Do you make or buy your hay?

[clarkmorefarm]

Was submitting a file at work for make vs buy and it got me thinking about the hay I fed last night.

I don't believe that making hay pencils out much for small cattle operations like my own, but it is something I truly enjoy doing. So, I make all the hay I feed. I am converting all of my hay fields into pasture and fencing it in right now, but my farm was a hay field for the last 10 to 15 years prior. I am fortunate to be able to cut my adjoining neighbor's farm for hay. I might look around and see if I can pick up a field or two for hay local to me in the spring as well.

I grew up riding on the fender of a JD 4230 with my granddad making hay, so I guess it brings me a little closer to him since he is no longer with us. I also enjoy watching my herd jump in and devour the hay I made for them. Just a full circle sort of thing, I guess.

So, do you make or buy your hay?

 

[BC]

I raise the grass, but hire a custom baler to cut, rake and bale. If I have to own hay equipment, I will quit.

 

[Dave]

I made a lot of hay. My own and sold a lot to other people. I got out of the hay business in '98. Bought all my hay after that. Here B makes the hay in the meadows. I do the irrigation and stack the hay in the hay yards. Then I feed the hay to our partnership cows.

 

[chaded]

I own the hayfield and someone else makes it on shares. I don't like the arrangement but right now it makes the most financial sense. If I could find a consistent hay source that didn't break me I would fence my hayfield and graze it. But finding a reliable source is difficult around here.

 

[farmerjan]

We mostly make all our own hay. Buy in some when things are dry, like this year... sometimes when hay is cheap to buy to have some stockpiled. We make and sell small sq bales to some horse customers we have had for nearly 30 years. The sm sq sales go a long way to paying for what we make for ourselves. Put up a hay barn and filled it... it does save ALOT of hay; Both quality and quantity of not losing the outside part of the roll. But that is what I like to think of as adding some organic matter back to the soil so a bit of a trade off... Buying in brings in someone elses nutritive value in fertilizer on their crop.... We figure what it costs to make a roll... and go from there accordingly.
One thing for us, we several lease places that have unfenced, not adjacent, no water available, hay fields that we have to make hay on as part of the lease. Several places we get for "free" to make the hay to keep properties open... a few want the ag exemption so we make hay.....
We also make hay custom for one "farmer"... inherited this job/deal from the previous owner of the farm we bought... he pastures half, make hay on the other part one time, then he pastures it for later grazing. It is close to the farm and it works out okay for us.

 

[Brute 23]

I despise hay and every thing that goes along with it. It is the most time and capital intensive item on the list. It's probably the most risky and biggest headache, also.

We cut our hay usage by 50-75%. I'm trying to keep 1 bale per head and most the time I end up feeding some just to get rid of it. I attribute that to better grazing practices/ grass management and using better value feeds.

We kept a couple hay fields for hay but every thing else went in to the grazing rotation. We hire in a custom baler. Years like this year where there is extra I will sell off what I don't need.

 

[moses388]

Bale my own hay. We have all the equipment and can make large rounds or small squares.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Bale all my own. No custom operators UP here and no real producers of volume so there isn't much choice. If you want to buy in volume amounts of hay it needs to be trucked long distances which adds considerable cost.

 

[GoWyo]

We only have a 10-acre meadow hay field that is reliable. Have the neighbors roll that up. Also have a 50-acre dry land seeding with mixed grass and alfalfa we planted in 2021. It has droughted out most years, but in 2023 we had good moisture and rolled up one-third by cutting a swather width then skip two widths to keep cover on it for calving season. It put up 39 bales (1250#). Maybe get it to make hay next year and cut half as it gets established. It takes several years to get a good dry land seeding going around here in 15" precip country.

 

[Warren Allison]

I bale what I feed the horses, but sell 95% of it to others. Down at the Kudzu place, Scott bales what little we need, and sells all the rest.

 

[clarkmorefarm]

We only got one decent cutting here in East TN this year. We had a very dry summer. My pastures are just now greening up since we had the rain before and during Helene. Luckily, I made enough to get me through the winter. I'm also stock piling grass in the field that aren't fenced in yet.

Just feeding a little hay until I can get more pasture open to my ladies. I'm small scale but bought all older equipment last year to make hay. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and have got everything in pretty decent running shape. All my equipment was less than a new utility tractor with a loader. Pretty happy with my setup for now.

I do think my hay needs will go down once I get the rotational grazing going, but I also plan on adding more cattle as well.

 

[SBMF 2015]

I despise hay and every thing that goes along with it. It is the most time and capital intensive item on the list. It's probably the most risky and biggest headache, also.

We cut our hay usage by 50-75%. I'm trying to keep 1 bale per head and most the time I end up feeding some just to get rid of it. I attribute that to better grazing practices/ grass management and using better value feeds.

We kept a couple hay fields for hay but every thing else went in to the grazing rotation. We hire in a custom baler. Years like this year where there is extra I will sell off what I don't need.

Just to much winter here too not feed something.
Hay is definitely the most expensive line on the page.

I bale my own and buy some extra when I can get it bought right

 

[dcarp]

Just to much winter here too not feed something.
Hay is definitely the most expensive line on the page.

I bale my own and buy some extra when I can get it bought right

Was submitting a file at work for make vs buy and it got me thinking about the hay I fed last night.

I don't believe that making hay pencils out much for small cattle operations like my own, but it is something I truly enjoy doing. So, I make all the hay I feed. I am converting all of my hay fields into pasture and fencing it in right now, but my farm was a hay field for the last 10 to 15 years prior. I am fortunate to be able to cut my adjoining neighbor's farm for hay. I might look around and see if I can pick up a field or two for hay local to me in the spring as well.

I grew up riding on the fender of a JD 4230 with my granddad making hay, so I guess it brings me a little closer to him since he is no longer with us. I also enjoy watching my herd jump in and devour the hay I made for them. Just a full circle sort of thing, I guess.

So, do you make or buy your hay?

View attachment 50461

We make all our own hay. Bought new equipment to replace old equipment as it wore out. Did custom baling until the equipment was paid off. We have a 6 acre hayfield, the rest is pasture. We lease 55 acres of hayfields. Save the hay we need and sell the rest.

 

[Silver]

Up here we are either rolling it up or unrolling it. Not much time off between.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

We buy our hay right now about 80 rolls a year.
$55 a roll 11.85 protein 58.29 TDN

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I run around 50 cows/heifers. I do not own any hay equipment except the spears on my tractor. I own the hayfields. I have a neighbor that has done my hay for maybe 30 years. He does his first then mine - then other customers. We must have hay - need to feed 5-6 months each year. Stockpile grass does not work here. LOL - well, maybe would have worked last year - other than the cattle would have ruined the fields, it was so wet & muddy.

 

[cowman82]

make it but don't care for doing it. its ok to do but non stop in the tractor all summer and fall isn't fun.

 

[Dsth]

We have always made our own hay. when I was growing up, I looked forward to stacking little squares in the barn for the dairy herd. It was hot and sweaty work but it got me in shape for football and wrestling in high school. now we have a small herd of about 30 beef cows. I still like to make the high quality hay like we made for the dairy cows. I know what I feed and where it came from. Yes, it is a headache some years when the weather doesn't cooperate with you, but that is life. I am planning on making my own hay until I have a major breakdown with the equipment just because of the high cost or replacement machinery. 99% of what I bale is 3X3 big squares. I custom baled for several years when we had several smaller dairy farmers close by. now only a few are still in the business and they are large dairies now that either have their own equipment or buy their hay. I don't think I can buy the same quality of hay that I can make myself at a reasonable price.

 

[Lucky]

We buy hay but would eventually like to have a hay meadow we can have baled. The only problem I see with buying hay is all the weeds that get brought get in. We only feed about 250 bales a year so just don't see how buying our own equipment would pencil out.

 

[hurleyjd]

We buy hay but would eventually like to have a hay meadow we can have baled. The only problem I see with buying hay is all the weeds that get brought get in. We only feed about 250 bales a year so just don't see how buying our own equipment would pencil out.

I have crossed fenced my place into several pastures. I do not have a dedicated hay meadow. I bale every pasture that gets ahead of the cows on the rotation. I do have my own equipment not new but have all of the manuals and when something does not work I go into the manuals and make sure everything is set to spec. I do no run as many cows as times past. I do not save any replacements and sell any cows that need culled. I only have fifty grown cows. I baled 225 bales this year and had a hundred of 2023 hay left. You see I am trying to taper down and finally quit getting to be to much for me because of age. 84 next Jan.