grassfarmer?

[grassfarmer]

So if you have enough feeders to justify a silage truck how do you bed that many kpb? I helped out on a purebred operation the first winter I was here and they didn't have a bale pro either. We spent lots of time hauling small squares into corrals to bed cows and calves - hauled the bales in 28 at a time in the loader bucket of a 120hp CASE and had the tractor running while we shook the bales out by hand - not real efficient in my view either!
I actually like to build a good bedding pack for youngstock because I want the organic matter. I pile the manure up in May and turn it over in August prior to spreading in October. Now there is an added cost to this but it is also making a value added product. We are spreading a dry, almost compost material and there is a lot less to haul than trucking fresh manure.

[grassfarmer]

grassfarmer wouldn't that depend on how wet the summer is ? Rain like we have had this year tends to make the bedding pack stay fairly moist, and it won't be composted enough to kill weedseeds or pathogens by only turning it once over the summer.
I agree that hauling that many squre bales and distributing them by hand doesn't seem very efficient. I usually pick up a few square bales for the barn so I don't have to start the tractor to feed into calving pens if there are only a few cows in the corral at a time, but I do bed the shelters by dumping straw into them with the grapple and forking it around, this is only during calving.

[grassfarmer]

I want to keep a certain amount of moisture in it certainly, if it gets too dry it "burns" up the organic matter in it. I don't want to see black or white over heated material in the piles. Building up in long rows in May and then stacking in tall heaps in August works for me in wet or dry years.

[kpb]

grassfarmer, I don't bed the feeders heavily at all but when I do I use big round bales of straw and a front end loader and just roll them out.

kpb

[cowman]

I am sure a bale processor might pay for itself if you are buying straw and it helps to spread it out better and therfore you use less? I really like the idea of the grain/pellet tank on some models. I suspect you could feed certain rations and maybe actually justify it?
But of course every convenience comes with a cost...and that is okay as long as you recognize that? I have a neighbor who has about 25 cows...and a new bale processor! He also has a really good squeeze/tub set up that is state of the art! Obviously he is not going for that "low cost producer of the year" award!
I'm not as "low cost" as some here as I pretty much do everything with a FWA tractor(Kubota) and yes I keep it in a heated shop! Maybe not the most efficient method but then I use the shop everyday for other things so it has to be heated anyway.
I have often considered buying a bale processor as a way of saving time and money. Haul three bales out at a time instead of one makes sense to me? Maybe I'll have to do some creative bookeeping to justify one!

[farmers_son]

Just some comments about owning machinery. There is too much emphasis on the depreciation and not enough on the capital cost. A 2 bale hay shedder purchased new in 1989 for $9500 could still be worth $5000 today. That is a depreciation cost of $281 per year. Most people could afford that. As our dollar increases in value the value of our used machinery should start decreasing faster although rising steel costs have hidden some of that up to now.

The bigger concern is the opportunity cost or capital cost of the shredder because that $9500 could have been invested in cows or even put towards land that would generate cash flows or increased asset value. Assuming a 5% return, that $9500 in 1989 would be over $20,500 today if it had been invested in land or cattle. At a 7.5% return to capital we would be looking at a future value of $30,000 16 years later.

Before we decide to purchase machinery or if owning machinery is better than hiring custom the emphasis needs to be on how to avoid those costs altogether as there are better uses for that money.