What is a good crop to sell?

[Jason S.]

I should have added legal crops...lol. I've got 45 acres that I have been mowing and selling the hay off of but to be truthful it is getting to be more hassle than it is worth. I've thought about raising other crops on but I'm not with the times and do not know what sells good anymore and how to go about it. I had thought about corn but it costs so much to even plant it that I'd say the profit can't be that good. Somebody at work suggested soybeans. Does anybody else have any suggestions? Thanks for your help.
 

[Eric in IL]

Much would depend on if you are trying to raise crops near the equator or one of the polar regions.
 

[old]

Hay is most likely the easiest to do plus easy to sell. Most other crops take a lot more equipment to harvest plus the mark is very limited. Of course you could also do a truck garden but that is very labor intensive
 

[paul]

Your location, soil type, rainfall, and ground slope all make a difference, so no one can help you with what you've provided.

Hay is profitable, but more work.

Corn is generally most profitable these days.

Soybeans do ok. Less cost, less harvest hassle, but less income.

Wheat is good in dry areas.

--->Paul
 

[Jim SC]

We farm 50 acres part-time and rotate corn, beans and wheat. We made good money on all three this year but choosing to plant several crops provides one with some income even if one or two fail. We did hay for a number of years and found that some years there was so much hay made that we couldn't make a profit. Then other years, hay was poor but then, so was ours. Our opinion of raising hay is that it only makes sense if you feed your own cows.
(My 2 cents, may be wrong)
 

[GordoSD]

DAiry quality alfalfa rarely sell for less than 200/T. In a good year you should ger 4-5T per acre. No planting after first year. No spraying unlees you get some insecrs, just a little p and k each spring.
And if you choose you should sell 50 ssb for 4.00 all year long.
 

[bg/mo]

thats like asking for the winning lotto numbers.Its going to depend on where you are located, what the weather is for that particular year, and how much work you want to do. Just a question tho , If the hay is getting to be a hassle ,what about equipment to raise crops? do you already have it.For hay to be less of a hassle you mite need to get different customers , they will work on your nerves sometimes!
 

[Jason S.]

I"m in east Tennessee. The reason I was trying to get away from hay is because of the customers...the work doesn"t bother me at all. It"s just that I"m selling it cheap enough, $10.00 for a 5x5 bale, but then most of them want you to haul it to them on top of that. I had people wanting square bales so I agreed to square bale some. They never came and got it...I ended up burning it. So I"m thru with that. I"ve threatened to bush hog it all next year. But I enjoy being out there on the tractor. I grew up on a 300 acre farm not far from where I am now. So I know the work involved, I"m just not sure if I should grow something a little more in demand than hay, and if so what it should be. I have great soil and good climate and weather conditions.
 

[old]

East TN as in where??? I lived in Athens for a few years back in thew day. As for your problem well sorry but you need to learn to hold out and do it your way and be able to store it the right way as in in a barn. Hay will keep if you store it right and last years hay ya is not as good as this years but will keep a year or 2 if stored right. I only do hay and so far with feeding my own animals I can say what I sell pays for what I use plus the cost to bale most of the time and with doing round labor is no big deal since the machines do the work I just sit on them
 

[Jason S.]

I live in Greeneville about 3 miles from the North Carolina state line. Somebody had asked about equipment, about the only things I don"t have is a combine and a corn picker. Although I am fixin to buy a corn picker even if I don"t raise corn because I found a John Deere that mounts to my model A. But I"m willing to buy whatever equipment I need. From what I"ve read it seems like maybe I should split part of my land for corn and keep the rest for hay? When we picked corn when I was growing up my we used a snapper, my grandfather believed in leaving the husk on the ears. Is there any difference in the sell ability of corn as far as husk on, husk off, and shelled? Thanks for all your all"s help. I"m sorry I didn"t post where I was earlier. I wasn"t thinking on that one. I tend to do that sometimes.
 

[old]

I can not say much of any thing about growing corn since I have never done so but where I live that is almost NO crop land other then hay due to having lots of rock in the soil so plowing much of any of it is next to impossible. I can say this you have to have deep pockets just to buy seed corn these days since the last I heard a bag of seed corn cost well over $100
 

[Loosehandle]

Sm. Bales going for $5-$8 here.
You have to package for profit.
 

[rrlund]

Why not run a few cows and use the hay that you bale?
 

[bud soda]

I do about 25 or so acres of deer corn a year. I NC we can bait with corn. If I had more open land I could sell more corn. Pick with a NI 323 snapper. $10.00/bag. Usually sell out by Oct. This year planted March 5th, started picking July 20th. Going to try OP corn this year cause I am tired of RR. OHh its a lot of work for a 50 year old but I do everything by myself, even the bagging.
 

[Jason S.]

Truthfully...a lot of the fences around there are not in good shape anymore. I really don"t want to build new fence all the way around the 45 acres.