Growing Hay..pros and cons

First THANK YOU all for your input I feel a little more at ease with this venture. Most of the issues mentioned are within our capacity to deal with.
It will definitely be an adventure as we are starting from scratch. This is something both me and dh have always wanted to do but never had the chance.The way we see it is that how can you succeed or fail if you never try right! So anyways you may see me post more as the deadline for moving/buying lessens.

I will be living in northeastern bc and we already have contacts for selling the hay.The area we will be in has good demand and people have been able to sell for years. Both dh and I grew up there so we feel pretty comfortable getting help if we need it.

Hmmm, the pros and cons of growing hay........ If you grow it for sale, yer a pro, if you get caught stealing it from your neighbor you end up being a con.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

We have tractors, tedders, rakes and balers. Have cut hay for years.
This is my experience: it isn't usually a winning proposition. Either you buy very expensive newer equipment or spend the haying season trying to keep everything working. Yes stuff breaks constantly, and if you're not a mechanic expect to spend a fortune keeping it working. Even if you are a mechanic it's a giant pain.

There's too much you can't control with it. Equipment breaking just when you need it, weather not right for harvesting when the hay is optimal, weather ruining cut hay on the ground before you can get it baled, and most of all the variable cost of fuel.

We lost a ton of money year before last when gas was so high. The hay had to be cut or else the land had to be bush hogged, so we made hay but still lost big time.

This last year was better but when you actually sit down and figure out the money often you don't make hardly anything for your labor even if you break even on costs.

We happen to love doing it and have the equipment and cows who need the hay, so we will continue to cut for ourselves but it's just not paying to cut to sell these days.

Don't want to be a downer at all but don't do it unless you just love it and can stand to take a financial loss.

Overall I agree with the poster who said you're better off renting the pasture out.

All that being said though, your weather may be more favorable than ours for dependable hay. It's humid and rainy here which really throws a monkey wrench into things.

Alla this talk about constant reakdowns brings me to this post. I dont remember my dad haveing a breakdown. Course he was useing 10/20 yr old machinery thereabouts. I wouldnt have any breakdowns if I didnt think I could cut that tree sprout and instead crash the pitman rod. If I got offa my sass and went out before mowing with an ax to cut down the few sprouts that come up I wouldnt have much trouble with my mower. I have used my #27 IHC mower on my 34 Case CC for many years. It was made to be used on a IHC tractor with a wide crossbar drawbar. The case has a narrow one. SOOOO I took an old F-20 drawbar and rigged it to fasten onto the round axles of the case by useing U bolts. I also bolted it to the drawbar, with it being left as far to the right as possible. Even so, The U bolts on the R side tend to slide with the weight of lifting the bar so many times, till it comes to where the bar is barely comeing out of the ground. With my 48 H IHC that I now have I can correct that. I cant remember ever haveing a problem with the rake, that didnt let me finish. Ill usually lose a tooth or so each rakeing, but that dosent stop me, AND if you ever notice a field that has been raked with a looooooooooong hay rake, youl se much hay left in the dips and such. My main problem ahs always b een fighting the bailer. Geting the engine to start. I finally put a new carb kit in it last year, and hope that takes care of that, and as listed ablve in my previous posting, the drive belt finally gave way, and the wide apron belt that takes the hay from the raker teeth into the plunger gave way, but I finally got new belts for them, and that should take care of that. My biggest worry is if the needles get outa time again. Needles several years ago, and there were only 16 of them left, known to man, cost #150 each. There probably way higher than that now.

FarmBoy Bill <> You have made a valid point about this modern farming. The farm equipment made before WW2 ain't worn out yet! They put a heap of steel and cast iron into all of it. The parts all moved so slow that they seldom shook themselves to pieces. So if you starting Homesteaders want a tractor that you can pass on to your grandchildren still in working order get one made prior to WW2. LOL <>Unk

You don't say how many acers you are planning to harvest. We have 5 acers of grass hay that was harvested 10 years ago that eveyone wanted to cut. Now, no one wants to cut it because of the cost. We now have sheep and goats eating the pasture. We looked into hay equipment and the cost was just to much, for our 5 acers ($20,000+). Now the only ones that will come out and harvest , want at least 50+ acers and they they want to keep the hay or it will cost you about $2.00+ a bale.

If you have very dry summers, you might not need a mower/conditioner, also known as a haybine. If you have excellent mechanical abilities, you might be able to keep a baler working. I had the knotter on my baler stop working while I had hay to bale. (they don't break down when you aren't using them) and I had to walk along, becidee the baler and hand tie each bale before it exited the baler. Even with good farm equipment knowledge, you can't get repair parts on the afternoon that it breaks down. If you bale much hay, you'll need at least three hay wagons. You don't want to be unloading a hay wagon when you should be baling hay. If I store bales on the barn floor, dirt, gravel or concrete, the botton layer will wick moisture and mold. I've had good luck keeping them on pallets, but then I have created places where mice, rats and skunks can live.
Owning and depending on old equipment is difficult. But expecting that a neighborhood farmer can be hired to do it is harder. They must get theirs done and yours gets done when he's done or when he is afraid it might rain on any hay he cuts of his own. You may end up with over-mature hay, with weeds that have gone to seed or you'll get rained on hay.

As for how much land we plan to do that is still up in the air.We will be buying 1/4 section (160)acres. I talked to my dh last night, he is way up north trucking, and he is interested in using a haybine so that will change some things. Our weather there is actually very dry so there is not that constant stress of rain ruining hay. It is the ooposite, some years it is like drought and things just dry up and growth is stunted.
I think it is worth a go even if we just do it for personal use because there is something special about growing things yourself.

We put up our hay loose because it is mowed with a horse drawn mower.It is turned with a hay fork and raked with a hand hay rake. The hardest thing is getting it dry especially this past year. It was rain and fog from early spring to the third week of August with intermittent days of sun. It takes three days of sun and northwest winds to dry hay here.We couldn't seem to get three good drying days in a row. So the hay would be shook out and partly dried and then raked up and put in the barn until the next sunny day. It had to be dried in small lots because of the lousy weather. Haying that is normally done in two weeks took three months last summer!The animals have to eat and it is hard to find good hay here that isn't $5 a bale so we mow our own.Sure hope this summer is better.

Hi
We have a quarter on Boucher Lake Road near Moberly Lake in the Peace River country.

We have 55 acres of special Alfalfa mix -- 3rd year and top rate crop and yield, got 300 1,500 lb round bales first cut and 125 second cut. Neighbour does all work, except I drive a truck to help get it the 2 miles from our quarter to his Elk-fence area.

He sells it.

Two years ago the neighbour doing the work died and it took two years to get the money for our 50% share from the owner -- not good.

And the new neighbour cutting now says he retired as of last year. So I will get someone else. Shouldn't be that hard to get someone, since our land is so much more productive than the other parcels. Our's is great bottom land, no rocks, and high-yeild no winter kill newer experimental variety of Alfalfa with Red Clover, Brome and Timothy, so no need for fertilizer. We are lucky.


Alfalfa, Tractor and Baler, 1500 lb bales, 5'-0" long x 5'-6" high that's what the ranchers and horse ring around here want, $45 last year, there was a hope of $60, then the other crops improved in BC and AB and the price dropped.

Good luck, we love our perfect hay field, when growing, when cut and when the bales are gone. It's not only work to cut, rake, bale, haul: it's also work to SELL it, load it, collect the money -- it's a business.

Good luck, where are you in BC? Are you a competitor?
Alex

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Somewhat surprisingly, here in AZ, it is standard to feed alfalfa to horses.

Makes me nuts, as I come from MI & that's not how I learned to feed horses. Also, IME, it tends to give horses the runs & some of them don't do well mentally on it.

However, since crummy bermuda grass gets $17+/bale here, and alfalfa's probably $8, you can see why people feed it.

I'm lucky that my barn manager indulges me & my horse only receives bermuda. Of the 24 in that barn, my mare's the only one who doesn't get at least some alfalfa. I just find that so strange.

Definitely, you need to know the ways of your market.

It's funny because different areas prefer different things. Our trainer feeds alfalfa hay with a little bit of grain. Swears by it. We grow good grass hay and feed good grass hay without grain. Alfalfa costs more than grass hay here.

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Moms don't look at things like normal people.
-----DD

Alex nice pic!
I love that round bale! Gets me all warm and fuzzy seeing nice hay like that!
we have a new holland round baler also.

FarmerChck,
Thanks, and yes warm and fuzzy is a good hay-feeling. You do have to love farming to hay. And we do, but it's the neighbour's Ford and New Holland. Guess that's OK, he keeps them in perfect shape. We still get to feel good too.
Thanks again,
Alex

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Thou art That

Everyone is making some good points here.. for many years two of us put 300 + small bales in the bar loft twice a year....it is very hot, usually dirty, hard work. If you have a newer pole building the hay can be stacked on pallets or timbers on the floor....anything to get ait circulation under it. If you wish to raise hay, I would you suggest having somone cut it "on the halfs" (not necessarily 50% but a percentage that is agreeable. You can also usually get somone to custome bale, and pay them. You will not be first in line, so weather and ripeness may be more of a problem. You then see what is involved and only have to worry about half the problems, (transportation and storage). If that works OK, and you still want to bale...it will give you a year or two to find decent used equipment at a good price. If you find out it is too much work... you wont have all the equipment to sell.