Haying On Shares...What's Customary

[arlen4720]

I have a couple hundred acres which is a mixture of woods and pasture that I run beef cows on, and about 100 tillable acres that I rent out. I'm wondering what is a fair deal for share cropping hay ground. I vaguely remember a simple arrangement that sounded fair. I think the property owner paid for the seed, and the "other guy" did all the work, and the crop was split 50/50. It was something to that effect. What is customary in your area?

 

[RickB]

The 50/50 deal you outline has been widely accepted for years. Additionally the landowner supplies ongoing fertilizer.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

That would be a near "break even" situation for the land owner in my area. Fertilizer, seed, and lime cost could easily reach $100 per acre. Common yields for grass/legumes are 4 ton per acre anually. Grass/ legume will sell for $50-60 per ton here.

 

[2458n]

The customary part is one person feeling taken advantage of.

 

[5030]

The customary part is one person feeling taken advantage of.

Been there done that. Having said that, I never do 50-50 across the board. It never comes out quite right.

 

[Clint S]

The customary part is one person feeling taken advantage of.

Yes at 50/50 someone is going to lose out. Around here if someone offers to hay your field, you shake their hand and watch them load the bales. Then you feel good you have a nice mowed field and did not have to lift a finger, but it is mostly small scale stuff around here. We do a few 5 to 10 acre lots for the neighbors and they are happy to have us do it. They are very close and have no seed or fertilizer applied. Just take what we get from the fields. We run a very small operation though.

 

[Hill Farmer]

Generally we have it cut "on the halves" during dry years when it sells for $60 a bale and we pay $20 a bale to have it baled in wet years when we can't give the stuff away. We buy the fertilize, and spray if it needs it. I don't recommend our business model. This year neighbors baled it on the halves with an option to buy our half. Good first cutting, not so great second cut. Maybe we will break even.

 

[arlen4720]

Yes at 50/50 someone is going to lose out. Around here if someone offers to hay your field, you shake their hand and watch them load the bales. Then you feel good you have a nice mowed field and did not have to lift a finger, but it is mostly small scale stuff around here. We do a few 5 to 10 acre lots for the neighbors and they are happy to have us do it. They are very close and have no seed or fertilizer applied. Just take what we get from the fields. We run a very small operation though.

That's not quite what I had in mind. I'm talking a real hay crop. I would probably do 40 acres or so of alfalfa. I'm getting tired of buying hay when we have 100 tillable acres, but not quite ready to plunge into doing it ourselves.

I got some different perspectives here...I will try to balance it with some local research.

 

[arlen4720]

The customary part is one person feeling taken advantage of.

Now that's funny:thumbsup:

 

[arlen4720]

The 50/50 deal you outline has been widely accepted for years. Additionally the landowner supplies ongoing fertilizer.

I think I could live with that.