Making hay

We have about 10 acres in hay. Currently, we have to hire a guy to come cut it. He's taken his sweet little time to cut it. It just got cut yesterday. No rain was predicted until Friday. Guess what? It's overcast and now storms are predicted. ARGH!

My hubby and I were talking yesterday about whether or not it would pay to get the equipment to do small bales ourselves. Anybody do their own hay? How much would you expect the equipment to cost?

It depends on the brand you choose and what size you buy, there are allot of things that can affect the price. I personally have been a John Deere man but in recent years their equipment has gone down in quality. This is it is mainly caused the newer models are less roughed than the older one due to the electric items that have been added. And of course new or used, in John Deere the model that end with 55 and lower like 2355 and 2440 are harder to find becuase they are very popular compared to the newer model .

And you should look at "fastline" magazine, all it is, is adds for farm machinary dealers and a few other farm related items.

We have about 60 acres with wheat, well, some grasses and weeds, but we hire someone to come do it. Especially since we just bought the property, it is 160 acres, the other 100 or so we have 3 cows with babies, that are pregnant and do in the summer. so, we are just starting in the cattle business XD

I don't know if the equipment would pay for itself or not with gas prices and stuff.

we have been doing the same thing for the last 3 yrs but instead of paying for it we just split the hay with the guy that cut it and i always felt like we were getting the short end of the deal! about a month ago we finally decided to get the equipment ourselves since we had horses and could use the tractor for more than just doing hay. you might not think it would pay for itself but you have to keep in mind the equipment now belongs to you and you no longer have to wait for someone esle to have the time to come out and cut the hay for youa...and that is a wonderful feeling!