Im thinking about getting into the custom haying business here in colorado. I have lots of requests for this type of work. I need some advice from someone with more experience than me. I will have a late 80s swather, Jd 4430, small square baler, wheel rake, and a NH self propelled bale wagon. Im concerned about how much hay I can handle. It looks like most jobs will be alfalfa. Some customers want it just swathed, some want just baled and stacked. Any ideas on how much (acres) one could do without risking getting customers left and upset?
Custom haying, question about volume of jobs
- Thread starter green4710
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Robert_in_NY
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Doc will be able to help you better with the Alfalfa time table but I would think if everyone is in the same area you are going to have a real narrow window to get it down and baled.
One thing that I noticed though is you plan to run a NH Stackwagon. If you have never baled before you will want to pay close attention to your bales and try to make as consistent bales as possible or you might damage your stack wagon.
I fear custom cutting will limit your income potential and customer base and if you have bad weather come in you will really be hurt. If possible try to get some fields of your own to bale and sell hay off of. This will give you some income during the off months and in a few years might enable you to expand your own fields and do less custom cutting. If all you want to do is bale for others then I wish you the best as I feel that is going to be a tough market to keep up with and you will have to address what happens if you put up bad hay for some of your customers or their field gets rained on or cut too late. Your cost are going to be the same but thier product is going to be worth less and they will not be happy.
If you have storage space and had fields of your own you would bale and sell that hay and limit your custom work to a couple customers depending on size, distance and requirements. Because hay is going to take time to dry and if you cut at the prime time for one field and another is ready the same time you are going to drive yourself crazy trying to do both fields at the same time if they are more then 5 miles apart (especially with older equipment).
Like I said, it will be a tough market and I wish you the best with it if that is where you want to go. I do know you will be able to get a lot of help from the great people on this board and others like it so if something does happen and you need help just jump online and ask.
One thing that I noticed though is you plan to run a NH Stackwagon. If you have never baled before you will want to pay close attention to your bales and try to make as consistent bales as possible or you might damage your stack wagon.
I fear custom cutting will limit your income potential and customer base and if you have bad weather come in you will really be hurt. If possible try to get some fields of your own to bale and sell hay off of. This will give you some income during the off months and in a few years might enable you to expand your own fields and do less custom cutting. If all you want to do is bale for others then I wish you the best as I feel that is going to be a tough market to keep up with and you will have to address what happens if you put up bad hay for some of your customers or their field gets rained on or cut too late. Your cost are going to be the same but thier product is going to be worth less and they will not be happy.
If you have storage space and had fields of your own you would bale and sell that hay and limit your custom work to a couple customers depending on size, distance and requirements. Because hay is going to take time to dry and if you cut at the prime time for one field and another is ready the same time you are going to drive yourself crazy trying to do both fields at the same time if they are more then 5 miles apart (especially with older equipment).
Like I said, it will be a tough market and I wish you the best with it if that is where you want to go. I do know you will be able to get a lot of help from the great people on this board and others like it so if something does happen and you need help just jump online and ask.
Thanks for your reply. It looks like were going to be putting up about 17000 bales a year of our own. Im getting a lot of requests to either swath, or swath bale and stack alfalfa in the area, basically within 5 miles. Im worried that I wont have enough time to do everyones, and dont want to have someones crop ruined because I was baleing my own hay. Swather is a 14 foot head, and the wheel rake is a two row into one. Havent made up my mind on the baler, either a JD 348 or a nh 575.
Robert_in_NY
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- Case-IH Farmall 45A, Kubota M8540 Narrow, New Holland TN 65, Bobcat 331, Ford 1920, 1952 John Deere M, Allis Chalmers B, Bombardier Traxter XT, Massey Harris 81RC and a John Deere 3300 combine, Cub Cadet GT1554
If you have good equipment you should be able to do your own hay and a couple others but if the weather doesn't cooperate then you might be in a bind. I would try it the first year with possibly one extra client and see how things go. If you have time then you can look for another client but you don't want to extend yourself too thin and hurt your own crop as well as everyone elses. I would just go slow and expand and build your business and reputation the same way. The easiest way to ruin your name is to expand too fast and provide a poor product. Good luck to you.