Cost of making hay?

[grassfarmer]

A question for the folks that make their own hay - how much do you reckon it costs you by the time you figure in machinery purchase/ownership/repair costs, depreciation, fuel and labor. Seems to me that getting it done custom costs around 2c/lb and just wondering how that compares to owning your own line of machinery and doing the work yourself?

[DaneG]

Between 2.5 and 3.5 depending on yield.

[WiltonRanch]

Too much Grass. Too much. If you can get it done for 2 stay with it. I reckon my biggest cost is cutting. Repairs and downtime can add up. Baling is not as bad as we bale straw and greenfeed so we spread our costs. We have enough rocks, hills, pocket gopher mounds, and therefore rough fields. The discbine I have now believe it or not costs less to maintain than my previous sickle machine but it still costs a lot more per acre than swathing a greenfeed crop. When you only average 2 bales a lot of years while greenfeed wil do 3 it makes you wonder. I figure when all expenses are tallied though hay is far better feed, greenfeed is far cheaper per ton than hay. Should probably fertilize my hay and buy another ton of hay but I'll get more bang for my buck on greenfeed. I worked up a couple hundred acres of hay and it is good ground but severe hills. If I ever grow forage on it again I'd sooner yellow feed it as mess with hay again. Heck even a year of sweetclover hay. Seems a guy goes to the expense of alfalfa and grass seed to get 4 good years and 4 not so good years. After 4 years it gets rough and you're bouncing equipment to ratshit. Then you have to terminate the crap and lose a year of production. Sorry I'm in a cynical mood but thinking about making hay gets me that way.

[smcgrath76]

I think it depends on your machinery lineup and where your hay is coming from.
We would probably not use hay at all if we did not have a share agreement that has worked for everyone for 20 years.
Our cost per pound on hay when I figure everything out (labour, depreciation, fuel, etc) is right around 1c per pound most years from field to yard. This year (2015) we are closer to 4c on our share hay due to yield. Our native prairie hay is near 3c due to labour and parts and our hay we managed to contract is around 3c.
It does not take much of a breakdown or boost in hauling distance to jack that cost up though.
Our haying lineup is well maintained, but older.

[ProFarmer]

if you had to do figures using new equipment. The cost would be wild new Jd baler @70,000 loader tractor at 200,000 haybine at 70,000 only ting cheaper is fuel at .60 cents. Cut and baled here 3 cents you haul.

[grassfarmer]

My costs were based on custom charges of $15/acre to cut, $4 to rake, $12 to bale but then I still have to move the bales myself. I'm sometimes tempted to buy a lineup of older hay machinery to have more control over timing with regard to weather. I've done that twice in the past but it has never really worked well for me financially as you finish up spending more than anticipated on repairs then you have the downtime...

I much prefer getting custom pit silage made with a high output team - they have consistently been around 1.5c/lb of drymatter and that is all in - from swathing to packing the pit. Generally higher feed quality plus you don't have as much weather risk.

Bales are more convenient to feed in some situations though. I guess one thing your responses tell me though - anytime hay can be bought for even 4 or 5 cents I should be buying it versus growing my own. We bought hay many times in the last decade for 3c/lb from guys running fairly new hay machinery.

[WiltonRanch]

Right on the $ grass.

[perfecho]

When I changed from silage to hay, more due to machinery, feeding daily, semi-retirement, hay at 4-5 cents a pound was pretty reasonable. Buying at roughly 10 cents landed, sounds expensive but I also get twice as much for my stock as I did a few years ago.....

[perfecho]

PS...just use hay for penned bulls, heifers, sale stock......cows are on swath and green feed bale grazing.