How much would you charge for field cuttings?

Around here, farmers will pay the landowner $4 per round bale they harvest.

We rented about 25 acres of grass last year for $250.

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Small square bales are labour intensive. There's no cheap labour for that sort of work so if you want a share crop of small square bales AND you're not helping then you pay in bales. Chopping the hay and letting the nutrients return to the soil is a plan, one that will take nitrogen from the soil to decompose the chopped grass so its a double edged sword. On round bales where its cheaper to process, then 50/50 or even 40/60 is a fair deal

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........

I won't cut any unimproved hays fields for less than a 70/30 split. Even hayfields that are fertilized and sprayed for weeds and I do the stacking it's still 60/40. If you figure your machinery, fuel and twine, you can't afford to cut it for less than a 60/40 split. If hay is $60 a ton, it's cheaper for me to just pasture my hay fields and buy hay.

Bobg

The _type_ of hay & quality of hay & number of cuttings & location (demand for hay) & the yield (when seeded, how much fert added) _all_ makes a _huge_ difference in what hay is worth.

This is why folks are telling you about 40 - 50% of the value of the hay - whatever it is worth in _that_ area - is the best reply.

Hard dollar numbers will not help you much, as it varries _very very much_ from one are to the next. However, that % is a good average way to judge.

You can find local hay prices in local/ regional ag papers.

If you follow up on this, you will get to know what it is you are dealing with. So this is the best answer for you - 40-50% of the value of the hay.

Now, if someone else seeded alfalfa on the land, and is also supplying the fertilizer, and making all the hay........

_Then_ you are more in a per acre, land rent situation, and the fellow running the land is investing a lot into the crop in an area that likely only gets one cutting per year (you are not in a high-yield area, do not go by the big high numbers you are hearing from other areas!).

Around 'here' with 3-4 cuttings per year, you could get $125 per acre per year if you put it in a 5 year lease (alfalfa takes a long-term lease, first year sucks for yield & costs a lot, the value comes in the following 3-4 years...).

There you may only average $50 an acre regular rent per acre because of just one or 2 poor cuttings per year.

And if this is thin poor mixed hay with no fertilizer it could be worth at most $20-25 a year per acre.

But it does sound like things should be looked into, see if things are being done properly.

I'm trying to give you a wide, different, way of looking at things. It will depend a lot on the type of hay, who is responsible for what, & so on - as I mention.

Ask more questions, if this helps you see a few trees in the forest anyhow. It is a difficult question, so many things are so dependent upon local conditions & customs and who is supplying the seed & fert.

--->Paul

Sumer, sorry - I didn't realize you knew "zero about hay". That changes things, as others have pointed out. I'm still learning. First of all we live here and we cut out the noxious weeds that can make animals sick, so they're not baled up with the hay. Land shifts thru the years and crevases form... 2 years ago a guy cutting our hay broke an axle on our land because he didn't realize there was a crevase in the land and he hit it going too fast. Repairs like that are very costly and time consuming to the farmer.

You have square bales and round bales, and then large round bales which can weight 1,000 pounds or more - our bales are that size and we get approximately $30-35 per bale when we sell it. We get at least 2 cuttings a year, sometimes 3. Square bales are more desirable for people who raise horses; they're easier to move without having to have needed equipment like a tractor and hay forks. But lifting all those bales by hand after they've been baled is back breaking, physical labor so most of us prefer to have ours baled in the round bales so we can move them with our tractor. Otherwise you have to drive thru the fields, stop and load the bales by hand onto a trailer, then take them back to stack them in a barn.

You can increase the quality of your hay depending on what you want to sell whether it be alfalfa or clover, etc.. We have both in ours altho we haven't replanted since we've lived here and farmers seem to still be interested in our hay.

A couple here have said your X-MIL should be thankful someone's taking care of her ground when she's unable to tend to it... this is true. Without us knowing the condition of her land and what type of hay she's producing, it's hard to give you much advice. I find it's best to discuss things with the close farmers who have a lot of insight and knowledge, before jumping to conclusions. If you're really concerned about her being taken advantage of, go there and visit with a farmer or two... maybe drive one over to see the hayfields and see what their opinion is.

Hope this helps you.

Yes ALL of this has helped. Thank you all. Its all a bit more clear. She could as some said be in a good position given that she is not in the area anymore but then again she might be being taken advantage of too. One thing I had not even thought about is trees could take over the field if it wasnt cut. At least I can ask her some spacific questions now and that helps a lot.
Thanks again
Sumer

Shepherd,

Good advice!

Alex

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