Well you have almost stuck your foot in it now.
The many issues include and are not limited to
the following as far as your specific desire to farm
this acreage.
1. Your actual income
2. your disposable income-can you afford to purchase the tractors, plow, disc harrow, sure stand grass seeder, sprayer, widrower crimper, hay baler,
hay wagons, running gear,hay elevators, fuel and lubricants, sisal baling twine, seed, annual soil tests, fertiliser, lime, gypsum?
3. the needed equipment for 80 acres.
4. annual real estate and school taxes on the property
5. availability of fire protection
6. available water supply for possible irrigation (being Center Pivots)
7..your possible market for high quality hay
8. annual 5 million dollars of blanket liability isurance coverage premium
9. crop rotation or simply letting twenty acres go fallow every five years to let it rest
10. TDN testing-for the digestable value to ruminants.
11. I cannot place enough emphasis on purchasing a bale wrapping machine for
hay bales as it preserves the hay and reduces the chance of damage from vermin.
There is still a big market for horse hay in small bales , personally i woul drather use
a round mini baler as the bales are more dense and are easier to handle and store
if they are wrapped as they can be left under tarp without damage.
the thing is small bales wastes much less hay and is economical THE PROBLEM IS the hay buyers TIME AND THE LACK OF IT.
If your serious about owning this property you should think about renting it out
for an annual cash rent basis per acre and see how it fairs for the first few
years as you will have to spend a considerable amount of time plowing and planting
new hay for a foddr crop as the sod may be no good for good forage haycrop if it
was not maintained.
Find out from your neighbors what they are getting for cash rents or what hey are
paying for cash rents and then decide.
UNLESS AND UNTILL you offer a high value fodder crop that has a high total digetable nutrient percentage
you can simply slam the drawer on your hand as no one will buy it from you- a lot of hay gets sold and moved
every yearnation wide and is even more valuable in drought years as well as in times of flooding.
The annual cash rent income has to cover your insurance and liability coverage, land repairs-
cleaning drainage ditches, possibly installing drainage pipe using a commercial drainage pipe installer
which is the fastest and cheapest cost per acre to improve bad drainageand wet fields.
You should also examine Remont Sainfoin as a fodder crop as it has an excellent reputation and yield for a fodder crop as well.
I hate round or square big bales unless they are wrapped as you have use chainsaw to open them up to get what little good feed there is for the cows.
