Custom Hay Balers

[csutton]

Ok, this is a question for the custom balers out there. What size round bale do you normally make for your customers? What is the going rate for this past/next year. We used to custom bale about 7 years ago, and we were getting 12 dollars a (5x6) round bale to cut rake and bale. Just wondering what it might be up too now with fuel prices and such.

csutton

 

[stocky]

The main custom baler here bales the big 5x6 Vermeer bale for 17 dollars--cut rake and bale. There are some part timers that make the 4x6 for 18-20 and the 4x5 for 15.

 

[Dusty Britches]

I'm getting quotes of $19 for the heavy 5x6 bales.

 

[cowtrek]

I get $15 per bale here. My boss at the bus barn hired me to do his and told me that he had been paying $18 per roll. I'm probably underpriced but I'm making money and feel fair's fair. Not looking to clean anybody's plow ya know. I have older equipment and can't netwrap or roll rock-hard bales like some can, but they're 5' wide and between 5-6 feet tall depending on the grass. I DO really try to make the best hay I can for myself and for my customers, though. A lot of guys around here won't even come to cut it for a month or two and then when they do they let it lay on the ground for a week before they'll come back to rake and bale it. Essentially they're charging $18 a roll to make cardboard. You can unroll my hay in February and it's still got that good green color and smells sweet. Some of the stuff I've seen rolled around here I wouldn't use to start a brush pile burning.

Oh well, to each his own! Yall take it easy! OL JR

 

[stocky]

Cowtrek, sounds like you are the kind of guy who people would enjoy working with and having for a neighbor. Should be more like you.

 

[Dusty Britches]

I get $15 per bale here. My boss at the bus barn hired me to do his and told me that he had been paying $18 per roll. I'm probably underpriced but I'm making money and feel fair's fair. Not looking to clean anybody's plow ya know. I have older equipment and can't netwrap or roll rock-hard bales like some can, but they're 5' wide and between 5-6 feet tall depending on the grass. I DO really try to make the best hay I can for myself and for my customers, though. A lot of guys around here won't even come to cut it for a month or two and then when they do they let it lay on the ground for a week before they'll come back to rake and bale it. Essentially they're charging $18 a roll to make cardboard. You can unroll my hay in February and it's still got that good green color and smells sweet. Some of the stuff I've seen rolled around here I wouldn't use to start a brush pile burning.

Oh well, to each his own! Yall take it easy! OL JR

Ok, I'm sold. When can you bale mine?

I'm having trouble with getting a baler to come out. It is mostly b/c of the rain or threat of rain (didn't think I'd be saying that). One says he has 2 other jobs ahead of me. I hope he can bale mine before our first frost.

 

[Cabo]

I charge $15 for a tight 4X5. Went to this size because of the liability of hauling the wide loads.

 

[Tod Dague]

A local man charges $16 / roll. He cut, rakes, and bails. The bails are 5' wide and 6.5' tall and you can't get your hand in any of it. We use a 90 horse Massy with out a front loader and the front wheels just skim the ground.

 

[Cabo]

A local man charges $16 / roll. He cut, rakes, and bails. The bails are 5' wide and 6.5' tall and you can't get your hand in any of it. We use a 90 horse Massy with out a front loader and the front wheels just skim the ground.

If I were you I would buy him a cup everytime that I saw him, IMO, you are getting a heck of a deal.

 

[Tod Dague]

I agree a heck of a deal. Some people actually griped when he went to $16. I told him not to worry that they would be calling after they feed a couple of loose 5x5 bails.

He is a fine young man that has taken over the hay operation of his families farming/ranching operation about 5 years ago.

We ended up getting a man in our nursing home that his family leased from and he was there visiting more often than the man's family.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Twenty bucks a roll here for 4x5's with a twenty roll minimum.

 

[dun]

Since we do it on shares with the neighbor I don;t know what the cfustom guys get. I'll probably find out next year since I'm proabably going to pick up a used 435 with net wrap over the winter.

dun

 

[backhoeboogie]

I paid $13.50 per bale for 115 bales of 4 by 6. For smaller patches of ground I have paid up to $18.

 

[IL Rancher]

Most guys around here don't charge by the bale. The charge by the operation. X amount of dollars per acre for cutting and raking and than X amount per bale so it really depends on the tonnage you are getting. When we did annual hay in which you would get 4 bales to the acre it would be pretty "cheap" at 15 or 16 a roll. But when you droped down to the two an acre it would be more like 20... These were all 5X6... The worst was 4th cutting.. That could get real expensive in a drought year.... We don't do Alfalfa anymore so we don't deal with taht real short 4th cutting anymore.

 

[bigbull338]

Most guys around here don't charge by the bale. The charge by the operation. X amount of dollars per acre for cutting and raking and than X amount per bale so it really depends on the tonnage you are getting. When we did annual hay in which you would get 4 bales to the acre it would be pretty "cheap" at 15 or 16 a roll. But when you droped down to the two an acre it would be more like 20... These were all 5X6... The worst was 4th cutting.. That could get real expensive in a drought year.... We don't do Alfalfa anymore so we don't deal with taht real short 4th cutting anymore.

to level the playing field on custom balers.they should just charge like $35 an hr for cutting tefdding raking an baling.that way in the lean hay years the price is fair.

 

[cfpinz]

Most guys around here don't charge by the bale. The charge by the operation. X amount of dollars per acre for cutting and raking and than X amount per bale so it really depends on the tonnage you are getting. When we did annual hay in which you would get 4 bales to the acre it would be pretty "cheap" at 15 or 16 a roll. But when you droped down to the two an acre it would be more like 20... These were all 5X6... The worst was 4th cutting.. That could get real expensive in a drought year.... We don't do Alfalfa anymore so we don't deal with taht real short 4th cutting anymore.

to level the playing field on custom balers.they should just charge like $35 an hr for cutting tefdding raking an baling.that way in the lean hay years the price is fair.

If you charge $35 an hour to run a roll baler you won't be in business very long.

cfpinz

 

[stocky]

I dont think there is a standard that could always be considered fair. I saw 1100 small, common quality 4x5 round bales of grass hay at a farm sale Jan 1 bring 65-75 dollars per bale. At that price, 20 dollars for putting the hay up would be too cheap. The past 5 years, those same bales have sold for 8-12 dollars per bale and 10 dollars to put it up is too high. Over the last 5 years, there has been alot of hay rot in our area because grass hay was selling from 8-15 dollars per bale, depending on the size and quality. The farmers who put the hay up themselves, sold it for that. The ones who hired it put up, said they would rather let it rot, than to sell it for less than it cost to bale it. So, it rotted. When hay is high, people will bale hay on the shares. When it is cheap, no one will bale on the shares. A couple of years ago, the only guy around here that would bale on the shares got 75 percent of the hay.
There is also a continuous cycle that goes on. With sky high hay prices this year, alot of farmers will decide they can raise hay to sell to make a living. Then, if it rains, there is way too much hay and the price bottoms out and they cant sell it, then they go back to buying cattle and then the hay is short. It is an unending cycle, but all of it depends on the weather, anyway.

 

[Earl Thigpen]

Last time I had a custom baler do my hay it worked out to about $20/bale although that's not the way he charges. He charges $10/acre to cut and rake and $14/bale to bale it. You can quickly see where the numbers can be a little misleading depending on how good your grass is.