Keeping row crops or do all hay

steve in wi · Aug 13, 2018

Looking for some opinions I farm by my self do 70 acres total 12 in corn
rest in hay. Around here it's easy to get rid of hay lots of buyers
around. For corn I do have combine and planter but our ground only
produces around 135-150. Even the bto get that also. The problem is to
harvest it I always have to borrow a truck too haul it in and the
insurance I have doesn't like that. With the price is it ok just put
everything in hay till I have too do some rotation all fields are good
producers yet and fairly fresh last 5 years. Just thinking I should stop
corn for a while. Beans are a option but the land only let's you produce
so much even with extra fertilizer and such.

ohiojim · Aug 13, 2018

no expert here, but I always thought if you had the market go with hay. if you do it alone buy a hay acumulater and a loader and don't look back.

showcrop · Aug 13, 2018

I used to do 90 acres of hay then 45 for another fifteen years. I sold a good half of mine out of the field off the ground. Now I have only fifteen acres and 90% is picked up in the field. You have to have the right people to do it that way and it takes a few years to get the right ones, and even having the right customers I always have two coming at any given time in case one has a problem. Another insurance that I have is the bale thrower and wagon so that if a customer has a problem I can put wheels under a good portion of it and pull it in the shed if I need to. Many guys will say that they could never get the right people, but this is just one aspect of farming and it is a very important one. It does no good to produce a crop if you don't get it sold at a good price and paid for.

Bruce from Can. · Aug 13, 2018

If your farm has water, you could put up some fence, and either rent pasture or buy some young stock in the spring, and graze them over the summer to sell in the fall.

NY 986 · Aug 13, 2018

If the market has been historically reliable I would go with hay. Corn inputs have come down a little but it is still tough to make money on the yields that you describe even if it comes out of the field at 13 percent moisture at harvest. I've been wanting to gear up on hay but the newest wrinkle is that in an average year there is supply to the point that prices are mediocre and if the quality is mediocre then you best find some cows to put it through. Not always going to hit a homerun with hay especially in a rainy harvest period but there are some years where it can pay well.

coshoo · Aug 13, 2018

A little trick to get more hay customers- A friend bales quite a bit of hay, and has a waiting list to pick up out of the field- the reason is, HE hires a hay crew to load everybody up. He has a list of customers with the number of bales they want, and he calls them about noon on the appointed day. Hay pickup starts at 5:30 with the arrival of his crew. They load each rig in turn until they're done. They know what they're doing, stack it well, etc. This is especially popular with the lady horse owners, because they can usually find help to unload on the weekend, but hard (and expensive) to get a crew together during the week. Also helps him, because there aren't inexperienced people breaking bales, dumping loads, etc.

And I guess times change- one of the members of the crew was a very attractive girl, and to their credit, the guys weren't leering or making comments, like I'm sure guys of my generation would have back in the day.

Northvale PA · Aug 13, 2018

I have only ever grown hay. 25 years. Put in alfalfa/ orchard grass mix. Now are rotating the fields into Timothy before planting back to the alfalfa mix. One nice thing about hay is that when the local weather does not cooperate, the price goes up. I originally planted into corn ground when we bought the place. The yields were better then. I believe the amount of organic matter was higher. Baling hay removes everything. I do lime every 2 years. But you may want to consider the benefits of a multi crop rotation. Plus, feeding the marginal or rained on stuff to livestock gives you manure. Growing marginal hay is working for free.

Keeping row crops or do all hay

steve in wi

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ohiojim

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showcrop

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Bruce from Can.

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NY 986

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coshoo

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Northvale PA

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