Gross profit/acre hay

[Builder]

Due to the cost to transport, most of your market forces (both supply and demand) are primarily local. Then you also have the fact that there are commercial competitors, and hobby farmers, that contribute to the supply side of the market.

All in all, it is pure gambling where all rules are local.

Good luck.

I think you really nailed it. I have already built a scenario where if I get "X" per bale I know what I'll make.

My issues are, like with any new business venture, the unknown factors....

 

[slowzuki]

With half my hay coming from land that people give me the hay off of in exchange for cutting it, I make 0$ per acre. I'm only 7 years in, so in another 5 years or so when my equipment is finally depreciated down a bunch, I should make maybe 10$ per acre profit or so?

 

[bucktaker]

I played the hay game for awhile abeit it much smaller scale. old used equipment, free land, paid help with hay. I paid for my equipment and provided myself with hay (small squares) for awhile. lost my help, had a mild heart attack while doing it myself. decided it was more cost effective to buy hay.

small squares horse quality
Dont plan on customers being available when the hay is down. You must be able to get it picked up and stored even temporay until it can be sold. You dont want to have to unload wagons while still baling trust me. Either kicker with lots of wagons to hold the biggest cutting or a accumulator/grapple with flat wagons. again inside storage is a must.

Rounds.
Some horse people dont like em cant handle em so price per bale is less. much easier to make for you. Storage is less of a concern but if top quality hay why leave it outside ?

If it was me i would try to have both a round and square baler. square bale when you have a top crop and help/presold and round bale for the rest.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

As for the unknowns on the supply side, find a state ag school near you and read up on the risks and methods of raising hay. There are other sources also, like the Noble Foundation in Oklahoma, that have good information. Lots of good free information out there.

On the market side, be business smart. You may find that some horse owners have unrealistic expectations as to what it costs to keep a horse well fed and healthy, and they will want you to bear some of their losses. Don't wast your time on those folks unless you want to become the Salvation Army for horse owners.

 

[new jersey mike]

I have vacant land in CNY south of Schenectady, I currently have 15 acres out of 40 being cut for free. I had the hardest time just getting someone to do that. I am hoping to get the benefit of the tax assessment for land hayed.

Since I do not live there I can not see that I would ever cut my own. I did buy a tractor last year with a brush hog and this year a grapple attachment for the FEL in order to open up the overgrow fields.

With the needed investment for hay equipment and the weather constraints to bail properly again I do not see it happening.

Even if I wanted to bail non-feed, end of year brush and sell it for biomass I would still have to practice proper bailing and then transport the hay which only sells for 60.00 a ton it would not be practical.

 

[Builder]

Seems like little more than "beer money", if that.
Really at a crossroads. If I don't do the hay, someone else will. Then they might take the other, MORE profitable work I do for them, too.

That is what worries me. I don't mind that the pay wont be that great, just hate to lose the customers by another "go getter" type of person.

 

[KYErik]

FYI- A local farmer cuts, rakes and bales 16 acres of my property (he has big new equipment).

He gives me $5 for each round bale that he takes away. He has cattle within 1/4 mile of my field so it is really convenient for him.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Seems like little more than "beer money", if that.
Really at a crossroads. If I don't do the hay, someone else will. Then they might take the other, MORE profitable work I do for them, too.

That is what worries me. I don't mind that the pay wont be that great, just hate to lose the customers by another "go getter" type of person.

If you feel that you can make a few dollars with the hay and can make "GOOD" money with the other work that you would get because you are doing the hay, then that is just part of the overall job and you would consider that you were making more $ with the hay and less $ with the other work.

Will you have enough time to do it all, or are you planning on hiring help to be able to get it all done? Sometimes a job takes enough time that you need to weigh if it is worth loosing other jobs because the larger job takes up so much time. If you are willing to hire people to do the work, then the time deal doe not come into play so much, but if YOU are doing ALL the work, well there are only so many hours in a day.

Good luck

 

[new jersey mike]

FYI- A local farmer cuts, rakes and bales 16 acres of my property (he has big new equipment).

He gives me $5 for each round bale that he takes away. He has cattle within 1/4 mile of my field so it is really convenient for him.

It's a collapsed dairy industry here few farmers still around, it all price and demand.

 

[Builder]

FYI- A local farmer cuts, rakes and bales 16 acres of my property (he has big new equipment).

He gives me $5 for each round bale that he takes away. He has cattle within 1/4 mile of my field so it is really convenient for him.

That's where I'd be. Current hay guys on my customer's property are giving customers ZERO.
I was thinking I'd give them a small percentage or flat rate (like $5/round) as you mentioned.
Now as for equipment.......I'm getting into pieces I'm not too familiar with fixing.