Hay ground

I had a 2.5 acre field I was going to farm this year my plan was to plant soybeans in it but it needed plowed as it's just sod now well I got busy
at work and with other stuff going on I'm not sure I will be able to go eat it all worked in time so I'm considering just cutting it for hay this year
and just plowing this fall for next year we agreed on 100$ an acre for rent would this be a fair price if I cut hay off of it? It's not great hay it's
pretty weedy and my other question is should I bush hog it if I don't get stuff around to bale it by the time it needs cut for first cutting or should I
let it go? Thank you

Why plow it, just kill the weeds and grass, no till it.

If it was good quality hay then yes giving the land owner 100$ a acre is fine.

Around here poor quality hay is not in much demand. Considering that most folks would agree to let the hay go for "free" since your doing them a favor mowing and matainng their field.

Had a guy that had 10 acres here and wanted me to hay it for him and he was asking that I paid the $4000 yearly tax bill on the property for the hay.... Had to walk away, can't make anything on that... Even with good quality hay selling for 12/13$ a bale delevered... Which it was not good quality.

Don't brush hog it if gonna put it up for hay. You can get rid of the weeds, but you will also shred up the hay. Grass hay is a once a year deal. Or it is in my area anyways. If you do no till, you can just spray and kill the grass. Weedy hay not worth much.

I guess I would look at it this way.

You rented crop land for $100 an acre. That is probably very fair price.

If ou did or didn't get around to planting it properly is on you, not the land owner. So the money is what it is, it's your fault, not the land owners fault.

Hay takes more time and careful planning than soybeans to make a good load of bales, so that might be tough for you too?

Assuming you live where you can get two cuttings a year, cut the weedy stuff early and bale it, it won't be worth much but it should pay for the gas and iron used. Then see if the second cutting should likely be a lot better with less weeds, and if you cut the grass early the first cutting, has a good chance of yielding fairly well for second cutting.

Brush hogging the field will tear down the weeds but makes a mess for trying to get a second cutting of grass, assuming you live in an area that can get 2 cuttings. That would be a real waste of time and resources, rent the land and accomplish nothing with it for a year.

Better luck next year.

Paul

$12-13 a bale? Are we talking large square or round bales at that price?

Man we get tickled pink if we can get over $3 a small square here. I've heard of good alfalfa hitting $6, but that is rare as in large type on the
front page stuff!

Paul

IF it is weeds I would just mow it now and round bale what ever is there. The put some fertilizer on it and get a better second cutting.

Do not bush hog it. That will lower the quality of the next cutting and make it real hard to mow unless you have a disk mower of some type.

As for the cash rent you agreed to the rate. It is on you to pay it. I have had to pay cash rent on ground that I never got planted to anything in the spring before. 1993 was terrible here for being wet until around the first of July.

Small squares good quality here at 10-15 each average 12

Cow or goat hay about 7

Construction grade/ landscapers bales about 5

Good straw starts at 12

Small round bales start at 50 each

Welcome to CT

Well like others said you agreed to the $100 rent so you should go with that regardless,things are different land wise everywhere I get several hundred acres of hay land to cut every year
for free just to cut it off for the owners and they get a huge tax break.After you planted just 2 1/2 acres of Soybeans what were you going to do with them? Can't imagine you could get them
custom harvested unless someone had a small pull type combine.

What kind of huge tax break could the landowner recieve by someone cutting hay off their ground for free, that makes no sense at all.

Joe

It is property tax. If farmed(just cut as hay) the tax rate is Ag which is just a small fraction of recreation or residential. In high value land areas the tax savings can be huge. Tom

On property tax you must have at least 10 acres or a few thousand dollar proved income from the ground to get the ag valuation. I have just at 12.5 acres with building spot and farm ground is about 10.5 acres so I can just make it to get the break. If I had 3/4 acre less I could not get it unless I could prove an income from it that would be greater than the $175 acre rent than I am getting, only produce can make up the cash income requirements and then you would need at least 5 acres in produce to make up the income requirements. Anybody that is getting ag use value on small parcles letting it be farmed for use is flirting with a court date and possibly jail time. You must have 10+ acres to get by without having the dollar income proven and 20 acres of harvested corn could not make the requiremernts. They may think they are getting it and are not. And poor hay if it is usuable at all bale and imideatly follow with the beans. No till would be best even tho I am not a fan of no till, then spray later. And I am not a fan of roundup either. Over the years there has been many a acre of hay ground for either corn or beans waited on getting one crop of hay off before putting the crop in. And it is time for getting that hay off right now if it is timothy or simular, alfalfa time was 2 weeks ago. May 15 and every 30 days after so here if you can follow the good schedual you should get possibly 6 cuttings a year and my state borders Canada.

But you still have to have enough acerage for to get it and the small parcales are not big enough for that.

In Kansas it depends on the zoning. A house takes 1/2 an acre (?) and the rest is ag - if its in an ag zone area. If its zoned commercial or residential it doesn't matter if its 10, 20 30 or 40 acres put up for hay or used for row crop zoning determines how its taxed.

In my county 5 acres or more can be put in agriculture use even if the land is not zoned basic agricultural.The catch is someone actually farming (files Farm income tax) must do the
harvesting or hay cutting.I fill out a paper on these properties every other year for the county even have to say what I do with what I harvest.Tax breaks usually means the ag tax is around
20% of full tax liability and here where land can be accessed up to $30,000 an acre that mounts up quick.

In CT the govonor has the farmers by the balls.

First you have to have 1 acre for your primary home site... In most towns that is assessed at 110k for the first acre.

Then to claim any farming exemption you have to have an additional 10 acres on top of your primary home site... So minimum 11 acres to be considers a farm.

Then the assessor comes out and evaluate the land quality.

Crop land is divided into three categories , tillable A, tillable B, and tillable C and are taxed at different rates according to the quality of the ground.

Then there is fenced pasture and un fenced pasture that are taxed at different rates.

Hay lots are taxed at another rate.

Then there is Forrest space at another rate

And lastly and the least tax brake is for open space, which can be anything including wetlands, but your not allowed to do anything with the land... Can't even cut firewood on it.

Thanks everyone for the responses the big reason for not getting it worked was I was busy helping work ground for the farm I work for but we're close to being done so I should have more time sound so like I'll just let it grow til I can bale it and try and get a decent second cutting