Price for Baling Hay

[bigbull338]

you can get a round baler cutter rake an tedder for $60,000 or less.an thats the 6 by5 balers.now if you go buy 3 new tractors your looking at about $200,000 for everything.

 

[yme]

I have a neighbor that only bales (I cut and rake and pile) for $12 per bale. He uses a new JD 568 that makes a 5X6 bale that will hit he scales at 1600-2000lbs. That is with net rap.

 

[RanchManager]

Hi,
We are out of NE Oregon. The farm side of our operation contracts out all of our hay baling. We put up 6 - 7 thousand tons a season in the same size bales you do. Most of it is alfalfa. We pay $45 a ton. That includes swathing, raking, baling, and stacking where we want it. If it gets rained on and needs raking again that is at the expense of the contractor. If it needs innoculant, the contractor takes care of the expense. $45 in the stack is the deal, no hidden expenses allowed.

Hope this helps.

 

[1982vett]

you can get a round baler cutter rake an tedder for $60,000 or less.an thats the 6 by5 balers.now if you go buy 3 new tractors your looking at about $200,000 for everything.

When you bale for yourself and bale a few hundred rolls a year, you don't need this type equipment. However, even good used equipment is not inexpensive.

For many, good used equipment will last a lifetime at a reasonable cost. As with all capital expenses, the fewer head and acres in an operation raises the cost of capital expenditures.

 

[bigbull338]

well when you pay a cusom baler a chunk of money you start to thinking again.this year we shelled out $3660 to bale 183 bales.an that has me going thats a dang baler payment.an if i payed $25 a bale that would be $4600.an that would pay for top end used equipment in less than 5yrs.

 

[1982vett]

well when you pay a cusom baler a chunk of money you start to thinking again.this year we shelled out $3660 to bale 183 bales.an that has me going thats a dang baler payment.an if i payed $25 a bale that would be $4600.an that would pay for top end used equipment in less than 5yrs.

yep!

 

[Angus Cowman]

well when you pay a cusom baler a chunk of money you start to thinking again.this year we shelled out $3660 to bale 183 bales.an that has me going thats a dang baler payment.an if i payed $25 a bale that would be $4600.an that would pay for top end used equipment in less than 5yrs.

yep!

Not meaning to make anyone mad or hurt their feeling BUT as for haying unless you bale several hundred or into the1000s of bales a yr you cannot justify owning the equipment and if you are feeding less than 200 bales a yr you cannot afford to grow hay you would be better off running more cows and buy your hay
if you pay $18 a bale to get it baled you have another $15-$20 in fertilizer so you have $33-$38 in your hay and 4 out of five yrs you can buy hay for less and alot of times it is better hay than you can raise

I custom bale and own my equip because I bale alot of hay and when you run the #s I am clearing about $2 a bale after I figure the cost and the breakdowns and if you are baling hay your gonna have breakdowns
and I don't care how little you think your time is worth it is worth something

 

[bigbull338]

an if you bale 2000 bales a year thats $50,000.wich means you can buy new equipment every 5yrs.or run the rake an cutter till they blow up.an replace the baler every 5yrs.

 

[1982vett]

AC, I agree I could not afford to run new custom grade equipment, the type needed to bale 10-20,000 bales a year. But I can find affordable used equipment that has a lot of life left in it (a lot of it was used by custom balers that went broke when they bought new on year and ran into drought the next). I use a 1465 NH haybine (not something a custom baler would use), it is the only new piece we ever bought. Cost us $10,000 eight years ago. It will last me the rest of my ranching days. The 672 and 673 JD rakes I picked up from a used equipment dealer. Again it is outdated equipment that custom balers now laugh at. Cost for the rig was $2700. Would love to have one of those fancy hydraulic controlled dual rakes but they are not cost effective for my operation. The baler, a Vermeer 605L, neighbor bought it about 5 years ago from a guy that wanted to have netwrap added to it. Dealer told him he could trade in his for a new one that already had netwrap and be money ahead. My neighbor overheard this and bought the baler. It has had less than 6000 bales run thru it. I purchased 1/2 interest in it two year ago when I was looking to upgrade from my '83 model 410 John Deere, my share cost me $6000. So I have a total of $18,700 invested in hay equipment. Tractor cost won't be included as I need the tractor whether I bale hay or not.

It is going to cost $25 a bale to get it baled ($50 and acre minimum when it won't make 2 bale/acre, common problem over the last 5 years). So in about 2 - 3 years the equipment has pretty much paid for itself. Size of ones operation and demand on their time has to be considered. For me an mine, I prefer to produce and bale my own hay.

Fertilizer cost is a problem (aside from lack of rain) in growing hay, more so than equipment cost. Size of scale and time is the key.

 

[grannysoo]

you know, I don't bale hay and I buy as little of it as possible.

I bale hay and don't buy any. I do sell some however.

It seems to me, however, that the cost of baling is grossly underestimated.

I don't underestimate it. I pay my own bills, so I know how much it costs.

I was in a JD dealership the other day and posed a question concerning the equipment cost for getting started on hay baling. The answer of $100,000 astonished me.

I would be astonished at that price too, unless you're buying a big, shiny, brand new tractor to go along with it.

If you are using older equipment there are the constant repair costs.

Constant? Not really. I bought a new baler 4 years ago and have spent very little money on it. My largest expense is net wrap.

In addition, using land for hay reduces the land that could be used for grazing.

True.

Hayed land has to be fertilized whereas grazed land lets the animals provide the fertilizer.

To a point.... but are you considering the fact that the fertilize is condensed into "piles" that need to be busted up and spread out? (Labor means that "free" fertilize is not free)

Does anyone seriously factor the time it takes from cutting to getting hay into the barn in their cost analyses?

Sure do. I know how long it takes to cut/rake/bale under average conditions.

How about fuel costs?

Yup. Figured that one in too.

How about labor costs?

Didn't forget this one either.

How about the liability of storing a very volatile commodity in a closed area?

That's why we pay our insurance premiums on time.

And all of these things occur before you even get the hay out to the animals which is another labor and fuel costs. It seems to me in these times of tight economic conditions that the whole enterprise of baling hay is fatally flawed.

So... if everyone is flawed, then everyone raises cows, and no one bales hay. Seems that a few cows might go hungry in this situation.

We should be working toward solutions that allow the use of less hay.

We work towards that solution every day, but hay is a necessary evil.

You can buy it, you can hire it out, you can do whatever you choose, but in my neck of the woods, feeding hay is a fact of life. I bought a good used cutter, tedder and rake a few years ago. Bought a brand new baler. Baler costs around $30K, but it's probably going to be around for the next 20-30 years. Figure it that way, and my new baler probably costs me $1500. per year.

I have total control over my hay. When it's cut and when it's baled. My cows eat "horse" quality hay all the time.

The first few years, I depended on someone else to cut/bale my hay. I'll never be in that situation again.

As to buying hay, so much of it is junk. The best hay in our area is always shipped to Florida to feed the $$$$$$ horses. What you buy here has been rained on, is too old, or too high for the quality.

Do what you please. I'll bale my hay and make no apologies for it.

 

[nap]

you know, I don't bale hay and I buy as little of it as possible.

I bale hay and don't buy any. I do sell some however.

It seems to me, however, that the cost of baling is grossly underestimated.

I don't underestimate it. I pay my own bills, so I know how much it costs.

I was in a JD dealership the other day and posed a question concerning the equipment cost for getting started on hay baling. The answer of $100,000 astonished me.

I would be astonished at that price too, unless you're buying a big, shiny, brand new tractor to go along with it.

If you are using older equipment there are the constant repair costs.

Constant? Not really. I bought a new baler 4 years ago and have spent very little money on it. My largest expense is net wrap.

In addition, using land for hay reduces the land that could be used for grazing.

True.

Hayed land has to be fertilized whereas grazed land lets the animals provide the fertilizer.

To a point.... but are you considering the fact that the fertilize is condensed into "piles" that need to be busted up and spread out? (Labor means that "free" fertilize is not free)

Does anyone seriously factor the time it takes from cutting to getting hay into the barn in their cost analyses?

Sure do. I know how long it takes to cut/rake/bale under average conditions.

How about fuel costs?

Yup. Figured that one in too.

How about labor costs?

Didn't forget this one either.

How about the liability of storing a very volatile commodity in a closed area?

That's why we pay our insurance premiums on time.

And all of these things occur before you even get the hay out to the animals which is another labor and fuel costs. It seems to me in these times of tight economic conditions that the whole enterprise of baling hay is fatally flawed.

So... if everyone is flawed, then everyone raises cows, and no one bales hay. Seems that a few cows might go hungry in this situation.

We should be working toward solutions that allow the use of less hay.

We work towards that solution every day, but hay is a necessary evil.

You can buy it, you can hire it out, you can do whatever you choose, but in my neck of the woods, feeding hay is a fact of life. I bought a good used cutter, tedder and rake a few years ago. Bought a brand new baler. Baler costs around $30K, but it's probably going to be around for the next 20-30 years. Figure it that way, and my new baler probably costs me $1500. per year.

I have total control over my hay. When it's cut and when it's baled. My cows eat "horse" quality hay all the time.

The first few years, I depended on someone else to cut/bale my hay. I'll never be in that situation again.

As to buying hay, so much of it is junk. The best hay in our area is always shipped to Florida to feed the $$$$$$ horses. What you buy here has been rained on, is too old, or too high for the quality.

Do what you please. I'll bale my hay and make no apologies for it.

Granysoo, I respect and appreciate your thoughtful response. I cannot, however, agree with any of your points. I think there are other ways to approach a very expensive and labor intensive activity. I have been using a MIG system for a couple of years and, even during this short time, I have experienced a dramatic need for hay. I hope to someday in the near future to become completely independent of hay. I also think this is the true future for us, if we continue to rely on hay we will eventually lose.

 

[1982vett]

Go Grannysoo :clap: :clap:

 

[john250]

As to buying hay, so much of it is junk. The best hay in our area is always shipped to Florida to feed the $$$$$$ horses. What you buy here has been rained on, is too old, or too high for the quality.

And there is the crux of the problem. In my area, most "for sale" hay is low quality. If you want to buy consistent good hay, you'll have to shop across several states to find the good growers and the good growing seasons.

 

[grannysoo]

Granysoo, I respect and appreciate your thoughtful response. I cannot, however, agree with any of your points. I think there are other ways to approach a very expensive and labor intensive activity. I have been using a MIG system for a couple of years and, even during this short time, I have experienced a dramatic need for hay. I hope to someday in the near future to become completely independent of hay. I also think this is the true future for us, if we continue to rely on hay we will eventually lose.

I didn't ask for you to agree on any of my points. My point was:

Do what you please. I'll bale my hay and make no apologies for it.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I can see your points about not being able to buy good hay and needing to do it yourself
in the area I am in hay is pretty abundant and also I know some folks sell their junk hay and keep the good stuff for themselves

I am alittle different on my custom baling and on selling hay I only bale hay that I would want to buy and I only sell hay that I would buy myself and yes I have sold some poor quality hay but the buyer was told up front that the reason it was so much cheaper was it wasn't nearly as good as the higher priced hay but with some people price talks

 

[Nesikep]

well, i notice pretty much everyone here is talking round bales, and for a 75head and up operation, especially in long winters, it totally makes sense. Now if everyone tries to buy all their hay, any money says that hay prices will go up to the point where it is again without a doubt going to be better to grow your own.

Our operation is small, 20 head, and we have hay left over, we put up somewhere around 150 to 200 ton a year, we have been using a 32HP JD950 for nearly everything, a late 70's NH 7.5 ft sicklebar mower, and a 1964 NH285 baler with it's own engine, and a 42 bale NH bale wagon... it takes me about 5 hours to cut 10 acres, never need to rake it, about 4-5hours to bale, and about 6-8 to stack it, depending on how many times I need to stop for a cider... that 10 acre field will yeild about 30-40 ton on a first cut, and sometimes we will take a 3rd if the weather is nice enough in september

If we did not hay this field, the hay would be worthless by the time it matured, and when springtime comes along and all the grass grows, you have nothing to do but hay it since the cows can't keep up eating it (who'da thunk that?)

Our big cost is irrigation, despite having gravity water, it's about 4-5 hours a day I'm hauling pipe around, THAT is the expense, and I'm going to have it as long as I have cows, wether I hay it or not


As it stands, with whatever repairs are due, here's the cost of our equipment

JD950 tractor, 5500 hours... about $4000
Baler, needs plunger bearings, about $2000
Swather, needs some sheet metal work.. about 1500
JD 5 wheel wheel rake $1500 (we never use it)
Hay wagon, needs side rails, about 2500

so that brings us to a grand total of 11,500... and if you were to spend $8500 on it to bring it to $20,000, you'd have some good equipment, at least for the size of our place... calculate 10% depreciation.. $2000 a year, and I have something to do in the shop over winter

all in all, it works out to about 40 minutes me and machine labor per tonne, cut, dried, baled and stacked, excluding irrigation.. seeing that people charge 20$/1000 lb bale to hay it, and me with my equipment lets say would charge $60/hr, that's $40 a tonne, which is right on par with what you are paying to do it, and I don't have to worry about the guy not being able to do it when it needs to be done

We have occasionally baled for other people, but really don't like doing it, why? they have way more weeds than we do, so we have to wash out our equipment every time.. and we DEFINITELY don't loan out our stuff anymore either, we learned that!

now if only our place were suited to wheel lines or center pivots, that would save me a lot of time.. but probably not any money.

What I do know, is that the best paying job on the farm is fixing your own stuff! and doing it over the winter months

 

[Alberta farmer]

Nesikep: You said 80 lb. square bales sell for$7-$10 in your area. That works out to 25 bales/ton X $7 =$175/ton or 25 bales X $10= $250/ton? At 3 tons/acre X175= $525/acre at 4 tons X175= $700/acre? At $250 per acre that would equal 3 tons/acre=$750, 4 tons =$1000/acre! And never mind the second/third cut!
Now I have no idea how much hay you feed a cow over winter but might suggest to you, selling hay might be a lot more profitable? In Alberta a general rule of thumb is 200 feeding days at around 28 lb. a cow/day. Hay at 250/ton is .08/pound X 28lb=$2.24? That equals $448/cow/winter?
Don't know what your cattle prices are like but no way can calf sales support a $448 winter feed bill for a cow,never mind pasture costs, salt/mineral,breeding costs, vet costs, etc.

 

[Nesikep]

I think here the feeding days is about 180, though you could get away with as little as 140-150 ion a good year, or if you had to

bear in mind our operation is organic, so the hay is too.., which is part of the reason we can get a decent price for it, but also because horse people are always going to be fussy, and have money for what they really want (bless them!)

the cows eat all summer on the same kind of land we hay from, and trust me, they eat a LOT more in the summer than the winter, just because we can't ration it.. sometimes if we're waiting for a field to come up, or if they're getting fussy and won't finish off a field because they ate all the leaves off the alfalfa stalks, we'll give them a couple bales of old rotten hay, and they just love it, meanwhile they still finish off what they have left in the field... I'm sure if you were to break down the cost of our cattle, at the prices today, they cost us close to 1000 each a year in feed, and I think we got low 80's for 600lb heifers this year, mid 80's for steers, so about 500 bucks each.. I think calf prices at kamloops stockyards are about 5-8 cents/lb less than alberta in general

if we were a bigger operation and had more cows.. Oh, wait, we'd just lose more money

the thing is, what comes out the rear on a daily basis is worth more than what comes out of it on a yearly basis, so they are a necessary evil on our place.. and there's not a chance in he!! I'd want to be out in the scrub busting my arse all year without some cows around.. We have the luxury of being able to grow some stuff that actually makes some money.. and we try to stay diverse, so if the bottom falls out of one market, we have some other things that so better... perfect example is the grain price vs cow price.. you have to be able to growgrain obviously, and it is an investment to get into.. I'l say that on our little spread, we have about 5 tractors, and without a doubt 40-50 implements, from potato diggers to harrows.. nothing is newer than 30 years old either.. that's why we can have it

We've thought about meat goats and sheep as well, but we had sheep once.. they make a dumb cow look like Einstein!... for 2 years, every day they went in the same barn, through the same door, and had to go around the barn 5 times to find it... *sigh*.. goats on the other hand usually are too smart for their own good, which leads to a whole other set of problems

 

[grannysoo]

if we were a bigger operation and had more cows.. Oh, wait, we'd just lose more money

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[SRBeef]

Beginner observations: In the north there is just no way to get away from hay. The further north you are the more important hay becomes. Not exactly rocket science.

I like to make hay but to produce sufficient cash flow I have to market a certain number of animals a year.

This means I am pushing the stocking rate to the max with rotational grazing. But to get the number of animals I need to sell per year I don't have enough land to graze them and raise hay too.

Basically it came down to I either need to buy hay or buy/rent more grazing land. I think I can cash flow buying hay better than cash flowing renting or buying land and making fence/water etc improvements, at least in my WI area and IF there was any nearby land available. The key is getting more grazing and nutrition from some corn and stalks late in the season and delaying feeding purchased hay as long as possible or at least reducing the rate of hay usage.

We had a very wet spring and early summer in WI this year, grass was growing like crazy and I was feeling like maybe this was going to work out.

Then the weather just shifted 180 degrees with very little rain in July and most of August. Pastures just stopped growing. I had to put out some hay in late July and through mid August to avoid over grazing pastures. I was glad I had purchased some hay early this past summer (bale wrapper pictures).

So far it looks like purchasing hay and concentrating on maximizing the grazing and corn production of my land, rather than baling hay, will cash flow. This is as long as hay doesn't get too high priced. We are fortunate to have a couple folks nearby who quit milking cows and now sell good hay for a living.

I think the whole hay question depends on where you are and how much land you own. I'd like to make hay myself but it just doesn't make economic sense. I'd have to back off herd size to the point nothing would cash flow.