So, when they show up for 1 hour of work, not knowing how it sucks, I should blame everyone saying it sucks?
I try to be fare with everyone who bales for me.
I provide drinks and shade and lots of breaks.
I do see how you are thinking. I think that might be part of the problem, but the biggest problem is when they get 30-40 bales in. That's when they decide it really does stink to do that work and sudden health problems pop up.
I have heard everything from menstrual cycle, to partially torn Achilles tendon.
I wish everyone could sugar coat it. I wish everyone could be like my family and say, "if you don't do it now, santa claus will skip over our house."
Do I still do it? yes. I am 34 years old. I am about 60 lbs over weight according to doctors. According to them, I should fall over at any minute.
I am working right now in 92 degrees, 90% humidity. It's like trying to benchpress a Volkswagen beetle 200 times in a sauna. I am going to cut more hay for Thursday. I have 2 guys and a customer who picks up from the field. We are going to pick up 900 bales from the field.
My bales come out of a New Holland 575, and they are full 38 inches long. They are dense, too.
I keep the bale density doors closed as far as they go, before the knotter starts breaking 7200 twine.
It is very very hard work. I do also get your point.
I don't want to be out there raking it in that heat, let alone picking it off the ground and stacking, then stacking in my barn or customers barn.
I guess I never thought about it like that, but I have had to give the speech to many young ones. The speech generally goes like this:
"This is hard work. We wait until the heat of the day is at it's peak so that the hay gets to the proper moisture. It will be ok to be shirtless for the first 10 bales, when your arms will be strong enough to keep it away from you, not to cause major skin rash. After that, you better put your long sleeves on. Once we hit 300, you will be so numb to everything around you, you won't care. You make it to 600 without walking away, and you are beast. Stay with me until 900, get them all stacked, cuss as much as you want, scream until your lungs give out, and you will be rewarded with money and bedtime will feel so good.
You will be tired. You are getting paid for all this, and at 25 cents per bale, after 900, you walk away with $225 after just 7 hours. If anyone gets completely worn out, you can take a break, but you put the added stress on everyone else. when they fail be prepared to step up. We work as a team. Anyone can leave at ay time, but your loose all that pay, aside from what you have done."
That is the speech.
It seems I keep good employees, because I have never had a person walk off.
I do supply support staff. They are family, they take up the slack, and in the end, all the hay gets done.
I do get your point. I get chills thinking about hay. But, at the end of the day, I sleep good, and I feel good. Once I get soaked to the underwear with sweat, and I stop seeing straight, I get a drink and some ice and I keep going. When I am finally done, I am done. everyone laughs and has fun when it is done. We live for that moment.
We do hay every year, and without a kicker or stacking wagon. We do less than 2000 bales a year, but, when we do that, we are good.
If I had more than that to do, I would get a kicker, or a stacking wagon. I would love to be able to justify that. with my low production, I can't justify. It's just for a few horses.
Anyone who does a lot of bulk hay should look into a stacking wagon, or an accumulator system... or at least a kicker. You save so much money versus paying labor for hay stackers. In the grand scheme, it is cheaper to buy the equipment. If you are not paying at least 25 cents for one stack (one stack meaning, you pull from field to wagon, and that is one stack. You pull from wagon to hay mow and that is another stack, or 50 cents per person who works on both ends) then you are not paying enough. you should just reconsider your business plan, when hay is at $5 per first cutting small square.
If you can't get that much in your area, talk to me, and consider paying trucking to get it here. This isn't the 1980's!
Hope you find good people for this year. Really the main group to do the work is the 20-28 year old crowd. They want to work and work out. Younger than that and you can't trust them.
Money is king. Promise a guy who stacks both ends $450 a day, and see how he jumps at the opportunity.
and yeah, in 1987, I sold squares for 75 cents a bale... those days are gone. don't sell even marginal hay for any less than a bale per current cost of a gallon of gas.
Current cost here is $3.76, and I am selling first cutting for $4. but it is premium.
Good luck.
You made me think a lot more than I wanted, tonight.
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