Anyone else expanding their hay ground????

[JD Seller]

We actually have two farms that we are going to seed down this year to hay. With grain prices falling and the hay market raising some of the marginal grain ground can actually make more clear profit in hay. These farms are cash rented but the landowners are retired farmers and they both like the idea of their land going back to hay. We have five year contracts on both of them too. So the cost of seeding them down can be recouped over time.

The long term plan is for these farms to be all hay until the stands start to diminish. Then we plan to put contour strips back in these fields. They were torn out by prior renters. Erosion is an issue on the steeper ground. We will put in 120 foot side strips. That works well for hay, soybeans and corn. Then we will do a three crop rotation.

If hay prices stay dissent and grain prices stay lower, we will do this to more land. We can lower the cost of production this way but we can not pay the crazy cash rents with hay in the mix. We have seen some reduction is rents on our ground. 3 farms actually went back to share agreements. It helps that a large percentage of the landlords we deal with are retired farmers. They usually understand things better than non farming landlords.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

We are not going to more hay but have been growing more rye every year that we combine and clean for cover crop and forage seed. It is not nice to combine as it gets tall and always goes down. We have a Clipper 47 cleaner and bought a used corn plot weigh cart with scales so we deliver right to the farmer and auger it on their wagons. This year we will have almost 50 acres to cut,clean and sell. After harvest we drill in 2 bu oats and a few pounds of tillage radishes. Sometimes we pasture them or even chop them for silage or just let them be to notill next years corn into. I have less corn this year than any year that I have been farming. Tom

 

[NY 986]

I would like to but the market area wide has not been very stable for the last couple of years. I can't afford to sit on hay or not get paid. Margins for me farm wide are too thin to gamble to any degree. From an agronomic standpoint a lot of the farm could stand to be rotated into hay but the bills have to get paid as well. In some ways I am between a rock and a hard place.

 

[Hotflashjr]

I buy my winter cover crop directly from a local guy doing just what you are Tom. I usually get a mix of hard red winter wheat and rye and then add in some crimson clover and hairy vetch. The farmer I work with says he makes a decent profit selling direct for cover crop and it is cheaper for me than anywhere else I can buy the seed still.

 

[paul]

'Hay' is a waste crop around here, comes from road ditches and wet ground. In a drought year or a long long long winter and spring like this one, prices spike up to $4-5 a bale.

Then everyone gets the itch to find or grow more hay, and the following winter hay sells for $.75 - $1.50 a bale.

You can't chase ordepend upon that market very easily.

Good alfalfa is worth something, but in volume you need to have some seriously priced hay equipment and storage space and some dependable buyers to make that game work out. It is a very inelastic market as there are fewer and fewer but bigger dairy conglomerate farms.

Hay is a fun hobby, but a tough nut around here to do dependably.

Paul

 

[4520BW]

I need too, selling my grass hay for $4 a bale and sell it as fast as I can bale it.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

My price for cleaned rye has been $10 per bu for the last couple of years. Most coop's and seed dealers are getting $14-18 here. Tom

 

[JD Seller]

What kind of yield are you getting on your rye??? I have tried growing it several times but it gets too all and falls over. Even windrowing it to dry it is tough to harvest. I am thinking I would need to try growing it on some of my poorer ground so it does not get so tall. Even tried not using much nitrogen and it still got 4 foot tall and blew over.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

The lowest yield We have gotten is 50 bu per acre. The top is 75-80 but most years about 55-60. I have tried both with and without fertilizer and have saw little yeild difference. My ground is almost to good as well from manure and crop rotation. I plant at 2 1/2 bu per acre early and will bump up to 3 late. It always goes down and I prefer it all down to only half down because while on one side of the platform you are raking the stuff off the ground the standing stuff will be wrapping around the reel. I did try to windrow it one year but my Deere 800 is not wide enough between the canvases for it to flow thru. It just made piles so we quit after one round.We also sell our small squares of straw for $3 each. For us it is great income but it is work. Seems like it is always ready to cut the hottest most humid week of summer. Tom

 

[Dave H (MI)]

Yes, like I told you recently. Taking ground out of grain and planting hay. Price goes up and down but, unlike grain, it does go up.

 

[moresmoke]

I don't grow anything myself, but I do travel around and interact with farmers. I am seeing more alfalfa in this area of ND. This is all for sale out of the area, cows around here wouldn't know what to do with it.

 

[flying belgian]

Did I just dream this or did I hear they are coming out with a dwarf rye?

 

[farmerwithmutt]

I think dyersville still has there weekly hay auction in sw Wisconsin theres one in cobb. There is a lot of small farmers that have only cows and no crops there looking for hay

 

[Bruce from Can.]

I quit growing grain corn several years ago, don?t like working for nothing. And nothing is really all I had after seed, fert. Spray, combine fees and trucking, just not much for me in it, but everyone else did good, lol. I grow some oats/barley, and can combine it myself, and store on the farm. Good local market at the feed mill for dairy Goat and horse rations with oat/barley base. I want the straw. I have been moving slowly towards organic farming, and my give up on corn silage completely. Theee is no problem for me to grow enough hay, and if I did transition to organic dairy, there is a good premium. And there is also a premium paid to dairy farmers that go grass fed. Not sure I will do either, but growing hay for me is my best bet. Right now local market for hay is soft , but in 2016 I sold horse hay to one guy for $70.00 a bale, and he flipped it for $100.00 . 2017 lucky to get 35 bucks.

 

[Northvale PA]

Just curious, how many acres, what type of hay, how many cuts there? Do you already bale hay or intend to acquire that line of equipment?

 

[K Effective]

We have a field I rent from neighbors that I wanted to cycle into corn/beans rotation from grass hay just to get a chance to kill off some of the weeds and smooth it out. That's the field I got stuck in mowing first cutting this year. The other neighbor dug a new ditch on the property line cutting off my access with the larger planting and harvesting equipment, so until I get a tube installed in the new ditch, I guess hay it is!

I did also lose a couple of acres to the crazy lady next door whose pure-lazy husband bought a whole line of hay equipment. Better him than me...

 

[NEKS]

I know of two pieces of grass land that sold last year. Big operators bought them and this spring burned them down and no tilled beans in them. We are way short on rain fall this year. Hay is real short. Everybody is looking for hay so wonder what them beans will do in sod.

 

[JD Seller]

Northvale PA we already own a full line of hay equipment. I would say our current hay acres is around 300 acres and the two farms will put us up to around 600. It is hard to tell on the current acres as the majority of it is field boarders, water ways, filter strips, and contour strips. We usually need all the hay we have most years but there are three hay auctions within easy hauling distance for us. We already own the step deck trailers to haul hay with.

 

[NY 986]

It has been said the bloom is off the organic wholesale price at least where I live. Next time I am at the store I will check the organic milk price as it is on the shelf and make my best guess until I talk to someone engaged in the business. Maybe the Canadian market is stronger. I know the store has shrunk the area devoted to organic meat and vegetables. Not a rich area where I live so if gas or utilities (heat and AC) goes up it probably comes out of the food budget so organic is probably the first to take a hit.

 

[Northvale PA]

Thanks. Good luck. Tell us how things go.