Hay Season 2023

My neighbor is chopping a lot of his hay this year. Haven't talked to him lately to see what the reason is but my idea, and only and idea why go to the expense to cut, rake , bail haul to the hay lot, then haul to the corn silage pit and pay to have to ground. Cost wise looks cheaper to chop it, pit it and seed along with the corn silage.
 
Got another small batch of hay baled and in the barn plus another raked and one cut. This was about one acre and produced 145 bales that puts us just over 200 in the barn. We are going slow hoping to get the old hay sold and out of our way. I think we have some buyers that should take it all, but you never know until its gone.
 

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We sold all of last year's hay, so the barn is clear and ready for the new hay. We have 300 bales that need hauling and probably 100 more when we bale the next small batch. We have 4 more fields on our property and then we will know if we need to do the neighbors fields or not. We are shipping 4 steers in late August and 2 older cows. We may sell a yearling heifer also which will leave us with 3 cows, 1 steer, and 3 heifer calves. I need to do some calculating to figure out just how many bales we need.
 
cjet69 said:
We sold all of last year's hay, so the barn is clear and ready for the new hay. We have 300 bales that need hauling and probably 100 more when we bale the next small batch. We have 4 more fields on our property and then we will know if we need to do the neighbors fields or not. We are shipping 4 steers in late August and 2 older cows. We may sell a yearling heifer also which will leave us with 3 cows, 1 steer, and 3 heifer calves. I need to do some calculating to figure out just how many bales we need.
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That would be interesting to find out how many bales one cow eats. I’m guessing your anticipating another good cut to replace what you have sold. Hay is big out here mostly round bales. It’s interesting to watch a couple of farmers near us have the open dome canvas type shelters just for their hay. They are packed full come fall then as the winter goes into spring you can see only a few rows are left. A few years ago one guy I know never made it he had to buy. They tend to take care of each other during bad seasons and equipment break downs. Keep us posted CJ.
 
Cjet, before I was born, Dad did small square bale custom baling on top of his 101 acre farming duties. He continued custom baling until around 1979 just before we went bigger with our own farms. He baled about 70,000 bales per year the last few years at 25 cents per bale when some charged upwards of 50 cents per bale. He said he just couldn't charge that much and rather than do that he stopped custom baling. We had plenty to do without baling. One year or two I did most of the baling while Dad helped build the new church. The custom baling stopped a couple years later. Tough work putting up hay, but with Dad baling I never had a problem getting hay work! I guess the hard work is why I survived my blood clots in both lungs...it made me tough enough!
That said, I'm glad I don't have to stack hay today!
 
olcowhand said:
Cjet, before I was born, Dad did small square bale custom baling on top of his 101 acre farming duties. He continued custom baling until around 1979 just before we went bigger with our own farms. He baled about 70,000 bales per year the last few years at 25 cents per bale when some charged upwards of 50 cents per bale. He said he just couldn't charge that much and rather than do that he stopped custom baling. We had plenty to do without baling. One year or two I did most of the baling while Dad helped build the new church. The custom baling stopped a couple years later. Tough work putting up hay, but with Dad baling I never had a problem getting hay work! I guess the hard work is why I survived my blood clots in both lungs...it made me tough enough!
That said, I'm glad I don't have to stack hay today!
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Good story Daniel. Folks don’t understand our generation, we could eat whatever we wanted then work it off for a good healthy living then and now in our last days. You can’t eat what you want then lay on the couch and play video games or stay on your phone most of the day. Hats off to our farmers.
 
Sawdust said:
That would be interesting to find out how many bales one cow eats. I’m guessing your anticipating another good cut to replace what you have sold. Hay is big out here mostly round bales. It’s interesting to watch a couple of farmers near us have the open dome canvas type shelters just for their hay. They are packed full come fall then as the winter goes into spring you can see only a few rows are left. A few years ago one guy I know never made it he had to buy. They tend to take care of each other during bad seasons and equipment break downs. Keep us posted CJ.
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There are some formulas to use to calculate feed. Also we are looking at last years hay use at just over 1000 bales and this year we will be wintering less than half the animals. I think if we get 800+ we should be OK but that depends on when we need to start feeding if drought sets in and the pastures stop growing.
olcowhand said:
Cjet, before I was born, Dad did small square bale custom baling on top of his 101 acre farming duties. He continued custom baling until around 1979 just before we went bigger with our own farms. He baled about 70,000 bales per year the last few years at 25 cents per bale when some charged upwards of 50 cents per bale. He said he just couldn't charge that much and rather than do that he stopped custom baling. We had plenty to do without baling. One year or two I did most of the baling while Dad helped build the new church. The custom baling stopped a couple years later. Tough work putting up hay, but with Dad baling I never had a problem getting hay work! I guess the hard work is why I survived my blood clots in both lungs...it made me tough enough!
That said, I'm glad I don't have to stack hay today!
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Our year old hay we sold at $2 per bale which is under market around here. We just needed it gone ASAP. The money more than paid for the twine and fuel.

I can't even imagine doing 70,000 bales. We are slowly losing the off-farm fields that we have hayed for 30+ years. The hay quality has dropped on those fields also as the owner's won't allow spraying for weeds. With dad at 94, this year could be the last year for cattle. The costs keep rising on everything so its getting tougher to keep the cows. I think I could make more money just selling hay off the farm and only have to put in a month or 2 in the summer to get it done. The cows take some time every day all year long plus vet bills and breeding. We will see what happens.
 
While I have plenty pasture for cattle, the extra work involved with cattle is just more than I care to take on. Fencing is all but gone, and hay equipment needs lots of work. Being I can make extra money in my shop, that's all I want to do. I let my crop renting guy take hay off it for just $5 a roll bale. I hope he decides to just rent the pasture hills for making hay by the acre. I'm willing to lock it in with him for several years so he can toss some fertilizer on it, knowing he can reap the rewards. Last year he would have ran short without the 125 big rolls he got off it. I just got $600 for the hay, but it saved me the couple hundred+ in diesel and wear and tear to bush hog it. I like my hills looking nice. He's cutting the grass as soon as it dries from the 3+" of rain the last few days.
 
Propane1 said:
Hehe.

Nice sounding tractor.

Noel
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We bought the tractor from a guy who inherited it from his grandfather. It was located on his grandfather's farm in Montana. He hauled it out west here and ran it in parades occasionally. It seems to be a low hour tractor with great compression and very little wear. All of the tires were rotted off of it when we got it but we found another basket case tractor with decent tires and wheels that we swapped over.
 
There are about 400 bales on the ground that need hauling and we only have one field left to mow on the farm which will be done tomorrow. There are 3 mowed fields drying and will be ready to bale in a day or 2.
 

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What is the advantage of tedding ? ? Up this way it is usually cut with a windrower-criper, let dry a couple days and raked right in front of the baler but mostly big rounds. We cut with a bar mower, raked when it was tough yet, they bailed as soon as it was dry enough. Lot of times I would bale evenings into darkness until moisture started to show up on the tractor tires. The last 3 years I did custom small squares I used a preservative and would bail at 16-18% moisture with no sign of spoilage. Had the moisture monitor on the baler.
 
chieffan said:
What is the advantage of tedding ? ? Up this way it is usually cut with a windrower-criper, let dry a couple days and raked right in front of the baler but mostly big rounds. We cut with a bar mower, raked when it was tough yet, they bailed as soon as it was dry enough. Lot of times I would bale evenings into darkness until moisture started to show up on the tractor tires. The last 3 years I did custom small squares I used a preservative and would bail at 16-18% moisture with no sign of spoilage. Had the moisture monitor on the baler.
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Cuts down on drying time, it allows more sun, and more importantly, more air to reach more of the hay.
 
chieffan said:
What is the advantage of tedding ?
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Just fluffs up the hay and turns it over so it dries faster. We've looked at that preservative spray before but never used it. Lots of years around here it would be nice because you may not get enough drying day before the next rain. This year is really looking like a dry drought year with no rain for the foreseeable future. The ground is really dry which will make it hard for the grass to recover after being mowed.

The tedder is really handy if you get rain on your hay. Running the tedder over it knocks the water off and picks it up off the ground for more air circulation.
 
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