should you make or buy your hay? here's the math for small farms
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- čas přidán 20. 07. 2020
- For small farms, the decision whether to make hay or buy hay can be a difficult one. Making your own hay can involve significant investments in equipment. On the other hand, buying hay can cost thousands of dollars per year. Which is best for you? Join me as I review the costs of making vs. buying hay, using the costs of our farm's equipment as an example.
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“Pay in cash on the day they make hay”. That’ll keep you at the top of the list. Knowing you have money in your pocket on the way home it’s a motivator.
I absolutely love these types of videos when you break it down and show the costs and alternatives. Very helpful. Thank you .
The most important elements is his neighbors relationship it change a lot in this equation.
I'm a farmer, 175 acres, 60 cows, 140 ewes and I enjoy every minute of farming. If you enjoy what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.
Right on my guy
My dad had a farm and he raised cows too. One thing I know....there is ALWAYS work on the farm.
True that!!
Are all those yours right???
Words of wisdom to live by:"If you don't love it, it's just a job. If you love it, it's a life!"
Loving the farm life and living the farming life, I feel you will live better and longer
Grew up on a 105 acre farm in SE MO. We typically ran a 20 cow/calf pairing. We square baled approx 10-15 acres and reaped about 1,500 bales a year. We had a neighbor bail up round bails for us one year, but there is so much waste in a big bale in my opinion. Using the square bales allows you to spread the hay in different parts of the fields for feeding, thus allowing what is not eating to better breakdown in the field. Big bales just kill the grass underneath in the spring.
It makes the cattle tamer when you walk among them spreading clips from square bales. Some cattle never see a person on foot. the see a tractor dump a bale and drive away. when the see a human on foot their tails go up over their backs and they head for the hiils!
I have never made hay, but at my last house I used to watch so enviously of the young bucks next door square baling the 6 acre field out front. Smelled like a perfume city folk can't even imagine.
Great video Pete, as usual.
Ahhh yes, baling hay.......or the picking it up, putting it on the trailer, stacking it on the trailer, hauling it to the barn, throwing it into the barn, and then stacking it in the barn.......all whilst it is 90-100 degrees out... for a whopping $.05 per bail back in the 80's. Work your butt off for 8-10 hours to make $30-40 dollars. HARDEST job EVER!!!!
@@akwolf1434 wait wut you got payed was with a friend to his grandparents as a kid 10-12ish years old got put to work pulling hay of the hayrack (hope the translation is correct or hay fence acording to google) wasent out for long tho onely 5-6hrs a bit over half the time pulling hay down and rest of the time feading it in to the baler and tossing bales from the machine to the trailer. i did get cookies and homemade lemonade tho so totaly worth it
Great video. I was a custom cutter for years and did about 3,000 acres a year. A lot of what you talked about also applied to me. The costs are of purchasing bakes and having it done are similar to your numbers as well. The problem with people like me is the bigger customers that laid a premium always got done first and then we worked our way down the list based off of geography and number of acres (we served 2 counties so we didn’t like moving around a lot for 10 and 15 acre patches). I loved making hay and find myself missing it every summer when I see guys out doing it.
Man, this channel is phenomenal! I love how you go through everything step by step; some channels skip things assuming the viewer knows what they're talking about. The knowledge that is given through this channel is just incredible. Years of learning for you and generations previous becomes way more accessible to me! I'm working as a farmhand right now in Alberta and this channel has helped me be a bit more knowledgeable when I'm helping out, which is awesome. Thank you.
A very thoughtful video that covers a topic I get dragged into a couple of times a year by newbies to farming. I don't have cattle, but have about 20 acres of fields. Traditionally I've done hay, but the last 5 years we've done winter wheat (because I had a specific buyer for organic wheat). Now that there are lots of farms jumping on the organic band wagon I'm switching back to hay, which is showing better price stability. Because of the ease of handling, round bales dominate local production, which means I'm going back to square bales which are hovering around $6.....at least as long as my 70 year old body will hold out. One thing worth noting for those that like shiny new equipment, is that it won't be shiny and new for long. By year 5 or so they'll be in the same (if not more complicated) maintenance cycles that they'd have with well used older equipment. If they aren't mechanically inclined they better be wealthy, because Ag shop time around here is similar in cost to owning a BMW out of warranty....and during prime season priority rightfully goes to the big guys that drop $50 K or more a year on parts and maintenance, not the small guy that spends as little as possible. The primary profit in smaller farms is the joy of farming. If you don't love farming, it is a hot dirty thankless job with little financial reward.
I love that--"primary profit is the joy of farming."
@@PhyllisStokes yes
Paying immediately is the best way to make u the number one customer! Makes more sense than people think
Hi Pete, I’m new to your channel.I really enjoy watching!
My Dad grew up in a farming community and I find I’m really enjoy watching you on your small farm. My Dad sold commodities most of his career.
In his retirement job he was the National Director of the National Hay Growers Association.
I used to listen to him talk all about Hay! He’s been gone a little over a year and watching your channel reminds me of him! I’ll keep watching!
Very well done. I started by hiring a 'custom baler' - went through two of them. The most frustrating part was seeing my field ready to cut and the guy telling me it might be 2 weeks before he could get to me ... or one just kept repeating "maybe in a couple of days" until it was raining. Then I bought used pieces, better than yours, and started doing my own. One idea you missed that might be important to someone. Once you have the equipment to do yours, provided you have the time and ambition, you can become that 'custom baler' for someone else, to help pay down your equipment costs.
There is a new meaning to me now about the phrase, "making hay while the sun shines".....
You are making hay for yourself with low cost factors, older equipment, and experiencing pleasure in the making of your hay. Knowing you aren't costing yourself a bunch of money, makes your life pleasurable.
Good economic information of your farm, presented in a easy to follow way. You are a good teacher! Thanks for spending the time to present this video.....
This should be mandatory content for every agriculture class.
l enjoy making our own hay , every step of it, especially seeing a full mow com end of year along with a full wood shed of firewood. 3rd generation here on this farm since 1908 l am and hope .
my children will keep it going! farmer john
You’re kicking butt!!! 100-200 new subscribers per day.
I tend to re-watch these videos and appreciate them each time. I don't think there are any other youtube videos I watch more than once. Great job on these!
Just found this channel it's now one of my favorites!
Pete, just discovered your videos and they help me make better decisions. We have 18 acres and 10 head of sheep that we harvest wool from. Trying to justify buying equipment would not have made sense to others I'm sure. We got tired of never knowing if our fields would be hayed and one dude told us he would not be harvesting but sadly told us in the spring. We invested in small mini round baler by yanmar, a 2 drum mower and a single wheel spreader, tedder, rake combination. Recently I picked up a 2 disk Sitrex tedder for $600. The bottom line is we may never make our money back in the short run, but I love being self sufficient and enjoying time learning how to hay. I have even picked up a neighbors field this year and actually able to sell. Thanks for your You Tube videos!!! George @ Double Q Farm Maine
You seem like such a wonderful person. Thank you for taking the time to share. It's clear that you love what you do!
Great video!!! 👍🏻
Another thing to remember certain hay cutters/mowers have difficulty cutting certain grasses.
Also we switched from a side rake to an eight wheel V-rake. Great decision for us. Went from raking hay for three hours down to forty-five minutes.
Also once your equipment is paid for. You can start working on an upgrade.
When you apply numbers to every aspect of farming, everything seems much clearer. Thank you, Pete.
What an interesting channel! I retired early and am working on a small solar powered aquaculture project but so far I am just feeding hawks and caterpillars. Thanks for the inspiration !
This video was my introduction to your channel. Amazing! I've been on a mission to find someone answer these types of questions for me. Just got into beef 4 years ago, but am still just a rookie with only 3 head. Moving to a larger working grass fed farm in a couple months, so we plan to expand everything. Thank you for doing this!
This is not about hay but what you said pay in cash, yesterday I had an outfit cut and trim some trees for me. When talking price I said I would pay in cash, he dropped the price $400 and even did a little more that I had originally asked. Like your videos very informative.
Love your stuff and this video in particular. Our first year I put up about 6 tons of loose hay for our dairy goats with a scythe. Total cost: $80. But the labor-oof! Taking a good hard look at putting our own small line together soon.
I love how you explain everything.
Great videos Pete, I really appreciate the time you take to share your experiences and advice
We bought a 30-acre farm a few years’ ago and we cannot find *anyone* to make our hay, for ANY fee. We finally found a neighbor willing to cut the fields in exchange for taking the hay, so we at least got the fields *cut*. Last year he left some of the cut hay for me and I raked and baled it *by hand* with a wood baling box. hardest working I’ve ever done.
Next week we are going to attempt our first haying… we have a new tractor, a used Tedder/rake, and a mini round-baler on the way. We’re going to try to do some of the acres ourself. But 🤷🏼♀️I’m sure we’ll still be buying hay as well, but maybe by *next* year we can actually enough of our field to NOT buy hay. Thank-you for these videos. I had no idea how hard this is, especially judging the weather, drying etc.
Although I will not be going into farming I really enjoy your videos. You are straightforward, honest, and well-spoken. I think you do an outstanding job of sharing your love for farming and of providing valuable information for your audience. Keep up the good work.
Perfectly perfect! You were able to help me wrap my head around a topic that is of great interest to me.
Hi All, I just wanted to answer a question many people have asked, so it doesn't get repeated over & over again. The question is, "why didn't you include the cost of land and fertilizer in the costs of making hay?" In this video, I went over my specific costs as an example, and I don't really have land or fertilizer costs. We own our land, and yes I have to pay taxes on it, but our land is multipurpose; the same fields get used for pasturing poultry and cattle as well as making hay. So it's tough to tease out land costs, and I tend to view them as one of our farm's "infrastructure costs" for doing business, as it's spread out among many farm enterprises. If you rent land or have a mortgage, then your situation would be different. Regarding fertilizer, I do not buy fertilizer for our fields. I've found that by pasturing our livestock correctly and composting their winter bedding packs and spreading them on our fields, our fields remain fertile and hay crops remain steady. I spend about 3 days per year composting & spreading manure and you can figure in the cost of this if you'd like, but I would be spreading that compost on our fields even if I didn't make hay. I do apply lime to adjust the PH every 5 years or so, at a cost of about $1,500, but this cost is spread out among all our farm enterprises, as the fields are multipurpose. Again, you should figure in fertilizer costs if your farm operates differently. I hope this helps clear up any confusion and thanks for watching! -Pete
You get free fertilizer called manure. Easily answered
@@K9BoardAndTrain Coming in tomorrow's video!!
Good video, as you say above, fixed costs will vary greatly from farm to farm so difficult to quantify in general terms.
I'd argue with your maths though; you said you had about $1300 of production costs (fuel, maintenance etc.) which you didn't include in your payback calculation.
It should be $21,000 / ($7000 - $1300) = 3.7 years.
Still not bad though :-)
But I suspect if you included those hidden fixed costs the number would be a bit different!
The tractor is also multi use equipment. Making hay is far from it's only use! I think the actual input cost should be far lower. But then again like you said how do you calculate all that out? Maybe hours put on the tractor each hay season? At any rate great video!
Pete, you are SO good at explaining all the intricacies of everything from the economics to the equipment operation. I really enjoyed watching your hay videos and look forward to the others! Thanks for sharing! PS: great camera work and editing!
Thank you Nancy!
Another great video! I'm exactly where you were 5 yrs ago. 15 head of cattle expecting it to be 20 next year. Been doing small sqaures and buying in the extra i need. Just got an 1976 international 674 and plan to move into round bales as I find old gear cheap that I can fix!
We still use the Equipment bought new by my Grandfather & Dad in the 50's for the Dairy farm. We don't Dairy any more but have switched to Beef, so all the equipment still has a place. Still use the #9 sickle bar mower to cut, with we just let the hay lay 1 or 2 more days depends on the weather! Never had a crimper, G-dad & Dad never did like them? As far as a tedder, I've watched my neighbor do his hay, haybine, then tedder sometimes as much as 2 times tedding? The New way to make hay, myself & sons helped him bale, the hay look like all the leaves were knocked off, (All) stems not much feed value to me! Well to each his own I guess! We make enough small square hay bales to feed the cattle & be able to sell some at the local Amish Auction in the Winter.
@Wayne M I guess it look's better to me?
Finally! Took me so long to find someone with this kinda smarts. Most of these homesteaders really are flying into it learning. Love to hear from the folks who know what's up from the get-go.
This was one of the first videos to pop up when I searched for hay making. Glad I found it. We presently live on one third of an acre in the suburbs but are saving up for our eventual move to the country where we hope to raise alpacas and goats. Thanks for being part of our educational journey.
Also- I like your “junk” equipment. Keep the old stuff going!
Great presentation! So precise with your information! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Pete. I’m just about to take early retirement. Looking at your video’s has inspired me to buy a small farm and make hay. Most people wouldn’t bother but I just want to have a lifestyle like yours. All my life I have lived in a concrete jungle, now I just want to get out onto the land. Thanks for your informative, honest views. Happy farming.....
Excellent Pete, thank you for such a good presentation, you know what you love , that's for sure :)
Love your content, that’s for all the information you share with us. Keep them coming!!!
Awesome video! No wasted time all info. Love the channel!!
Great stuff, really enjoy someone who takes time on the details. Helps me be more confident about my choices, thanks for sharing!!!!
These videos are so helpful. Keep up the great work!👍👍👍👍👍
Great video Pete. I too, love making hay. I couldn’t imagine buying my hay. There’s too many variables when you buy in all your hay. Makes me nervous just thinking about it! But I we only have 5 cows so I sell more than I keep, so that really helps in the equation for me.
your videos are great. My wife and I are starting a herd so your content has been very helpful. Thank you and keep up the good work
Vid was put together very nicely……
Covered all the bases.
And the IH EQUIPMENT stood out to me…!
Vintage tractors have been a hobby of mine for a while and while doing some research on what I want to restore next I found your video on the MD. After that I came here because I'm looking into doing hay and gotta say amazing job on the video. Can't wait to watch more of the backlog.
Wow, Awesome channel. Best videos I've seen yet on small farming. Thanks for making these videos and bringing us down to the farm.
Thank you so much for your video, having equipment such as a tractor on hand that’s paid off already is a huge advantage to considering doing your own hay! Well said
Very good advice on the topic of baling hay & equipment needed to do it. You're so right about the difference between it being something that you enjoy doing & just being a job. Stay safe.
Good points. We went to round bale and never looked back. Your equipment costs are hardly a fraction of what our costs are but if it works, that's what counts. Stay safe out there and keep enjoying working in the sunshine.
Thank you for the video, I look forward to your new ones, and above all...I really enjoy them! Take care!
GREAT video packed with useful wisdom! Also, the last 30 seconds is sheer truth. Thanks!
I swear, every video I am reminded why I love this channel. Pete's "energy" (for lack of a better term) is just warming and gracious. He's both knowledgeable *and* wise. Gotta love it, keep up the good work!
One thing that I think would be neat (though not necessary) is some drone shots of the landscape. Would be somewhat cliche, but adds just a small touch.
Looking forward to the next video, as usual!
Hi Nicholas, your comment made my day; thank you! I would love to get a drone but good ones are expensive and I always seem to have a better use for the money.
Just a minute in I was hooked...great, professional video
This was fantastic. Thanks Pete!
Another really GREAT video. love these types of videos.
this video was so informative I've subscribed - can't wait to binge watch your channel
Nice wrap up at the end!
I did love it and thank you very much!! You have such great videos that are helping our small farm get started... very informative. Alot of my subscribers are subscribed to you which is why I checked you out. I subscribed as well!!! They weren't lying this is a good channel! God bless!!!!
Your videos are fantastic! Very informative and well done.
You Rock Buddy!
I love your videos,Thank you!
Butch
Ashland Ohio
Knowing the quality of hay is my biggest reason for wanting to make my own. It's the same reason I do most of my own repairs and maintenance on my vehicles and house. But, I'm starting out small and will slowly try to transition to making my own. Thanks for the breakdown of the costs.
Thanks for the informations , and the lovely way you are telling us the info 🙏
Thanks again for the videos pete your are awesome farmer have a good night
Great video Pete, thank you!
Thanks for the tour.
Wow my lucky day. I found 2 videos that somehow I missed. Thanks for posting your passion.
I have a small herd now. But grew up put up square bales all summer for our farm. I like the mowing and baling hay, even do some custom baling. All my equipment is old stuff I've bought for cheap. Like your accesment of cost
I use a M farmall to bale cost me $375 twenty years ago. Pulling a New holland 273 square Bailer, cost $425 twenty years ago. A new Idea hay rake cost $120 ten years ago. I was using a international pull behind sycle bar mower behind the M. paid$110 for it. however Two years ago I bought a govt surplus 301A john Deere with a mid mount hyd scycle bar mower for $750. I buy at auctions. I really like the JD 301 A for mowing & raking. I can do all my own repairs and seldom have any breakdowns. Did not have a single breakdown last year. I get a few smaller irregular fields for hay just to keep them mowed. When its not fun anymore I will quit.
We have a small farm in Vermont and make our own hay for a small herd of cattle. It's the self sufficiency that makes it so satisfying as well as using the land in an efficient way. Thanks for a great video!
I agree Elizabeth!
Great content, very informative thanks!
Very informative and great filmmaking.
Wow thank you for all the info!!
If you're not mechanically inclined, you probably shouldn't be a farmer. :)
I've been watching a lot of farming videos recently, and all the guys are constantly fixing things.
thanks for straight to the point information. very good.
This video is so informative I had to subscribe 👌🏿!
Great advice! Thank you and best wishes.
More great information! Thanks
Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for! I have small acreage and have to buy water. That changes my equation. Thanks for the awesome info!
i love your channel and love the logical knowledge . awesome bud : )
I guess there is a fine line. I have an older line of equipment but not so old that it's a headache, at least on a regular basis. I grew up with John Deere. The great thing is if I am desperate, 90% of the time I can have parts in 24 hours. This is particularly important for both tractors and my baler. Old equipment is ok as long as you can get parts and it was one of those things you come across that was hardly used. The window for getting hay off is small. If you are still mowing first cutting now you might as well use a brush hog.
Great video. Watching your videos gives me something to look forward to. Your videos are one of the few things that make me happy. Thank you.
My pleasure Jacob.
Bang as usual, coming from a practical fellow,doing what you enjoy,is practical mental health,enough said!
Thank you for this video subject. I really needed to listen to the discussion.
I just got my first tractor! A 1989 John Deere 870 with only 88 hrs on it.
The thing was garage kept and still looks new aside from a few dings and scratches. All fluids look new. Even the battery and cables look new…. Even though the battery was installed in 2011.
I feel so lucky! It came with a brush hog and blade. Time to start getting some work done around the place… and maybe hay in a few years after the newly planted pastures take off.
What a terrific video! Thanks - much appreciated…
You just answered a lot of my questions. Thsnkd
You did a very good job making this video and explaining. Thanks
Thanks for the video!
Nice video Pete👍 thanks 😊
Great information....I have been watching many of your video's and hope to bring in Dexter cattle next year to our small farm.
I am trying to start doing mine own on 10 acres watched you video very helpful thanks
Way to go Pete keep up the good work
Great video, thanks for posting
Cool video, nice break down, thanks for sharing.
Fantastic articulation.
Nice video! I enjoyed this 😀
Small world
Thanks for the great info!
Another excellent vid. Thanks
Great video, we make are own hay using IH and New Holland equipment from 70's. We make small squares bales up to 5000 bales a year alot of work but we enjoy making Hay. We do sell some, the rest is for are Horses and Donkeys.
Take Care and be Safe Bud👍