The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: MarvinH on June 24, 2012, 07:02:06 pm
-
As a rough guide what should I expect to pay per acre (1 1/2) in total for my field to be cut/turned/baled etc for hay? either per acre or per bale ?Location west midlands. Though if no replies for west midlands what is the cost further afied?
thanks
-
Hi
Last year we paid about £6.68 per bale for a neighbour to make large round bales. We had about 25 acres of hay mown, turned 3 times and then baled.
The breakdown shows mowing as £12/acre, raking was £5.75/acre and baling was £2.05/bale.
Price for Moray, North East Scotland.
Sue
-
I have heard said that for small bales the bare cost in terms of string, fuel etc is about £1.50, then you can add travel to and fro, profit margin, etc.
So I would say anything lower than £2 a small bale being charged to make it and stack it, bite their hand off. We make our own and I would never sell it off the field for less than £3 a bale simply cos of the work involved in small bales.
-
We made enquiries for our 2 acres to be cut for small bale hay last year - price on initial talks was £2 a bale BUT when he found out it was only 2 acres he said it really wasn't worth his while and there were other people needing his services with bigger acreages - and with hay cutting everybody needs it done at the same time!
We had to leave it and just top the field. This year we are attempting it ourselves having invested in a finger cutter, haybob and small bale baler (£1000 in total)
BTW we are in West Cornwall
-
Sudanpan,
Our land is about the same size. I would be interested to know how may small bales you get when the time comes.
Sally
-
as another comparison to Sudanpan's, we are in NE Scot and we get roughly 100-150 small bales an acre, depending on when it is cut and the weather etc. eg last year we only cut in August as that was when OH was around enough and so it was more like 100). Im sure it could be more down south tho.
-
We made enquiries for our 2 acres to be cut for small bale hay last year - price on initial talks was £2 a bale BUT when he found out it was only 2 acres he said it really wasn't worth his while and there were other people needing his services with bigger acreages - and with hay cutting everybody needs it done at the same time!
We had to leave it and just top the field. This year we are attempting it ourselves having invested in a finger cutter, haybob and small bale baler (£1000 in total)
BTW we are in West Cornwall
I think you may find you struggle with the finger mower especially if the grass is lush. Keep your eyes open for a second hand 2 drum mower, much faster and it also lays the cut grass in nice swathes.
Just my suggestion.
-
depends on what make it is and how old :farmer:
-
£10/acre to cut, £5/acre to turn it (3 times), £3/acre to row it up, £0.36/bale to bale it. We took 570 bales of 5 acres (ish) last summer.
North dorset
-
Before you purchase an hay baler, find a man that can fix them first, see what he recommends. I picked up an International B440T, swapped it for an old Land Rover engine. I have just managed to get the baler working and tying knots,. but it is still not quite right. Some of the parts are very expensive.
When this rain stops I am right looking forward to using it. :fc:
-
We are using a restored 1958 Massey Ferguson baler. Slow but fairly sure! We cut early so do not get as much hay as a later cut, and average about 150 small (and light - for me) bales from 2 acres.
-
We make haylage as we have no where to store hay. Our costs (Devon, 15 acres cut) were:
Grass costs:
£10/acre cutting grass/conditioner
£5/acre turning/tedder (3x !)
£5/acre raking grass
Total c £500
Baling costs:
large square bales £2 each
Wrapping £5 each
Total £1350
Spiking and stacking £150
(all plus VAT of course)
We made 190 bales (4x4x5l)
Our biggest cost is the wrap, but even with that not sure its worth building a hay barn for the quantities we produced (although will be less as we are only cutting about 10 acres this year, now we have livestock :thumbsup: [size=78%]).[/size]
-
the baling is very cheap compared to what it was in 1985 with a round baler £11.50 a bale what price does that bale sell for or you would have to pay for the equivalent :farmer:
-
I'm not sure what people are paying, certainly good quaility (horse) square bale haylage (larger than mine) delivered was quoted about £45/bale. I heard people say £25 for a round bale (presume hay or silage). I worked it out as £15/ bale cost to me (excluding land of course...) and I sold to contractor for £30, so it covered my costs. It could have been cheaper I suppose if I had stick with 6' long bale but wanted smaller so could use it up within 3-4 days.
-
We got the finger cutter (it is a Bugler make and looks pretty ancient!) as it was recommended to us over the drum mower by 3 separate people.
The baler is a Banford (?) 58 - our farmer neighbour used to have one many moons ago and is up for helping us out if needs be - OH is very handy at getting machines etc going and the farmer had a look over it before we parted with any cash and he was happy with its condition.
The hayzip we got for £50 in ridiculously crap condition (piccies are elsewhere on the forum) but OH has done a brill job in stripping it down and getting it going :D
When we finally get round to cutting (if ever with this sodding weather) I will certainly post our results ;D
:fc: :fc:
-
sudanpan is it not a busatis if it is it has two reciprocating knifes
bamford bl 58
is that the hayzip back to working order could you still get parts for it :farmer:
-
Hi Robert
The finger cutter - I'll take a piccie of it when I next get an opportunity - I 'think' it has one blade that moves against a static edge - it has really nasty looking points pointing forward and when it is up in the storage position I keep imagining that I'm going to impale myself on it!
Re the hayzip - yes we managed to strip it down completely and sort out extra tines which were easy to get. Jim (OH) thinks everything else is pretty much in ok order - one of the gear heads was a bit oily but we'll keep an eye on it and as we only have a couple of acres it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
:wave:
-
I seem to have done rather well, being quoted in East Sussex £1.30 per bale for small bale hay.
My problem is when to cut it.
Does anyone in the south east see a window for cutting any time soon? I have scoured the weather forecasts and see sunshine in my area Sunday 15th July, Monday Tuesday, although there is still 10-30% chance of rain according to the BBC.
Wet forecast looks set to stay until August.
What is everyone else doing? This is my first attempt at hay and I want to get it right.
-
Praying for 10 days of dry weather because it's too wet to get any machinary on. This weather is balls!
-
Praying for 10 days of dry weather because it's too wet to get any machinary on. This weather is balls!
ditto :fc:
Found our costs from last year from a co-operative we are part of. 8 refers to 8 acres. and it is in Chepstow south wales.
We paid
Mow £10.5/ acre x 8 = 84
Turn £6/acre x 8 x 3turns = 144
Row £6/acre x 8 = 48
Bail £0.32/bale x 550bales = 176
Roundbales (not sure how many)= 20
Total Costs - Paul 472
Help - Tim & Ali 100
Help - Phil 50
Total Costs 622
Sales
Square bales £2.5 ex field x 550 = 1375
Roundbales
Total Profit 753
We've had to do more this year (harrow, fertilise, hand weed) so if we get a crop off this year I think the price will be higher, even ex field. Up here in north wales, bales were going ex field £3.5-£3.75.
-
They are £2.50 down here.
Thats the problem with the forage market - a good year and its easy for the price per bale to fall below your cost of production.
I was going to have a 5 ac paddock mown, glad I didnt now, be making nought on each bale.
-
i charge £100 all in 3 6 to 8 acres field iff you do it right you can cut twice big bales then cut and make small .we rent a croft so lots off small fields in the area .last week i cut a field and next door es ha dent been done so i cut the field terned it Friday and bailed phoned naboure to pic up .£125 and a bottle wine on Monday .I think £2.50 a bale is about right .