new hay farmer need some wise counsel

[sixdogs]

Baling alfalfa is way harder than it looks and an eternity of experience and horse sense is required before you get to the part about the weather. And right after that is acid treatment which is most-likely a mandate in Indiana. You could spend from $15,000 plus labor and workmans comp if you already have the barns, land and know John Walton or have a background in mechanical engineering and a minor in jerry-rigging. Don't take any checks and don't plan on making a profit.

You could also spend $150,000 plus labor plus workman's comp and live a relatively easy life. That's if you can control the weather. My vote is to have someone else do it for you, as stated above, for a few years until you get the hang of it. Either that or pony up the $$ for the school of hard knocks.

I used to have a malcontent that kept trying to beat me down for my beautful hay. He finally asked..."Good grief, how much can it cost to put up a bale of hay?" I told him $150,000.
I explained "that was for the first one. The second one was only $75,000." I said if you want to buy a whole bunch and have the cash--no checks-- we could get down to the price you're looking to pay."

 

[bill in ny]

catdieselsmoke, i use a jd 336 kicker baler, a new holland 258 rake, a sitrex 17 foot tedder, a new holland 1410 9' disc mower, conditioner, and five kicker wagons. we do around 7,000 bales a year. the tractor is 85hp 4wd with cab. luckily my youngest son works on our horse farm so he has a lot of the hay done before i get home from work.

 

[bill in ny]

forgot to say that we have two other tractors to do the raking and tedding.

 

[matt21]

I bale with a JD 337 twine baler, New Idea 9' disc mower, Ford 3-pt side delivery rake, and a Case IH 485 tractor (43 PTO hp). I baled around 2,700 bales last year. The most money i made was doing custom baling jobs. All i had to do was cut, rake, & bale. That made it easy money. I bale all grass hay though. And i can see where alfalfa could run up costs quite a bit. Right now the only costs i have are diesel, twine, oil, etc. I don't fertilize or spray for weeds as the fields i bale are pretty weed free on their own. I am still considering getting out of square baling and switching to round baling though. That way i could get more custom baling jobs. It would be a lot easier on me since i don't have a good place to store the hay anymore or an automated handling system.

 

[koykermfg]

Koyker has just came out with a new bale caddie, call into the factory and they will send you a video. It will do small squares in a 8 or 12 pack configuration. the toll free number is 800-456-1107

Scott

 

[Lazy J]

50 acres of good hay is at least 10,000 small square bales!!!

That is a boat load of hay to be making right out of the starting gate with no experience. Not a situation I would want to be in.

I'd look at doing 10 acres as a primer then getting more ground into hay production next year.

Jim

 

[chh]

I do some custom baling and bale my own hay to sell(all grass hay, no alfalfa and all round bales). Currently have well north of 100 grand in equipment after getting out of it for a few years and starting over again last year. I would defintely advise you to get somebody to do it for you to start or to find a neighbor that has the equipment that would let you help him in exchange for doing your hay or partner with you in it. A couple of years of hands on experience will do a lot more than any advice we can give you on here. Local conditions affect how the hay needs to be done and your target market will make a huge difference on the type of equipment you might need. Many dairies now will not use small square bales and only want large square bales, horse owners like small squares, ect....

Good luck

 

[matt21]

I bale with a JD 337 twine baler, New Idea 9' disc mower, Ford 3-pt side delivery rake, and a Case IH 485 tractor (43 PTO hp). I baled around 2,700 bales last year. The most money i made was doing custom baling jobs. All i had to do was cut, rake, & bale. That made it easy money. I bale all grass hay though. And i can see where alfalfa could run up costs quite a bit. Right now the only costs i have are diesel, twine, oil, etc. I don't fertilize or spray for weeds as the fields i bale are pretty weed free on their own. I am still considering getting out of square baling and switching to round baling though. That way i could get more custom baling jobs. It would be a lot easier on me since i don't have a good place to store the hay anymore or an automated handling system.

Forgot to mention, i have just under $10,000 invested in all the equipment i have. The only weak link i have is the rake. If i modified it to be a standard pull rake instead of a 3-pt mounted, i could very comfortably do 10,000 bales a year. If you are willing to put a little bit of work into your equipment before season, you can pick up some great deals. You just have to be at the right place at the right time.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Forgot to mention, i have just under $10,000 invested in all the equipment i have. The only weak link i have is the rake. If i modified it to be a standard pull rake instead of a 3-pt mounted, i could very comfortably do 10,000 bales a year. If you are willing to put a little bit of work into your equipment before season, you can pick up some great deals. You just have to be at the right place at the right time.

I have around $25k invested in just my hay equipment. Everything was lightly used but one kicker wagon that I bought new. This doesn't include the cost of any of my tractors though as they are used on my farm regardless to the hay operation. The 7710 was bought to help haying and tillage but more so for hay so I guess you could add that in which if I recall was around $15k.

Regardless to new or used you are going to have break downs and are going to have repair bills. It is just part of haying. I looked for a long time and bought the best equipment I could for the price I wanted to pay. I could have bought real cheap but the equipment around here that was real cheap generally was going to cost a fortune to fix up properly and parts were possibly going to be an issue. I definitely made sure I could get parts easily for my equipment before I bought anything. There was a lot of equipment that was decent and affordable but parts support was a serious issue here and why I didn't buy those items.

 

[deereguy]

Alfalfa hay is definitely the queen of hays. Made correctly, you can get a premuim for your efforts, if that same hay gets rained on during the process- quality goes down as well as price. I would hire the first year or so done, watch what he does, how he does it, when he does it, and what equipment he uses. Find out what your target market is- again smalls for horses, large square for dairy, rounds for beef or ? A large square baler will be an investment of $30,00 for a decent used (3'x3'x7') and need around 125HP tractor, small squares and rounds and be done with much less horsepower. I would try to get the best equipment you can afford, I'm in central-western Ohio and a 4 day window of dry weather in May is quite a blessing to get hay done. Breakdowns occur- hopefully it is just a shear pin that can be replaced in the field, anything other than that- causes more stress. Another tool that I feel is a must have is a Delmhorst (or other brand) Moisture Meter, having a hand held with a remote sensor on the baler so I can watch moisture as we bale and then probe it after its stacked as it sweats to make sure it doesn't get too hot. We have a 2 person operation with 3 or so tractors, a self-propelled 14' haybine, 17' tedder, twin bar rakes, in-line baler, and a NH stack wagon- currently doing 22 acres and will have an additional 25 acres ready in the spring. I know of a dairy farm that cuts alfalfa every 3 weeks, not sure if its quality hay or just to say they make hay- all summer long. I haven't been doing this very long but I tend to spend my winters reading and learning EVERYTHING I can about hay and farming. There are some good books available on-line and a few at TSC if that's close.

Good Luck!!