Custom rolling vs owning equipment

[Bigfoot]

If someone will cut, rake, and roll your hay for $18 a roll, making a a nice tight 5 x 6 roll. How many rolls would you need to feed per year before you could justify owning a disc, mower, rake, and roller. It seems to me if I can always get this person, I can never justify owning them. I probably only average putting up 300 to 350 rolls every year any way. The rest I have to purchase from a local auction. I just wonder what the break even point on owning the equipment is?

 

[JSCATTLE]

The problem we have here is rain . If you want your have cut at a certain stage of growth and it rains for a few days the custom baler still has to go in order with his customer list . That might set you 2 weeks out on your cutting . And when the drought hits and grass doesn't produce it's hard to get someone to cut it for 1 roll to the acre . I bale 4x5 rolls net . I also have a 3 bale per acre min. So I'm gonna charge for 30 rolls on 10 acres even if it produced 10 rolls . Hope that helps

 

[Mid South Guy]

The problem we have here is rain . If you want your have cut at a certain stage of growth and it rains for a few days the custom baler still has to go in order with his customer list . That might set you 2 weeks out on your cutting . And when the drought hits and grass doesn't produce it's hard to get someone to cut it for 1 roll to the acre . I bale 4x5 rolls net . I also have a 3 bale per acre min. So I'm gonna charge for 30 rolls on 10 acres even if it produced 10 rolls . Hope that helps

Agreed! The big advantage of doing it yourself is having the flexibility to operate on your schedule and not having to adjust your management to fit the needs of a custom baler. You will always come in somewhere down the line. You will have to decide how many $ that is worth to you.

 

[John SD]

The problem we have here is rain . If you want your have cut at a certain stage of growth and it rains for a few days the custom baler still has to go in order with his customer list . That might set you 2 weeks out on your cutting . And when the drought hits and grass doesn't produce it's hard to get someone to cut it for 1 roll to the acre . I bale 4x5 rolls net . I also have a 3 bale per acre min. So I'm gonna charge for 30 rolls on 10 acres even if it produced 10 rolls . Hope that helps

It would take an exceptional year to make 3 bales an acre on my hay fields. 2 per acre is more common. I put up a 30 acre field one year and got 16 bales off of it. Not sure it was worth cutting, but I wasn't set up to graze it either.

 

[JSCATTLE]

On a good year I can roll 8 rolls a acre on my hay fields average is 5 rolls on an average year . But I heavily fertilize .

 

[highgrit]

JSCATTLE, Is that for each cutting? It cost us 20$ a roll to have it baled here.

 

[fitz]

The problem we have here is rain . If you want your have cut at a certain stage of growth and it rains for a few days the custom baler still has to go in order with his customer list . That might set you 2 weeks out on your cutting . And when the drought hits and grass doesn't produce it's hard to get someone to cut it for 1 roll to the acre . I bale 4x5 rolls net . I also have a 3 bale per acre min. So I'm gonna charge for 30 rolls on 10 acres even if it produced 10 rolls . Hope that helps

Agreed! The big advantage of doing it yourself is having the flexibility to operate on your schedule and not having to adjust your management to fit the needs of a custom baler. You will always come in somewhere down the line. You will have to decide how many $ that is worth to you.

I agree with you guys. I have my equip. and work on my time frame. When I'm done I know exactly what I have. Put up about the same as Bigfoot. All I need and can pasture the rest.
But! If I had someone I could really count on and do it when I needed it done (neither is likely) for that price I'd sell my equipment and leave the tractors in the shade.

fitz

 

[JSCATTLE]

JSCATTLE, Is that for each cutting? It cost us 20$ a roll to have it baled here.

Yes that is per cutting cut 3 times a year . I have a 18 acre field at my house that I cut 136 rolls off of last year . My neighbors were getting a roll to the acre at the same time . And I averaged 2.5 or so rolls a acre . And we only got 12 of out normal 50 inches of rain fall .

 

[highgrit]

I would be good with 10 rolls per acre per year. You guys are getting it done when it rains.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I would be good with 10 rolls per acre per year. You guys are getting it done when it rains.

Sometimes it rains every 3 days it makes it hard to get a field cut . I haven't seen it like that in about 6 years though . When it rains we can run a cow to the acre .

 

[sizmic]

We own all the equipment we need for hay work but I like to get in touch with your guy that will do it for $18. I'd be money ahead to sell everything and contract it for that price. When I custom roll hay for people I charge $13 a roll.

All that being said, there is some peace in knowing I can do it myself when I want to.

Sizmic

 

[Caustic Burno]

If someone will cut, rake, and roll your hay for $18 a roll, making a a nice tight 5 x 6 roll. How many rolls would you need to feed per year before you could justify owning a disc, mower, rake, and roller. It seems to me if I can always get this person, I can never justify owning them. I probably only average putting up 300 to 350 rolls every year any way. The rest I have to purchase from a local auction. I just wonder what the break even point on owning the equipment is?

When I quit it was costing me 36 dollars a roll to bail my own by the time I paid for fertilizer,fuel, parts that is not counting my labor.
50,000 dollars will buy a lot of hay that is not counting tractors. That's' not including the doctor visit's for blood pressure med's as well as antidepressant's. Remember hay equipment only breaks down in the hayfield never in the barn. A cool day in the hay field is 100. A hay baler can make a preacher cuss. Last year sold a new baler, rakes and cutter all I can say is hallelujah.

 

[bigbull338]

ok im going to jump in here,your spending about $6000 a year an thats cheap to cut rake an bale with 5 by 6 baler.i just priced some baling equipment minus the baler an was quoated $11,800 for a 7ft krone disc cutter an $4800 for a new 10 wheel rake.our baler man charges $20 a bale.ive got a friend that charges $25 a bale to bale 4 by 6 bales.i know hay baling will go up this year but dont know how much.the deal is when does the price of having your hay custom baled meet or exceed your yearly payment to buy your own equipment.we are almost to that point now.

 

[Caustic Burno]

ok im going to jump in here,your spending about $6000 a year an thats cheap to cut rake an bale with 5 by 6 baler.i just priced some baling equipment minus the baler an was quoated $11,800 for a 7ft krone disc cutter an $4800 for a new 10 wheel rake.our baler man charges $20 a bale.ive got a friend that charges $25 a bale to bale 4 by 6 bales.i know hay baling will go up this year but dont know how much.the deal is when does the price of having your hay custom baled meet or exceed your yearly payment to buy your own equipment.we are almost to that point now.

It just doesn't make sense to me anymore to bail my own, even when I was running more cow's.
With that said other than the security of knowing when you fields will be baled.
I sold an 8 ft Krone last summer for 4,000 it was in pristene shape along with a Hesston baler that had baled 300 bales. It didn't stay here long. Trader the eight wheel rake for for hay.

 

[bigbull338]

CB i dont know how meny cows your running now but i bet you can get buy on 60 bales of hay or less a year now.so custom baling is the way to go for you now.we have prolly 60 cows an exposed heifers now.so that puts us to using between 120 an 150 rd bales a year.an we usually have hay to sale.our 1st cutting is usually 200 bales or more if we get the rain.so we rarely take a 2nd cutting.

 

[Caustic Burno]

CB i dont know how meny cows your running now but i bet you can get buy on 60 bales of hay or less a year now.so custom baling is the way to go for you now.we have prolly 60 cows an exposed heifers now.so that puts us to using between 120 an 150 rd bales a year.an we usually have hay to sale.our 1st cutting is usually 200 bales or more if we get the rain.so we rarely take a 2nd cutting.

Heck I went from 37 head to 11. Looking at pastures look's like I am going to be reseeding after spraying.
Grass got hammered last year. Used to have 37 standing knee deep in grass going to 11 that needed bifocal's by the end of last summer.

 

[bigbull338]

well our cows are belly deep in grass.an so far they arnt making a dent in it.we have 1 small pasture shut off from the cows an it has knee deep thick grass in it now.an only 1 prob cow an her calf in it now.our cows are staying out in the pastures an rarely come up.we only culled 2 cows before the drought.an keep everything else.we fed 2 bales of hay a week unless it got bad then fed 2 more for the week.plus we fed prolly less than 1 ton of meal an custom forage replacer.an still had 20 bales of hay left over.so i figure we fed 50 bales during the drought.