Hay Farmers getting out of farming

[MossRoad]

Have same set up in one of the barns I work out of. The blower and the belts are still there. Powered by a Farmall.

Many would enjoy seeing pictures of that if you get the time.

I think it was Egon that posted quite a few pictures of hay harvest in the past.

 

[OzarkChris]

Please let me apologize to y'all for my part in having this thread hijacked. I try my best most times to not get sucked in.

 

[ultrarunner]

Young people today have no clue how hard our parents, grandparents worked, and how the women cooked all from scratch.

Quite blessed to be able to catch s glimpse of the old ways spending a summer with my Grandparents at age 4...

By my next visit at age 10 and then again at 17 the old ways were no more.

Being only 4 but really 4.5 years at the time the memories and experiences remain vivid...

I think the contrast coming from California city life to the small dairy farm with cows, chickens, pigs, tractors, hay fields, forest and a meandering brook couldn't have been more profound...

My younger brother knows he was there but really no memories...

Everyone had chores and I was eager... helped grandma collect eggs, helped grandfather feed the pigs, picked buckets of berries for grandma's preserves but nothing compares to seat time on the tractor idling up and down the windrows....

Being Green and Self Sufficient when it was really just part of everyday farmlife.

Mom's godparents had a small water powered mill where everyone went and it was fascinating to watch and almost all wood construction...

On my last visit in 2015 I asked where are all the kids... off to University with younger ones more interested in video games...

Many of the hayfields tended for generations are now planted with trees to keep AG exemptions and a few kids have a horse or two in the old milk barn...

Many make a living selling off land a homesite at a time... what took generations to build can be gone in one...

 

[Steppenwolfe]

When I was 13 we moved from Colorado to NE PA. Right in the middle of very rural dairy country. I had never seen a farm before, let alone farming. Back then, early 70's, every kid I knew lived or worked on a farm. Boy, the first time I was asked to bale hay I jumped on it, $1 an hour in the hot sun... I thought I had become a man that day. I also remember wrestling in HS; you always knew when you got hold of a farm kid.

 

[ddbackhoe]

That could be a tough sell, depending on the amount of disposable $ they have for one. Typically, small customers = small money, but it’s worth a shot.
If you have enough wagons, you could leave them a wagon with a tarp over it, but again, you should be paid extra. You are saving them from having to build hay storage.
If you have a pickup truck and someone wants 1-2 round bales, just charge them accordingly. They know small deliveries dont make economic sense and they should pay for that.
If you refuse them, some other guy may get their business.

Maybe, they can afford LQ trailers and new trucks so maybe not. I let a customer take a hay trailer once, it was returned damaged (tongue twisted) that was lesson enough.

 

[Hay Dude]

Maybe, they can afford LQ trailers and new trucks so maybe not. I let a customer take a hay trailer once, it was returned damaged (tongue twisted) that was lesson enough.

All the more reason to charge a rental for it.

 

[JESSE1]

I'm officially out of the hay business now. I've only baled my own hay for the last twenty five years but I've decided I'm done with it. I have a good source for hay and I've been buying hay for next year. Between last year's below zero freeze that killed off most of my coastal bermuda and the cost for fertilizer it's time to give it up.

 

[Hay Dude]

I'm officially out of the hay business now. I've only baled my own hay for the last twenty five years but I've decided I'm done with it. I have a good source for hay and I've been buying hay for next year. Between last year's below zero freeze that killed off most of my coastal bermuda and the cost for fertilizer it's time to give it up.

Sorry to hear this JESSE1.
Cost for fertilizer is a stone cold killer for most hay farmers.
UP 300% and who knows when itll stop.
I paid $3.59 for dyed fuel last week. OTR is $4.00 almost everywhere

 

[ultrarunner]

On the dairy farm fertilizer produced on-site as it has for hundreds of years…

They really didn’t buy much… staples like sugar and coffee… diesel for the crank tractor and fabric to make clothes…

 

[oosik]

I'm seeing a slightly different angle on this situation. My neighbor has taken on custom cutting/baling. Many local hay farmers are either too old, don't like the high investment costs or can not find folks willing to buy and take up hay farming.

His business seem to be expanding more each year into this arena.