Price of hay

[linebacker]

People say all the time, dont grow hay, buy it. You can buy hay cheaper than you can grow it and use your pastures for grazing. Well, at what price does it become more profitable to make round bales than to go out and buy them?

 

[allenfarms]

If your thinking about cutting your own vs. buying, you gotta figure, would your fields make as good of hay as what your buying? And also, what would have to be done and what would you need to cut your own. If you already have a 70 hp tractor or bigger than your starting in good shape for round bailing. you might also try to find someone to cut your hay on the halves or something, I mean it beats no hay, and you will have to buy less.

 

[Dave]

Nine years out of ten I can buy hay cheaper than growing it. This is the tenth year. I just paid the piper and figured it will average out over time.

 

[Johnny]

It depends mostly on how many cows you have. I would say if you have less than 100 cows you will always come out cheaper buying. The cost and upkeep on a mower, fluffer, rake and baler will buy a lot of hay, not counting your time.

It might take a cpl of years to find a good supplier but if you do stick with them.

Johnny

 

[Jogeephus]

I think the number of bales you use each year is going to be pretty important as well and IF you have a consistant supplier who can provide you with good quality grass. Some of the trash I've seen sold for hay will result in you having to supplement. If you add these additional costs back to your hay costs plus the risk of open calves you can make a pretty good decision.

 

[novatech]

I'm not trying to be a smart a. But never heard of an open calf. Or is this a type-o.?

 

[Dave]

Also not trying to be a smart a. But most every calf I have come across is in fact open, especially the steers.

 

[3MR]

It depends mostly on how many cows you have. I would say if you have less than 100 cows you will always come out cheaper buying. The cost and upkeep on a mower, fluffer, rake and baler will buy a lot of hay, not counting your time.

It might take a cpl of years to find a good supplier but if you do stick with them.

Johnny

I think you need to look at how many acres you are baling rather than how many cows you are feeding.

Using your equation though.

50 cows at four bales a year each equals 200 bales. At say 45 each thats 9000. Thats the cost of my used swather and a new rake. My tractor was 10 and the baler was 6. It would pay for itslef in less than three years. If hay was higher it would pay for itslef in less. of course this assumes you have enough land to cut all the hay you require yourself and doesn take into account fuel, twine, depreciation etc, but its still pretty close, and works out for me.

 

[bigbull338]

It depends mostly on how many cows you have. I would say if you have less than 100 cows you will always come out cheaper buying. The cost and upkeep on a mower, fluffer, rake and baler will buy a lot of hay, not counting your time.

It might take a cpl of years to find a good supplier but if you do stick with them.

Johnny

I think you need to look at how many acres you are baling rather than how many cows you are feeding.

Using your equation though.

50 cows at four bales a year each equals 200 bales. At say 45 each thats 9000. Thats the cost of my used swather and a new rake. My tractor was 10 and the baler was 6. It would pay for itslef in less than three years. If hay was higher it would pay for itslef in less. of course this assumes you have enough land to cut all the hay you require yourself and doesn take into account fuel, twine, depreciation etc, but its still pretty close, and works out for me.

ok a cudtom baler charges $20 to cut rake an bale.using 200 bales a year thats $4000 in baling.ok now if you buy 200 bales.unless your in a place with over supply of hay.your looking at $30 a bale plus delivery.hay cost is $6000.hauling cost is lets say $1200.thats $7200 a year.over 5yrs thats $36000.in my book you can pay that on equipment an fuel.an equipment is paid for in 5yrs.that would last for 15yrs.thats assumeing you have 1 or 2 tractors already.

 

[dun]

It depends mostly on how many cows you have. I would say if you have less than 100 cows you will always come out cheaper buying. The cost and upkeep on a mower, fluffer, rake and baler will buy a lot of hay, not counting your time.

It might take a cpl of years to find a good supplier but if you do stick with them.

Johnny

I think you need to look at how many acres you are baling rather than how many cows you are feeding.

Using your equation though.

50 cows at four bales a year each equals 200 bales. At say 45 each thats 9000. Thats the cost of my used swather and a new rake. My tractor was 10 and the baler was 6. It would pay for itslef in less than three years. If hay was higher it would pay for itslef in less. of course this assumes you have enough land to cut all the hay you require yourself and doesn take into account fuel, twine, depreciation etc, but its still pretty close, and works out for me.

ok a cudtom baler charges $20 to cut rake an bale.using 200 bales a year thats $4000 in baling.ok now if you buy 200 bales.unless your in a place with over supply of hay.your looking at $30 a bale plus delivery.hay cost is $6000.hauling cost is lets say $1200.thats $7200 a year.over 5yrs thats $36000.in my book you can pay that on equipment an fuel.an equipment is paid for in 5yrs.that would last for 15yrs.thats assumeing you have 1 or 2 tractors already.

If you graze it instead of cutting it you don;t have fertilizer costs but you do have the production of the caatle ofrf of that acreage. Bouhgt hay is aqlso adding fertility to the soil that someone else paid for. Seems like I saw something a while back that claimed thre was 7 dollars worth of fertilization in a bale. Even if there was only a bucks worth, that's still less you have to apply to your ground from cutting it.

dun

 

[3MR]

I hadnt heard that about 7 bucks worth of fertilization in a bale. Seems a bit high ot me. Only time I ever heard of a bale making anything worthwhile as actual fertilizer was when it had N toxicity and wasnt good for anything but fertilizer.

There is definitely something to be said for grazing rather than cutting as far as fertilizer goes though.

I think the bottom line is different things work best for different operations; and their is no cookie cutter answer to most of these type of questions.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I hadnt heard that about 7 bucks worth of fertilization in a bale. Seems a bit high ot me.

Fertilizer was $315 a ton for me last year. That is just under $50 an acre for fertilizer. I certainly didn't make 7 bales an acre in only two cuttings and all the drought.

 

[Dave]

There is certainly fertilizer value in hay that is import to your farm. I figured the book value for 1,000 pounds of Orchard grass. That 1,000 pounds has 14.7 pounds of actual N, 2 pounds of P and 21.6 pounds of K. Using the old fertilizer values I had it works out to a gross value of $10.25. Alfalfa worked out to $12.66 for the same amount of hay. These are again book values so real test values will be different. But one of the points to consider when deciding if you should bale your own hay or buy it from elsewhere is that by buying you are importing nutrients on to your farm which decreases your need to purchase fertilizer.
Dave