Like the title says, we have in our family a 210 acre farm, 80 open and the rest is wooded. The land is rented now for cash crops with typical rotation every year beans and corn. It has been in crop rotation for at least 40 years, renting the land pays the taxes and puts about 1,000 in the pocket a year. I have done hay before orchard grass along pure alfalfa so I kind of know the ends and outs of baling hay. My goal is to take this land out of crops and plant it all in orchard grass. I have two tractors already 80 hp and 40 hp with front end loaders in which I would add one more to the fleet for pulling the disc bine (14' ) as the 80 won't do it. The market is there as I have talked to a fellow that buys rounds and big squares are year round as he re bales them into small squares for his customers. He said as long as the hay is of good quality, then typically he pays fair market value for it which is around 55-60 bucks per 4x5 bale avg. around 800 to 850 pounds. Typically with the weather here in eastern Va. we can get 3 cuttings, but I have only gotten 2 before during a dry year. I will need to build a barn to store the hay as the barns now are just enough for the equipment. I square baled before on 3 acres just to get my feet wet in a smaller field 3 years ago and I got on avg. 60 to 65 bales to the acre which isn't the best but not the worst and it was the first year of a new stand. The fellow I talked to said that there is anywhere between 14 and 18 square bales per 4x5 round, so with that let's say I got the min. 14 bales out of each round, on 3 acres with a 180 small squares at 14 bales in each round that should be about 12 rounds. That's a 4 bale to the acre avg. if I did my math correct. So 4 bales an acre at 80 acres is 320, at the min. say 50 bucks a piece that's 16k per cut. Not breaking the bank kind of money but It would pay the expenses and the equipment payments. I do work a full time job as a hvac mechanic so this is not money I need to live on from day to day. This is all in my head kind of thinking but I like hay farming and I would be happy just to pay my equipment and expenses along pocketing a few extra bucks once the equipment is paid off. I have a 30' gooseneck already so hauling is not a problem. I am hoping to have no more than 60 to 70k invested in equipment. I know it can be done cheaper but I won't to get fairly decent equipment to limit the breakdowns. Also here in Va. there is a few grants for turning your crop fields into hay fields where they will pay for the seed and the fertilizer to get the crops established. Let me know what y'all think.
80 acres of hay, is it worth it?
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