What equipment for small scale hay?

[avc8130]

I have about 2-3 acres of hay pasture at my new house. I also have a Kubota L39 with 3-point hitch and ~30hp pto. What is my best course of action to attack the hay? I do keep goats, so "using" it would be nice.

ac

 

[smstonypoint]

AC,

From a purely $ and cents perspective, you would be better off having a custom operator handle the hay (e.g., mow, rake, bale) for you.

Steve

 

[Egon]

For loose stored hay, sickle bar mower, rake, and make a set of hay forks for the loader.

Cut, windrow and pick up windrows with hay fork and store ??? depending on climate??

 

[wolc123]

I remember bringing in loose hay when I was a kid. I liked it better than the bales. We had a hay-loader hooked up in front of the wagons and a big set of forks on rail below the barn roofs for unloading. Definitely less manual labor than small square bales. It was nice to go up in the hay mow and throw down just enough and not having to deal with the twine.

 

[tessiers]

pound for pound loose hay takes up 5 times as much space as baled hay. Handeling is harder and selling it is next to impossible if you make a little extra. I have a similar setup and I do it with a JD #5 mower, an old bar rake and a new holland #67 baler, all behind tractors well under 30 hp. I bale somewhere around 1000 bales per year, sell a few to cover fuel and feed the rest out to my own animals. If you do not count labor it is cheep feed. 2 acres in my area will produce roughly 200 bales to give you an idea, but we are in good hay country so yours may be less or more for all I know. It isn't hard but if you run old equipment you better be handy with wrenches. The machine themselves are much simpler than newer equipment. Also if you need more you would be amazed at the people with small fields that will let you mow them for the hay, no money exchanged. We are up to well over 10 acres and we don't hay any of our own land, thats all pasture.

Good luck!

 

[Verticaltrx]

Here's what I use for about 20ac of hay:

New Holland 451 sickle bar mower.

If you are knowledgeable how to operate a sickle bar this mower is one of the best. I use it with either my B3200 Kubota or Ford NAA, takes very little power to run and will mow 3-5ac per hour. I got a great deal on mine for $750 (needed a little work), but nice ones go for $1500-2500, new about $7500, and at that price you might as well get a small disc or drum mower. If you aren't mechanically inclined skip the sickle bar and look for a drum or disc mower.

G2 brand 2 rotor hay tedder, 3pt hitch.

Just a run of the mill Italian tedder, had a broken spindle so I got it for free. Took about $100 in parts to get it going. Works well behind either of my tractors. Probably $300-500 used for most.

New Holland #56 rollobar hay rake.

Needed gear box rebuilt, new tires wheels, and new tines along with some other part. Got it for free but had to put about $400 into it. This model is very old, somewhere between '59-67, the newer model is 256 and they sell for $1500-2500 used for a decent one.

New Holland 268 square baler.

Great little baler that doesn't require as big of tractor as the modern square balers. Got it from a friend for $1000, it's pretty old (mid-60's) but was used very very little probably less than 5000 bales. Paid $1000 for it. Stick with either John Deere or New Holland when it comes to square balers, they really had the best technology back then. On average I would budget $2500-3500 for a baler. I pull mine with my NAA (31.5 PTO hp) and it handles it well.

So overall I have about $2500 in my hay equipment including parts to get it going. If you paid going price for used equipment that was all field ready expect to pay as much as $10K.

 

[avc8130]

Wow, $10k is quite the investment. Not to mention having all of that equipment sitting around.

I posted an ad in the local craigslist to see if anyone offers mobile hay service.

Not much for used equipment in my parts.

ac

 

[slowzuki]

Where do you live? 2-3 acres in a low yield area (dry) would be easy and cheap as loose hay. In wetter area, 100 bales an acre around here, we do about 600 bales a day working in the evenings after work. 1000 bales / day on weekends.

 

[avc8130]

I live in Northern New Jersey. It is early June and my 2 pastures and field of hay look more than ready for a cutting. I imagine they will grow up again if I cut them and be ready again for a 2nd cutting by late summer/early fall.

I found a John Deere 14T for sale locally. He is looking for $550. Is this something I should be looking at?
ac

 

[MMagis]

Hire it done. It doesn't make financial sense to buy equipment for 2-3 acres of hay. Your local feed/seed store could probably point you toward someone to do it. Here in east central Ohio the hay fields are just now ready for a first cut. Well, maybe they were ready a couple weeks ago, but are finally drying out. I would think you have some time yet before they need to be cut.

 

[sweettractors]

I have about 2-3 acres of hay pasture at my new house. I also have a Kubota L39 with 3-point hitch and ~30hp pto. What is my best course of action to attack the hay? I do keep goats, so "using" it would be nice.

ac

A new 4 wheel hay rake and a used sickle bar mower and a used NH 68 square baler for Under $5000 is something we can do. Ken Sweet

 

[dmay]

I have about 2-3 acres of hay pasture at my new house. I also have a Kubota L39 with 3-point hitch and ~30hp pto. What is my best course of action to attack the hay? I do keep goats, so "using" it would be nice.

ac

How many goats? Why not simply put a fence around your 3 acres and send the goats in. They will be sure to "use" it and a lot cheaper then buying equipment to cut and bale hay, and no tractor time required. :laughing:

 

[avc8130]

How many goats? Why not simply put a fence around your 3 acres and send the goats in. They will be sure to "use" it and a lot cheaper then buying equipment to cut and bale hay, and no tractor time required. :laughing:

I have been "working" it that way so far this year. Maybe they got a late start, but so far the 4 haven't really made a dent in it.

In fantasy land I was thinking I might be able to bale and store a bunch in the barn loft to work some ways through winter.

ac

 

[wolc123]

Do you have a loader on your tractor? There is no way that acreage will justify a baler but it wouldnt take much to fashion a hay fork for your bucket and an old hay rake can generally be found for less than $200. You probably already have a wagon of some type. For $200 - $250 in equipment cost, you could get a good ammount of loose hay up there in your barn. Having that hay in the winter is real nice for your goats. They dont forage so well thru the snow. As long as your loft is big enough, I dont see any trouble with loose hay.

 

[avc8130]

Do you have a loader on your tractor? There is no way that acreage will justify a baler but it wouldnt take much to fashion a hay fork for your bucket and an old hay rake can generally be found for less than $200. You probably already have a wagon of some type. For $200 - $250 in equipment cost, you could get a good ammount of loose hay up there in your barn. Having that hay in the winter is real nice for your goats. They dont forage so well thru the snow. As long as your loft is big enough, I dont see any trouble with loose hay.

I do have a loader on my tractor. I currently have the following:
Tractor
Loader
Backhoe
Pallet Forks
Chains

I do not actually have a wagon just yet...but my fields are right around my barn so I can make do while I shop around.

With your suggestion I would be looking for the following:
Sickle Bar Mower
Hay Rake
Hay Forks
Anything else?

As you can see, I am quite a newb.
ac

 

[smstonypoint]

I have about 2-3 acres of hay pasture at my new house.

ac

For loose stored hay, sickle bar mower, rake, and make a set of hay forks for the loader.

Cut, windrow and pick up windrows with hay fork and store ??? depending on climate??

I live in Northern New Jersey.
ac

pound for pound loose hay takes up 5 times as much space as baled hay.

Out of idle curiosity and boredom (I'm waiting for a medical appointment), I did some seat-of-the pants calculations as to how much storage space the OP would need if he chose to go the loose hay route and wanted to store the hay inside.

According to NASS, the average hay yield (excluding alfalfa) in NJ in 2010 was 1.70 tons/acre. http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/New_Jersey/Publications/Current_News_Release/Press%20Release2010%20Crops.pdf So, if the OP obtained that average yield on 2.5 acres, he would have to store 4.25 tons/year.

Assuming dimensions of 14"*16"*36", a square bale has a volume of 5.25 cubic feet. Assuming 50 pounds per bale, the OP would require 892.5 cubic feet to store square bales or 4462.5 cubic feet to store loose hay.

As I said, I'm bored.

Steve

 

[wolc123]

You are going to want to skip the sickle-bar mower and get yourself a 5 or 6 ft, light-duty rotary mower instead, such as a Bush Hog squealer. That will also be a much better tool for pasture maintenence and be far less troublesome. With it, you could cut 2-3 acres for 50 years or so with no maintenence at all. A decent, used 5 footer can be had for $400 - $500. I would set up some type of rotation where you pasture the goats on an acre, keep one acre mowed but not harvested, and harvest another acre for hay. That way you will be able to maintain good hay for many years without adding fertilizer. If you harvest the hay every year from the same section, it will degrade in quality and tonnage.
My family raised beef since before the Civil war on this farm but I gave that up in the 80's due primarily to an exploding population of free-range whitetail deer. The hay, particularly the small square bales is something I dont miss at all. The venison is better for you and better tasting than the beef. When and if this gravy train ends, I too am thinking of goats and loose hay. Somewhere I heard that goat is the most popular meat on earth, although I have never tried it myself. The best part of the whitetails however, is there is no need to worry about them in the winter, and no need to harvest the hay, they handle those tasks all by themselves.

 

[sweettractors]

I would not skip a sickle bar mower Unless you love to weedeat. Sickle bar mowers are more versatile on the acreage you have. You can mow your hay, trim under your fences, trip around and over the pond and mow along your steep road banks and drop offs. A brush hog cannot do any of that "well". They are good for rougher material cutting and open field clipping. Ken Sweet

 

[rankrank1]

Unless you get really lucky then custom hay operators will not even bother fooling with you unless they just happen to live in close proximity to you. Heck in my area, most custom operators will not return your calls unless you have more than 10 acres.

2-3 acres is simply not worth the investment of transporting equipment to your location even if you offered to give them 100% of the hay. On most small parcels that a custom operator will bother with even fooling with they will want ast least 2/3 of the hay and leave you 1/3, but 3/4 to 1/4 is even more likely on your small acreage if you get lucky. If you insist on a 50 50 split then I can guarantee that you will get zero calls - a 50 to 50 split is sorta the standard for large acreage though.

Since it sounds like you want to use the hay for yourself, then explore putting up the hay loose. Yes it does take up more room to store loose hay in a barn , but it has been done that way for centuries. Balers are only a product of the last 75 years or so and really only necessary if you intend to sell hay. Eliminating the baler saves considerable expense - and headaches.

In all practicality 2 to 3 acres could be done with a hand scythe for cutting, some type of $150 dollar antique steel wheel hay rake, and a pitchfork using either a pick-up truck or a flatbead trailer to transport the hay. If you have a bushog or rotary cutter then use that instead of the hand scythe to cut with. Since you have a loader for the tractor it would also be easy to build a hay loader to eliminate the pitchfork - again videos are on youtube. You can even turn the hay by hand too with a hand rake -videos on youtube on how to do it. Heck if you have no barn space to store the loose hay then it is also possible to shock the hay for outside storage which has been done for centuries too. Shocked hay stores outside very similar to how round bales can be stored outside. Goats are not picky like horses are so there are no mold type worries with them in regards to hay stored outside.

That said I hay with a 26 PTO horsepower Kubota L285 tractor, using a bushog to cut (yes bushog leaves 30% or more behind in the field in yield loss but as mentioned in other posts a bushog requires almost zero maintenance and is useful for other jobs too), two antique John Deere hay rakes on steel that I have refurb'd, and a small vintage New Holland 65 compact baler. I sell my hay, but I have yet to turn an actual profit as haying on small acreage is simply not profitable and I have a very minimal investment in all my equipment - less than scrap iron value of each piece (excluding tractor which I already had just like you do).

I am doing 4-6 acres or so every year and have yet to turn a profit, but it can be fun if like to tinker with old worn out junk. If you do NOT like to tinker with worn out junk then do not pursue a full lineup of haying equipment as even using minimal cost junk is not cost effective on really small acreage, but it can be fun as a hobby if profit is not an utmost consideration. Pics of my hobby operation have been posted on this site before if you care to search. Last words I will leave you with is to just remember that there is no easy money in hay. Lots of newbies think that it is as simple as sitting on the tractor, but there is much more time and expense involved than that - not to mention physical labor.

 

[sweettractors]

I shipped a sickle mower, 4 wheel rake and a square baler to New Mexico from Ky. The Gentleman had 7 acres of hay, total. The way he explained his situation to me, was that the big farmer neighbors would not give him the time of day because his hay field was not big enough for them to mess with. His thinking was that he was retired, wanted to be self reliant/independent and he had financial resources to do so. Some people just don't feel right begging the neighbors for a favor. Ken Sweet