making your own hay - advice please!

greenlivery

greenlivery

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Hello!
I'm lucky enough to have just been given just under 5 acres to make my own hay. Its level ground, untouched apart from a few horses were on it last year and has easy access etc.
I'm a total newbie to this hay making lark and have no idea what I'm up against!
Does anyone else make their own hay? What could I expect from 5 acres in terms of ammount? Any advice for a hay making virgin! I'm totally clueless but not afraid of hard work and given what a hay crisis the south east seems to have I will really look forward to having my own someday! I have my own equipment too, which I expect will keep the cost down a bit!
All advice muchly appreciated!!!
x
 
Best advice is it definitely helps to be very physically fit and barking mad to do it yourself.
Onto some more productive advice, best bet is to get in touch with a local agronomist (your local agricultural merchant e.g. Countrywide could probably recommend one). They can give you accurate advice for your field as quantity of bales all depends on the species of grass, soil type and condition, weather conditions, fertilisers etc.
I will be employing the services of a local farmer friend to cut my hay this year. This does mean we are at their mercy re timing but they have all this amazing equipment that a horse owner just doesn't. You'll still save c. £2 a bale having a farmer cut it for you and they'll be able to use teleporters Etc to move the bales meaning that the machine does the hard work, not you, particularly if the weather turns bad and time is against you. Well worth the 80p-£1.50 a bale it's likely to cost you. It would take a lot of bales at this price to make buying the equipment and doing it yourself the cheaper option. You can always lend a hand to keep costs down. Good luck!
 
I used to make my own hay, well a local farmer did it for me and it cost approx 80p a bale. You will get around 100 bales an acre. One year I filled my barn then sold what was left over and made a profit after paying the farmer so I got my winter hay for free plus more.

I now make 4ft bale haylege, its a lot less stressful as you don't need such a 'dry window' to make it and once its wrapped theres not the panic to get it under cover as there is with hay. The matbro stacks it and it can be stored outside too. I think last years big bales were £11 each.

If you have the under cover storage and want to sell it on then small bales are easier to sell as they are easily moved.
 
we make haylage off roughly 6 acres of our land. The farmer locally reckons on a rough estimate of 10 large round bales per acre for a good crop. We took 63 bales last year.

We make sure that our horses are taken off the field by the end of December then ensure its rolled and harrowed. Then its left to good old nature and hope we dont get too much rain.

The farmer comes to cut/turn/bale & wrap the haylage when its ready (just see him wandering round the field a few days before he makes an appearance with the tractor - well actually we normally see that hes been, as one morning its standing, then in the evening its cut lol) he then comes over the next week to turn and bale it then stacks it on my yard for me. It costs us roughly £11 per bale for him to do everything with it which isnt too bad as we sold some last year for £20 a bale so the profit paid for the haylage for all my horses all winter.
 
I make my own small bale haylage. Last year I made 283 small bales off 5 acres. Sold half which, like daisy above, meant that the haylage I fed last year(well, still feeding it actually) worked out to be free!

Now is a good time to get a soil analysis done. Most farm shops will be able to get it tested for you. Costs about a tenner. Walk your field in a 'W' shape and take about a bit of soil from each point of the W. You need only to take soil from about an inch down. The sample needs to be about 2 tablespoons in total. Give this to the farm shop and they will let you know what is lacking in the soil. I'm awaiting resutls of mine next week and I expect they say I will need lime.

Good luck!
 
we make small bale hay off about 3/3.5 acres. rested from now, last year june cut in the good weather so not that thick think about 210 bales last year.

We used to get various farmers to do it for free when they were baling over the road but normally ended up with big bales which are a pain all winter and dont fit in our small barn well and had to do it when they wanted to.

Last year we paid someone for first time, friends son with small bit of kit, his baler is addled so he got a friend to do it... think paid £1 a bale, paid for that by selling off the excess that we didnt need for our 2 to a friend and has made life much easier all winter :) and control over when it is made. we like it early because we have more than we need and then we can ride on the field as no arena.
 
Wow - I had no idea you could make so much per acre, I'm really very excited! I'm so thankful for the advice too. I wouldn't know where to start without a bit of help! Thanks again :D
 
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