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Lease of Hayfields

J

John - NY

New User
I"m from upstate NY and am looking to lease some previously hayed property for haying. I would appreciate knowing how much is a fair price per acre per cutting. Thank you! and Happy Easter!
 
Fair can be an extremely subjective term. The going rate around here ranges from 50/50 for really good fertilized alfalfa to 1/3-2/3 for grass hay. Then typically which ever party wants all the hay, if one does, purchases it at a prearranged price per bale.

Small plots, etc the farmer may even charge to mow it off. I have a neighbor at one farm that does the 50/50 with me and buys my half. Been doing it for several years that way on pretty decent alfalfa in a corn rotation. That lets me focus on grass hay custom work in the adjoining county where I live.
 
Around here 50/50 is the most common. You should lock in any hay and pasture ground early this year. Many acres are going to grain crops. Hay will be in tight supply here in Northeast Iowa. Many alfalfa strips are torn up and not too many seem to be seeded down. The local hay auction still is having very strong sales. Good large square alfalfa is going as high as $290/ton. Good grass round bales went for $125/ton. These are this weeks prices. Usually by now the market has dropped in price as the grass has greened up.
 
If you plan on fertilizing and maximizing yeilds you might come out by offering the areas going yearly rate for row crop ground divided by the number of cuttings. If you don't plan on fertilizing you may be better off paying by the bale or making a percentage deal.
 
In my area if you are going to do all the work and reseed etc the land owner gets 1/3 and you get 2/3s of the hay. Now if the land owner helps in some way then it can be a 50/50 thing. I hayed for a neighbor last year and did it 50/50 but they helped by raking the hay and then they hauled the bales and stacked them
 
I keep all the hay and give the land owner 40% of the going value off the field. I fertilize every other year paying for it myself. Have been doing this for some time now.

Tom
 
I really appreciate all of your responses, but the property that I was looking to lease is owned by a family that used to farm, but are no longer interested in working the land. They actually don't live on the property any longer. There would be no interest, on their part, in sharing the hay. They are just looking to offset some of the property taxes. Last year the person who leased the property took off three cuttings on 38 acres and paid only $300 total. The family was looking for $400 per cutting. I just don't know if that's a fair price. Thanks again!
 
My part of the world hay land leases for about $100 per acre per year. No inputs from landowner aside from supplying irrigation equipment.
We average 3 cuttings(occasionally 4) and yeild around 6 ton to the acre.

Ben
 
around here you pay for all the inputs and keep all the hay and charge the owner for mowing his field.
 
I have sold standing hay to a local dairyman for $75/acre for first cutting grass hay. Finger Lakes region of NYS. I should add that I haven't been able to collect last years payment yet so that would be $0/acre.
 
You get 2/3 of the hay for cutting and baling. He gets 1/3 which you buy from him at the going rate per ton when it is baled.
 
The only numbers that matter here are what it costs you to make it, what you can sell it for and what you're satisified in keeping for profit... if there is a profit.
Fair doesn't have much to do with it in my opinion. Either you can make money and afford to pay what they want or you can't.
There's farms here that you need to be paid to cut and then there's some where you could probably do fairly well on a 50/50 split.

Rod
 
I'm located in upstate NY also. I get all the extra hayfields I need to cut for free. I help them out by getting them the ag reduction on property taxes. I might do a little extra trimming or mowing to keep things looking decent for them. Its just plain old grass hayfields and more land available than farmers left to cut it. If it were a good alfalfa mix field that they had seeded I might be willing to pay. It really comes down to supply and demand in your particular area.
 
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