed I would have to truck it in from 150+ miles away (unless another customer operator moved in and sold me hay off the ground I already lease?). 6.19 diesel fuel makes any long distance trucking mighty expensive currently.

I don't hay any ground that is pasture. All my hay ground is rented ground that the owners want no part of having cows on. So buying hay would result is no extra grazing.

I have enough pasture to graze until snow gets deep and start again when things green up. Last winter we had 18 FEET of snowfall, thus any sort of winter grazing is a pipe dream.

If you have a way to graze through 5-6 feet of snow so solid you can walk on it I'm all ears? Hahaha
 
If I wanted to buy the volume of hay needed I would have to truck it in from 150+ miles away (unless another customer operator moved in and sold me hay off the ground I already lease?). 6.19 diesel fuel makes any long distance trucking mighty expensive currently.

I don't hay any ground that is pasture. All my hay ground is rented ground that the owners want no part of having cows on. So buying hay would result is no extra grazing.

I have enough pasture to graze until snow gets deep and start again when things green up. Last winter we had 18 FEET of snowfall, thus any sort of winter grazing is a pipe dream.

If you have a way to graze through 5-6 feet of snow so solid you can walk on it I'm all ears? Hahaha
You are in a situation unique to any one else on here. Cattle business is tough, and yours seems to be a bit tougher. Where do you go with 18 ft of snow? I'd think you would run out of places to push it after a while.
 

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