It all commence when my girlfriend , Lori , bought a farm . ( I have never seen aHobby Farmsarticle begin this room , and the reason could be that it is n’t nearly as entertaining as Ifind it . But I felt it had to be done ! ) The farm we started with three year ago sits barely within the city demarcation of a small Arkansas college town .
It ’s comprised of 40 acres , 20 of which are unimproved pasture intermittently surrounded by decaying fencing . The other 20 consist mostly of bodily structure , lawn , former - increment hardwood groves and Formosan privet hedge thickets , interspersed with dense saw briars , rocks and bramble .
It ’s home to approximately 7.23 billion ticksand jigger , four goat , four farm dog and 43 chickens ( give or take ) .
Hay Pasture Problems
Lori purchased the farm in April 2019 on the even of summer . So one of the very first concern was what to do with the pasture .
A lawn - precaution professional protagonist recommend we partner with another farmer to bale the hay in the fields . Although prices may vary by region , there are several different , fairly coherent arrangements for partnering with someone who owns the equipment to bale the fields .
As the landholder , you may simply deal all your Bale to your farming cooperator . Most farmers raise stock who bale other people ’s land acclivity cattle and will produce round Bale . circular bales can consider 1,000 to 2,000 pound each , depending on wet content and size . They require a tractor to move them .
Barry Brown
Here , a sodbuster will pay around $ 5 per Basel to cut , rake , Basel and contain off your hay . Our 20 acres yields around 60 roundbales . This option would think of about $ 300per cutting , full .
Other options include some soma of “ on the halves , ” wherein the person with the equipment cuts , rakes , bales and hauls off2⁄3of the bales . They leave the other third egg laying in the area for the landowner .
This option could be advantageous to landowner with livestock of their own . Even if we had purchased a small ruck of stock , we would n’t have had it long enough to delight this arrangement due to the wretched consideration of the fencing .
Barry Brown
Another choice that our particular partner was concerned in involved hearty bales . Each circular bale contains rough the equivalent of 15 straight Basel of hay . But whereas round Basle ask a tractor to move and deal for around $ 30 each , hearty bales only weigh around 50 pounds each and sell for $ 5 each .
This imply the equivalent sales agreement price of the substantial Basle made from the amount of hay in each $ 30 round bale is $ 75 .
Our partner agreed to cut , rake and bale if my girlfriend would store and market the Basel , splitting proceeds 50/50 . We were capable to hack hay doubly that first summertime and put up around 1,000 bales each metre , making our tear a ballpark $ 2,500 each time .
Barry Brown
Our haymaking partner have a grass - prey beef farm , works full - time at a tractor franchise , part - meter in military guard and reserves , and about 17 other Job . So he often call for help in his various haymaking activities in the ploughland border our town . I puzzle out for him on an hourly basis and learned to apply his tractor and other equipment , making hay on other properties he had arranged to curve .
When I saw how well-situated , therapeutical and even fun it was to work the battlefield , I began to search purchasing my own equipment . The first advisors were friend who worked at tractor franchise , who assured us $ 80,000 to $ 100,000 of equipment was necessary . Barry Brown
Do I Need a Tractor to Make Hay?
Some of the most vivid and entertaining discussions my girl and I had were over whether a tractor was a requirement or the big waste of money ever hoisted upon smallfarmers .
She saw rusty hulks litter flying field throughout the South as proof positivistic that the in effect choice ( if a tractor was indeed even necessary ) was some kind of tractor possession - share programme . I argued , never having take on anyone else interested in share-out , that the power point was a political machine you could use whenever you needed it , regardless when some other owner needed it .
I was newfangled enough to haymaking that I felt I should postulate someone in the know what exactly I ’d need if I was going to take over the hay surgery . Our hay cooperator control me that if I want to make hay , the implements need would require 60 to 70 HP . He used a 90 - plus H.P. machine with enwrap cabriolet , air conditioning , radio set , etc . deserving around $ 75,000 , even though it was 10 years old .
Barry Brown
To advance the tractor line of reasoning , I call for a tractor and implements that would be paid for in about one or two film editing , so $ 5,000 to $ 10,000 altogether . I see Facebook Marketplace , Craigslist , auctions and local mommy - and - popping tractor lots in vain .
In the end , I gave up on burn my own hay . But I did find a reasonably - priced used tractor for sale that I decided I needed for other task such as moving worldly concern and discing .
Read more : Loose hay ? Here ’s 4 thing you may do with it .
Square Market
As it turns out , the issue of masses starting small farm is increasing . little farm contribute themselves to sheep , goats and little Bos taurus ruck . These are prime customers for solid bales of hay .
Additionally , what we hear from our client is that Sunday punch are moving from the labor - intensive straightforward bales to equipment - intensive rotund bale . This makes square bales more hard to encounter .
This opens up a squeamish recession market for small farms with grass pastures to trim down and bale square bales for sale to other small-scale farmers .
merchandising was probably the easiest part of the hay stage business as far as I was concerned . Why ? Well , Lori did it all .
She joined several farm - related Facebook chemical group and would just post when we had hay . She often gave a deduction if bale were purchase straight from the subject area , saving us move them to the barn . This accounted for about 250 bales each film editing .
We always sold out of hay before our next cutting .
New versus Used
The simple hay operation requires a tractor , a cutter , a rake and a baler . You ’ll find endless information online to compare the various option for each implement , and all form of vox populi about mate their size with the tractor pull them so I wo n’t go into deepness here about those details .
I ’ll simply divvy up what I did .
I bought 50- to 70 - yr - previous implements for a total of $ 2,625 . Some were sell “ as - is ” with seeable repairs need . I also got a “ kill - up ” hay loader not counted in that physique . ( I did n’t even cognize what it was until find out a video on YouTube . ) This is likely the greatest invention since Noah parked the Ark of the Covenant .
The eminent end on necessary horsepower idea for the tractor issue forth from the assumption that the hay will be mowed with a disc mower and baled with a round baler . The magnetic disc mower is very heavy and rides far to the right of the tractor , so weight is also a self-aggrandizing factor to consider so the lawn mower does n’t tippytoe the tractor .
I regain that tractor sizing required was far less for an older reaping hook - Browning automatic rifle mower . ideate a 7 - human foot farsighted hardening of Samuel Barber ’s trimmers . I now also cognize that I like this style of mower well than the new discmowers for rough areas and uneven terrain .
A sickle - bar mower will slip over thing that adiscmower will hit , maybe resulting in damage . This style mower is much lighter , so its effecthanging off the right side of the tractor is minimal . I bought mine for $ 500 , well constitute an originalmanual online , and replace and adjusted several parts to bring me from total ignorance to mowinghay in a relatively short time .
The total cost was $ 720 . I have seen them online in various conditions for prices graze from $ 200 to $ 3,000 .
The homo I bought my mower from advocate a Rolabar - style rip over the more vulgar V - rake . Although any vehicle may pull rakes , a V - rake may require tractor hydraulics to raise and lower the two sides . This is n’t necessary with a Rolabar - style — the exploiter can literally pull it with anything .
Mine was sold as - is and did require some missing portion and novel tires . The total cost was $ 850 .
The solid baler was the long perch in the proverbial collapsible shelter . I had seen our partner ’s balers break or come down out of adaptation sentence after time . I was scared of drop off several thousand dollar in interest of haying capabilities .
I found an advertizement on Facebook Marketplace by a gentleman in Missouri who has turn on balers for several decade . I drive 8 hours one way to buy a baler so one-time the bearing organization for the plunger consists of four pieces of Mrs. Henry Wood sliding in channel of angle smoothing iron . He had welded on a few niceties based on what he bang masses found useful on a baler and had the knotter in tip - top shape .
For my first cutting , I count close to 30 spiritualist - to - major repairs I had to accomplish on these implements before I finish . Five were serious enough to necessitate welding . A few were catastrophic enough you would only expect one such failure per time of year of piece of work .
However , I finally got the hay baled and put up , and the knotter — the scariest and laborious part of a straight baler to get working — worked like a champ .
In sum , although new implements could well be $ 45 to $ 50,000 and demand 60 H.P. or more , I got everything I needed , made necessary repairs and cross my operating expense for one cut for about $ 3,800 . And , perhaps more importantly , I was able to practice my 48 - horsepower tractor . Barry Brown
What Were My Results?
There were unexpected incontrovertible results to making our own hay . One was number of bales . People in the business organisation of making hay as your partners are on the clock . They often run out to cut thoroughly , fail to rake to all edges and have no profit - bonus to bar and rebale a broken Basel for that $ 2.50 , e.g.
We went from less than 600 Basel on our first press clipping this year using a mate ( for which we made less than $ 2,000 ) , to 1,405 bale on my first solo baling experience .
bale our own fields allowed me to optimise when each portion was ideal , when the weather was concerted , when barn space was uncommitted , and when customers and bale - shaggers were ready . I watch over my bales close and decoct the number of “ banana ” and broken bales . My Basel were the tightest and squarest we have ever put up .
Of course , operating cost and time are thing each small farmer would have to consider when make up one’s mind whether equipment ownership and haymaking are the right answer . In my case , I made considerably more than my capital investment in one cutting .
Read more : When equipment fails , you could always pile up hay by hand !
Hay Takeaways
My advice is to start with a partner who will allow you do some of the work . You ’ll watch the implement , the lay of the land and what it think when haymaking , method and backsheesh , and whether you bask it — all on someone else ’s dollar . you’re able to learn about pros and cons of different implement choice . For case , when I mop using our pardner ’s disc mower , all four drive belt fragged for some reason .
The cost to supersede just those belted ammunition was well-nigh as much as my whole sickle - bar mower .
purchase equipment from people who use that exact case of equipment . The guy from whom I buy my cutter still utilise a reap hook - bar lawn mower . He uses it on about five time the acreage I do . He could order me exactly the optimum consideration of grass to cut and the speed to drive , as well as problem to anticipate and how to avoid them .
He also drive an hr each way of life and helped me adjust my lawn mower and learn to employ it when I was at my wits ’ end .
I bought the baler from a man who sold and maintained square balers for 10 . He gave solution over the phone for the repairs I needed to make and offered to drive six hours one agency to help ready it on at least two occasion .
onetime equipment is often loose to keep and repair than novel equipment . With new equipment the manufacturing business may have engineered methods to keep the owner from being capable to make stamping ground . Parts may not be uncommitted or they may come from a mill in remote part of Asia .
With honest-to-goodness equipment , compensate the old broken part may be a more likely option than finding a new one .
Many manufacturer - advised adjustments demand a pounding as the precision tool of choice . you may fix almost anything with a welder and a grinder . Do n’t worry if you are n’t a very salutary welder . You soon will be .
It often does n’t have to be perfect to work . Since the hay season of 2021 , I ’ve learn a couple of things . Back when the subject field needed to be hack and bale , I knew my baler and my profligate were miss a few pick - up tine . And I lie with those wood - bearing surfaces were devolve in the baler . But I just pressed on and hoped for the best .
This wintertime , I replaced the broken tines and the wood bearings . They should be in tip - top shape to make hay in the summer !
The situation is unlike for everyone . But in our causa , corrupt previous haymaking equipment and making our own hay has been a profitable experience , financially and educationally .
Do n’t lease implement costs or single - source , colored entropy keep you from realizing this possible profit reservoir for your minor farm . If there ’s a will , there ’s a way of life . Barry Brown
More Information
As the output of hay for the pastures dropped each cutting , and the desire was to provide better hay , we researched fertilize the fields . We were intending to asseverate a moderately raw , organic market garden on the belongings , so chemical fertilizers were off the table . Chicken litter was conk to be about $ 3,000 per app , which is unacceptable for a hay operation land us $ 2,500 .
Then I began to learn more about the benefits of rotational shaving . I imagined that if I had extra plot to rotate through , the extras could be cut for hay and including these in the rotation would appropriate me to bit by bit improve all the ley . Because these would be smaller patch the hay operations would be very small each meter .
I begin to look for micro hay equipment . I found out two things : first , micro hay equipment comes with a macro price tag , often bad than traditional hay equipment . Second , the original hay married person had oversold me . My tractor was easy sufficient for running traditional hay implement .
This article earlier appeared in the July / August 2022 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
