Pay for someone to harvest hay

[TheMan419]

I am on the board of directors of the local therapeutic riding facility. We have had a local farmer donate 40 acres of hay. Issue is that we have to cut, bale etc.

So we are looking for someone to so same. The 40 acres will likely produce more hay than we need. So rather than pay someone to bale it and then sell the excess we are thinking let someone do the work and keep a portion of the hay as their pay.

Is there a common share to give them? Is this even a reasonable idea?

 

[Halftrack]

Typically, the farmer would do the work and you would get half of the crop. If you were to advertise the acreage and location on CL with a contact phone #, you should get a number of interested parties. Problems arise with who you are dealing with, weather, distance from their facilities and yours, and the actual owner of the property. I would first suggest you contact the local county extension agent for some guidelines to work from and talk with the donator to see what he has done in the past. Any contracts would probably be between the current owner and farmer with the facility simply receiving half of the crop.

 

[kthompson]

I would begin with any members or supporters to see if anyone does bale hay. They should care more about the job.

 

[joeu235]

Is the 40 acres wide open with no cross fences and trees? When was the last time it was cut?

 

[TheMan419]

We have already put the word out to our supporters with little interest. Property is wide open and flat.

I do not know the last time it was cut. We do have a farmer that does hay who is one of our supporters. He has looked at the field and says it is in good shape. Too far from his farm to interest him.

Also we can likely supply volunteers to help stack and move hay. We do not have the equipment to cut and bale. We do have a couple hay wagons, volunteers w large pick up ticks and strong young men.

I just have no idea what a fair price is. Of course if we are supplying some labor that should reduce the farmers share some.

 

[Sysop]

I think you'll find the main issue is someone able to transport that much equipment. Depending on how they are cutting, they may need to haul in the tractor, cutter, conditioner, and baler. Not many people have a trailer able to haul all of that, nor the extra equipment it might take for them to load and unload everything as separate loads.

Most guys local to me will not haul their tractor and baling equipment to a job, they drive it with the tractor. If it takes more than 30 minutes to drive it on a tractor, it is too far.

Perhaps some of your volunteers with large pickups also have some large trailers. Offering assistance moving the equipment to the site might be the assistance some would need to agree to do the work. Bad part of that, you and your volunteers are taking on the responsibility of the cost of that equipment if something happened in transit. Volunteer's auto policies may or may not cover cargo on a trailer. Something to investigate.

 

[Tx Jim]

Back in '87 when I started custom baling hay I would drive my tractors with haying equipment 20-25 miles to cut/bale hay. Today I'll only travel 3-4 miles to do same task because it's too dangerous. City folks moved to the country are always in too big of a hurry & drive too fast on county roads not to mention talking/texting on cell phones. If I was to bale the 40 acres on shares I'd want 75% of the hay & riding facility would get 25%. If I sq baled the hay at that % I'd have $2.66 invested in unfertilized hay sitting in the field

 

[TheMan419]

I think you'll find the main issue is someone able to transport that much equipment. Depending on how they are cutting, they may need to haul in the tractor, cutter, conditioner, and baler. Not many people have a trailer able to haul all of that, nor the extra equipment it might take for them to load and unload everything as separate loads.

Most guys local to me will not haul their tractor and baling equipment to a job, they drive it with the tractor. If it takes more than 30 minutes to drive it on a tractor, it is too far.

Perhaps some of your volunteers with large pickups also have some large trailers. Offering assistance moving the equipment to the site might be the assistance some would need to agree to do the work. Bad part of that, you and your volunteers are taking on the responsibility of the cost of that equipment if something happened in transit. Volunteer's auto policies may or may not cover cargo on a trailer. Something to investigate.

Yes this is one of the problems we are having. If I were the farmer I would insist on making sure my equipment was insured while being transported. I think that will kill that idea.

Back in '87 when I started custom baling hay I would drive my tractors with haying equipment 20-25 miles to cut/bale hay. Today I'll only travel 3-4 miles to do same task because it's too dangerous. City folks moved to the country are always in too big of a hurry & drive too fast on county roads not to mention talking/texting on cell phones. If I was to bale the 40 acres on shares I'd want 75% of the hay & riding facility would get 25%. If I sq baled the hay at that % I'd have $2.66 invested in unfertilized hay sitting in the field

Square bale around here sells for $5.50-$7.00 or so delivered and stacked. Certainly 25% of the hay (for free) is better than 0%, but may make us think about the effort involved to make it happen.

I did hear from the guy donating the hay that he may be willing to pay someone to bale it so that we get 100% of it. That would be amazing as it would take care of all of our hay needs for the year. The money we are budgeting for hay could then be used to provide more programs for the disabled clients we serve.

In any event thank you for the words of wisdom.

 

[strum456]

Back in '87 when I started custom baling hay I would drive my tractors with haying equipment 20-25 miles to cut/bale hay. Today I'll only travel 3-4 miles to do same task because it's too dangerous. City folks moved to the country are always in too big of a hurry & drive too fast on county roads not to mention talking/texting on cell phones. If I was to bale the 40 acres on shares I'd want 75% of the hay & riding facility would get 25%. If I sq baled the hay at that % I'd have $2.66 invested in unfertilized hay sitting in the field

I argree. I wouldn't do it for 1/2, unless it was as a favor or something. Now, if it was really nice hay that was fertilized, that could change things because the person doing the cutting, raking, baling, etc. is not running all over creation just to gather a bale. I have turned down "free" hay within several miles because it was too thin or too weedy to justify running equipment all over. In my experience, most situations like this involve hay that is not even worth baling.

 

[Sysop]

Just got to thinking about another angle. A "therapeutic riding facility", what is that? Is it some sort of charity organization? Could doing the work be considered a tax deductible contribution?