Hay crazy

[bandmiller2]

Need my head examined,sold off all my haying equip. a few years ago.Just bought mower,tedder,rake and baler, back at it.Of course its all old and in need of repairs but for my small operation can't justify new.Probibly  $8.50 a bale for horse hay had its thumb on the scale.Any meaningfull agriculture has long left my area,I'am considered a quaint throwback to earlier times.Rebuilding a Ferguson D-eo-20 side delivery rake,had to take down a tree growing up through the tine bars with a chainsaw.Got the JD#9 mower all rebuilt and painted,friend gave me a real deal two new sickle bar knives for $20.00 replaced ledger plates and all wear parts.Ready by spring??? Frank C.

[WDH]

Frank,

At least you are a "quaint" throwback and not a "DanG" throwback  .

[Norm]

We'll have eighteen acres next year. Not large by some standards but it's all high quality alfalfa which brings a premium at the auctions. Most of what we produced last year was back hauled to Texas for a good price. That way we don't have to store it although if you do the prices this time of year are very good. Picked up a newer rake at the auction I went to the first of December.

 

Sold for half of what it should have gone for. Not many do hay in our area any more.

[paul case]

Hay crazy indeed!
That $8.50 a bale sounds a little cheap, but of course we are too close to the drought area here. Our hay made 1/2 of what it should have last year. Between my dad and I, we make about 300 acres of hay and on good years more. This year I have sold some 5'x5', 1100# round bales for $70/ bale. My son sold some of his bermuda grass square bales to horse owners for $10 bale delivered. The local ad paper that usually has dozens of hay for sale ads now has maybe 2 each week.
Norm,
I wish I had a new rake. Mine is getting pretty well repaired. That one you bought looks like a good one. Vermeer? I have had a Vermeer baler for going on 20 years now and it still makes real nice tight bales. I wouldn't trade balers, but I sure like your rake.
PC

[Patty]

You may be quaint, but certainly not crazy! As Norm mentioned, few around here still do hay, and for that reason, I think adding a hay crop to the mix is an excellent idea. The prices on hay right now are as high as I've ever seen them, and as more hay ground is plowed under for corn, I believe prices to continue to go up.  Plus I just like doing hay! I love the smell of freshly mowed alfalfa, I love raking it, and baling it.

Small square bales are less frequently seen these days, and the big squares are so very handy, but so many folks don't have the equipment to use the large bales, and will pay a premium for the small squares. The problem with the small bales is they are so labor intensive. As everybody who has ever baled hay knows, you only bale on the hottest muggiest days of the year. It must be a rule somewhere!    And those bales get heavier as the sun gets hotter (another rule). Now that I am old, I am hoping for a seat on the tractor instead of a place on the hay wagon. As a kid we had to walk along the side of the hay wagon and "toss" the bales up...modern technology has eliminated that job, thank heavens. I did get a spot on the tractor when I was in high school. It was awesome! My dad hired some cute guys to bale for us, and it was a pleasure to watch them while perched up on my tractor seat.  If I recall, Norm was one of those boys !!

The second worse spot was up in the hay mound....hot, dusty, and just plain awful. We no longer have a barn with a hay mound, so the bales are stacked in a plain old metal shed to keep the weather off them.

So if you are crazy, then so are we, and you are in good company.

[apm]

Very little more pleasurable than putting up a nice little hay crop. We do about 10 acres and usually only get two cuttings a year. The only stressful part the last couple years is watching the weather forecast and trying to decide when to start. My baler and rake, New Holland 68 and 55, were built the same year I was born, therefore we work at about the same speed. The Ford 501 sickle bar has more black magic to making it cut right than a sawmill does.

Greg

[Kansas]

I traded my hay equipment for labor when I built this house two years ago. NH side delivery rake, NH 9 ft cutter/crimper, NH square baler and a smaller Heston big round baler. Had a pop up bale loader to help with the small square bales. I was always going to add a bale accumulator for the small square bales, but never did. I miss putting down alfalfa, and really good prarie hay. But, getting out of the cattle business, it didn't make sense to keep going. I had lost my outbuildings for hay storage anyway. Plus you need to be there when its time to hay, and that can be difficult with the business.

Made good money just getting out of high school, custom hauling in small square bales to people's barns. 25 cents a bale, later 30. Two of us could haul from 650 - 1200 a day. At least we thought it was good money.

[paul case]

some more hay rules:
When you cut hay down it increases your rain chances by 20%.
When you have hay in the windrow, it increases your chances of breaking the baler by 250%
When you have more than a pickup load of square bales on the ground it increases rain chances by 70%.
If your hay makes good , generally so does everyone elses and it isn't worth as much.
PC

[chevytaHOE5674]

Wow sounds like I need to start shipping my hay half way across the country. I make hay for myself and also make some to sell. Small squares of horse quality hay sell for between 2-4 bucks a bale here depending on the time of year you buy. Last summer I sold quite a few small squares for either 2.25 or 2.50 a bale in the field and had to negotiate to get that much even. We only get one cutting a year and its usually decent as we don't get bad droughts or anything. 

[Norm]

Some of the difference in prices is location and some is quality of forage. For our area hay generally means alfalfa. If it's grass it's called grass hay and is sold for about what you are getting chevy. The top dollar is paid for diary hay and is good quality alfalfa with a high RFV.

[Left Coast Chris]

Here is another crazy part of being "hay crazy":   we have only about 5 acres in hay for my wifes two horses so we need high quality production.  It is flood irrigated river loam so it can produce very well.  We are just learning so we ripped, disced let the weed seed sprout then disced again and seeded a 50/50 alfalfa grass mix.    Around here we get hot summers and only gets to maybe 20 degrees F as the coldest in the winter so we can use a high number rating or more of a southern strain of alfalfa.   The issue is worms that get into the alfalfa and nematodes.  In the third year we generally have to replant all at decent cost to keep going. 

Any secrets to getting the right strain of alfalfa seed, spraying for worms, dealing with nematodes, fertilizing, keeping gophers out, keeping johnson grass out (a REAL bummer)......

Our hay has been a pretty big mine field of issues..... any secrets for success?

[chevytaHOE5674]

I have one field of Alfalfa and still only get maybe 3 bucks a bale if I'm lucky on a good day. In this area there isn't any demand for dairy hay, only demand is a little horse hay and the rest for beef cattle. And nobody around here could afford 8.50 a bale. 

I put in the field of Alfalfa in hopes that it would be financially beneficial. But I can't sell the hay for enough to offset the cost of planting and maintaining it, so I plan to go back to a grass hay mix in that field as it requires a lot less input cost.

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Hay price has gone up here  because of the drought in Texas and Oklahoma. Had been paying $$4.50 for 80# now I'm paying $5.50 for 60# and the quality is lower.  Most everything here has been shipped south at up to $10.00 a bale. I had a verbal contract with my main supplier but he reneged when the price went up, wanted $2.00 more a bale.  I told him keep it and I'll remember next year when he's looking for a place to sell his hay. I use about 3000 small squares a year and I'm good until the middle of spring, hope there's an early harvest.

[red oaks lumber]

as long as corn remains high priced you'll see a shortage of hay(less acerage) plus the drought down south will keep taking extra hay.in november i sold 4 semi loads of hay to a ranch in southern oklahoma. correction sold 3 donated 1 .

[sawguy21]

Oh Patty, you brought some memories. The area I grew up up in is was largely small dairy farms and alfalfa fields. Any thing over a quarter was considered good size. We got what we considered good money hiring ourselves out to the area farmers during haying season, it was all small bales in those days. Some of the old timers stuck with loose hay. My fingers still hurt when I smell fresh cut hay.  Most of those farms are subdivisions now, no money in it any more.

[bill m]

This is one thing I don't really miss. Where I used to work back in the mid 80s we custom baled for other people. About 22 to 24 thousand bales a summer.

[mooleycow]

horse hay here is 5.00 if delivered.  3.75 if i get up and go get it.  i remember as a young'un hay was placed around a locust pole out in the field.  you had to know how to place it on the wagon and how to unload the wagon  didn't want to try to pitch off what you be standing on.  hay rake pulled by a horse not fun, that metal seat was hard and got very hot in the summertime  good old days was not always good old days

[paul case]

mooleycow
Where is here?
PC

[scsmith42]

We've got around 15 acres in hay, just added about 3.5 more this past fall.  I've been putting up around 125 bales per acre for the first cutting, and about half that for a second cutting.  This past fall I put up another 120 bales per acre on the third cutting, so it was a good year.

The weather is the greatest frustration; I'm amazed how wrong weather forecasters can be during baling season!

We typically get about $4.00 per bale for horse quality fescue (50 lb square bale), and $50.00 for a 700 lb round bale.

[bandmiller2]

Always liked making hay,used to spend summers on my uncles farm in NB Canada we made it loose with a team. Went to  Stockbridge aggie school  Amhurst Ma. worked part time for an old polish farmer he had an old IH baler the one with the four cylinder water cooled engine.He would pack those DanG bales 75/80 lb.He was a fun guy to work for though haul a load and have a beer and shot.Was mowing years back with a JD #5 and the bar tripped and swung back a snapping turtle wedged between the bar and ground.Pauls right about the weather,minute you have hay cured clouds appear. Like you Patty I love the smells and watching the sickle bar slither down the row. Frank C.