south central IOWA | Jim - 11/12/2012 00:28
It seems to me that some folks that make their own hay don't have a good picture of the total costs involved to make good hay.
The first year I bought my herd I had to buy all my hay needs. It only took that one year for me to realize that that was not the thing to do and that I needed to figure out a different plan. And that was when hay was cheap!!!
So when I read this statement I assumed I was classified as "some folks" and needed to take a look at the picture...... to make sure I was still doing the right thing and all.
Sooo, between Dad and I we have roughly 100 acres of hay ground that is at the farms where the cattle are at and would be easy to turn into pasture ground. Those 100 acres on a average year produce 5 bales/acre. That's 500 bales.
Around here it takes about 3 acres of grass for a pair to run on a year. So that means we could add 30 head of cows.
I just heard today about some "good hay" being auctioned off that brought $160 for 2nd and 3rd cutting and $130 for 1st cutting. So for easy figuring I"ll use $100/bale. That's $50,000 we would have to spend on hay per year.
That hay ground we gave up to run 30 more cows........ calves are worth about $850/head at the moment. 30x850= $25500
The difference of $24,500 is enough in the first year to pay for nice haying equipment. And in order to break even we would have to buy all of our hay for $50/bale. Ha, that will buy you stalk bales this year.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that some people think that a guy is actually better off buying all their hay. Big or small operation.... I just don't get it.
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Anybody on here purchase all or a majority of their feed needs?
