(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

Is hay a good business to be in?

H

Hayman89

New User
I am considering a purchase of 20-25 or so acres here in Texas to hopefully someday build a house on (live in town now with my tractors and toys but things are too crowded, plus i want this land as an investment)

My question is Ive done a lot of things before but never have run a hay operation. I have a ~40 hp tractor and a 30 hp tractor and a flexible working schedule with my day job.

How practical would it be to raise hay on this. How many cuttings could I expect in north/east Texas in a normal year? How hard is it to sell your hay? Should I consider making round bales or squares?

Do i have a chance of actually making money on this? Not looking to get rich, only to cover the cost of equipment, property maintenance/taxes, and a little something for my time. Thanks.
 
As someone who has baled hay for 25+ years, on that size place, my opinion is you'll be doing something that you want to do. If you get good at at it you may pay your expenses with the wizened use of resources and right equipment. If not, you'll be doing something that you want to do... but hey this isn't dressed rehearsal. Some people chase balls for enjoyment. Square make more money, but more labor. Three cuttings.
 
Assuming a good to better crop, and either a small square baler, or having it custom baled, you will make expenses when the market is in the seller's favor, and close, or as noted, a thing to do if the price is not there. Jim
 
I had a farmer tell me one time that the fastest way to go broke is to try to make a living selling hay and or not to put up any hay and have to buy it all. You are on a small scale with 20 acres so go for it. It will be a stress reliever from your day job and it will be a lot of fun.
 
(quoted from post at 01:02:15 01/31/17) I had a farmer tell me one time that the fastest way to go broke is to try to make a living selling hay and or not to put up any hay and have to buy it all. You are on a small scale with 20 acres so go for it. It will be a stress reliever from your day job and it will be a lot of fun.
Click to expand...
nd on only 20 acres, definitely go squares of good quality, because horse people are picky & pay more.
 
I got into cattle because of baling hay. I was custom baling any small patches I could find. Any with too many weeds or that got wet I would put in my barn. So I would wind up with a barn full of poor hay. I started marketing that through cattle.

As others have said you can pay your expenses. You also can get a good Section 179 deduction against your earned income from your job. Talk to your tax guy.

20 acres is not enough to keep your equipment running well. But once you've got everything you need you can custom bale for others either on shares or for cash.

Handling small square bales is becoming very difficult as you can't hire help anymore most places. I have a NH bale wagon which picks them up and stacks them in the barn so I can still do square bales. Roeder Implements in Seneca KS (on Nebraska line) sell refurbished and used bale wagons at attractive prices.

You didn't say where in Texas. There's a lot of different climates. Assuming you're not irrigating and in a dry area raising prairie grass you cut one time per year and may get one ton per acre. At 30 small square bales per ton and 20 acres you're looking at 600 bales which may sell for $3,000 gross income. If you are real efficient you might put $2,400 in you pocket. $200/month does not pay a big of equipment loan. If you can find nine neighbors with 20 acres each you're looking at $30,000. And you can meet your wife again come fall.

Round bales are easier but you make less money and are competing against more people.

Doing small square bales in fields from 3a to 10 ac I would average 700 bales per week working alone after downtime and weather had their impact.

There is some money to be made but you have to line up work, outsmart the weather, make your own repairs, market your hay, placate irate owners and customers, and keep your records carefully for taxes.

I love it.
 
I don't do hay but know several people who either barely break even or lose year after year, even when the land is free and equipment is already owned. Keep in mind you are probably still paying for the land and have not bought hay equipment yet. Another thing is the first couple years are going to be bad before you get good hay unless the acreage is already a maintained hay field.

Maybe consider leasing out, could make a few bucks on the hay and keep things kept up, that is if its just going to sit there. Obviously some people make money doing this, just don't believe it would be cost effective on a small acreage like that.
 
I made hay and worked a job for years and its anything but a stress remover when I was trying to juggle the two.Having the perfect hay afternoon pass while at work and then have a thunderstorm come up as soon as I got home,nope didn't do much to relive stress.
 
First thing is have soil tests then go from there to your seed dealer then you can decide. There is reat money in hay but following the book is the secret good hay always sells if you are in a market place for hay. Your seed dealer can answer all the good questions. Does anyone else raises hay you do need a market. My Bro got into the hay business 6-8 ton per A @150 a ton adds up but he did it by the book and had inside storage
 
I work full time , sell about 3000 small squares a year . Just got back into it 4 years ago or so . I pretty much pay my taxes with the income . In New York state that's saying something . However I don't count my labor so if u gotta hire help for an operation that size forget it . Took about 5 years or so to buy equipment that was reasonable . Land was owned so no mortgage. I run a bale wagon and have a huge mow with elevators so I don't stack much . Usually sell pickup loads at a time cash only . I do enjoy it , but if I thought I was losing I'd get out.
 

I've been in the custom hay baling & raising hay in N Central TX since '87. During the yrs of adequate rainfall such as 2016 production was very good which affects price which is lower. Some yrs hay can be purchased cheaper than the cost of baling,fertilizer & herbicides. During drought yrs low production will barely cover cost of inputs.

I agree that profit from haying on 20 acres won't make very large payments on hay equipment
 
All I can add is know the market into which you intend to sell the hay. If you want to sell to Dairy farmers , you need to plant and grow good Alfalfa hay, and in some areas it can be hard to dry down . So wet wrapping big round or big square bales is the answer, and gives you more flexibility as to when you can cut and bale. If you are selling to the Horse market , small squares of grass hay would be best , but unless you can sell from the field , inside storage is a must . And selling to the Horse crowd , you may have to deal with several buyers and time wasters , and some will try to cheat you. Big round bales of Alfalfa/grass mix works good for Beef farmers , won't bring the top price ,but easier folks to deal with. When you have a good crop , everyone will have a good crop , and the price will drop. If your crop is poor , everyone around you will also have a poor crop, and the price will go up. Try to get regular customers, and sell ata fair price.
 

I found it to be a way of making some good money. I started out very small with a partner, when he got out, my kids were big enough to help pick-up, put in barn, deliver etc. I was working nearly 100 acres for a few years, after upgrading to bigger tractor, baler with thrower. etc. I sold to horse people which takes some experience and dedication to make good enough hay. A key is flexibility in your daytime work. Having my own business allowed me to work around the hay when weather was good, which is essential if you are going to pound out and deliver 750 bales by yourself in a four day stretch. Another key is having a well-heeled clientele in the area in order to get a good price. Another key is a mix of delivery and pick-up customers. My best customer has been coming and picking up in the field for nearly thirty years. When I was still delivering I had a number of twenty year customers. A major downside is that weather seems to be not what it used to be. Contrary to what your customers may think you don't need good weather to make hay. You need a good forecast! Once you get behind, your landowners and customers will be calling asking when are you going to cut or where is my hay, and hay runs your life. Another key is to not pay too much for your ground. I pay nothing for most of mine.
 
I raise hay in Grimes County, goal is to keep the ag exemption and sell enough to cover the costs of the guy who cuts and round bales for me. when you're having a good hay year, everyone around you is too.
 
If by "a good business" you mean steady, reliable income, no.

It's definitely not something to get into if you're easily insulted. Customers will constantly be picking at the quality of your hay and trying to lowball you on the price. Then if you do find someone to willingly pay top dollar for your quality hay, the rest of the farming community labels you as a greedy money grubbing good for nothing.
 
You need:

Flex able time to make good hay. Quality product.

People skills. You need to be a salesman, work with a wide variety of people, find customers and deal with fussy people. You know - "horse people." Shutter.........

Have storage space to keep good hay in when you can bale it, and store it in excellent shape until the market price is up.

Be able to weather the ups and downs of the business. Some years you make a lot of hay; some years you make a lot per bale. Some years the market is flooded with crop and worthless. Some years the crop is flooded by rain and worthless quality. Over a 10 year period you hit some highs and lows, if you are around the full 10 years...... It probably averages out in your favor.


Check out your market, who is buying in your area, what do they want? Generally small square bales sell for a lot more than rounds, but you end up dealing with picky, fussy, 10-bale at a time buyers. That doesn't work well if you aren't living by your hay barn. Often a round baler you can go bale for others, and help pay it off that way.

Depends who is around you.

Paul
 

Large squares are in highest demand here. More tons per truck load and stack more securly. Easier to pull off a single slice of hay instead of unwinding a round . Unfortunately a large square baler is several times more expensive than a decent used round baler.
 
You may not get much return for your labor and management time. If you have an off-farm job you may need to burn a sizable amount of high value vacation and sick time to put up hay when the weather is good. Do your homework. Pencil out if you would be ahead to pasture some stock cows or feeder calves on the ground and buy your winter feed during the growing season. Also pencil your return from renting out the ground and use that as a baseline income when comparing your other alternatives.
 
What nobody is mentioning is your tractors. You have plenty for small squares but would need larger tractors for either large squares or rounds. Then while your tractors will work good with a conventional mower-conditioner they are too small for a disk-drum mower. Just match the machinery to the tractors you have and don't get fooled into buying larger tractors to handle the big bales or the disk-drum mowers. You might make just a bit less with the small squares than the others but you will not be making any more tractor payments either. I am from Ohio so things are a lot different. I would never drop on ground, would want a kicker (have been overcome by heat making hay) So you do not have to unload in hottest time of day. I would want room to store under roof for 2 years if need be. And I would want enough wagons to be able to bale for 5 days without doing any unloading. Then you should be able to pick the best time for your health to do the unloading. That or a self unloading bale wagon that you would never have to handle a bale in field, only depending on storage if you have to handle the bales.
 
I make pretty decent money on small squares - about double per ton what you can get for large squares or big rounds. But then I am dealing with horse people. For double the price I work 5X harder - usually delivering and stacking in small storage areas. But that's why I have two teenage sons that help. My total investment in machinery (two tractors, two mowers, a rake, a baler and two car trailers to haul the hay) is less than what one of my customers spent a on sub compact John Deere they use to "clean stalls".


If I tried to sell to a local dairy or a feed lot I'd probably get less per ton than they pay for big rounds or large squares - for them small squares are a giant PIA because they are not set up for the extra manual labor they require.
 
How close are you to a large urban/suburban area, where there are lots of people with 2 to 3 acres and a horse? If you are close enough, there is usually a good market for small squares. You will need a building to store the hay in, as most of your customers will be unable to store it themselves. If you are in the middle of cattle country, you may be better off leasing your land rather than investing money in equipment to try and sell hay to someone with the capacity to produce their own.
 
Agreed. I have several customers (horse people) that I have been working with for years. A couple literally started out by checking my fields (like wine makers checking a vineyard) before they would buy from me. They know I am extremely cautious with cutting and know I never try to sell hay that has been wet. I talk to them before I mow and they know when it will be ready and they know if it rained after I said I cut their hay. I arrange delivery and unloading with them - usually with the owner supervising. It is a big PIA but I get $6 a bale or $240 a ton for brome - and usually the boys get a "tip" for unloading.

I do burn some vacation days but I am working side by side with my sons and they learn how to work. To many kids today the first full day of work they put in occurs sometime after their 18th birthday and for many college kids its sometime after they turn 22 or 24.
 
It is common to make a bit of fun of 'horse people' here and the other ag site...... But they are a top dollar customer, they pay gravy but you need to have your ducks in a row and provide top hay for them. A whole lot are good regular folk and don't deserve my 'humor.'

And then there is that one or two that just go over the top........ ;)

Paul
 
i did it for several years got out to many want it gave to them or its two green on not enough green color, small clean bale straw was the money maker, i sold to stores etc etc. no longer doing it now sold out and now run lawn mower shop sales and service. way easier to make money and no weather to fight, good luck
 
There's a guaranteed way to make a small fortune in growing and selling hay...












You start with a large fortune, and with enough time, you have a small fortune left!

Old joke, often has a bit of truth in it. Some good advice in this thread, much of it can be said for others farming ventures, as well.
 
I hear you. I've somehow worked up into the 130-140 odd acres range of two ton per acre ground in mostly small squares. Summers are almost a dreaded time as my full time employer is unhappy and so is family. I've increased the amount of round bales the last couple of years and bought bales baskets to reduce the labour but I live in a humid area. Mower Conditioner and multiple tedder passes needed and rotary rake and still often need acid or lose hay.

It's a deep pit you can dig yourself into, I started at 10 acres over the summer on minimal investment, now we push to have 15 acres a day or more put up.
 
Around here after the last drought a few years ago people have been baling everything they can, and as often as they can. You can not look anywhere around here, and not see any hay bales (hay grazer, grass, corn stalks, milo stalks, etc) if its anything animals can eat it gets baled. Some people have been trying to sell round bales at $35.00 each, and no ones buying anything except for wire, twine, or net for their balers.
 
My initial cost was:
Mower conditioner 3700.oo
Tractor 3020 6500.00
Rake 50.00
Baler 200.00 + 800 in repairs to get working.
Car Trailer 1200.00
I already owned a truck so bonus there..All this can vary some..
It took me many years to pay this back but that day finally came. I origianlly took hay to sale barn and put adds in paper and word of mouth some. Now with craigslist and internet its easier to advertise until you get your customer base built.

I keep all records on my laptop using spread sheet.. Keep track of every expense and every payment.. Took couple years but was worth it because I now know approx how many bales each client will use and store accordingly. If you can get them to load from field and offer a discount for doing so it helps alot and worth the discount.

Im fortunate that my work allows me to take my vacation by hours not days. So I can come in and work and leave according to what I have to do.. mainly I work till noon then go to the fields. Only try to cut enough that I can handle picking up in a afternoon..
I built a 24' x 36' metal building which holds about 1200 bales. I average anywhere from 2500-3500 bales a year and usually only need to store the 1200 give or take. I have a 45x65 shed that can use if needed but like my hay in a different shed than equipment..


Could go on but thats the basics.. As has been said some years good some years bad but now after many years of doing this I generally make out in the black unless a major repair comes up..

Good luck.. the guys on here are fantastic for help..
 
Where can I get a copy of that book? Eight ton of hay that is about 400 small squares bales per acre at 40 lb bales. Maybe you are somewhere that gets six or more cuttings per year? Tom
 
I am in Van Zandt County, TX and been in small time hay business since 1984. Coastal Bermuda is the king of forage around these parts, don't plant nothing else. Don't buy a mower conditioner, instead you will need a disc mower or you could get a sickle, but kinda hard for beginners, a rake and sooner or later youll need a fluffer. The more tractors you have, the better. You can get 1 weedy cutting early spring and it will probably get rained on and 3 good cuttings if you time it right and fertilize right. Unless you buy a bigger tractor round bales are a no go. Get you a small square baler, (Love my inline Hesston) and produce top quality hay for the horsey people, they are extremely picky and a pain to deal with, but they will pay top dollar for high quality Coastal Bermuda with 0 weeds. You will need a barn and either some labor or an accumulator and loader. Sell on craigslist or to feed stores and you must deliver, but yea you can make a little bit of money selling hay. You can sell the first cutting to goat people and city people for Holloween decorations. Fertilize will be your highest input, Good Luck!
 
If you have to buy the haying equipment, i doubt that 20 acres would be worth it. The guy that processes our hay pays us for 1/3 of it. Prstty easy money.
 

One of the worst businesses to get into. first off, when you have hay, everyone else has hay and your prices are in the dumper.

Second. there is NO comodity market for hay. Hay is all types of quality, some fertilzed, some not.. some coastal, some alfalfa, some weeds and johnson grass. There no way to grade hay at the purchase point, so..... the guy who bales trash fields, sales at a lower price as the guy who fertilizes while advirtising the same quality.

Three cuttings?? down here, thats a pipe dream... very very rare with to get it.

fertilize,, never know, you dump 5000 in fertilizer and it doesnt rain, and you get 1000 in hay... Dump fertilizer on it and dont get enough rain and your hay becomes poisonous.. so again you out.

Squares... can use less than 60 hp tractors but is labor intensive, and you can not let them get rained on. Must get them sold or in the barn before it rains.


Weather.. got to have dry weather to cut, dry, rake, and bale... cut the hay, and get a week of rain on it, and its full of mildew and will kill most anything that eats it. Got to have rain or it will not grow..

Equipment.. must be ready pending growth, and weather. A breakdown can mean the rains get you, and again you loose a cutting.

round bales... need 65 hp tractor usually.. but rounds dont need to be moved as they are simi water proof and not nearly as labor intensive as you must move and load them with a tractor..

Best way to make a little money in the hay business, is to start out with a lot of money and work down from there.
 
I started a hay business a few years ago. All of my neighbors told me I would go broke. Said they couldn't sell hay. I got lots of advice from everyone I could find who raised quality hay. And I have done rather well, not gotten rich, but a good steady business. I did the best I could. Alfalfa and orchard grass. I tried to establish a fair price. It took awhile, but i have some regular customers. I don't raise the price on them when hay is short, and I don't lower it when hay is plentiful. I round bale the first cutting, most horsey people don't want the first cutting. I bought a Kuhns accumulator and a grapple. I am a one man show. I can bale 6 or 700 bales and get it out of the field in one day. I have 10 wagons and barn room for them, so I can unload when I can. Usually sell off the wagon. I have it tested by the state and advertise the results and it works. Good luck.
 
They buy with their eyes, usually urbanites with good paying jobs, horses stabled somewhere......... The horses stomach can (apparently) easily
tolerate much worse. Happens all the time around here. Makes you laugh when you see horses and cows sharing the same bale of sorghum
sudan haygrazer even though the critics warn of "Colic" and all that. But their horses, their money, their decision. I do have one horse
customer who buys rounds and is not all that picky about his Coastal Bermuda.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
How to cut up a round bale
2
Replies
23
Views
783
Traditional Farmer
T
C
Red power hay making tractor?
Replies
7
Views
883
jwal10
J
K
Too late to mow hay
2
Replies
27
Views
678
Leroy
L
I
Drum mower question
Replies
12
Views
789
Jerry/MT
J
Ultradog MN
Thinking about a sky hook in my shop
Replies
19
Views
1K
mechanicfred
M
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top