I just bought a farm and currently have about 15 acres in hay. The previous owner was letting a neighbor cut and bale in round bales. They were getting the hay for free.
My first question is: what is a 5 ft round bale worth? I think I should be getting something for the hay but not sure what is a resonable share.
Down the road I would like to cut and bale and sell the hay myself. I'm thinking square bales. I,ll be doing this as a hobby and for extra money. My second question: What size tractor horsepower to perform this work on a small scale for 15 acres?
Thanks
A reasonable share, IMO, would be $5 a bale max assuming your neighbor is applying good farming practice. He is spending a lot of money on fuel, seed and fertilizer, plus time.
As far as when you start doing it yourself, don't expect to make much, if any, money. You will have a lot of upfront costs with getting started, and it will take a very long time to recover those costs on 15 acres.
Depending on your hills you may need a full-size, meaning not a compact, tractor. I've done a lot of work with a Farmall M, but the big hold-up with it is the hydraulics. The newer your equipment is, the better the hydraulics have to be on your tractor.
Compact tractors, based on running my 2720 and my friend's New Holland 45 HP something, aren't built as heavy. They'll do the work OK, but aren't up to the task of running flat-out for 8 to 10 hours at a time. I also don't think hydrostatic drive belongs on anything that pulls heavy equipment. Running a tractor hard makes heat, and hydrostatic drive adds to that heat. At the end of the day every part of my tractor is hot to the touch. The 2720 gets hotter just cutting grass, due IMO to the hydrostatic and smaller capacities. There's almost 5 gallons of oil running through the motor of my 6215.
I do rounds now, but when we used to do squares we used an International 674, at 65 HP, a 9' John deere haybine, and a JD 338 baler. Probably could have gotten away with a little bit smaller tractor, but not much because of the hills here. We had a JD 2240 as a loader tractor, it would handle the equipment but I wouldn't go any smaller. I would recommend one for sure, it never gave us a lick of trouble.
One thing to remember when equipment shopping. Farmers generally don't sell something to get the latest and greatest, we sell stuff when it's worn out and doesn't perform anymore. I've never met a farmer that cared about shiny paint and the newest gadgets, as long as something works it's still in service. The only used equipment I buy is from guys that are retiring. If something was traded in on a new model, it's a safe bet that it's worn out.
Also, think about how much you will depend on each item. If your haybine breaks, it's not too big of a deal. If you baler breaks, now you have hay down and ready to bale, and nothing to bale it with. Here we help each other out, I've worked my neighbors fields and they have worked mine. Normally no money changes hands, just fuel each others tractors up, replace baling twine, stuff like that.
If you buy everything, do yourself a favor and start very slowly the first few days to make sure everything works. Like maybe an acre at most. That way when something breaks, or doesn't work like it should, you don't have the whole farm cut.
