28 acres worth a hay operation?

[Old Junk Man]

If you want to grow Bermuda it needs several doses of fertilizer a year including spring. The best way to get rid of the fescue and get a clean high yield, high quality Bermuda field is to spray with roundup late winter before the Bermuda comes out of dormancy. It kills the fescue and the rest of the winter weeds. Then fertilize as soon as it starts to green up.

graze the land with a mob ofsheep and the will eat the fescue & weeds and they work their manure into the soil. you graze it right down to the ground and them move them. the close grazing makes the Bermuda send out runners and the competition from weeds and other grass is gone. Any pasture needs to be mowed when necessary. and a rattle snake harrow drug over it in the fall to scatter manure. then overseed with white clover or vetch. We bailed the pasture where 14 cows Three cows where regular cattle the rest where miniature Zebu and twenty pigmy goats had been grazing for 6 months. in September that twenty acres made 300 small square bales. no fertilizer no spraying. just rotational grazing of the cattle with electric fence. the goats has access to the entire parcel. and a portion had been bushogged.

 

[Old Junk Man]

Ok have any of you ever unrolled a round bale and bailed it up with a square bailer into 65 pound bales? I have! guess how many65 pound square bales are in the largest bale that biggest JD round bailer makes?

 

[foreman Etexas]

Ok have any of you ever unrolled a round bale and bailed it up with a square bailer into 65 pound bales? I have! guess how many65 pound square bales are in the largest bale that biggest JD round bailer makes?

I'll bite probably 30 maybe 29,cause around 15/16 in my 5x4 but I wasn't sure on the weight they done.

I have one meadow that's probably 28acres and with the fertilizer it made 171,5x4's this year. I wouldn't bale my own hay or even worry with it,if it wasn't to use for myself. I do sale some but I don't rely on moving any of it,if someone ask I will sale it but don't advertise,all by word of mouth. I would hate to know I had to sale every roll it made.

 

[Old Junk Man]

7 & 1/2 65 pound square bales can be bailed from the biggest round bale there is. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and add another 1/2 bale for the loss incurred rebailing. And Ive done it several times. I did it at a JD hay day demonstration once and boy was that sponsoring dealer mad at me.

 

[smstonypoint]

7 & 1/2 65 pound square bales can be bailed from the biggest round bale there is. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and add another 1/2 bale for the loss incurred rebailing. And Ive done it several times. I did it at a JD hay day demonstration once and boy was that sponsoring dealer mad at me.

So, what did the round bale weigh?

John Deere claims its 569 baler can produce up to 2200 lb. bales. So, if we start with 2200 lbs. and end up with 520 lbs, what happened to the other 1680 lbs.?

It's been 45+ years since I had a physics class, but I do seem to recall something about the conservation of matter.

Steve

 

[Old Junk Man]

So, what did the round bale weigh?

John Deere claims its 569 baler can produce up to 2200 lb. bales. So, if we start with 2200 lbs. and end up with 520 lbs, what happened to the other 1680 lbs.?

It's been 45+ years since I had a physics class, but I do seem to recall something about the conservation of matter.

Steve

The other 1680 pounds went to hot air. those round bales don't weigh near that much. Ive weighed a soaking wet one wont weigh a 1,000 pounds. When the very first big JD round bailer showed up. Mr Paul was down on Paulines place by the river. a big to do the JD folks where there and they where claiming 22 square bales to the round bale. Me and Brownie where across the road on Argos place. Bailing with a 46 T international. Brownie bought a round bale and we unrolled it and not changing a thing on our square bailer that was set to make a average 65 pound bale. We bailed it up. That made 7&1/4 bales. and we has some fun and had some mad folks also. Folks from this area will know who and where this happened.

 

[Hill Farmer]

You break even every year and the land suffers the loss of tons of organic material. If its fenced rent it for pasture. that way you get some profit and the organic material is converted to manure and stays on the land. just don't let the renter overgraze. I once rented some pasture from a guy up the road. He would only rent by the month. That way he could prevent overgrazing. You should draw up a contract stipulating how many animal units are allowed and a clause forbidding overgrazing.

We rent the remaining 130 acres May through August to the folks that bale the hay to run cattle on. The cattle need hay for winter, dad needs hay for his horses. Everyone is happy, but no ones getting rich doing it.

 

[Old Junk Man]

I know this family the oldest boy who name starts with S his wife has a mare that had a colt. and the colt matured and bred the mare. and pretty soon there where 8 inbred horses on the familys farm. Two younger brothers whose name started with T,s had cattle and didn't like the horses. so during the winter they on purpose fed the horses the very worst round bales of moldy hay they had. wanting the horses to die. They did it all winter and the horses lived and had more foals come spring. True Story.

 

[bushhog28]

Well shucks. Doesnt look like hay will pan out. Id like to try to grow something and try my hand at some farming, wife wont like 40k in equipment and a loss every year. Need to fund my hobby if you know what i mean. I guess i need to look at crops.

 

[Creamer]

Don't let them discourage you. Hay is a crop just like any other. Some people are very profitable with it and others do not do well. I have a friend who only grows crops to rotate the ground from hay (He has others farm it when it is crops). He does very well with hay and sells most of it right out of the field to his regular customers.

Obviously your equipment will vary with how big of hay farmer you are. One thing about hay is it does not take a lot of state of the art equipment. You can start small and expand/upgrade.