$18.00 for small squares?

Well, I keep asking myself all the time that I am doing second cut hay why do I bother. 1st was a challenge this year due to rain in the forecast most of the time, even though we didn't actually get much rain, so I didn't finish until mid August. Regrowth was slow especially after late first cut, but there was decent growth on some of the wetter ground. So Weds. last week I headed down the road two miles to the next field in the rotation, in order to abuse myself some more, because we had the first forecast of five good days this year. I planned to cut only the wetter half of this ten acre piece because the dry part didn't have enough growth to be worth while. Well, we had been getting some rain recently, and a little bit into the mowing the 96 horses were really laboring to pull the mower through the water. I expected moisture but not standing water. Long story short I could bale only the dryer three acres, and got a total of thirty four bales. figuring my equipment and transport time, my cost per bale comes out to $18.00

On days where it all goes wrong, I think a 100$ a bale is too low. I
cut some standing water this year too, (yes peanut galley I had to).
What a mess with the ruts.

Son just told me sold small squares of Alfalfa 60# bales for $10.00 per bale.Glad for irrigation. gitrib

Baled my last bale of hay in 1994. Still have my old baler, at $10 a bale I might try it again.

Welcome to farming.

Ah but that goes into the file of work smarter not harder. Some times it does not pay or even make since to do something because the cost of doing so is not worth what it cost to do it so you have to step back and look real good and hard as to do you do it or do you sit back and play on the computer

Farming is relaxing, right?

I got 25 round ales of overripe wet hay from first cutting off the swamp - never did dry out right this year, didn't rut it because it's heavy sod peat ground, but was standing water in areas.

Second cutting looked terrific, some of the best grass hay bales I ever made - all 34 small squares. Just didn't regrow, as the rain shut off and the blast furnace came on and 1st cutting was so late.

Goofy year.

--->Paul

Yes, a crummy year for second cutting in ny for me.
Averaged 32 bales/acre, tedded 3X, sick of driving the
tractors. 5 passes is doing well, 8-9 passes (cutting, tedding
3-4 times, raking 3x and baling) is not worth the fuel expense
and wear and tear. After Irene, I only made 115 small
squares, the remainder of the fields were too wet. One of my
hay customers complained that I did not make enough
second cutting for them (I was one of 10 in the county who
made second cutting grass hay). Some people do not
understand that it is nearly impossible to make good dry hay
after 14 inches of rain.

Was a tough year for me also. Made right at 125 large round bales. First cut got split in half due to almost a month of rain. Second cutting was during a long drought so yield a lot less. Oh and it really helped that every time i'd start a field equipment would fail. Tractor once, haybine 3 times, rake once and baler 3-4 times. Old equipment blues...

I guess the real pizzer is the lady that wanted me to cut her 4 acre field. We were in the wet part and darn if every day that the sun started shining she expected me to get right over and cut the hay. No regard to having to have a 3-4 day span to actually make the hay. She got impatient and gave the field to some other poor soul. Was glad to see it go.

I am tearing down the baler now to get started on the maint. Gives me an excuse to tell anyone that still wants to have hay cut that I am out of business for the rest of the season.

One nice thing, I paid closer attention to fuel usage on the last field I cut. On a 9 acre field, running the haybine at 3.5 mph, my use was 1.75 gal per hour and I can cut 2.5 ac per hour. This is on a 2550 Deere with a 4 cyl diesel engine. Running the baler was around 3 gal per hour and I averaged about 6-7 rounders per hour. I am happy about that...

John