Haying on shares

[hillbilly beef man]

Around here the going rate for putting up hay for people is 2/3 to hay man for cutting,
Tedding, raking, an baleing. 1/3 going to land owner. What I was wondering is with this arrangement is the fertilizer and lime bill split; 50/50 or how would this be split?.

 

[B&M Farms]

I will bale on a 2/3 split but the owner has to fertilize. If its really good hay I will do it on the halves. Usually it's cheaper for the owner to just pay me $25 a bale and keep all the hay. I usually have to sell it anyway. I guess sometimes the owner doesn't want to bother with selling what he doesn't need though and its easier that way.

 

[Craig Miller]

Usually 2/3 and the land owner fertilizes. I have seen 3/4 or all of it going to the baler for unfertilized hay or if he does the fertilizing.

 

[skyhightree1]

I am not haying muck this year or at all but I fertilize my own hay fields.. The man doing my hay is getting 2 bales to my 1 of round and he is hauling them to my barn or along the fields for me. The square bales were 50/50 split.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Sounds like y'all would be money ahead to run cows on the hay field and buy your hay. This is my last year for a hay field . I can run a extra 15 cows and buy my hay for 8000. Sold my cutter and rake I have a guy coming to look at my baler next week. Between equipment up keep fertalizer time etc . I should save about 8000 a year . I know quality might be an issue on bought hay but I can plant winter pasture or allot for some winter feed and still come out ahead.

 

[highgrit]

I don't see it JSCATTLE but if it works for you that's great. It must cost you less for the cow upfront than me, and you inputs per cow must also be cheaper. I'd hate to depend on someone else for the success of my business.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I don't see it JSCATTLE but if it works for you that's great. It must cost you less for the cow upfront than me, and you inputs per cow must also be cheaper. I'd hate to depend on someone else for the success of my business.

extra 15 head of cows is 30 to 35 k right now . Not that I'd buy now I don't have a cow on my place that cost me over 850 a head . I bought during the last down turn and will buy again when prices drop . Good hay equipment. Tractor baler rake cutter 100 k . I m not one to po boy it and work on stuff all the time . I can get 12 to 15 years out of the cow that will pay herself off in 3 years . Ill put a pencil to it tonight and see what I spent last year . I write everything down in a ledger . Then I'll minus the hay equipment and see the difference . I don't rely on any one person for hay . I have enough hay in the barn to get through this winter without buying any this year . I keep 2 winters worth in the barn . I buy from Neighbors and people in the spring making room for the new hay . I'll up date my cost tonight .

 

[skyhightree1]

Sounds like y'all would be money ahead to run cows on the hay field and buy your hay. .

I rent hayfields fields that either don't have a water source on them to keep cattle or the land owners do not want any animals on their lands. I am money ahead by not buying a new disc bine and baler :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[SJB]

I don't see it JSCATTLE but if it works for you that's great. It must cost you less for the cow upfront than me, and you inputs per cow must also be cheaper. I'd hate to depend on someone else for the success of my business.

as an outsider looking to get started, this is something i'm very interested in. the cost just to own the equipment to make your own hay is unbelievable to me. if you grew your own grass (you can control the quality that way), and paid somebody simply to mow and bale for you, at $25/bale you'd never come out buying the equipment. even if you didn't count the cost of the tractor, it's out of reach by my math.

the expense of growing the grass, storing they hay is the same regardless of who mows it, right? i guess the downside would be that you couldn't get it done by somebody else at the exact right time, but that happens because of other factors if you make your own anyway. rain, equipment failures, life, day job, etc always seems to get in peoples way.

i'm really having a hard time understanding how small (or even medium or large operators) can afford to make hay, IF there are decent people out there who are baling it for $25/roll. now, if you enjoy doing it, don't like depending on somebody else etc, i can understand that completely.

on a tangent, it's the same way with the land itself. from a pure business perspective, i can't see how owning the land can be cost justified, vs the going rate of $25-$30/acre to rent here.

 

[skyhightree1]

For me I was putting up 900+ bales a year that maybe 300 got used when I had a good amount of cattle. I don't have room to store but lil over 200 bales under cover the rest lined the fields and got rained on and went to waste. I am fertilizing as I do each year but not burning the fuel to bale hay I don't need and will never use he basically gets that hay and sells it but I don't have to touch anything till time for me to feed. My haying stuff is old and functions as it should its just slow as SHYT other than my rake. Different circumstances work for different people if I were starting out and lets say had 10 head there would be no way in H E 1 1 I would buy haying equipment.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Landowner usually fertilizes and limes and then the hay is done on halves around here. If having it baled it's $18/bale. Cut, tedded, raked, and net wrap baled. Our custom baling guys won't run over fields that haven't been fertilized.

 

[Toad]

I've also wondered about just buying hay instead of all the equipment cost. If I could turn every hay field I rent into pasture I would do it in a New York minute. Right now the money is in producing 400-600 lb calves. I can feed a cow over the winter for about $350 and sell a calf off of her for at least $1200 even if its a runt. I say all that but I will have hundreds of rolls for sale this year because a lot of my rented land can't be turned into pasture for various reasons.

 

[bigbull338]

yall are talking some good ideas.but your forgetting 1 thing what if it droughts and hay goes and stays sky high.then you have a choice tobe made buy your own equipment or try to find a custom baler.the custom balers are slow and they bale with small balers.i know you guys like the snall bales for ease of hauling.

 

[M-5]

Started a new deal with neighbor this year. I worked out 80 acres of fertilized grass and he owns equipment I buy fuel and string use my tractor to rake his to cut and bale and we split hay 50/50

 

[JSCATTLE]

yall are talking some good ideas.but your forgetting 1 thing what if it droughts and hay goes and stays sky high.then you have a choice tobe made buy your own equipment or try to find a custom baler.the custom balers are slow and they bale with small balers.i know you guys like the snall bales for ease of hauling.

I haven't forgotten anything . That's why I keep 2 winters worth of hay. 2 winters or 1,full year . I've never seen a drought in the wintertime in my area

 

[Tim/South]

If the land owner fertilized I will make hay for 50-50 split. Had one place we averaged 5,000 lb. per acre per cut. Worked out well for us both. I will not cut any unfertilized hay on shares. It has to be a fair yield for me to cut it for all the hay. A lot of people just want their place cleaned up and not have to bush hog.
All of my hay is from leased land. I fertilize and improve the land. I have always believed in growing more hay on less ground. My baling costs are the same if I am getting one roll per acre or 5 rolls per acre. Same number of trips around the field.

I do not like buying hay. Net wrap can cover up a lot of junk. When I bring in hay it seems I add new species of weed seeds to contend with.

 

[highgrit]

I like the way y'all think. I sell all my crappy hay in the fall, and it's usually enough to pay my fertilizer bill.
When I bale for someone else I charge a 3 bale minimum per acre, and have a $500. minimum also. You can't haul your equipment around for nothing. And I don't need any practice baling hay.

 

[anewcomer]

I don't care who you are or where you are, you can buy hay cheaper than you can grow and bale your own.

 

[M-5]

I don't care who you are or where you are, you can buy hay cheaper than you can grow and bale your own.

BS just because you can buy cheap azz hay don't mean it is quality hay. For some its cheaper to buy it for some its cheaper to make it. How can you make that assumption when you don't live where EVERYONE lives

 

[highgrit]

It's called assuming M5. All the successful cattlemen buy their hay, and pay land rent. Seems to me the more successful you are the more you own. But I'm sure there's a few exceptions to the rule, but dang few. IMO