Well, the Custom Baler is back..

[Nowland Farms]

The custom baler showed up at the neighbors place yesterday to cut her 40 acres of Costal bermuda. I had talked to him about coming over and cutting and baleing my 6 acres of costal.

He cut my hay yesterday and we are enjoying some of this dry hot august weather to get it dry. He will probably bale my hay on Wednesday.

He charges $12 per 5'x4' roll and his rolls are tight as I have been around when he baled a couple of times. $12 per bale - his equipment, his fuel & his labor.

For $12, per bale, I don't even want to crank the tractor up while diesel is close to $3 per gallon.

 

[mike calf raiser]

I put up alot of custom hay with my dad, and we just bought a new John Deere 467 silage special with megawide pick and with the cost of equipment and fuel prices. We were getting fourteen and fifteen a bale and if we put it up on halfs we had to have a few more bales than half. We stayed very busy until it got so dry. i think that you got a pretty good deal.

 

[milesvb]

He must be doing it for fun. That's roughly half of what the going rate is in this area.

 

[BC]

There are custom operators here that are losing money at $18 per bale and they do not know it until they figure their income at the end of the year.

The University of Tennessee Ag Eco. department has a website with a machinery cost calculator that is really good at showing you what it cost to operate a piece of equipment.

http://economics.ag.utk.edu/mcc.html

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[farmwife]

Had ours baled last week and got 2 rolls to the acre. The Lord has been good -- most folks in our area are doing good to get 1 roll off 2 acres. Our guy charged us $17 per roll, but gave us $2 off each for raking for him.

 

[C & C Land & Catt]

We bale with 467 jd balers 66" tall & 48" wide. We square bale with a new holland 575. We charge 18 $ a bale with a 2 bale an acre minimum for rounds and 2 $ a square with a 1 1/2 ton an acre minimum.

 

[Nowland Farms]

This afternoon around 4pm the hay was dry, had been raked and was waiting on the bailer to finish up in the neighbors field. I fully expected to be putting a few rolls of hay in the barn by 7pm. It's been dry here for the most part for the last 3 months so I was only expecting a couple of rolls per acre.

As my luck would have it, the winds started blowing hard, it turned dark, the weather sirens went off and begin to rain. My only reaction was a small smile and then a little verbal prayer to the LORD to thank him for the rain.

It only rained for a few minutes and we rec'd 1/4" of rain. The hay will dry and be ready to bail in a day or so. I'll take the rain anyday.................

 

[alabama]

I too got cought in the hay field yesterday. I got up all I had raked but I still got several acres wet. We had a good rain. Over an inch I think.
I will check it this evening and either fluff that or cut some more.

 

[Nowland Farms]

Ooooppps, I recounted and we got 8 rolls instead of the 7 5'x4' rolls off 6 acres and it cost me $12 per roll. I was hoping for more hay but considering how dry it has been, I'm lucky to get this.

 

[alabama]

(7 X $60)-(7 X $15)= +$315
Now how much fertelizer you got in this cutting.
You still have time to get a crop to bank and graze this winter too.
Not too bad.

 

[tytower]

In australia we buy Rhodes grass in rolls about 4ft x 3 ft 6'' diameter
This costs $20 AUD or about $15 US.

How does that compare with yours ? Your rounds sound a fair bit bigger don't they? What sort of price do they sell for at the produce stores?

 

[Nowland Farms]

Alabama,

I'm sucking wind when you consider the fertlizer cost.

Back in May when it was raining, I heavly fertlized this 6 acres expecting the rain to continue and get 3 or 4 rolls per acre. As you may recall from a previous post, the rain stopped and the grass set there for most of 2 months before we really rec'd any amount of rain.

Yes, I'm still in the hole for this hay but at least I can sell it and get some of my money back. Better than not getting any thing.

The cows are back on the field today still grazing. They will eat on this field as long as it is green.

 

[alabama]

Rod youstill have time for another cutting before fall. Or you can bank it for this winter?

 

[Tod Dague]

The custom baler we use charger $16 per 6.5' X 5' bale to cut rake and bale. Now if I just had some extra grass to bale.

 

[cowtrek]

Just finished bout two weeks worth of round baling for guys here. I get $15/roll for 5x5 rounds (sometimes 5 1/2's) cut, rake, and baled left on the field. Turned out pretty good except the last field got half baled and rained on pre-dawn Saturday morning. Went and flipped it over Monday noontime since we've had such heavy dew and darn if it didn't shower on it as soon as I finished. Went back about 5 pm and pulled the windrows apart with the rake to dry. Went yesterday morning about 11 and raked it back up, came back about noon and baled, as it's been really threatening. I hate getting hay rained on but try to get it back in shape asap when it does. Kinda hated dragging the rake over the windrows three more times but it was only about 20 rolls worth so it wasn't too bad. Glad the job is done and at least 30 rolls of it was put up on time and right. Another custom guy cut across the fence, he's getting $18 a roll for the same stuff and he just cut it last Wednesday and let it lay there til yesterday afternoon and then came out with the rake when I finished baling. When I went back about 6pm to bring my baler and rake home he had it rolled, but leaving it flat on the ground for nearly a week sure didn't do it any favors. I don't understand why guys leave hay laying around a week when I can bale it on the third day after cutting and it come out perfect. Especially after spending as much on fertilizer and stuff to grow a beautiful field of Jiggs or Tifton 85 and then let it lay there til it's as sunburned as wheat straw. Oh well... to each his own I guess. The guy he cut for had asked me to cut his too because he'd told the other guy to come cut it a couple months ago and he only NOW shows up. If he'd been about an hour or two later I'd have been done with the patch I was in and on the neighbors and he'd have been SOL. As it was, when he parked his cutter over there and left, I called the owner and told him the other guy was there. Wanted to know what he wanted done, since I don't want to tick anybody off. He said, "well, I guess since he's there let him cut it but I'll get you next time." OK by me. I sure told him though he wasn't getting much bang for his buck paying $3 more for the same job and him letting it lay there for a week before baling it. He nodded glumly.

I don't have minimums but I do look at the job before I go out there. I had a longtime customer call me back in May wanting a little 4 acre place cut and I went and looked and it wasn't even boot deep, and I'm not even cranking the tractor up for 2-3 bales. I usually get between 8-12 on that patch. He called me a couple times lately but I let it grow out and got 11 off it. Not bad. He did get a bit antsy though, but I explained that with diesel prices I can't afford to run down the road for just a couple bales. I had him at the top of the list and took care of him, so he was happy and understood. I'd rather stay small and do it right than some of these bigshots do; run cut all over the place and leave it lay around til they can get back around to bale it, no matter if it turns to cardboard on you or not, or keep you waiting a couple months to finally show up and cut it. Lot of em gotta pay for new iron though where mine's old. Oh well, to each his own.

Yall take it easy and good luck! OL JR