cows or hay

[rc]

For the last 4 years I have been working on building a small herd of mixed angus cows. So far I have 20 momma cows and one registared black angus bull, and 14 calves 350 to 500 ready to go to the sale. I have 2 good tractors, a john deere round baler and new case ih square baler along with a good rake and mower. I also have a 80 by 64 foot barn for hay storage. I have 75 acres of land, mostly in pasture that the cows are on but could be turned into very good hay ground. I'm dependant now on getting to cut off of others land and it's good mixed grass cow hay at best. My question I'm asking myself is whether I would be better off as a suplemental income (I work full time) to keep the cows and sell calves each year or sell the cows and bull and devote my land to hay. If I went the route of selling square hay I would have to buy an accumulator in order to get it up. Suggestions welcome and appreciated. I would sure miss the cows......

 

[bandit80]

Sharpen your pencil!!! Only you can truly estimate what is the most profitable for your operation.

If your 75 acres of ground produce 4 tons of hay per year, at $75/ton, thats $22,500 before expenses. If you sell 15 calves every year at $550/hd, thats $8,250 before expenses. Sounds like a no brainer, but what are your expenses to grow and sell quality hay. You need to know how much fertilizer you will put on every year, lime, etc. How much will fertilizer cost next year? How much will fuel cost next year?? Is the ground you currently hay in jeapordy of being lost? If not, maybe you could rent some additional hay ground and have both. Hay to sell and cows to watch after.

In my area, hay used to be cheap. That is not the case now. It is almost more profitable to sell the hay rather than feed cows. Makes me question myself every now and then. In other areas, however, there is alot of hay, and it is very cheap.

It all boils down to your expected revenues, less your expenses for both operations. Then, whichever route you choose, hope your projections are close to reality. Good luck.

 

[rc]

"Most" of my ground is in bermuda with some clover and such mixed in. The ground I am cutting for hay is far poorer than my pastures and really need reworking. I have trained horses for the past 17 years and know a lot of horse people in the area that I think I can make hay customers out of but will have to have a very good quality hay for the finicky horse folks. The thing is that type of hay around here is going for around $5 in the field and $6 in the barn if not more come winter after a dry summer. I'm still in the thinking process on all of this but do intend to take a load of calves to the sale hopefully today. They seem to be up right now. Check out an accumulator from haymaster.biz and let me know what you think of it.

 

[dyates]

I agree with most of what Bandit said, but I would think you could get more than 15 calves off of 75 acres, especially as far south as you are. I would look at MIG as a third alternative. If you get up to one pair for every two acres, which I think is pretty realistic in a MIG scenario, the gross income looks pretty comparable to the hay.

 

[johnd_125]

If the main goal is supplemental income, you would probably be better off to sell the cows, the machinery and rent out the land.

But I suspect you're like alot of us and you have other reasons for doing what you do. Why can't you have cows AND hay? Take part of your acreage and reserve for hay and cull out a few cows. The advantage to that is that you don't depend on others for your hay and you can raise better, higher yielding hay.

I'm in a similar situation with about 50 acres and 10 cows. Half my acreage is brush/timber and I want to leave it that way. Even though I have about $5000 tied up in my equipment I know it probably doesn't make good financial sense. I only need 30-40 bales of hay per year. But I like doing it and I feel like my kids have learned something about farming they wouldn't know if I was just collecting rent on the land. Its hard to put a value on that.

 

[bandit80]

But I like doing it and I feel like my kids have learned something about farming they wouldn't know if I was just collecting rent on the land. Its hard to put a value on that.

:clap:
Values learned from farming can't be taught otherwise.

 

[grannysoo]

Don't count on getting rich anytime soon in the hay business...

Also, most serious buyers in the hay business buy a truckload of small bales at the time. You deliver the load, leave the trailer, and pick up the empty. Better figure on a semi-truck and several trailers too.

Cheaper to buy hay than make it.

 

[JRM]

With a full time job will you be able to bale when you need/have too? You can plan it out perfect to cut one day then say bale on weekend when your customers may be coming and as soon as you get done cutting the weather man has made a 180 degree turn and you have to bale maybe a day earlier that you wanted to. Rain on hay is usually ok to feed to your cows, but with my experince if it rained on no one wants it unless it real cheap.
I make a little doing custom work, my equipment is noto that new, but usually do not have any problems and I also got a couple freinds that we all have an agreement to help each other out if we have breakdown.
Hay is one commodity that you say what you want for instead of taking a load of grain and getting what they are giving. There are pros and cons to this though as some people will sell hay below production cost and may but pressure on you to lower your price.
There is no one simple answer, pros and cons to both. Can you slowly move into hay production and see how that goes before you sell off all your stock?
best of luck

 

[rc]

I have on hand one new tractor, one decent Ford 5000 tractor for raking and back up, new Case IH square baler, good rake and cutter, JD round baler and a 80/64 foot barn for storage. I plan to buy an accumulator and grapple from Haymaster for loading squares. As has been said here before you got to know when to hold em and .... Well my thoughts are selling the cows and doing the hay thing and see how it goes and at least I'll get my pastures in tip top shape. It's a very dry year here again and If I do sell I'll have about 100 rolls I can sell. Square bermuda here is going for 5 to 5.50 in the field and right now 6.50 in the barn. I look for that to go way up again this year. I couldn't have livestock if I didn't do hay. Right now I'm still working full time so it's not going to break us and I can take off when needed to do baling etc. I took a load of calves to the sale last week and they averaged 1.02 per pound on 400 lb. average. Bred heifers should do pretty well.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Grass Farmer mag ran a revenue per acre article in February. Lowest revenue was to run cows, seasonal yearling operation was much better, and seasonal yearling plus year round sheep was best....

 

[john250]

For the last 4 years I have been working on building a small herd of mixed angus cows. So far I have 20 momma cows and one registared black angus bull, and 14 calves 350 to 500 ready to go to the sale. I have 2 good tractors, a john deere round baler and new case ih square baler along with a good rake and mower. I also have a 80 by 64 foot barn for hay storage. I have 75 acres of land, mostly in pasture that the cows are on but could be turned into very good hay ground. I'm dependant now on getting to cut off of others land and it's good mixed grass cow hay at best. My question I'm asking myself is whether I would be better off as a suplemental income (I work full time) to keep the cows and sell calves each year or sell the cows and bull and devote my land to hay. If I went the route of selling square hay I would have to buy an accumulator in order to get it up. Suggestions welcome and appreciated. I would sure miss the cows......

You have a lot of assets, and you like cows.
Cows are an up and down business. You are going to be a "hobby" guy, likely. I mean that you will see enough income to encourage you, but the expenses will keep you hopping. Don't quit your day job.
It is a great life. Concentrate on quality.

 

[GMN]

For the last 4 years I have been working on building a small herd of mixed angus cows. So far I have 20 momma cows and one registared black angus bull, and 14 calves 350 to 500 ready to go to the sale. I have 2 good tractors, a john deere round baler and new case ih square baler along with a good rake and mower. I also have a 80 by 64 foot barn for hay storage. I have 75 acres of land, mostly in pasture that the cows are on but could be turned into very good hay ground. I'm dependant now on getting to cut off of others land and it's good mixed grass cow hay at best. My question I'm asking myself is whether I would be better off as a suplemental income (I work full time) to keep the cows and sell calves each year or sell the cows and bull and devote my land to hay. If I went the route of selling square hay I would have to buy an accumulator in order to get it up. Suggestions welcome and appreciated. I would sure miss the cows......

I think you already answered this question for yourself, in the last sentence.

GMN