Hay bales per acre

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Highflinger

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Can anyone tell me please roughly how many small bales of hay one can expect per acre. I appreciate it will vary depending on land, weather etc but I have no idea if it is one bale or 100!
I have five acre field and was thinking if I could get someone to cut and bale would letting them keep half be fair "payment"?
 
I've had between 40-100 per acre depending on the weather! A friend used to bale mine for me and kept half as payment but for this the hay must be good quality unless they have cattle or sheep that will eat anything :)
 
Just cheekily piggybacking onto this, when to people tend to take hay? I'm just wondering as I have a couple fields that won't be used for a while yet, and the grass is going mad in there, so probably look to make hay at some point, but new to it all really.
 
Nasicus said:
Just cheekily piggybacking onto this, when to people tend to take hay? I'm just wondering as I have a couple fields that won't be used for a while yet, and the grass is going mad in there, so probably look to make hay at some point, but new to it all really.
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If and when there are enough sunny dry days ahead to make it, if you do it yourself you can work round the weather but if you are relying on a contractor or local farmer expect to be low on their priority list unless you are very lucky it may not be worthwhile doing a small acreage, other options are haylage, less weather dependent, letting a farmer take a cut of silage easy to fit in while they are in the area or having other stock on for a while, the last option is to leave it and graze it as foggage in the winter.
 
Nasicus said:
Just cheekily piggybacking onto this, when to people tend to take hay? I'm just wondering as I have a couple fields that won't be used for a while yet, and the grass is going mad in there, so probably look to make hay at some point, but new to it all really.
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June hay is ideal, or used to be before climate change - the seeds, which are the most nutritious part containing protein, are set but not shed then. But as above, any time you can count on a week of dry weather after the grass has flowered. I've had June hay, August hay, and one year we were picking blackberries before the hay was cut.
The later it is the more quantity but less quality in terns of feed value - for natives and good doers just plenty of fibre will be adequate.
 
It really is so dependant on so many factors - the weather, the quality of the land, the quality of the grass etc etc. We cut 2 lots of 2 acres, one of ours half the soil is not so good and on top of gravel, and thus is very dry the rest tends to hold the water well so we get very good growth, or neighbours is drier land than ours. I'd say we get 80-120 per acre (we fertilise) on a good year and 40-80/acre on a poor year. However it is also dependant on being able to cut, turn and bale in the right weather, if we miss a window of good weather at the right time due to working it again lowers the amount of quality hay we get. We have our own equipment, so doing 2 small plots is not an issue.
 
Nasicus said:
Just cheekily piggybacking onto this, when to people tend to take hay? I'm just wondering as I have a couple fields that won't be used for a while yet, and the grass is going mad in there, so probably look to make hay at some point, but new to it all really.
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Mine depended on when the farmer could fit me it :) On 6 acres the lowest I had was 250, the highest was 900
 
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