# having a bad experience hay day



## bm9915 (May 7, 2012)

I have 20 acres of pasture/hay ground.
The County Extension agent said an average price for grass hay ground in my area would rent for $109 per acre, and should yield approximately 2 ton per acre.

Tenant said he only would pay $50 per acre with an additional bonus at the end of season depending on yield - I agreed. We agreed the first $500 would be paid before tenant starting cutting and second $500 to be paid after he finished the 1[sup]st[/sup] cutting. He would not put on fertilizer, I would spray for weeds.

3rd week of May, surrounding neighbors started cutting hay - called tenant, he said he would be here to start to bale that next week (4[sup]th[/sup] week of May) he was a no show/no call.
1[sup]st[/sup] payment of $500 was made.
6/6 hay was cut.
6/9 - 6/10 all hay was raked and windrowed, 17 of the 20 acres were baled into small bales yielding approximately 750 bales, tenant said he would be back to round bale remainder acres. He said hay was not yielding what he thought it should. By my calculations, with what the county extension agent said, it yielded pretty well. All square bales removed except approximately 100 bales, which tenant stored in my barn. Broken bales left in field.
6/16 tenant still hasn't returned to finish with round bales, hay still on ground - now 11 days since hay was cut.

After several unanswered calls and unanswered texts to tenant, he called me back saying he would be back to finish up the next day, which would have been yesterday - again no show and no call.
I have made arrangements for someone else to round bale and take hay, just to get it off the field, he will bale tomorrow if no rain.

Help! - I need advise.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

First I think you need to ask him if he still wants to put the field up. You need to express your concerns with how things are developing. See if you can come to a better understanding of what each other expects from your arrangement. If you can't then part ways. The hay on the ground is his! If he breaches the agreement by not paying the rest then you will have to deal with that but if someone else bails the rest I am afraid you will open a big can of worms. Good luck. Martin


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Well, if your making 50lb small square bales, 750 of them off 17 acres would only be 2205.8 lbs/acre or 1.1 tons/acre. I had one field that went a bit over 1800lbs/acre this year, it will be sprayed with roundup and 2-4d next spring and planted to corn. When my high yielding and low yielding fields figured up I averaged around 1.9 tons/acre.

Technically since you received your first payment, the hay is his. Since technically he hasn't finished first cutting he doesn't owe you the other $500_ yet_.

Was any of this in writing?


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## zzdune (Jun 16, 2012)

You need to wait and see how it all works out. You may not wish to rent to him next year. Just grass hay, right? I think you are lucky to find someone to pay rent as many people around me will give grass away just to get it cut. I know, not what you want to hear. Generaly, most don't get excited about grass. I rather doubt if you will get much more hay unless it is fertilized. Good luck.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I agree with the others. I would be very cautious about baling hay another had paid for, cut and raked.
We all understand your concern about getting the hay off the field. Technically that is his problem. He may intend to sell it as mulch hay.
Basically he has paid $500 and the yield is his.
He will have to get it off sooner or later if he is going to cut again.

If you have it rolled I believe you are rolling someone else's hay.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Well I see several problems, the first of which is the price.....is this field a managed field before this year? If so the price is spot on, if not, the price is too high. If he hasn't fertilized the field you should expect the yield to be at least 50% less than what county extension agent said...he is telling you the yield based on required fertilizer, proper ph....etc. I have never had a agent tell me how much I would yield on a unfertilized field. Then i would send him a certified letter, email, txt message.....something that you know he will receive. Tell him the field needs to be cleaned up by X date and if it's not get the other guy to bale it AFTER you are sure he got the message....tell the other guy he can rent it for X taking into account the monies and hay paid. Lesson learned if the guy doesn't respond. I would not allow the field to sit if someone else wanted to manage it, this guy has breached the contract (if there is one) by not fulfilling his end of the bargain, both in not cleaning up the field and not finishing in a timely fashion,and by not paying the remaining 500$. The fact that he hasn't finished the field and doesn't want to fertilize tells me he is no hay man.


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## bm9915 (May 7, 2012)

Nitram said:


> First I think you need to ask him if he still wants to put the field up. You need to express your concerns with how things are developing. See if you can come to a better understanding of what each other expects from your arrangement. If you can't then part ways. The hay on the ground is his! If he breaches the agreement by not paying the rest then you will have to deal with that but if someone else bails the rest I am afraid you will open a big can of worms. Good luck. Martin


12 day since hay was mowed, 7 days since it was raked, has not been baled and still on the ground.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

bm9915 said:


> 12 day since hay was mowed, 7 days since it was raked, has not been baled and still on the ground.


Yah, problem is he still payed for what is owed so far. Was any of this in writing?


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## bm9915 (May 7, 2012)

mlappin said:


> Yah, problem is he still payed for what is owed so far. Was any of this in writing?


No, nothing in writing. Around here a good word and a hand shake is how we do business - lesson learned .
Paid 1/2 of what was agreed. Paying a bonus for great yield, probably won't happen.
He has the hay off of 17 acres, leaving 3 acres still on the ground, along with broken bales, field not cleaned up.

750 bales @4.50 = $3375 vs $500 paid, + hay still on the ground + broken bales still on the ground. (day 12)


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm (Feb 11, 2009)

This hay guy sounds like a total load, but it also sounds like you're about to need a lawyer. Unless you specified it in the original agreement, any additions, changes or actions you take is a breach of contract on your part. If you aren't able to say, "per our agreement, and/or, due to your failure to abide by XYZ of our agreement" you are probably going to be on the wrong side of it. As others have said, it's best to sit down and discuss your frustrations. He may say, "look I'm too busy to mess with this and I want out." But if he doesn't, don't get so worked up that you get yourself into a bind.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

My suggeston is for you to endure this year and at the conclusion of the haying, let that be the end of using this particular operator. Let this be a lesson to you in what can happen if you dont have things in writing. Or even if you do, things can go bad sometimes.....writing can just make things with less legality. Just endure, things can get real nasty and things can happen that you will surely regret later.

Good Luck,

Regards, Mike


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## NCSteveH (Jun 30, 2009)

Might not be the right way but if someone did that to me I might be inclined to borrow a friends bush hog and do a little 3a.m clean up, shouldn't take more than an hour to do 3 ac.

But I would most likely just send him a cert. letter terminating our agreement at the end of the season.


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## Canderson012 (Jan 17, 2012)

If he's paying you $50 an acre for a field that only gets around 2 bales to the acre you are doing alright. Free lawn care!


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