High priced feed

[cowman]

Just up the road from me there is a quarter section that is in hay. The guy planted it in 2002 with a covercrop that he took off for greenfeed in the fall of 2002. It was a timothy crop for the export market. Anyway he got real poor germination and it looked like hell last summer...lots of wild oats and weeds. He waited until about September before he cut it so the wild oats were shelled out and it was pretty well all dried up. Baled it up.
Last week they were hauling the bales out so I stopped and asked him how much he got for it. $45/bale at the stack! I would think these bales were in that 1100-1200 lb. range. Now I would think he did pretty well on this hay, as basically it was just wild oat straw and dried up timothy with lots of hemp nettle thrown in! Who says there is no money in farming?

[lornej]

I don't think so cowman . He likely didn't get a bale/acre if it was as bad as you suggest . He only got greenfeed in 2002 - no cash value there and if he was seeding timothy for the export market he would have a big bill for the seed and fertilizer alone . He still doesn't know if he has a resonable catch of timothy and if not , has no potential for income off of it for this fall . Now I know that the price of round balers is $25 to $45,000.00 , tractor and haybine at least that much too . He has a huge investment in a timothy crop that he hasn't seen yet - could have rented the quarter to his neighbor for $25 to $35/acre depending where you farm with no investment except the dirt . We sure love to farm !

[cowman]

Yea you're right. No way did he make any money. He not only put fertilizer on it this year but sprayed it with Target and used a custom sprayer! I think he did it too early because he sure had lots of weeds! He rents/leases all his machinery each year including two brand new New Holland/Ford tractors! But I guess he has lots of money because he is Swiss or German.

[raymondb]

It looks like there still is a good market for hay if the customer is still paying $45.00/1200 lb. bale or 3.75 cents a lb. There still must be money in feeding animals if the customer is still paying this price. Maybee farming still has lots of potential and there still must be people out there still making money. Making money is a good thing.

[cowman]

There is sort of a shortage in this area. Well not really a shortage but the hay growers are holding firm on their prices and they have the hay users over a barrel. Small square bales are mostly hanging in that $3.50-$4 range. There are a lot of pleasure horses around here and that is where the small bales go, as well as for the export market to Japan. I don't know about straight timothy but the alphalpa/timothy mix usually runs in that 90-110 bales per acre first cut so there can be a buck in it. But I think you want to have the money firmly in hand before you let it go as horse guys are notorious for not paying!
There are lots of custom haying outfits around for small square bales.