Hay and haying equipment

J.T.M. no regrets at all. Just wish I was getting younger instead of being months shy of sixty. Repairing equipment is just another part of subsistence farming. It helps that I am a Journeyman machine repairman. Thirty years in industrial maintenance. Have been on my own for the last ten years, but homesteading for thirty five years.

achrap, Ive baled Sudex hay that was so tall I couldnt see over it standing up on the tractor. and ive NEVER seen 2 acres make 250 bales.

J. T. M. - Google pine straw baler from Barnes machine shop - They have a good video of how it works

FarmBoyBill, let me clarify. I make my bales at around 40 pounds. Just cant handle them any bigger any more. The two acres is give or take some. My point was that 40 bales a day is going to take some time. Here in Ohio, it can rain at any moment, so the hay needs to get in. I used to help my grandfather when I was a kid and we did it all with a hay loader and I was not the one on the tractor. I wish I could do loose hay like that again, but just do not have the help I would need.

I have not done the per acre math on it ,but last year I got 22 round bails with a total weight 39,550 lbs. off of 5 acres of land.

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250 40 pound bales off 2 acres would be a good yeild here in E Ontario but hardly uncommon. Around here if you're not getting 100 bales per acre first cut there's something wrong

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

New???? You gotta be kidding, takes a couple 100 acres of good hay to try to pay off new baling equipment, you are looking at $30,000 or more.

But should be pretty easy, if you are in farm country, to find a setup good used for $2500 or so, and that will at least break even over time on that.

Spend money on a good baler, a NH 69 or bigger number, one in good shape, parts are still avaialable easily and good machines, can be had for $500-1000. This is the action piece, you want to find a good one in good repair and if you gotta pony up a little more money then you have to, you don't want some clunker that doesn't tie. JD made a few good old models as well, 14T or 24T. Other brands will be cheaper, but you can easily be buying problems - the other colors didn't get knotters figured out so well, and you can get a problem with poor parts support...

Cutting grass hay, pretty easy with a sickle mower, $250 should get you one. Maybe have to spend $600, but then sometimes see them sell for under $100.

Cutting alfalfa or clover, you want a crimper involved, that setup will run you more money.

A rake, if you need to save money buy a junky one. $100 to 600 will get you junky to pretty good.

New???? Holy cow. You haven't priced new farm machinery, have you?

What kind of tractor do you have, 35 hp or more is nice, and live pto makes life _so_ much more fun. I suppose you have an 8N eh, little underpowered, not many gear speeds to choose from, and no live pto so baling will be a struggle....

--->Paul

No one is going to rent haying equipment around here. The season is just too short and unpredictable. That is exactly why having someone else do you hay is problematic. Where you are, there should be two or three cuttings. Now, at the latter part of first cutting, you have someone that can accommodate you, I’d expect that this new plan puts you at the bottom of his “to do” list.

With all the flooded areas around the country, I’d suspect many people are running behind on good haying weather.

Haying equipment, like everything else, only breaks down when you are using it. Mastering the repairs of things like knotting mechanisms while learning about cutting depths and speeds, when to rake and how to rake without making a windrow into a big rope and how damp is too damp to bale is a lot to learn.

Being at the mercy of a farmer that has the equipment to bale your hay isn’t as bad as having him bale hay around your broken equipment.

If you had 60-100 acres, I’d suggest you gradually get into cutting your own hay. Justifying the equipment purchase with agreements to make hay on other’s fields is a bit premature. You’ll need to know what you are doing, able to do your repairs and, since you must “make hay while the sun shines”, be able to put haying ahead of your “real” job.

Perhaps, you could rent your ground for corn or soybeans and simply use that money to buy good quality hay?

Thanks everyone for the wealth of info you all have contributed. I'm going to have DH read this thread. To answer the questions asked:
We have a mid-sized tractor, can't remember the HP, does have PTO. We also have an old AC that comes out of the barn for parades. It does a good job hauling the manure spreader and for mowing.
We don't want to renew the CRP. We have a building site in mind that is within the contract area. We even briefly considered "buying back" the contract to be able to build early (ouch!). We are able to get a pond dug on CRP this year as it's considered an enhancement.
Regarding cash renting. We stopped that after last year's crop and had the field planted in grass last Fall. The pasture is more important to us the since we have animals. I do want to have feed plots planted on part of the CRP land since we have alot of pheasants and some turkeys around.
We've only had this property for 1 1/2 yrs and are anxious to get things done, and have accomplished quite a bit. We'll get the haying issue figured out too!
Thanks again.

Forgot to say; I took Invalid's question about renting to mean renting from a company, which we do when we need a backhoe. We've never checked to see if our local rental has haying equipment (bet not). I wouldn't want to rent or borrow from a private person. I'd be worried about something happening. FBB, I have a motorcycle that no one rides except me so I understand about others not being on your farming equip! From the way he watches me, I don't think DH likes me being on the tractor.

Around here, farm equipment dealers may rent out used equipment that they have on their lot waiting for sale. It isn't a reliable source of equipment, but it is sometimes possible to find it in a pinch. (It is also a way to try a piece and have the rental applied to purchase if you like it.)

Pick up and delivery may cost too much if you aren't close by.

I wont say that equip cos dont rent out equipment cause I just dont know. I just cant beleve they would do it. Imagine, Im a dealer, and u come in wanting to rent a mower, rake, baler. So I rent them out to you. THEN, somebody comes in that wants a mower rake and baler. They might not like what they see left on my lot. Heck, they might not like what they saw IF I had the mower, rake, baler I rented u, but I dont know that. What im thinking is, If I hadnt rented that stuff out for a bit of money in rent, I mighta sold it for a chunk of cash. Now, when he brings it back, The season will be over, and ill have less of a chance to sell it. AND, If u bring it back broke, and I dont notice it till I sell it and the new owner comes in howling mad, cause I knew it was in good shape when I rented it out to u, Then I get the equipment piece back to be fixed BY ME. Im stuck with it till next season.
Nope, cant see any benifit to a company renting out farm equipment.

wish you were closer I would sell you mine . No matter how I try I can't make it worth the fuel and time but I have to hire help so that is a factor . We ( wife and I )after this cutting we will buy hay and use the hay fields as pasture we can run more cattle and that should pay for the hay .

Around here you can even rent logging equipment. You think farm equipment takes a beating you should see how those loggers run stuff. Hard and long for sure. Heck, even the semi's that haul the timber out of the forest get beat to death, you can rent those too.

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Equipment sitting on a farm dealer lot the dealer wants to sell - he's most likely to get top dollar during hay season for hay equipment, so he likely won't rent it out to a total stranger for a few bucks, when that newbie is likely to be hard on the equipment & be using it so as it can't be sold. Too much risk in that. They likely would rent out the equipment to a good customer to help out in a pinch tho. So, yea they rent stuff but not so likely in this situation.

Neighbors will often loan and share equipment to help spread out costs; but you got to be a neigbor first, and have something to offer back. If I help a neighbor with something, I tend to go along with the equipment, not let the neighbor run something that they have no experience with!

I'm sure the tractor has a pto; a 'live' or 'independent' pto is a more modern style that showed up in the mid 1950's on some tractors, and allows you to stop moving with the tractor, while the pto continues to be powered. Before that time, any time you push in the tractor clutch, you stop power to both the rear wheels AND the pto at the same time. Running a baler or snowblower or bush hog is much more enjoyable & possible with a _live_ pto is why I mentioned it. With the baler, of the windrow got raked a little thick or wadded, one can stop moving the tractor and allow the baler to power through the tough spot with live pto. Without live pto, one has to be very careful when raking the hay, and plan ahead with the gear selection on baling.....

--->Paul

you can rent stuff at the dealer but expect to pay premium money for the privilege

here are the rates at a local dealer
http://www.swiderskiequipment.com/rental_rates.php
a haybine will run you 475 bucks a day......

your best bet is to have a bit of ready cash and keep an eye on Craigs list and auction bills. Probably have to bear with the other farmers doing it for you when they can for a year or so...

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

hmm I dont have live pto, and I can stop the tractor anytime I get into a tough wad, and the baler just keeps going LOL

Heres a suggestion on your haying. Have you ever done any loose hay? I have a friend thats an old man. He had a nice little farm stead. The way he did his hay was loose after his baler died the last time. We have too much humidity here to do an ourside stack but he had an Aframe he built to hold his hay and a loft in the barn. What he did was mow with an old cutter he had a horse drawn one that he pulled with a CUb and later he got a 3 point mower. Then he used a dump rake again horse drawn and then found a side deliver rake in the scrap yard he fixed. He used the dump rake still with side rake to pull windrows into piles.

He had a long thind called a buck rake like they use out west to pick the piles up. It looked like a long fork the went on the frot or read of one of the older tractors. Hed pick up te piles and put them on a wagon for a ride to the A frame. Later he used the pickup off his dead baler and put it on the front of his dump wagon and picked up the windrows like that and would drive them to the barn or A frame and dump them off. The hay smelled sweeter than baled hay in the winter. His stable was in the back of the barn and he just wheel barrowed the hay to the animals.

He like to tinker and build things after he retired and made a large farm from home built machinery.

I got into haying kinda cheap. I found a Japanese mini round baler at our local dealer on tradein. He couldnt sell it as it was all in japanes and the previous owner didnt have it all figured out. I got it for 500 dollars. I liked it because it didnt have knotters or timing. I thn bought a used JD side delivery rake from a friend at work for 400. I have an old sickle mower from a trade I took in for 50 bucks. So im in it for 950. It bales about the size of a square bale.

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/r...taylor/349.jpg

Ah, Taylor, Just askin, but wheres these people gonna find a buck rake nowadays, unless there out west and up in Col, Wyo, Dakotas, ect. Wheres people gonna find a good jap baler, for $500,? Ive never seen one, likely never will. If anyone buys a GOOD baler of any kind for $500, HE either got took, or got a steal, if it works.

Just saw the pic. A round bailer. I helped put them up ONCE. That was enough. Tore my old overhalls to shreds at the knees. They was hard to stack on the wagon. I bet theyed be hard to walk on in the barn stacking them. We stacked them outside, in a triangle. Owner never used them. They stayed there for several years.

Out of courisity tho. The old guy u talked about. U say he built a A frame. What was that for if he already had a barn. Did he use the forks to get it in the barn??

Whats a dump wagon. We always used hay racks. I helped put up hay with a 2 ton grain truck. Never again, Sounds like he was a real machanic and welder. Most of us arent.