Update on hay field

After all the discussion and advice on
here, I did a bit of ask around. Great
thing about a small town, someone will
have information. Last guy that tried to
hay the 40 acres said it was terrible.
10 acres on creek bottom never dried up.
10 acres had huge rocks sticking up out
of the ground. Ended up cutting less than
10 acres of poor hay. Never went back. Do
have another offer to cut 4 acres of
fertilized grass about 3 miles from home.
Guy is interested in paying me to cut and
bale. He has several horses and no one
wants to cut that small field.

I?ve gotten in on a few jobs that were so terrible I wish I had never seen them sounds like you found one to stay away from . I?d try the small field and see how it goes

I am glad that you did some more investigating. Since the owner is still looking you could make him an offer based on just shredding most of it for a worthwhile amount of money, and taking the hay only where it would be worth your while.

Asking around is always a good idea. That's a job to stay away from. The four acres sounds OK if the owner picking it up or loading/unloading the wagons.

I have a 1.5 acre lawn on clay soil. Only wish I could find someone close by the make grass hay for their horses.
George

Sounds like a better deal for sure on the 4 acres. I like to just use my tractors a little as I?m the one that?s got to fix them. We rented some farm land in 1987 that was 16 miles one way. My dad would drive over and mow I would run over in the afternoon and pick him up. No cell phones how did we survive? Made about 450 round bales and brought them back 5 at a time. Had an old 8 x 30 house trailer still had the wooden floor and no lights or brakes. He nailed a board on with an SMV sign. I was riding with him and a NYS trooper follows us I was ready to crawl under the seat . Never pulled us over I said to my dad he didn?t pull us over because he was going to get writers cramp in his hand! Lol

Good you found out about it.You could put an ad on CL for small fields for hay making,in my area there are plenty, I turn down small fields all the time since I have more than enough hay land already.

Did a field of wheat straw several years ago, guy couldn't find anyone else to do it.I never baled a rougher field in my entire farming career.He must had the field rigged left to right and up and down there wasn't a smooth spot in the field.

4 acres is a good starting point. It will allow you to get all your machinery in good operating condition and test the market to see if square bales is the way to go. I?d run from the 40 acres. Nothing worse than dealing with the hassle of bad field conditions. It just isn?t worth it!

Agreed

Been following this, smart move. Granted, starting small, testing the waters and putting that old equipment back to work like you mentioned, sensible way to feel your way through. I've got nice ground here for growing hay, but the odds are stacked in regards to pulling it off, no barns standing anymore, no hay equipment and I would have to start with new stands of hay grasses. What I do know is that orchard/timothy does very well here, there were so many great stands of hay around here at one time, I can't recall all of them. I'd do the same thing, start small, see who wants to buy, go from there. My goal would be to provide the best quality hay, and I'd probably take an early 1st cut, and subsequent cuts to cut down on volume for each being a 1 person operation. Those later 1st cuts can make some tonnage, gets stalky too though and even this small field by my house will produce 100 bales.

Some of my knowledge comes from putting up 3000-4000 bales way back when off this ground and another nice field a few miles away.
I have not actually baled anything myself since 2009, and that was with my good friend and farmers operation, nice stands too. I used the same baler you have, a NH 315. It was a well kept one too, I should have bought it when they sold his equipment, very fair price and it performed great every year. Only trouble was with certain sisal twine, found that out when baling oat straw, quality of that twine that year was poor, kept breaking bales when they landed in the wagon, it had a thrower. Changed twine, problem solved.

4 acres 3 miles from home is doable without too much regret. Small squares don't get handled just once, maybe 3 if not 4or5 times. 500 small squares turns into 1500 or more work wise quite easily. Good luck, the biggest issue is safety, be careful.

Hope you realize now most of us were not trying to dishearten but be realistic in our appraisal. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge in these forums. No matter your work ethic there is a point where it becomes a waste of resources, physical, economic, equipment, and mental.

Early spring would be a good time to get in the rocky field with a loader or backhoe, and take them out. Talk to the owner about that?

no, the NY State trooper was following you to keep you from causing mayhem on the highway. He knew the risks and was emphatic to folks who farm for a living. Perhaps he was some farmer's son/daughter. Why do I know this you ask??? It happened to me.. a friendly/empathic trooper could have given me a zillion tickets.. while I was drawing a load of bales on an obviously unsafe wagon. The Trooper followed me all the way home... and waved as I drove into the farm drive. I was 18 at the time ..sixty years ago and have never forgotten the experience.

Why waste time on that field that is 15 miles away.

(quoted from post at 13:34:16 03/15/20) no, the NY State trooper was following you to keep you from causing mayhem on the highway. He knew the risks and was emphatic to folks who farm for a living. Perhaps he was some farmer's son/daughter. Why do I know this you ask??? It happened to me.. a friendly/empathic trooper could have given me a zillion tickets.. while I was drawing a load of bales on an obviously unsafe wagon. The Trooper followed me all the way home... and waved as I drove into the farm drive. I was 18 at the time ..sixty years ago and have never forgotten the experience.

Click to expand...

Longmeadow farm, back then you would not have been breaking any laws. probably not today either, unless New York is inspecting farm wagons now.

Huskerlyn. All of it went into helping make the decision .... Thanks to all..

Getting paid to put up hay on 4 acres three miles from home sounds like a great way to get a little bit of payback from a tractor drive.

Smart to ask around. A lot of people jump right in, then wonder where things went wrong.

glad you found out why no one wanted to do that 40 acres. the 4 acre deal sounds like a lot better choice.

It?s 4 miles away