The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: arobwk on April 24, 2020, 06:01:41 pm
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I agreed my neighbour could cut and bale 2.5 ac Field 2 last year with a few bits of Field 1 also. I reckoned it was going to be pretty thin, but he actually got 16 firm round haylage bales out of it. I didn't seek remuneration of any kind preferring to notch up a small favour as neighbour is a really nice guy, but also knows everyone and also owns a whole range of agri/earth moving equipment.
I've agreed neighbour can take F2 growth again this year (as F1 will be keeping me busy through the summer), but asked for a favour this time - removal of a huge granite slab discovered in F1 which my small tractor has not managed to break out of the soil. "No problem!" said neighbour.
After granite slab removed, neighbour rang to ask whether I would also like hole punched in dry-stone wall between Field 3 and F1 to make transfer between stores site and F1 much easier. "Oh, YES PLEASE if you happy to do that - I've been meaning to do that manually for ages."
The point is: I broached matter of actual favour-value versus value of 2 yrs of grass harvested and neighbour considered this extra work did not require any financial consideration at all. I sort of think it might be about equal, but could someone tell me please what a haylage round bale is worth right now so that I can do a rough calc' to see whether neighbour and I are, indeed, about even with favours so far.
I'm feeling so grateful for the hole in the wall that I would prefer to make a thank you offering (in kind - not money), but I don't want to embarrass neighbour who did seem very content.
This quid pro quo stuff is not easy!
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Just call it quits... you’ve helped him with a few bales (though he’s still had to make them mind, so not without expense to him, it costs us about £5.50 to bale and wrap a bale not including the time to cut, turn and row up), he’s helped you with a few jobs you couldn’t do otherwise. I suspect if you started to charge him for the grass he wouldn’t bother as 16 bales isn't worth bothering with if you have to pay for the grass as well as make the haylage.
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I'd say even too, he wouldn't of offered if he was looking for payment. Don't keep 'tabs' on who is doing who a favor either, we have out farming neighbours for several years and some years you need more favours than you give out and vice versa!
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I'd say even too, he wouldn't of offered if he was looking for payment. Don't keep 'tabs' on who is doing who a favor either, we have out farming neighbours for several years and some years you need more favours than you give out and vice versa!
this ^
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For your interest, however, I did the costings for ex-BH when I was up north. At that time (2015/6) it cost a little less than £13 per bale to make haylage, with contractors doing all the work and including approx £3.55 per bale for the silage wrap (which I expect has gone up enormously since then.) Some years you could sell surplus for £25-£30 per bale and some years you'd struggle to break even. (All figures excluding VAT as we used to get that back.)
Disposing of haylage you didn't use can be quite a problem, and it costs money to get rid of the used wrap too.
Ex-BH used to work on one bale per 15 cows per 24 hours, so 16 bales would give approx 240 cattle-days fodder for housed suckler cows - so would feed 12 cows for 20 days, or 8 cows for a month.
If any of that's any help! :)
In terms of the quid quo pro between you and your neighbour - having a farmer neighbour who will do jobs like that for you is priceless. Just the fact that you've checked with him that you aren't abusing the relationship is probably all you needed to do.
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Thank you to you all - I'm feeling much more relaxed about the deal and I reckon I shall leave as is.
Neighbour also has permission to take rabbits from my fields, which I know he does when the mood takes him.