Hello, Im new. I was wondering how many acres would make up one round bale of hay for horses and how much it would roughly cost/bale. I cant get any straight answers so far. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Depending on the Yield of the hay I?ve seen an acre
that wouldn?t make a whole bale of hay I?ve seen
fields that would yield 3 round bales per acre 1400
pound bales
 
How good of ground, and where at, and what kind of hay it is makes all the difference in the world as far as how
many bales per acre. As far as how much it cost to have it put up on a costum basis; well that would be about 25
dollars a bale in my neighborhood, and that is if you own the ground yourself.
 
(quoted from post at 22:56:10 04/28/19) . As far as how much it cost to have it put up on a costum basis; well that would be about 25
dollars a bale in my neighborhood, and that is if you own the ground yourself.

Does $25 you're referring to include weed spray,fertilizer & baling?

I charge $25 for cutting/raking & baling a 4X5.5 rd bale then fert/weed spray costs can be another $25+ per bale adding up to $50 per rd bale. Average production per acre per cutting where I live is 2-3 bales per acre
 
You probably grow a gain on real good ground.

Also on good ground You might grow alfalfa hay on good ground if you have dairy or certain horse people.

Around this area, grass hay is grown on poorer ground, typically too wet to farm or sometimes oddly shaped small bit or a dry area. As such, the volume of hay depends
on the year, if it is too wet or too dry those odd bits of land can produce a wildly different amount of hay.

Then, some hay like alfalfa could be cut 3-4 times a year. Some grass hay like in my swamp grows taller than the tractor it isn?t wonderful hay but there is lots and lots
of it! Then some of the thin hay types only produce one cutting per year and now very much at that, depends on the species.

So, yes, it is hard to say how much land is needed to produce a certain amount of hay. It also is very dependent on your location, long season in the south, or short
season in the north.....

Paul
 
Cat threw up behind me, sorry for the spelling errors I didn?t mean to hit send yet......

We probably grow grain crops and other such on real good dependable ground, while grass hay crops tend to be grown on less desirable land that can be a feast or famine type of yield, quite variable.

Then different types of grass grow thick or thin so it depends on what exactly you are growing.

Your climate might allow one, two, or three cuttings per year.

And so it is difficult to give an ?average? yield that applies for more than a small region or neighborhood of the same grass type......

Paul
 
I mow and rake all of mine. Hire the baling done. Neighbor does the baling and charges around $9 a big round bale.
He keeps himself cheap. Probly thinking of job security. Most other guys around here are probly around $12.50. You
probly couldn't hire mowing and raking done around here. Would probly have to allow another $12.50 a bale for it
to be swathed if hiring that done. So the $25 dollar a bale figure is only factoring in the cost of cutting, and
putting it in the bale in my opinion. I move all of my bales off the feild myself. So not allowing for that
either.

Smellslikemoney was a little vague with his question. It was my understanding he was only asking what it would
cost to get hay put in a bale on some ground that he presumably owns. He did not ask about fertilizer or wether or
not he would be putting any on. So I'am not allowing for any fertilizer expense. My 2 cents.
 
I live in North west Michigan in lower pen. I have good ground and make 500 lbs. bales. ON the poorer soil I like to see at least 10 bales per acre. On the good areas I get 20 bales, sometimes a little more. This is 1st cutting. Most years I get two cuttings, but some years I only get enough 2nd. to get the cattle through winter. Location and soil type make a big difference in this answer. Al
 
Depends so much on your local market, soils, bale size, and rainfall. I can tell you my
numbers but your results may vary. 10 rolls per acre average, at 800 pounds each with 2
cuttings per year. Fertilizer 150 pounds of urea, P and K to soil test. I charge $27.50 to
cut, tedder, rake, and round bale to do custom baling with a 40 roll minimum and 10 mile
maximum (we'll go further but its not cheap). My variable costs run roughly 12.85 per roll
for fuel, payroll, netwrap, and repairs/maint.
 
When I was young we still had an old workhorse from when my dad and grand dad farmed with horses.His most favorite thing to eat was Poison Oak he'd stop and chow down on it every chance he got.
 
This year is the first time I saw 3-5x4 bales per acre. The numbers I see on here are just mind boggling. I don't see how you can manage the mess that
would be required for that kind of volume to be baled per acre, getting it dry and raked and all, especially in Northern climates where drying would take
longer than down here. I had to run the baler through teddered fields several times just to get the mess down to where it could be raked. Just
amazing.....but 40 bu/acre is normal corn production down here too.
 
(quoted from post at 08:28:24 06/23/19) This year is the first time I saw 3-5x4 bales per acre. The numbers I see on here are just mind boggling.

Mark
Earlier this yr I baled 35 acres for my neighbor of Coastal/ryegrass that yielded 198 4X5.5 rd bales which equates to 5.6 bales per acre. The most bales per acre I remember baling is 8 per acre in another rainy yr.
 
Yes. I seem to be migrating into winter crops for my haying operation as summer crops have bombed out....my favorite was sorghum-sudan hybrids and the Sugar Cane Aphid arrived in 2014 and kissed that goodby. I'm not going to spray bug killer on hay I and going to sell. Getting the winter crop off in the spring, while it's still in the growth stage, between rains, is a must have for the tedder. And this year, as last, the rains came and came and I had more growth than I wanted with a mature crop....but something is better than nothing.
 

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