Hay making

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Jacksie

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I’m looking at buying some more land but the parcel would be more than I actually need for my 4 so I’m wondering whether I can use some of the land to make my own hay as I expect this would save me more money than income from renting the land out to a farmer with sheep etc.

I’ve never made hay so would get a contractor in to do it but have no idea how much land I’d need to grow enough for my horses. I know it varies considerably for so many reasons but ballpark figures, am I looking at 2 acres, 4 acres or more? I assume you’ll get at least two cuts a year? Possibly 3 on a good year? And can you use the fields for winter grazing? I know there will be costs in managing the land as well as making the hay, is it worth it? I’m spending on average £200-£250 a month on hay now without the additional hassle
 
If you want to use it for winter grazing then you will only get 1 cut. I do that with mine- I have 8 acres that I use December- April then grow up for Haylage, generally cut at the end of June. You get years like this where you don’t get much of a crop. Mine makes enough for 4 horses to eat through the winter months, so approx 2 acres per horse fed winter only. If you needed more you'd have to spend out on fertilizer or not use it for grazing in the winter.
Haylage is a bit more expensive to make but less weather dependent and you don’t need barn space to store. If I get a good crop I can usually sell a bit too which helps to pay the costs. It isn’t cheap, mine costs about £18 per large round bale to make.
 
Thanks both, that’s really helpful.

Another random question - do you have fencing in your fields. Is it doable to work around this or is your field one big open space?
 
Jacksie said:
Thanks both, that’s really helpful.

Another random question - do you have fencing in your fields. Is it doable to work around this or is your field one big open space?
Click to expand...

Mine is 1 big space (I sub-divide with electric if needed) but my contractors are happy to work in smaller spaces, so long as the gateways are wide enough
 
The smaller the acreage, the harder it will be to find a "contractor". Most contractors these days don't have small machinery, they prefer larger easier parcels of land and will prioritise those over a couple of acres. "Contractors" charge differing rates - they could be by acre/ by hour or by bale. It will also depend on how far the contractor has to travel to site and how many visits are required for tedding. If using the NAAC Contractor price guide 2025/2026 the average cost is £2.18 (inc. vat) per small bale, based on 80 bales an acre, NOT Including any handling (so just left in field):-

Mow £15.52 per acre
Ted x 3 £28.93 (£9.64 per acre)
Row £9.81 per acre
Baling - small conventional £1.14 per bale.
(Prices above ex. vat - contractors are subject to vat).

It always pays to make friends with the neighbouring farmer, as it usually works out cheaper and more convenient to ask a local farmer. Assuming they have the smaller machinery, they are usually happy to nip into a small field that's next to/ close by to one of theirs that they are making hay from. Don't expect to be able to dictate to either a contractor or farmer when you want hay made - it rarely works like that, and therefore, along with the weather/ growth, this will dictate how many cuts you can get a year.

Find a good contractor or farmer and treat them like kings! Hay making is hard work and makes very little profit.

Good luck with the land purchase - how exciting x
 
If you already have the tractor and haymaking equipment then yes, make hay. Otherwise find out how many thousands it will cost and work out is it worth it. To avoid bills you also need to be mechanical savvy to do repairs, change sheer bolts and so on. We bought elderly Tractory and equipment for about 12k in total years ago and my husband can mend things, change tires etc. would cost a lot more now to replace.
 
Thanks Sanversera. I don’t plan on purchasing any more equipment so would be relying on farmers/contractors but am well situated for this. It would be good to make just enough for myself so small scale
 
When we had to give up the farm I was renting a 7 acre field away from our 23 acres and I used to take hay off it. Thought it was going to be so much easier than the 70 acres we had been doing. We had all the equipment so no problem there. Stress was in getting the right weather to make the good hay I wanted for my horses and sheep. On the farm if we had lesser quality hay we sold it off for cattle. Some years are no problem but others when all it does is rain are a nightmare. These days we let the grass grow and graze foggage all winter, rarely use hay. Hay is mostly only at lambing time or when ponies are on restricted grazing in summer.
 
Our neighbouring farmer works on 100 small bales an acre, farms around here only ever get one cut of hay and depending on the weather end up some years having to make haylage due to no suitable weather window for hay.

I would ask whoever does your land management work currently to see if they would be able to do it, and if so, the costs involved. Our next door neighbour did ours when he was doing his own, it can be very hard to get a contractor in for just one small parcel of land.

Are you looking at doing small bales or large? Around here I only know of one, retired, farmer who has a small baler now. Would you have enough storage space?

We did it for a few years then for our small acreage it wasn't worth it and now it gets topped early June the left to go for winter. Ponies live mainly out and I generally only have to feed forage when they are in for a few hours when weather is bad or during snow.
 
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