hay baling question

[joe201]

How much is the going rate for hay baling per bale? I guy down the road from me wants me to bale about 8 acres and says
the going rate is $18 per acre mowing and raking and .70 a bale for baling. I think thats a little cheap.I'm thinking more on $ 1.50 bale. What do you guys think ?

 

[old]

The way I have always did it was this. I got 2/3 of the bales and the land owner get 1/3 or the land owner can buy the 2/3 at the going rate for hay per bale. Have baled hay that way since the early 80s

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

The guy who custom baled for me this year got 50/50 split or $2 a bale.

 

[C.Amick]

Not too many farmers willing to do 50/50 anymore. The guy that bales our hay gets 2/3 of the hay. He then buys the 1/3 from us at $25/round bale..

 

[old]

With gas and oil prices and the cost of twine etc. no way I would do a 50/50 and it has been that way here in MO since the early 80s

 

[flying belgian]

To many variables to charge buy the bale. Is it one square 8 acre field? Or is it divided into 4 different fields. Is it alfalfa or wire grass? Is it going to have to be raked twice then rained on and need raking 2 more times? Are you going to end up baling 400 bales or 85 bales. I just charge them $65/hour from the time I leave my yard until the time I return. That's $65/hour for mowing, 65 for raking, 65 for baling and 65 for just walking across the field. You want me to put it in your barn? $65/hour. I've been doing it by the hour for years and years. No complaints and they keep calling me back. Everybody seams satisfied.

 

[Case Nutty 1660]

small squares I charge 2.00 a bale unless I do a lot of them (500 or more) then I can go to 1.50,, that is just baling and I want a good windrow to bale,, so anything less than a 14' windrow of hay needs two thrown together in 1/2 to 1 ton per acre hay,, no way will I put up hay at 50/50 any more quit that in the 90's and even then it had to be making 1 1/2 ton per acre or more to get that, here no one does haying for less than 70/30 any more, anyone who wants it done for 50/50 I tell to guy buy their own equipment and see what it costs,, I do 250- 500 ton a year these days,, used to do more than twice that number, I figure on round bales I have 40-45 a acre in just cost putting it up but then I do not do it for a hobby or just something to do like some guys around here do on their vacation to relax

 

[Tx Jim]

I charge $2.50 for small sq bales weighing 50-60# bales to cut/rake & bale with bales falling on the ground for hay owner to haul.

 

[showcrop]

$75.00 hour. I paid $95.00/hour for mowing last spring when my mower was down.

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

I was surprised when he quoted that, too. Usually 1/3, 2/3 around here as well. With hay at $6 this year I was happy with the $2 cut, raked and baled on the wagon.

 

[ztrmowers]

used to do a lot of that, for that patch nowdays I would not touch it, espesillay if you never been in the field before, those ifavors can turn in to expensive nightmares

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

Cut, raked, and baled in your field, and on the ground $2.00/bale. Baled from my own field and hauled to my barn, I got $3.00/bale for first cut earlier this summer. Just put the 24T back in the barn after a 327 bale run where the field owner wanted the field baled, but didn't want the hay. I sold the bales on the ground for $3.50/bale and paid the field owner's share @ .50/bale. Delivered 70 of those for $4.00/bale and helped unload into an empty pole barn on pallets.

 

[Gary(VA)]

$2.00 a bale first cut. $2.50 a bale second/third cut since you're working the same acres for less Bales.

 

[lastcowboy32]

(quoted from post at 15:47:13 10/02/19) How much is the going rate for hay baling per bale? I guy down the road from me wants me to bale about 8 acres and says
the going rate is $18 per acre mowing and raking and .70 a bale for baling. I think thats a little cheap.I'm thinking more on $ 1.50 bale. What do you guys think ?

It's funny, but some of the answers here actually point out why my wife and I made the plunge to get our own equipment and bale our own.

But...now that we are on the other side of the coin...

I've done it for a dollar a bale in heavy, weedy late cut hay where the person was a neighbor and just wanted the fields cleaned up and used the hay for mulch. He also scouted the fields for me and told me where it was safe and not safe to cut; so he minimized the risk of equipment damage. He also picked up the hay, I left them on the ground.

We've done a 40/60 split with a neighbor that has horses (he took 60%)... but he also let me borrow a tractor and seven foot tiller for eight or ten hours in the spring.

I would definitely charge more if the hay was very high quality and/or thin, or if the fields were risky, or if I had to travel with the equipment.

$1.50 per bale would be a good price to quote to your "guy down the road" He shouldn't really balk at it.

You could ask for more, and I see that many people are charging more, but there are so many variables regarding the quality of the hay and the ease of baling the fields... so much that I don't know about your situation.

 

[lastcowboy32]

And I should clarify, it wasn't necessarily the price of custom baling that led my wife and I to start doing it ourselves, it was the variability.

If we had the hay done on shares, the person doing the baling would bale their hay to sell in prime season and then get to ours after that; so we got our full share of hay, but it was cut maybe a month after peak quality.

When we purchased hay outright, we also tended to get hay baled after peak quality at peak quality prices.

We just weren't good customers, because I like GOOD hay. I care more about the quality of it than the price, and about the only way to guarantee that is to do it yourself.

I only clarify some of this, because there are so many variables.

When I was a hay customer, if someone told me that they would bale my prime grass/clover first cut for $2.50 a bale, and they would do it on time? I would be writing the check today.

If they went off and baled a bunch of other fields and got to me at the end of July, there's no way I'm paying $2.50 a bale. That hay is worth a lot less to me.

 

[lastcowboy32]

Funny story about my father-in-law.

Back in the late 80's, farms were going out of business a lot here in Central NY.

There were also people coming up from "the city", be it NYC or New Jersey, to buy farms at auction an then develop it.

This happened to a large field near my father-in-law's place. The new owner came to my father-in-law, he's thinking that the meadow is like a lawn to be mowed.

He asks my father-in-law for a price to mow it... My father-in-law gave him a price that equated to about 100 dollars an hour. (mind you...this is late 1980's)

The owner agreed.

Then the owner says that all of the clippings are going to be messy. Would there be a way to clean them up.

My father-in-law then quoted him a new price to clean up and "remove" the hay for him.

Got paid...kept the hay...not a bad deal.

 

[Jim Phelps]

We used to get .60 back in the 70's for square baling. That was raking and baling but you cut it.

 

[VicS]

We cut rake and bale for 75 percent. Also will put your bales up. And pay you when we sell it for whatever. If you want it all you can buy our part for going price. Also then you decide when to mow! Also we wire bale. Do the same for round bales.