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When to buy your own hay equipment?
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Jim
Posted 6/4/2019 18:17 (#7541329 - in reply to #7539189)
Subject: RE: When to buy your own hay equipment?


Driftless SW Wisconsin

H5cattle - 6/3/2019 14:08 How do you know when to buy your own equipment and make your own hay. I have about 30 head and buy my hay. Get it for 20/25$ a roll (4x5). I don’t know how long I can get it for that price, and I feel like I could put up a higher quality feed if I do it myself. So how do you know when to pull the trigger and get your own equipment?

Assuming those 4x5 bales weigh about 900-1000 lb (they may be lighter) you are currently paying about $50./ton for hay. Depending on quality that is either a great price or an average price.  You need to think in terms of $$/ton not $$/bale. Is this grass or mixed. Protein content? etc.

How sure are you that you can always buy hay at that price?'  How do you store it? ....

I used to buy all my hay until it went up to about $200 or higher per ton, if you could find any to buy, in the spring of 2013. After that debacle, in 2013 I bought good, new, hay equipment on manufacturers' low down payment, no interest, 5 years to pay and make my own plus do some custom work in exchange for hay.

Without going into extensive detail, I feel that purchasing my own reliable hay equipment has been an excellent plan. I am expanding my all-grassfed herd. Relying on purchasing sufficient quality and quantity of hay for 6 months of the year is very risky. Sometimes it works financially and sometimes it doesn't.

If you are going to have cattle in the north you need to have a reliable source of hay in my type operation. Another point is that timeliness is critical in hay production. Another point is that equipment never fails sitting in the shed, only when you need to use it. Cheers.



Edited by Jim 6/4/2019 18:19
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