Low Acreage Haying

[5030]

I'm making my own hay because 99% of everything where I live is large squares or rounds. This is cow country, and I've had people more than 100 miles away call on my hay. Small squares are hard to find, and when you do find them I've seen it as high as $9 a bale (price mostly depending on quality). I'm making hay for myself, and selling what I don't need. I've run the numbers and my hay equipment will be paid for by the end of next season just with the acreage I have now.

So long as you have a market it's all good except when a hay tool craps anf you have to get it off.

I always dance with mother nature and most times I win but somethimes she wins,

I've considered using my fab shop to build a round bale to square bail maker using my 575. Rounds are easier to handle all the way around. If you are handy with fabrication and a good welder you can build an elevated round bale feeder that eliminates any waste or spoilage. I looked at various designs and then built three using their best ideas and my own. Flattery by copying is the best salesman of anything.

 

[Creamer]

Powescol - I would find an old bale stooker if I were you. In your area you could bale and if you didn't get the bales in immediately you still would not lose the hay. You also could use your loader to put six at a time on the wagon. Very cost effective and nothing to go wrong.

 

[Verticaltrx]

My sage advice is simply, if it's less than 5 acres, grow a garden and buy a riding lawnmower. It's not worth the aggrivation. Used hay tools are just that, used and probably with issues. I certainly don't off my hay tools until they start having issues, then trade in/sell outright and buy new (always new, never second hand). I'm not teying to insult anyone, every operator has to start somewhere. I started with some ancient equpment (NH Hayliner 66, Ancient JD side delivery roper rake, Ancient NH side mount sickle bar mower) because I wanted to 'try' to see if it was for me with the intent of loosing the old stuff asap, which I did, but then I own a very modern machine,.welding and fabrication shop so fixing ancient junk wasn't an issue. All the junk went down the road, long ago (probably to someone who thought they could run hay on a budget.....)

Nothing more aggrivating and stressful than having a few acres ready to bale and the baler won't cooperate because somthing isn't working right and there is a thunderstorm due in, in 3 hours. Why play that. Garden and mow and buy your hay if you need some. Life is too short for that stress level.

There are more people (on here) running what I consider to be junk, with underpowered compact tractors that are marginally acceptable. Unless you are extremely fortunate and nothing breaks, you might actually get some dry, green bales in your barn, but the odds of that aren't good and rained on wet, molding hay isn't worth anything and it stinks and more importantly, it's a fire hazard.

I won't even consider any tractor with less than 50 pto to be acceptable for powering hay tools, preferrably 85 pto or better. Conservatively, I have around 250 grand in haying equipment (all I do is hay), my 5 acre at home ground gets mowed and gardened.....:thumbsup:

It's all a business expense, we are an LLC engaged in crop production (forage). Equipment gets bought, used and sold.

So yes, it's fun so long as everything included the weather cooperates but when something don't go right it becomes a nightmare real quick.

Do yourself a favor, plant a garden and mow the rest with a nice lawn mower. Your stress level will remain sane.

While I agree with a lot of what you said, I think the biggest underlying factor in successful small scale haying (any haying) is experience. This includes knowing how to properly match the equipment to the job, what is good used equipment and what is junk, how to operate the equipment properly and keep it maintained.

My equipment by most peoples standards is small and obsolete, but I find it to be a very economical way to put up hay. I've also been fortunate (maybe diligent is a better word) to find some really good used hay equipment for a good price. That would include a nice NH 451 sickle bar mower for $750 and a NH 268 baler in almost new condition for $1000. I think total including my two tractors (IH 454 and Ford NAA) I probably have less than $10K invested.

With that setup (NH451 sicklebar, 2-basket tedder, NH56 rake and NH268 baler) we do around 20ac of hay per year. I'm one of the very few around this area that still mows with a sickle bar, and probably the only one in the county that still puts up square hay for cattle. That said, I use very little fuel, have basically no depreciation costs, and usually spend less than $200 per season on parts. You most definitely can run a good small scale haying operation for not much money, but it requires a good bit of knowledge and diligence.

 

[powerscol]

Powescol - I would find an old bale stooker if I were you. In your area you could bale and if you didn't get the bales in immediately you still would not lose the hay. You also could use your loader to put six at a time on the wagon. Very cost effective and nothing to go wrong.

Are you referring to a grapple/accumulator that hooks the bales and lets you lift and loads from the front. in searching the stooker I found devices that stack 6 bales in triangle on edge?

 

[5030]

While I agree with a lot of what you said, I think the biggest underlying factor in successful small scale haying (any haying) is experience. This includes knowing how to properly match the equipment to the job, what is good used equipment and what is junk, how to operate the equipment properly and keep it maintained.

My equipment by most peoples standards is small and obsolete, but I find it to be a very economical way to put up hay. I've also been fortunate (maybe diligent is a better word) to find some really good used hay equipment for a good price. That would include a nice NH 451 sickle bar mower for $750 and a NH 268 baler in almost new condition for $1000. I think total including my two tractors (IH 454 and Ford NAA) I probably have less than $10K invested.

With that setup (NH451 sicklebar, 2-basket tedder, NH56 rake and NH268 baler) we do around 20ac of hay per year. I'm one of the very few around this area that still mows with a sickle bar, and probably the only one in the county that still puts up square hay for cattle. That said, I use very little fuel, have basically no depreciation costs, and usually spend less than $200 per season on parts. You most definitely can run a good small scale haying operation for not much money, but it requires a good bit of knowledge and diligence.

Certainly not saying you can't so long as an owner you maintain the equipment (and know how). I see lots of used (and abused) hay tools that people fon't have a clue about maintaining. Those are the ones that let you down when you need them most.

I like to steer clear of used equipment just for the lack of maintenance by the previous owner syndrome. As a rule, people fon't sell equipment thats operating perfectly fine unless upgrading to a more efficient/larger unit.

 

[Creamer]

Are you referring to a grapple/accumulator that hooks the bales and lets you lift and loads from the front. in searching the stooker I found devices that stack 6 bales in triangle on edge?

The six bales in a triangle system. It sheds some rain, keeps the bales off the ground except for a corner of three of them letting air get between and under them, and you can pick up 6 easy with a loader and set them on a trailer and - depending on how good you are and the trailer you can put as many as six groups up on a trailer before having to get on the trailer and stack them. Basically it is a real cheap almost maintenance free system that lets one person handle square bales very easily.

When i was younger I had neighbors that used these and they had larger loaders and they would scoop two "stooks" at a time on their loaders and put them up on a truck or trailer. It is a very efficient little system that just works.

the shedding of rain works real well in a dryer climate like you are in unless you really get a major downpour because the outsides tend to dry out very quick. In a more humid environment you still have to get the bales picked up pretty quick.

 

[Lastkidpicked]

The ones that crack me up are the guys with their brand new $25k tractor (whether big or little in hp) and their $10k balers and putting up 200 bales on a few acres. Those fellas think they are making/saving money.

Rankrank, you and 5030 are entirely correct when you say that it is not worth the money.

I always enjoy your posts, and I'm looking at some of this from a different point of view than you:

For some of us, messing around with our old tractors and junk is a nice way to relax. When I can't hear a phone call on my tractor and my friends tell me I should put my phone on vibrate, I always joke that "Hey, try to find something on this tractor that ISN'T vibrating!"

So for some of us, baling 3 or 4 acres is just an excuse for having the equipment around. When I need to justify it, I just mention that it's still cheaper than some other hobbies.

It also seems like a good way to bond with the kids. Nothing like jump starting old equipment or towing junk back to the barn to bring a family together!

 

[wmonroe]

Rankrank, you and 5030 are entirely correct when you say that it is not worth the money. I always enjoy your posts, and I'm looking at some of this from a different point of view than you: For some of us, messing around with our old tractors and junk is a nice way to relax. When I can't hear a phone call on my tractor and my friends tell me I should put my phone on vibrate, I always joke that "Hey, try to find something on this tractor that ISN'T vibrating!" So for some of us, baling 3 or 4 acres is just an excuse for having the equipment around. When I need to justify it, I just mention that it's still cheaper than some other hobbies. It also seems like a good way to bond with the kids. Nothing like jump starting old equipment or towing junk back to the barn to bring a family together!

Well put. I have some great memories as a kid helping my dad bale 4-5 acres of hay using old junk equipment. I learned a lot and it was a good father/son activity. We rarely ever made enough hay for the few cows we had or the horses when we had those but I'm glad dad decided to make hay on our own.

 

[flusher]

Good post. Not many of us low acreage piddle patch operators can justify a $250K budget for hay tools.

IThe ones that crack me up are the guys with their brand new $25k tractor (whether big or little in hp) and their $10k balers and putting up 200 bales on a few acres. Those fellas think they are making/saving money. .

It's possible to make money on small acreage haying. My neighbor across the road cleared about $4.5K this year on 7 acres of forage mix. He does have a $25K tractor (Kubota L4630 with FEL). But all the haying equipment is old used stuff.

 

[SwingOak]

I'm not counting the cost of my tractor, as I needed that for my farm whether I made my own hay or purchased it so it's a sunk cost. I have very little money invested in my haying equipment. There's a reason it's called a hobby farm - you farm it because it's fun, not to make a living from it. I like making hay, and haying my own property with my old-as-dirt equipment gives us the hay I need for our horses. Selling off what we don't need will pay for the equipment purchase and maintenance costs in two years. I'm cool with that.