Custom Hay Cutting....what's the going rate?

Last year I charged $18/acre + $0.65/bale. I do small square bales and I only have one customer: my sister.

With fuel costs as they are, what is the going rate where you are? I usually like to invoice her for the market rate, then deduct a 10% discount because she's family.

Around here that $18 an acre to mow would be on the high end.

Is that .65 per bale to drop them on the ground or to stack on racks? Or do they provide all the manual labor?

Custom baling small squares cost 1.20 dropped on the ground here.

Gordo

here in ontario its 42cents a bale or half the crop whichever you please.

I'm at three dollars a bale dropped on the ground.Cut,ted ,rake,and bale.

2.75 to 3.00 pulling a wagon plus labor, about a quarter less kicked out on the ground.

hayman I just baled 20 acres that made about 5 big rounds an acre.

That would be over 120 little square bales to the acre.

Your saying you would have charged me $7200 to mow, rake, and bale to a rack and I would still have to pay labor to load and stack in the barn.

No one here in Iowa would pay that to get there hay baled.

More power to you if you can get that in Kentucky but I couldn't here.

We can bale 250+ little bales an hour here. We get .50 to bale only. That is still $125 dollars an hour for the machine work. We get $14 to $18 to mow and we can mow 5 acres an hour. $6.00 to rake.

I could hire that 20 acres baled in squares ( no labor) for under $1700 here.

Gary

Its all supply and demand. Twenty acres would be a good sized field for most people here to square bale and I've never seen more than 180 bales per acre in the 5-6 counties Im willing to work in, that was good timothy.

Pricewise I got .50 back in the 80s to just square bale when I was in high school in 1983. Two years ago it was running 1.00 just to get it baled (no labor). I was undercutting at .90 and happy. Im at 1.25 this year to bale it and drop it plus the trucking if I've got to move my equipment.

Right now, the wait here on anybody to square bale is at least a couple of weeks, maybe more. Thing of it is, square baling is still a bargain, nobody here is touching round bales for less than 2/3 with a cash rate to cut, rake, and roll big rounds of 30.00. The two biggest custom operators are now at cash only or they get it all. I'm at 22.00 to cut rake and roll but running a 4x4. At 2.50 for a square bale thats right at half what they are bringing behind the baler.

That doent mean I wont work with a customer. The typical 'big field' that I get called to do takes 15 miles of road time (maybe interstate), there are 8-10 acres, and it makes 80-100 bales per acre. Ends up killing best part of a week, since the next job is another 10 miles off. More common for squares is 4 acres and it makes 50-70 per acre (but needs cutting every 30 days). Get me a couple of jobs like you describe, close to eachother, and I'd discount like crazy.

I'm booked solid, all season. Took today off to hang with my kid, but I'm heading out to mow a 4 hr job this evening, its an 8 mile hike. Then I've got to cut my alfalfa this week (its been 45 days on some of it)

i always figure at least $.50 a bale..small square. a little more now.
DF in WI