What equipment for small scale hay?

[EHR]

Here is a blended approach, I have a BCS walk behind tractor and a 45" sickle mower with it. I can mow about 3/4 an hour. $3k for the unit with the mower, $50 for a hand hay rake. Perfect...definitely not but it worked. I usually mow 4-5 acres of 2-30 degree slopes. Last year when the guy who begged to bale my large field did a no show I did an extra 11 acres with this set up. Ideal, definitely not. Used equipment when avaikablle runs about 50 percent less.

In Italy where walk behinds are more popular this would be a common setup.

 

[flusher]

I have about 2-3 acres of hay pasture at my new house. I also have a Kubota L39 with 3-point hitch and ~30hp pto. What is my best course of action to attack the hay? I do keep goats, so "using" it would be nice.

ac

Unless you really, really like rebuilding/restoring old equipment, your acreage is too small to justify investing in haying equipment (sicklebar mower, rake, baler).

For example, I like working with old iron and I grow oat hay on 6 of my 10 acres (flat pasture) using the following equipment:

Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill (10-ft wide, 20 hoes, $275 for two units and about $200 parts to make one good drill)

Massey Ferguson 31 sicklebar mower ($550 at auction plus $200 parts)

Deere 350 3pt side delivery rake ($800)

Massey Ferguson 124 baler (two twine, small squares, $2000)

 

[avc8130]

I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread. I greatly appreciate all of the advice and commentary.

I am not 100% sure where I am at. I do know that I have goats and hay fields. My current herd cannot eat my hay field as quickly as it is growing. I also realize they will get hungry come fall/winter when there is no hay in the fields.

My fields are currently 24-36" tall.

It is true no one is coming to hay it for me. Square bales around these parts are ~$4-5 each. That means ~1000 bales to pay off the equipment if I buy from Ken Sweet.

I think I am going to watch the local craigslist for some equipment. I have this tractor, I might as well put it to use. I also plan to prioritize the equipment. I need SOMETHING to mow around my property as a bunch of stuff is overgrowing fast anyways. A sickle bar or rotary is a new discussion.

Hay Rake:
I found a Ford 14-72 rake for $400 locally. Is that something I should go look at?
Baler:
I found a John Deere 14T locally for $550. I am going to check it out and talk to the seller. I know the 14T has some obsolete parts that require 24T parts to be modded to work. It looks big and heavy and this guy might just want to get it off his lawn. It looks like about $100 worth of scrap at the worst

ac

 

[westbrooklawn]

Don't know where you are located, but the Raleigh, NC Craigslist has a sickle bar mower for $500 and two balers for $3000, or $1800 each. Balers are advertised as field ready... seems like a good price.

 

[MMagis]

Someone absolutely WILL came bale it for you. I'm not talkng about a customer hay operation, or full time farmer. I'm talking about a small cattle or horse farmer or similar. Around here there are plenty of them, and most of them will bale a few acres for a price.
I still don't know if you even want it baled. You don't give your location so all of what we're all saying is just speculation. But, though your goats aren't keeping up with it now, wait until August when you haven't had rain for a month. You'll be wishing you had more grass. I don't mean to offend anyone, but to be perfectly honest, buying equipment to bale 2-3 acres is absolutely foolish unless you have a lot of extra time and money. I enjoy doing things myself more than most, but put a pencil to paper and figure out how much hay you can buy with the money you'll spend on equipment. Then, go ahead and factor in yearly upkeep, parts, string, etc. Buying hay will start looking a lot better.

 

[avc8130]

I must apologize, all this time I thought my location was showing under my user name!

Either way, I am having great difficulty finding someone to hay my acres. At this rate I am just going to keep letting the goats roam through it...even though the babies disappear and it results in great panic from the mamas. It is quite comical.

In NJ, EVERYTHING is expensive. Hay is $5/bale. So for every $1k spent, I need 200 bales.

I didn't realize how costly the equipment was when I posted. However, it looks like there are some possibilities while I possibly acquire equipment over the years. If I had a mower of some type I could already cut and make piles.

ac

 

[tessiers]

As I mentioned earlier you may want to do a few extra acres to pay for the fuel and equipment. If no one in your area is willing to do small acerage I am sure ther are others in your area that would hire you for an acre or 2, not enough to make a living but help pay the bills. I agree a sickle is the way to go for hay, bushhogs are a cross between mowers and choppers, not good for either but OK for both. Just my 2 cents

 

[ustmd]

In NJ, EVERYTHING is expensive. Hay is $5/bale. So for every $1k spent, I need 200 bales.

It is all relative. I wish we could get hay at $5/bale here in Central Texas. Right now, my wife is excited about getting 100 bales at $8.25/bale--that is delivered and stacked

 

[charleyfarmall]

1. Ken's price is excellent to get you going in hay. You will be hard pressed to do better.
2. The minimum acreage for buying equipment would be 5. Even at that....
3. I would be charging $4 a bale this year if i was baling. That's out of the field. Some of my neighbors would still be charging $3 and one, maybe 1/2 of that. If you wanted to get it after I got it out of the field, I would be charging $5.
4. use portable fence and intensely graze 1/4 acre at a time then move them. Mow occasionally if it's really out of control.
5. buy hay for the winter. The break even point on equipment and mtc is a lot.

 

[rankrank1]

Another thing to keep in mind is you can not simply cut and bale where the goats have been free range grazing. They will need to be off of that pasture a bit before you cut it so a few rains can wash away all the goat poop - otherwise that goat poop and goat pee saturated grass ends up inside your bales.