Want to get into haying - need some advice.

[5030]

Richard:

'bout time the troops arrived. I thought I was all alone on tis one. Though my wife's mares aren't show horses in your sense, their offspring are all over the country serving as carriage horses, work horses for the Amish and yes, ocassionally show hitch horses.

BTW: nice barrel horse and a good rider too.

Hay is hay if it's made right. Whether small squares, large squares or rounds. The keyword is "right" and my statement still stands the 99% of horsepeople don't know good hay bad hay. I've seen that proven countless times.

I have an extra 55 gallon drum of buffered proprionic acid. Need some?

I don't want to post a link to our website. The mares in the picture have just foaled and they have a little "potbelly" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

Daryl,

PM me your website. I'd enjoy looking at your horses. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I'm sure I will need more acid this year. You know how it goes!! If you're this way or I'm up there I'd be glad to buy it off of you. We're in Michigan running at a couple of pro rodeos this weekend. We'll be in Ann Arbor saturday night and at East Lansing sunday afternoon.

 

[kensfarm]

I've found a lot of info from this site..

http://www.hayandforage.com/

they also have eHay weekly newsletter you can sign up for.

 

[Dano1124]

Hey,

I just got on the site today...I'm starting to do some custom baling my self...there are two of us. We have about 170 acres between us in mid-central Missouri. We have a number of folks that want us to do theirs too.

I have bought a 2008 Kubota M9540 (95HP), a New Holland round and square baler, A 10 wheel V rake, Bale Buzzer 36 FT bale mover, 36 ft flat bed trailer. My partner has a Mahindra (50 HP) tractor, side delivery rake, we are getting ready to by a disk mower.

The question I have is on the disk Mower...what brand do most folks like and have the least amount of trouble with.

I try to pay cash when I can so $$$$ vs. value/reliability is important to me.

This is not our only income we do it as fun and a little profit as well as helping out at tax time.

 

[dawoodwa]

I use a JD 328 baler, haymaster accumulator, kuhn v rake, khrone disc with a KMC caddy, and a vicon tedder. We bale bermuda hay and wheat straw.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Hi Dano1124,

I have been making hay for over 30 years in one capacity or another. I do some custom also. It is just a part time op as well.

174 acres will make alot of hay! At as little as 3 ton to the acre you would have over 20,000 small square bales and over 40,000 bales at 6 ton to the acre. WOW! That would be over a little over 1,000 large round depending on size of baler. Should be fun!

As far as mower I am a fan of NH and John Deere in my area because of the dealer network. I do prefer NH hay balers and NH Haybines personally. The local dealer always has the part I need and the part on the shelf during hay season. Disc mowers are faster than sickle haybines. I would buy a conditioner /mower though. It will help dry down. I personaly prefer the rollers instead of flail conditioners.

Here are some pics of my much smaller op using NH 9ft haybines. Pulling with a IH1466 and a JD4430.

 

[Dano1124]

Thanks for the intel..

We have been looking hard at a NH...My partner has a sickle bar haybine. It works good just slow going. we figure with a disk mower we can knock it down pretty fast.

Dano1124

 

[chh]

I bought two Krone mowers last year. I got a much better buy on them than anything else I priced. I have never run a NH and don't have a convenient dealer. I have run Kuhn and Fella mowers and really liked them also.

 

[Dano1124]

Well went and did it...just bought a NH 6750 disk mower...could not pass up the finance. 15% down and three years at 1.4%.

I took the cash and put it in a CD that is getting 3.5%....

9'2" cut, this along with my buddies cyclebine 7' we sould be able to do some damage this year.

 

[funny farmer]

Now instead of cutting 30 acres a day, just to have it get rained on the next day. You'll have 100 acres down, to get rained on.

 

[bill in ny]

does that mower have conditioning rolls or flails with it ?

 

[Dano1124]

Living in Mid Central Mo. you see a lot of green paint...

I had a hard time looking at the prices...so I took a look at NH and Massey...

I ended up with a Kubota M9540 MFWD...got one with all the bells and wistles...41K 2008model.

Running a NH 9' disk mower (2009), 10 wheel rake and two balers...NH 851 chain round and NH hayliner 273 square...the balers are older but have been serviced and shedded.

Looking at doing @ 500ac this year I hope...

I'm also looking at buying a "grapalator" for the loader...labor is hard to find and expensive...gets pretty hot in Mo. and I don't really want to be in the field hummping squares if you know what I mean.

Rounds are so much eaiser but I get less money per ton for them. I don't sell by the ton but when you do the math...when you know what I mean.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Dan, did you mean you were looking at doing 50 acres or 500 acres? 50 acres you can do fine. 500 acres and you are way undersized equipment wise. Good luck to you though.

 

[matt21]

Dan, did you mean you were looking at doing 50 acres or 500 acres? 50 acres you can do fine. 500 acres and you are way undersized equipment wise. Good luck to you though.

Is he way undersized as far as balers are concerned or is he undersized in his rake and mower too?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

His equipment will allow him to handle 100 acres in a timely fashion. 500 acres and he will want either multiple cutters or a self propelled cutter, 4 balers (if small squares), 2 NH self propelled stack wagons and a huge hay barn in or near the fields. With a 9' cutter you can cut 20-25 acres a day, 500 acres would mean you would need to cut 20 days straight, and have multiple tractors and helpers to be raking and baling behind you. This is if you want to have good hay and have great weather working with you. Toss a few rain days in there and you will be in a lot of trouble.

500 acres is a lot of acres to hay and I wouldn't even begin to try it with an old, small used baler, one tractor and a 9' cutter. Heck, that equipment is borderline for 100 acres if your doing small squares and have to handle them all with just one tractor.

 

[matt21]

I can cut about 50 acres in 10 hours with my 9' disc mower. It was about the same for me raking last year with my old side delivery rake. I did close to 80 acres last year (some some places once, some 2-3 times) with quite a bit less than what he has. I did have a lot of breakdowns but i was able to fix them all in the field and get going quick. It would be nice to have newer and bigger equipment but for now i just have to make do with what i have. It get's the job done and does a good job of it I'm probably going to do about twice as much this year with most of the same equipment. The only thing i'm upgrading is the rake.

 

[Dano1124]

Nope...just a regular disk mower...

H6750

Your tractor looks like the one I have can't see the pic too well.

We have a haybine 7 foot cut but it was slow going in thick stuff...clogs and all. I picked up the NH locally and got a great rate on the note 1.4% for 3 years...almost free money... I did put down 20%.

 

[Dano1124]

Thanks for all the advice...I'm just starting out and the more information I get the better I will be.

The 500 ac is wishfull thinking....I have 70 of my own and 120 of a partner in crime. We have a few 10 ac spots and one 100 ac place we think we are going to get.

My buddy has a 55 HP tractor that we can rake with and to mow faster we will use his haybine along with my disk...we rake right in front of the big baler...

I was supprised at how fast the round baler picked it up and spit it out last year... we did about 110 AC...

My tractor and disk mower are new to us this year...so this is why I was looking to get more done this year.

I'll let you know how we make out and the number of bales put up.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I can cut about 50 acres in 10 hours with my 9' disc mower. It was about the same for me raking last year with my old side delivery rake. I did close to 80 acres last year (some some places once, some 2-3 times) with quite a bit less than what he has. I did have a lot of breakdowns but i was able to fix them all in the field and get going quick. It would be nice to have newer and bigger equipment but for now i just have to make do with what i have. It get's the job done and does a good job of it I'm probably going to do about twice as much this year with most of the same equipment. The only thing i'm upgrading is the rake.

What size fields are you cutting? That is something I didn't take into account. My fields are mostly less then 10 acres so I am doing a lot of turning and moving. If I had large open fields I would be able to cut more per day.

I would still not attempt to bale anywhere near 500 acres with that old and small of a baler. If he is putting most of it in rounds it will help or if the small square baler breaks down and he has a market he can finish the fields in rounds while the small square baler is being fixed. I just see a huge bottle neck in his operation handling the hay. If he is going to have to cut all day and bale all day when is he suppose to put the hay in the barn?

 

[matt21]

What size fields are you cutting? That is something I didn't take into account. My fields are mostly less then 10 acres so I am doing a lot of turning and moving. If I had large open fields I would be able to cut more per day.

I would still not attempt to bale anywhere near 500 acres with that old and small of a baler. If he is putting most of it in rounds it will help or if the small square baler breaks down and he has a market he can finish the fields in rounds while the small square baler is being fixed. I just see a huge bottle neck in his operation handling the hay. If he is going to have to cut all day and bale all day when is he suppose to put the hay in the barn?

That's a good point. My fields are anywhere from 7 acres to 40 acres each. When i had my 12' discbine i did a 40 acre field in 4 1/2 hours. At last year's prices it cost me $45 in diesel for that 4 1/2 hours though