(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

How to make a small fortune farming.

D

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
Start with a large fortune!

Sorry, an old one but I couldn't resist. Just doing my end of year analysis while I had a little time before tax season. Seems like hay still has grain beat...at least on the small scale. :)
 
It all comes down on how small of a fortune.

My FIL lost a quarter when he was little, it was his fortune.
 
Dave We are looking at buying a small square "Bale bandit". It puts 21 small square bales into the size of a big square bale and then wraps strapping around them. So you can handle them like a large square bale. Looking to seed more hay down this spring and fall. Maybe 300-500 cares worth.

I made good money in the late 1980s and early 1990s selling small square bales directly to the end buyers. I am not interested in doing that but My one son is talking to order buyers in the North-East. Bales hauled in a 53' van trailer as a back haul. One out fit is talking about using empty shipping containers as they have to haul them back to the sea ports anyway.
 
If you're looking at the cheaper 100 series models look at the 200 series. There a reason they are more expensive. And if you can sell 32-34" bales don't bother with the bandit and get a bale baron with string tie. They are expensive but much better machine.
 
W are looking a new Bale Bandit 200. We have used both the Bale bandit and Bale baron. We would be making 38-40 inch bales. The Baler baron seemed to bend the longer bales. Then during handling I preferred the steel bands over the twine. I already have a grabber but even then we had some of the Bale Baron cubes break apart when trying to push them into a semi.

We have been working on this for a couple of years now. There are several things that need to work together. 1) storage, IE sheds. We are not going to tarp stacks of hay. 2)Field rotations and location of the sheds. 3)The market/resale end. 4) Other equipment needed/required. The numbers we are looking at show us needing to handle/make 100-125 thousand bales a year. This would be on top of the round bales we need for animal feed. We are looking at replacing 30-50% of our grain production. The long term numbers look better but the weather makes it more risky.

The one wild card is we are trying to possibly contract straw baling/purchasing. The end buyers we are talking to are very interested in us supplying both hay and straw. The Straw would have to be baled in Kansas or the Dakotas.
 
Hay is pretty cheap in many places in the northeast, a few years back when we were hauling double decker loads of goats to New Holland Pa. we would buy grass/alfalfa small squares for the return haul, couple bucks a bale, sold most to a local sale barn and still paid for fuel on round trip. South Florida for horse hay is the money market.
 
(quoted from post at 16:20:56 01/03/19) Dave We are looking at buying a small square "Bale bandit". It puts 21 small square bales into the size of a big square bale and then wraps strapping around them. So you can handle them like a large square bale. Looking to seed more hay down this spring and fall. Maybe 300-500 cares worth.

I made good money in the late 1980s and early 1990s selling small square bales directly to the end buyers. I am not interested in doing that but My one son is talking to order buyers in the North-East. Bales hauled in a 53' van trailer as a back haul. One out fit is talking about using empty shipping containers as they have to haul them back to the sea ports anyway.
Click to expand...
Out here they compress bales for shipping, a 100lb bale is about a foot long. They then band them and stack about 20 to a bundle and wrap them with plastic. A ton of hay doesn't take up much room that way!
 
Good the 200 a much improved machine. The baron can?t be pushed beyond the bale length spec, it will break bales and bundles. When dealing with bundles end users prefer the twine packages due to no strap disposal issues but if they are broken open for sale at a feed store they like the more robust straps.

You can get around some of the straps breaking bales issues by running heavier twine on the baler too. They keep tweaking the dies that make the straps convex / rounded but some folks still have trouble. Owen at the bandit place seems to have improved his customer support and attitude a bit too over the years. Baron/marcrest always has had top notch support.

First gen barons from mid 2000?s still sell over 50k used with very high bale counts. Early 100 series bandits down under 10k if you get a non updated one but most have been back for at least some of the updates to fix the issues corrected by the end of 100 series. The 200 series seem to be good to go right from new so far.

My baler came from a guy running an old baron, he and one man run 4000 bales a day through it. This is 5th year, something like 500,000 bales now no baron issues. Not a mechanical guy either, threading baler about his limit of fixing.
 
Ken thank you for your information. It is kind of hard to get information you trust. The fellows that the manufactures tell you to contact almost always spout the company line. As for the end used and the steel bands. It looks like our end users would be more of a retail establishment over a private end user. I have pretty much told my sons we are NOT going to sell directly to horse people. There are just too many issues with horse people for me to risk having to deal with them from this major of a chunk of our livelihood.
 
(quoted from post at 20:44:56 01/03/19) Ken thank you for your information. It is kind of hard to get information you trust. The fellows that the manufactures tell you to contact almost always spout the company line. As for the end used and the steel bands. It looks like our end users would be more of a retail establishment over a private end user. I have pretty much told my sons we are NOT going to sell directly to horse people. There are just too many issues with horse people for me to risk having to deal with them from this major of a chunk of our livelihood.
Click to expand...

Saw this on CL a while back, and wondered who would want one. Now I know.

https://kansascity.craigslist.org/grq/d/marshall-bale-bandit/6777811894.html

What economics make your hay more attractive that crops? Tons per acre and value per ton?

At some point, does the volume and shipping costs justify putting that hay into cubes?

I'm in an end user horse hay market. Surrounded by them. Word spread last fall that I had hay and within days they came and cleaned me out. All asked to be repeat customers.

Neighbor who has horses and is tapped into that market tells me $8 to $10 per 50# bale for good timothy or brome hay is not out of line.
 

A dairy farm in northern NH where I hung out as a kid buys large squares of alfalfa out of Montana. There is a farm just down the road from me that has been selling a lot of small squares mainly from Quebec and New York for many years. During the winter 50lb average bales go for $12.00 street price. I used to sell a lot to a few stables. I would drop off a loaded wagon and bring home an empty. five years ago I was getting $5.00 per small square.
 
(quoted from post at 09:20:24 01/04/19)
A dairy farm in northern NH where I hung out as a kid buys large squares of alfalfa out of Montana. There is a farm just down the road from me that has been selling a lot of small squares mainly from Quebec and New York for many years. During the winter 50lb average bales go for $12.00 street price. I used to sell a lot to a few stables. I would drop off a loaded wagon and bring home an empty. five years ago I was getting $5.00 per small square.
Click to expand...

I have heard of some of these cross country hauls. A local guy I know told me he had also bought hay from Montana.

I would think with hauling costs, they could pay you to take it in Montana and by the time it got to the midwest or to the east coast, you would lose money. With such a long haul, no clue how guys on both ends make money from it.

Hay off the farm next to me has been sent as far north as Iowa (150 to 200 miles). I know what it was and when it was cut (2 to 3 weeks too late). Sorry stuff to haul that far. Somebody up there was desperate or got screwed.
 
(quoted from post at 09:20:24 01/04/19)
A dairy farm in northern NH where I hung out as a kid buys large squares of alfalfa out of Montana. There is a farm just down the road from me that has been selling a lot of small squares mainly from Quebec and New York for many years. During the winter 50lb average bales go for $12.00 street price. [b:519a100db1]I used to sell a lot to a few stables.[/b:519a100db1] I would drop off a loaded wagon and bring home an empty. five years ago I was getting $5.00 per small square.
Click to expand...

Do you know what horses were in these stables?

There are horses, and then there are horses. Ones local to me run everything from rodeo kids, cutting horses, saddlebreds, trail ride horses and yard ornaments. There is a swayback gelding next door who's belly drags the ground and who hasn't been ridden in years. She feeds and pampers him.

Some will demand the best and don't care what it costs, and others would feed ditch weed if it was in a square bale and cheap enough.
 
(quoted from post at 18:34:40 01/04/19)
(quoted from post at 09:20:24 01/04/19)
A dairy farm in northern NH where I hung out as a kid buys large squares of alfalfa out of Montana. There is a farm just down the road from me that has been selling a lot of small squares mainly from Quebec and New York for many years. During the winter 50lb average bales go for $12.00 street price. [b:0c154ce1ea]I used to sell a lot to a few stables.[/b:0c154ce1ea] I would drop off a loaded wagon and bring home an empty. five years ago I was getting $5.00 per small square.
Click to expand...

Do you know what horses were in these stables?

There are horses, and then there are horses. Ones local to me run everything from rodeo kids, cutting horses, saddlebreds, trail ride horses and yard ornaments. There is a swayback gelding next door who's belly drags the ground and who hasn't been ridden in years. She feeds and pampers him.

Some will demand the best and don't care what it costs, and others would feed ditch weed if it was in a square bale and cheap enough.
Click to expand...

Yes I knew my customers pretty well. I sold to some for twenty years. There was a range in how fussy they were and what I could deliver to them, which worked well for me because I was not always able to make top quality hay. Some had show horses, some were just for the occasional ride, some rode various events, and some provided hay to boarders.
 
(quoted from post at 18:29:15 01/04/19)
(quoted from post at 09:20:24 01/04/19)
A dairy farm in northern NH where I hung out as a kid buys large squares of alfalfa out of Montana. There is a farm just down the road from me that has been selling a lot of small squares mainly from Quebec and New York for many years. During the winter 50lb average bales go for $12.00 street price. I used to sell a lot to a few stables. I would drop off a loaded wagon and bring home an empty. five years ago I was getting $5.00 per small square.
Click to expand...

I have heard of some of these cross country hauls. A local guy I know told me he had also bought hay from Montana.

I would think with hauling costs, they could pay you to take it in Montana and by the time it got to the midwest or to the east coast, you would lose money. With such a long haul, no clue how guys on both ends make money from it.

Hay off the farm next to me has been sent as far north as Iowa (150 to 200 miles). I know what it was and when it was cut (2 to 3 weeks too late). Sorry stuff to haul that far. Somebody up there was desperate or got screwed.
Click to expand...

Once a few years back I was on an interstate not too far outside of Washington DC and I came up behind two trucks loaded with large squares of alfalfa. I checked out the doors of the trucks and they were from a farm in Montana.
 
Local guy here had some problems with the bale bandit he had. I see he still has one so I am guessing he either solved them or got something different.
The crew I was on cutting wheat for 3 years. Cut for a guy in ID that used steel bands to compress the 4x4x8 bales 2, in to about 1-1/2 length of the 2 Shipped on train cars. They sent the bands back I thought I heard. This was in the later 80's early 90's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

jon f mn
Got a couple jobs done this weekend
Replies
6
Views
317
cdmn
C
C
Ford 5000 Starting Issues
Replies
4
Views
463
Bern
B
D
White 2:105 Hydraulic Testing
Replies
6
Views
430
DanielW
D
L
Finally got my twine discs adjusted
Replies
3
Views
354
lastcowboy32
L
F
Ford 6610 - Small hydraulic leak
Replies
4
Views
739
Destroked 450
Destroked 450
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top