Since we?re on the topic of baling hay

TDJD · Mar 5, 2020

I was wondering how those of you that bale hay figure how much it costs you to make a square bale. What all do you take in to account to figure out the price? Give me an example if you could.
Thanks

showcrop · Mar 6, 2020

Mowing $75/hour tedding $60.00/hour Raking $60.00/hr. baling $75.00/hour. Now of course these rates need to be applied to the number of bales per hour which is dependent on fertility and moisture. I was making hay for a horse stable that had some decent ground and they were liming and fertilizing, and all was good getting paid by the bale. When they quit fertilizing the bales/ acre dropped year after year so I converted to equipment time. They didn't like that much, but I was cutting back anyway and did it that way for just two years. Two other guys did it for a year or two each but now it is growing brush.

jaoneill · Mar 6, 2020

Last time I went through that exercise was toward the end of my dairying days, 30 plus years ago but at that time my cost was right at $1.00 for a 40-45 pound bale. Since my equipment was all old tired iron I didn't figure in any depreciation or tractor seat, family labor. It figured in only out of pocket expenses; fuel, repairs, string, land taxes, and bale handling labor (labor was $.25 a bale). We used a bale sled system that allowed us to mow away 375 bales an hour like clockwork, or about 1500 bales in a 4-5 hour afternoon. I paid the help $.05 a bale for every bale they handled which gave them about $15 an hour back when minimum wage was $2 an hour, so we usually had a waiting list for haying jobs. We had 5 hay handling jobs; one to pickup from ground to wagon, one to stack wagon, one to unload onto mow conveyer and two to stack in the mow. We had three shuttle wagons, each with its own tractor so that there was no wasted time hooking and unhooking, my two daughters drove the shuttles, leaving a full wagon at the barn every 20 minutes, which gave the barn crew a twenty minute window to unload.

jaoneill · Mar 6, 2020

Would be safe to say that costs have about doubled since I did the above exercise.

BarnyardEngineering · Mar 6, 2020

(quoted from post at 06:42:58 03/06/20) Would be safe to say that costs have about doubled since I did the above exercise.

Cost has at least doubled, but they still expect you to sell them a premium bale of hay for the same price as 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.

Since we?re on the topic of baling hay

TDJD

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showcrop

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jaoneill

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jaoneill

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BarnyardEngineering

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