Custom Haying - Dealing With Large Orders?

[barneyrb]

Around here used cotton trailers sell for $100-400 (since they started using modules). With the sides off these are pretty good for hay....just real slow speed on the highway.

[Double D]

Originally Posted by RichZ

If you've never hayed before, you may be moving a little too fast in taking an order that big. Haying is EXTREMELY time consuming, and is much more complicated than it appears. When you cut, you need to be sure that you have a 3 day window to rake and bale, not to mention to ted the hay if it needs it. .

Negligence,
While I haven't done any haying since I was a kid and worked on a farm, this struck me as some of the most important info in this thread. You said you were new to farming in the last year. Make sure you are not only confident but also competent in your operation. You don't want to be selling hot hay or you may have to change your handle. Good luck in your endeavor.....DD

[Negligence]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think the consensus is that I might be getting ahead of myself in my first year. I'm starting to agree.

I've got a good idea when to start cutting, and I'll be getting a moisture tester to make sure I'm dealing with balable hay (in addition to the feeler method). I have good neighbours who also farm and they have already given me with a lot of tips. But I guess I'm not really prepared for all the work -- and potential breakdowns -- to do custom haying in my first year.

I think for this year I will take small orders that I know I can handle with a couple trailers. Anything larger than say 500, I'll pass on. I posted with one mindset and came out with another, so again, thanks for the input folks.

[slowzuki]

One thing I'd also advise, talk to your neighbour with the round baler. If things are looking bad, an arrangement to have him bale more than you intended can save a lot of hay from the weather.

They don't get near the money as squares but I hate watching hay get ruined.

I did one of my fields with a round baler last year and with just myself I put in the equivalent of 1000 bales in a day. Completely new concept for me and it was great to get it cleaned up before rain.

[Farmwithjunk]

Offer a reduced rate for hay "in the field". Let buyers pick it up.

New Holland stackliner. Makes handling large volumes of baled hay a one man job. You just have to have buildings that will accomodate the machine.

For a "start-up" operation, I'd suspect you're biting off a mighty big chunk there. It's good to have lofty goals, but they need to be with-in reason or a great idea can become a disaster as fast as the weather can change.

[flusher]

Originally Posted by Negligence

Hi folks, I'm new to the farming scene as of last year. I bought a thrower baler, haybine and rake to do some small squares for ourselves. I will be cutting/raking more hay that will be round baled by a neighbour for us, too. We've got 135 acres with about 90-100 I can cut.

I now have a customer who is interested in approximately 2,000 square bales delivered. This is a very large amount and I'm concerned about the logistics of handling this much. So I thought I'd ask for some seasoned advice.

I was planning on buying 2 hay wagons for our own hay, but I realized if I'm doing 2,000 bales, I will need at least 3 to 4, or more, otherwise my hay will be sitting on the field, unbaled. The problem is hay wagons around here run anywhere from $1800-2200 a piece. I can't imagine spending $8,000 in trailers.

Is there any way to handle this much hay, short of unloading and reloading trailers to delivery, or purchasing 4 + trailers to hold it?

What do other folks do? I thought of buying a stock trailer to transport the hay in (might be able to get 200-300 bales in it), but my 07' Ram 1500 can't tow that much weight... scratch that idea.

Kickers/wagons are nice, but if I were in your shoes, I'd get a bale accumulator/grapple. You can get something simple like the Out Front units pretty reasonably ($5K or so) and stack the bales instead of tossing them into a wagon.

Out-Front Hay Accumulator

[buckeyefarmer]

someone on here the other day mentioned that they sometimes will round bale the hay to get it in quick, and then unroll and square bale it in the barn. That's a good idea if you are running up against the weather.

[slowzuki]

But not a great idea for quality hay, unrolling and rebaling losses a lot of leaf.

Originally Posted by buckeyefarmer

someone on here the other day mentioned that they sometimes will round bale the hay to get it in quick, and then unroll and square bale it in the barn. That's a good idea if you are running up against the weather.

[pitt_md]

I just planted a few acres of hay (5). My idea was to have someone do the harvesting for a share of the hay. I just need 300 squares for my two horses over the winter. I have no idea what I will be getting for hay this first year so I hope I can find someone interested in this kind of arrangement.

[charlz]

Did you mention where you are located? Haying is so weather dependent it is not even funny.

2,000 small squares is a pretty good chunk, most people using that much hay want big bales. Is this someone you know or a hay speculator? Starting to see more hay speculators around here, they want to buy the hay and leave it stacked on your place until they sell it in late winter. (anyone see what's wrong with that picture?)


I agree with everyone saying take it easy the first year or so. Try and mechanize as much as possible. Stacker wagons are the way to go for small bales... if you have the buildings or backstops to stack it against. Not sure why they haven't caught on back east?