40 acres of hay. What should I do?

[Carpenter]

I'm in the process of buying a place that has 40 acres of irrigated alfalfa. I'd be interested to hear some opinions on farming this myself vs. having a custom operator do it. Is it worth investing in haying equipment for a piece this size? If so, what equipment would you get? It's fun to spend other people's money, isn't it! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

Unless you are really mechanically inclined I would hire it out. 40 acres isn't much hay to do and even used you are going to tie up $20-30k in very used equipment. New would be double that or more.

BTW where are you at in NE Oregon? We have quite a bit of land down on the Idaho/Oregon border between Nyssa and Ontario and some in Vale.

 

[Woodbeef]

It all depends on a few questions you'll have to ask yourself. Do you have the time to do it? Do you have a sale or need for it yourself? Will you need help,if so where will it come from? What do you have for tractors? You could pick up a mo/co,rake,small square baler,hay wagon,and 4x4 or larger round baler for around $10,000 or so on up depending on how old you are willing to go. Or you could have it all done by someone else. Will they do it on shares? Or buy the crop? Or will you have to pay them to do it for you?

 

[Carpenter]

Richard, my mechanical skills are just average and I admit that working on old equipment is not appealing to me. I think I'll put that money into building improvements, which I have the equipment and knowledge to do, and have the hay done on shares.

I live in LaGrande and also have some land in Summerville. Thanks for the insights.

 

[Carpenter]

Woodbeef, all good questions. I think the reality is that having it done on shares is best, for now. If it doesn't work out, I'll be back to ask for help in finding the right equipment.
Thanks!

 

[cowboydoc]

What a great place to live in. LaGrande is absolutely beautiful. We used to play LaGrande in sports when I was in high school. I shot my first elk in LaGrande. Went to a few football camps there in LaGrande as well. Do you do anything with the college there? I have a few friends there. You probably don't know Bryan Brock. He works at the bank there and was a good friend of mine from way back. Before they passed a couple years ago my great grandparents had a big ranch just outside of LaGrande there. My grandfather has it now and rents it out to one of the other ranchers there. Anyway small world. Take care and good luck with the hay.

 

[HayDR]

cowboydoc,
There may be few things we do that are not justifiable in money terms. In the 1960's, we farmed 1000 acres with a AC-D14 , WD, CA & G. We put up 500 acres of hay twice a year with sicklebar mowers and square bales. We did all that with less than 40 HP. The same can be done now with drum & disc mowers and square bales. The majority of our customers have 5'x4' round balers and 40-60 HP tractors. My father is 79 and puts up 40 acres of hay with a 50 HP tractor, disc mower and a V-Rake. We custom bale the hay for him. Not every one needs new equipment. Take for instance a round baler has an effective life of 20-40 years depending on the care and maintenance. There are many good used round balers out there for less than $6,000. Mowers run from $300- $7,000, Rakes from $300-$3,000

 

[cowboydoc]

I completely agree with you that there is cheaper used equipment out there. But how much do you want to work on it? We used to put up much more than a thousand acres of hay but we also had ALOT of help. Today it's rare to be able to find any help. Plus how many people today have a month or more 16 hours a day to put up hay? And then watch it all get rained on and ruined because you couldn't get it put up in time. If you've got the time and you want to be your own mechanic then you bet I completely agree. But if you're a one man operation and you're doing alot of hay you better have good equipment.

I've been the low end route and I hated it. Always stopping to work on something. Things breaking down, hay getting rained on, etc. It takes any fun out of it really quick. Now that I can afford good equipment I do. If I had to farm with junk equipment I wouldn't do it. If a person likes to do that and has all the time in the world then great. If you don't you better get good equipment and if you're doing alot of ground buy the biggest equipment you can get.

 

[RichZ]

I agree with you, Richard. I've been haying 50 acres with a bunch of used equipment that I got very cheap. Actually, my equipment has been very reliable, but the time factor is what I agree with you on. Haying is extremely time consuming, though to me, it's also extremely enjoyable.

When I first started getting into faming, I had a lot more time. But now that I'm milking goats twice a day, raising more live stock, and doing all the chores associated with that, my time is greatly diminishing. This may be my last year haying myself, unless I'm able to get some help. I hate to give it up, but as Richard says, it's just not cost efficient unless you're doing a very large acreage.

Also, as I get more livestock, I need to convert more of my hayfields into pasture so that cuts down on the acreage of hay, and cuts into the efficiency even more.

But, I gotta say, if you don't mind very hard work, baleing your own hay is a lot of fun, and very rewarding. Just not cost efficient.

 

[slowzuki]

We've got even less hay, only a few thousand bales but we have sort of an equipment sharing agreement. Basicly there isn't enough land for everyone to own their own equipment.

I am going to look into buying a drum mower as the mower conditioner is a pita. None are sold around here yet but I think they would be useful.

Ken