As I have stated many times before I am a hay virgin. I have always bought my hay. There is some hay land around me coming up for sale for $2500 per acre. I have a couple of questions. What should I expect to pay for some good used hay equipment(minus tractor). what should you expect to get per cutting with normal rainfall and 200 Lb fertilizer to the acre. This is improves sprigged Bermuda. I know everyone says you can buy it cheaper, but It is also nice to know that you have guaranteed hay every year. The last 2 years have been rough finding good hay. With the fertilizer costs over $400 a ton, I have to believe that some will skimp on fertilizer this year. Also have any of you ran cows on your hay ground. How do you rotate and cut if you do. Thanks
hay questions
- Thread starter plbcattle
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
rattler
Well-known member
plb we always graze our hay feild in the winter turn the cattle out in the mountain pasture summer one thing you have to deal with is the manure we take an old section harrow and spread it out in spring helps to fertalize the feild's some.We do put about 200 lbs of fert per acre we use 18-46-0 for a couple of year's then rotate to triple 19. On a good year we would get about 300 4x4 role's and 600 small square bale's .Last year was a bad year production was off proubly a third or more.Hope this help's
rattler
rattler
plbcattle,
Last year was my second year to have ever cut/baled hay. So you can take my experience into consideration with what i have to say.
The price of your haying equipment is probably going to go hand in hand with the amount of hay/size of bales the type of tie you want(net wrap/plastic tie etc....,)
As far as the amount of hay you can expect. Wewild has a very good point that it will vary from year to year. Unless you are sit up to irrigate and you know that will run your hay cost up alot if you have to do that.
Something else you might want to take into consideration. If you plan on putting up alot of hay. Your probably going to need to hire at least one other person to help you. I mean i only put up about 150 4 x 5 bales last summer and it kept me busy tring to do it all myself.( cutting,rakeing,baleing) I was pushing it and if it had of been a wet summer i probably would not have been able to keep up cutting what little hay i had to cut.
And to it was a job just for me to keep up on the spraying and fertlizing my hay feilds and i hired the fertlizing done.
In my opinion i think it is a big plus being able to put up your own hay wether you do it yourself every year or not. For the main reason of not being able to always count on buying enough hay to get you through the winter. I dont have but 13 head of cattle & 9 horses/mules to feed. I can not imagine someone with alot of cattle not being able to cut and bale their own hay. They sure are putting alot of trust in the people they are buying hay off of.
We use to buy our hay off of some good people who always done us right on the price. But there were alot of summers that they just could not fill our order. And if you was to ask them at the beginning of the summer if they could sale you x amount of hay. The answer was always sure. But when it come down to it. Most of the time they did not come through. So that is why i cut and bale my hay today.
Good luck.
Last year was my second year to have ever cut/baled hay. So you can take my experience into consideration with what i have to say.
The price of your haying equipment is probably going to go hand in hand with the amount of hay/size of bales the type of tie you want(net wrap/plastic tie etc....,)
As far as the amount of hay you can expect. Wewild has a very good point that it will vary from year to year. Unless you are sit up to irrigate and you know that will run your hay cost up alot if you have to do that.
Something else you might want to take into consideration. If you plan on putting up alot of hay. Your probably going to need to hire at least one other person to help you. I mean i only put up about 150 4 x 5 bales last summer and it kept me busy tring to do it all myself.( cutting,rakeing,baleing) I was pushing it and if it had of been a wet summer i probably would not have been able to keep up cutting what little hay i had to cut.
And to it was a job just for me to keep up on the spraying and fertlizing my hay feilds and i hired the fertlizing done.
In my opinion i think it is a big plus being able to put up your own hay wether you do it yourself every year or not. For the main reason of not being able to always count on buying enough hay to get you through the winter. I dont have but 13 head of cattle & 9 horses/mules to feed. I can not imagine someone with alot of cattle not being able to cut and bale their own hay. They sure are putting alot of trust in the people they are buying hay off of.
We use to buy our hay off of some good people who always done us right on the price. But there were alot of summers that they just could not fill our order. And if you was to ask them at the beginning of the summer if they could sale you x amount of hay. The answer was always sure. But when it come down to it. Most of the time they did not come through. So that is why i cut and bale my hay today.
Good luck.
floridahay
Member
I don't know about the fertility of your land in that area but in my area, northwest Florida, you are going to have to put more than 200 pounds of fertilize per acre to make much hay. I put out about 350 or 400 lbs. per acre of 21-7-14 out in the spring and about the same amount after each cutting. The hybrid Bermudas love Nitrogen. I try to cut at about 30 day intervals if I have adequate rainfall and have the dry weather at the right time to cut it. I have tested mine on several occasions and the prtein levels have ran from about 14 up to 18 percent. I try to put up good have since 90% of the people I sell hay to have horses. Cattle have about dissappeared in this area.
plbcattle":2duf4noz said:
I don't mean to rain on your parade but, unless you're irrigated or have enough rainfall for multiple cuttings, there is no 'guarantee' of having hay come fall. As with any other crop, there are just too many things that can wipe out a hay crop - especially if you're talking about a single cutting hay crop.
