Cost of baling hay

[Stocker Steve]

What was the equipment part? Did you include any labor?

 

[Coosh71]

First cutting is done! Yahoo
We had 2 sunny days (8th & 9th) and got 70 acres done, then 3 days later had a sunny day & got the last 10 acres done. All put up as baleage - 52" and inline wrapped.
I do not own ANY hay equipment except the two spears on my tractor. Total labor & equipment cost was $15.72/bale. This will vary from year to year, depending on how many bales per acre. I got 5.13/acre. Mostly grass hay, just starting boot stage.
How does that compare to others?
I put 300#/acre fertilizer.

That cost is way lower than it is here. We have a couple Meadows we are going to cut and hay guy quoted me $40/bale. We should get 75-80 bales per meadow.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Coosh - your fertilizer, your ground and it will cost $40/bale?? Yikes. I don't think I could stay in business if my feed cost was that much. I could see that owning your own equipment would be more profitable than hiring it done.
Our hay crew is a 3 man team. My nephew is one. They have a bale wagon that picks up 12 wet bales in the field, dumps it in a double line (6 +6). They bring a skid steer that Phil (nephew) uses to load the in line wrapper. Since our "no rain" window was so small, Ben mowed from about 9:30pm til 3AM, both Friday & Saturday nights. Started baling around 1pm. Put up about 175 each day and finished up 3 days later. They have a great system, and my hay fields are close to where we wrap, so short haul time.

 

[1982vett]

hmmm.... seems to me maybe New York should raise their property taxes...

...state income taxes range from 4% to 8.2%.... then add to that the property taxes.

 

[Son of Butch]

hmmm.... seems to me maybe New York should raise their property taxes...

...state income taxes range from 4% to 8.2%.... then add to that the property taxes.

Plus sales tax, Not enough... those rural bums need to pay more to keep those NYC streets clean
and east coast politicians happy.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We pay 8% sales tax on everything you buy except non-prepared food. It does vary in some counties.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I wish my wife could figure out how to put her family farm on Grindstone Island into conservation. The tax bill is only $14k per year and the house is a 100+ years old. That's quite excessive for someone that only spends a couple of weeks a year there.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Grit - if it was an active farm with a certain amount of income, would the taxes be a whole lot less? $14k is almost 5 times what I end up paying for land taxes in a year on about 160 acres.

 

[Coosh71]

Coosh - your fertilizer, your ground and it will cost $40/bale?? Yikes. I don't think I could stay in business if my feed cost was that much. I could see that owning your own equipment would be more profitable than hiring it done.
Our hay crew is a 3 man team. My nephew is one. They have a bale wagon that picks up 12 wet bales in the field, dumps it in a double line (6 +6). They bring a skid steer that Phil (nephew) uses to load the in line wrapper. Since our "no rain" window was so small, Ben mowed from about 9:30pm til 3AM, both Friday & Saturday nights. Started baling around 1pm. Put up about 175 each day and finished up 3 days later. They have a great system, and my hay fields are ok close to where we wrap, so short haul time.

That's with no fertilizer. That's pulling up, swathing, baling and leaving. $40/bale. Bales will be good 1500#. Around here if you buy hay it's $80-$120/bale. We usually stock pile hay every couple years just so we have extra. We don't need to feed much hay in winter. It's just nice to have. And sometimes we sell it in late winter to help others out.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Grit - if it was an active farm with a certain amount of income, would the taxes be a whole lot less? $14k is almost 5 times what I end up paying for land taxes in a year on about 160 acres.

There's a 1/4+ mile of Grindstone Island shoreline that drives the value up. It's not an active farm anymore, at one time it had an ice house, cheese factory, a herd of Guernsey milk cows and horned Hereford beef cows. I see no way that we can feasibly generate $10k in farm income per year.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I don't know about Guernsey, but CT experts should be able to get you into some high profit beefers! :nod:

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Coosh - "that's" the major difference. I need about 11 bales/head for our winter supply. We feed from Nov thru April, with nothing for them to eat EXCEPT the hay we provide. And, baleage is a lot of water. Might be about 700# dry matter/bale. So, your $40 would be about $20/bale for me.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I'm charging 22 a bale to cut/rake/bale 4x5.5 net wrapped bales. If somebody offered to pay me less than 16 for the same operation plus hauling and wrapping I'd leave my equipment parked in the shed. Not sure how they can make those numbers pencil out.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Always some who will do it for less. That does not mean it pencils out.

What is the weight and value of a 4x5.5 bale in the UP ?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Mine (wet) will weigh about 1300# (4 x 52"). Worth about $35?? Equal to about 700# dry matter.
He's a neighbor. Been doing mine for 30+ years. But, even so, I think that's what he charges others. Also, added cost - I pay/provide for all the fuel.
When we are able to do dry bales, it might run about the same per bale, but there is twice as much hay in one bale.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

22 a bale is my friend/neighbor rate. If I'm busy and its farther away the price can go up.

Last year my 4x5 dry bales averaged 913lbs and wet were as heavy as 1500lbs. I sold all I wanted this spring for 40 a bale, could have raised the price but I didnt.

This is my first year with the 4x6 crop cutter baler so I'm eager to see what kind of weight I can slam in a bale. I haven't actually set a price on my 4x5.5s and x6s with my customers until I weigh some, but told them no less than 22.

 

[Stocker Steve]

How much DM could your old baler put into a dry bale vs. a wet bale ?

 

[TexasBred]

Coosh - your fertilizer, your ground and it will cost $40/bale?? Yikes. I don't think I could stay in business if my feed cost was that much. I could see that owning your own equipment would be more profitable than hiring it done.
Our hay crew is a 3 man team. My nephew is one. They have a bale wagon that picks up 12 wet bales in the field, dumps it in a double line (6 +6). They bring a skid steer that Phil (nephew) uses to load the in line wrapper. Since our "no rain" window was so small, Ben mowed from about 9:30pm til 3AM, both Friday & Saturday nights. Started baling around 1pm. Put up about 175 each day and finished up 3 days later. They have a great system, and my hay fields are ok close to where we wrap, so short haul time.

That's with no fertilizer. That's pulling up, swathing, baling and leaving. $40/bale. Bales will be good 1500#. Around here if you buy hay it's $80-$120/bale. We usually stock pile hay every couple years just so we have extra. We don't need to feed much hay in winter. It's just nice to have. And sometimes we sell it in late winter to help others out.

Coosh if you don't feed hay in winter what do you feed??

 

[snoopdog]

I don't bale wet hay, so my per ton figures don't add up. I prefer to spend my time baling, rather than digging it out of the pickup of my old equipment.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

snoopdog - I don't own any hay equipment, but I believe the baler has to be made for wet hay. I'm "assuming" you know that, LOL.
I would much rather put it all up dry, but here in NY that is like nearly impossible for 1st cutting - unless you want to wait for July. I try to put up 2nd cutting in dry bales. But, I have them do what we gotta do to get it up out of the fields.