Tractor Sizing What Size Tractor?

[TripleR]

Please excuse my city slicker questions, and I am not trying to hijack the thread. In a situation as Turk53 has I would think it would be far better to buy the hay he needs and use the 9 acres for another type of crop that is not so complex and costly to harvest, if there is one that fits his needs. I am thinking he may have horses so, would growing something like oats be more practical on a small scale?

It is really hard to make money farming much of anything on nine acres other than a specialty crop. Many people on here do it for recreation/self satisfaction.

I live on 300+ acres with all row crop cash rented out, 150 acres. We have three acres by our house that use to be farmed, but the big equipment will no longer fit, so we had it in pasture for a while when we had horses. There are a few small hay operators around that we would rent that small piece out as some people just like to do that sort of thing.

If I had to justify our tractors and equipment based on income, I sure couldn't do it.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Neighbor has a Tifton 85 field around 10ac. and makes alot of hay off it and runs horses on it at same time.Wish I had his grass,coastal just aint doing to good with this heat and no rain. Thinking about sprigging something diff.next year in another pasture and change hay pastures.

 

[RPW]

This year hay is going to be expensive. If you only have couple of horses then posturing them on 9ac can be viable. But being able to bale say 6ac and pasture on 3ac you will get enough hay to keep feeding though the winter. After a couple of years you'be paid for the equipment and your total cost of ownership starts to go down.