Hay

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country at heart

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I am a new user. We own a farm near Brenham, Texas. Hay was scarce and very high priced last year. We are looking into leasing a fenced in area of the farm (approx 13 acres) for a neighbor to grow hay. He wants us to supply all fertilizer and seed (about $800), and he would do the planting, cutting and baling. We would get every 3rd or 4th bale. Does this seem like a fair deal? We have been told that we will get 2 cuttings and maybe 3. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Is it his land? How much is the land lease? Any idea of how many bales would be produced? Round bales? Square Bales? What kind of grass?
 
If you are paying for the lease (land) buying the seed and fertilizer. Depending on hay prices it might be cheaper to pay someone a set price to seed the fields and apply the fertilizer. Then pay or do a 50/50 split for cutting and baling.

Call the feed store, get some names of people that do contract work for seed, fertilizer, cut and bale. Then get some bids.

Call the Extenison office ask the agent to come look at the field, tell you how much seed & fertilizer you will need. Call the feed store and get prices ect...

You need to sharpen your pencil and crunch the numbers.

Then pray for RAIN! :x
 
country at heart":1x5o8x44 said:
I am a new user. We own a farm near Brenham, Texas. Hay was scarce and very high priced last year. We are looking into leasing a fenced in area of the farm (approx 13 acres) for a neighbor to grow hay. He wants us to supply all fertilizer and seed (about $800), and he would do the planting, cutting and baling. We would get every 3rd or 4th bale. Does this seem like a fair deal? We have been told that we will get 2 cuttings and maybe 3. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You have me confused.

You own a farm.

You are going to lease part of it to someone? Or you are going to lease some other land for this guy?

Then you are going to buy all the inputs?

And you get paid in hay?

Hmmm .... I think if it was my land I would forgoe the lease to the neighbour - hire the planting done - hire the cutting - raking and baling and keep all the hay for myself. Sell the neighbour the excess.

In my opinion - not knowing exactly what you are saying - if only because I am old and no longer wise - and you tell a story in a way that can be interpreted in a couple of ways - it is not a good deal.

Bez>
 
country at heart":2v2gnd9x said:
We own a farm near Brenham, Texas. Hay was scarce and very high priced last year. We are looking into leasing a fenced in area of the farm (approx 13 acres) for a neighbor to grow hay. He wants us to supply all fertilizer and seed (about $800), and he would do the planting, cutting and baling. We would get every 3rd or 4th bale. Does this seem like a fair deal? We have been told that we will get 2 cuttings and maybe 3. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


I believe that - since you are providing all of the fertilizer and seed, and he is providing the planting, cutting, and baling - I would be looking for no less than 60/40 split, assuming it is his equipment and depending on what you're leasing it for. If he knows what he's doing as far as the planting/cutting/baling goes, I would also consider forgetting the lease, and see if I could work out a 50/50 deal based on the above input from both sides. Weigh enough bales that you know what they are averaging, and base the split on weight - not number of bales.
 
Sudan? There needs to be more specifics in order for me to determine if considering the deal is warranted. Residual grasses that don't have to be planted again next year would be nice.

$800 will buy lots of hay. 13 acres is not much hay, especially if you are only getting every 3rd or 4th bale. This sounds like a break even situation for you at best.

If you are going granular fertilizer, you need to use two tons on 13 acres. If he has the equipment to go liquid fertilizer, the $800 price tag sounds about right.
 
Last year I did a 50/50 split. He paid for half the fert and seed. He did all the dirt work and we split the cost of the planting.
This year he is going to furnish everything, and I keep every fifth bale.

General info.for the area.
Hay selling for $60.00 per roll
Rolls are about 1000 lbs
Planting with no till $14.00 per acre
Dirt work ? Depends on the dirt.
Type of hay? Usually Hay Grazer around here.
Be careful if they are selling hay they do not care much about the quality, they may let it get way to stemmy before they cut.
Did you do a soil test? Most of the guys around here think all you need is nitrogen. They are very old school, meaning no disrespect.

Big question. Although hay prices are high, when you do the math,do not forget to account for the value of pasture you will be looseing. That 13 acres will cost you 3 to 5 cows not being able to graze.

Welcome to the boards.
 
With the cost of fertilizer this year, only way to really recoup your costs would be to sell some of your hay. This year my neighbor is doing 60/40 split with me, and he is doing all the fertilizing, spraying, as well as the cutting, raking, baling. All I have to do is hall my part out.
 
I forgot to mention, Most people fertilize between cuttings.
Who will pay for that? If it is you, it could be a dead loss.
 
I would not do it. You would come out better doing it yourself. If you need to, hire someone to plant. You could plant it in Coastal, Jiggs or Tifton and only have to do that 1 time (hopefully) and have hay year after year. Then you fertilize. Hire someone to cut and bale. They may charge you somewhere around $18 a roll. With hay being so expensive you will come out much better with the other guy out of the picture.
 
Gate Opener":37vv6gpx said:
I would not do it. You would come out better doing it yourself. If you need to, hire someone to plant. You could plant it in Coastal, Jiggs or Tifton and only have to do that 1 time (hopefully) and have hay year after year. Then you fertilize. Hire someone to cut and bale. They may charge you somewhere around $18 a roll. With hay being so expensive you will come out much better with the other guy out of the picture.

If you need the hay, this is what I would do, if not, I would graze it. Around here, if you pay for the fertilizer then you get half the hay.
 
I don't think that sounds like a good deal for you. Your not going to make a whole lot of hay off 13 acres around here unless it is heavily managed and possibly irrigated. You've got to look at all the numbers and decide what is the best deal.
 
country at heart":v0toiz05 said:
I am a new user. We own a farm near Brenham, Texas. Hay was scarce and very high priced last year. We are looking into leasing a fenced in area of the farm (approx 13 acres) for a neighbor to grow hay. He wants us to supply all fertilizer and seed (about $800), and he would do the planting, cutting and baling. We would get every 3rd or 4th bale. Does this seem like a fair deal? We have been told that we will get 2 cuttings and maybe 3. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I guess I need to clarify some things. It is our property. We own it free and clear. "Lease" was probably not the right terminology. It is a neighbor wanting to use our land - no money involved. We would buy the seed and fertilizer. Not sure about the kind of seed. He would provide all of the equipment, manpower and fuel to cut, rake and bale the hay.
 
country at heart":3jbkubcp said:
I guess I need to clarify some things. It is our property. We own it free and clear. "Lease" was probably not the right terminology. It is a neighbor wanting to use our land - no money involved. We would buy the seed and fertilizer. Not sure about the kind of seed. He would provide all of the equipment, manpower and fuel to cut, rake and bale the hay.

I pay $13.50 a bale for that (fuel, cut rake and bale) because my nieghbor doesn't have to load his equipment on a trailer and haul it in. Of course, it is about 8 times the land so we're talking atleast $1500 each cutting.

That "third or fourth" bale thing is a bad deal, plain and simple. He ought to be overjoyed to get half of it. There's no way in hades I'd let someone bale mine on the halves. I can get mine baled on the thirds all day long.
 
Have you checked the price of fertilizer this year -- heard this week that 17-17-17 was going for almost $400 a ton -- I think you're getting taken for a ride.

Would you own 100 cows, feed them, have them bred -- hire your neighbor to come pen them and haul them to market just to get the price of every 3rd or 4th calf -- not me.
 
Backhoe gave some sound advice. Around here you can get baled for $9 a bale or a 1/3. I dont think much of your deal. Tell your neibor he can take 1/3 of the cut or no deal.
 
Those low prices may work in the area where y'all come from. But around the Brenham area the farmers have learned how to make a handsum profit off the city folks. These high prices include the locals paying the same thing.
Just look at what the neighbor wants to do to them.
 
novatech":16l3v6ed said:
Those low prices may work in the area where y'all come from. But around the Brenham area the farmers have learned how to make a handsum profit off the city folks. These high prices include the locals paying the same thing.
Just look at what the neighbor wants to do to them.

I know what your saying but i dont see it in this case. The landowner in no way should supply the ends and only reap 1/3 -1/4 of the harvest. Thats beyond "handsum profit" thats strong arm robbery.
It wont brang the end of the world if they counter the neighbor's offer. I'm to the opinion that they would come out better if they just grazed the lot than lose 2/3 -3/4 of the harvest.
 

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