# What to do



## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

I have 12 acres of fields that a local hay producer takes the first cutting on (he round bales it and I don't have a round baler).

Last year I had him overseed 5 acres with no till drill in September--alfalfa, timothy, and orchard grass, cost me $1400. He said I'd love it and he was looking forward to the crop he'd get.

However now that I have everything I need to be independent again, I'm leaving a lot of money on the table with this arrangement. At 44 bales x $15/bale = $660.

Whereas I do everything myself but pay him to round bale it ($10/bale?). $70/bale x 44 bales - $440 round baling = $2640 in sales (that's not accounting for the increased yield I'll see after reseeding).

I'm losing out on $2000 from first cutting with my current arrangement. I want to cut him loose, but he's a super nice guy and always been very good to me. My struggle is that I think he was probably counting on having that first cutting hay this year, he's done it for two years now, likes the arrangement, and loves the hay he gets from it. I've been thinking about calling him up and asking if he was still planning on taking the hay off it this year, and then say I'm leaving too much on the table with the current arrangement so next year I'd just like him to custom round bale it for me on first cut (I do everything else) and I keep the hay. I'd hope he'd say he can just round bale it for me this year, but if he really was counting on it then I'm giving him a year's notice so he's not caught off guard.

I don't know, what would you guys do? How would you like to be treated? Business is business but relationships are important too and I don't want to be so cut throat I'm screwing over people who've been nothing but good to me. If I were him, I'd appreciate the notice since we had already talked about it last year.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

We have rented and are this year to a friend of ours. Friendship is by far mostly due to farming relationship. He has done a lot of combing for me over the last 15 years. I would not expect anything that might be considered negative to the other party after we have agreed to the lease. These are handshake leases. So no written details but very simple details.

If I were renting land to farm or as landowner to renter think the details needed to be clear before it was seeded for this year crop. I understand your cost but it seems possible his view may not be same as your on this year. My suggestion is your attitude I think is correct about relationship is very important. Talk with him SOON on how you would like to handle the hay next year. If you present your reasons as to cost and investment in overseeding and being able to plan, it puts you in good position for next year but it also opens it up so he may agree for this year also. Then you may find there is a middle of the ground that works best for both of you for this year.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

$1400 to interseed 5 acres seems extremely high.

Did you buy the seed yourself or buy it from him?


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

swmnhay said:


> $1400 to interseed 5 acres seems extremely high.
> 
> Did you buy the seed yourself or buy it from him?


He supplied the seed. Most of the expense was in seed. The alfalfa was expensive of course but the timothy and OG seed wasn't too cheap either, and he put a lot down. Labor was around $200 to seed it. I have the actual pound/acre and cost breakdown on the invoice at home.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Hayjosh said:


> He supplied the seed. Most of the expense was in seed. The alfalfa was expensive of course but the timothy and OG seed wasn't too cheap either, and he put a lot down. Labor was around $200 to seed it. I have the actual pound/acre and cost breakdown on the invoice at home.


curious of seeding rates??

Typically if interseeding you cut rates back because there is already some plants there.So your costs seem very high for seed.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

$1200 for seed to interseed 5 acres is extremely high. Orchard grass would be the most expensive seed here, then common alfalfa and then Timothy. Here, to seed bare ground with your mixture at heavy rates would be comfortably less than $150/ac. Interseeding costs probably would run about $75/ac. here...or less.

Regards, Mike


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

Custom seeding rate was $230. He put on 200 pounds of magnum alfalfa at $255/100 pounds, 200 pounds timothy at $119/100 pounds, and 200 pounds OG at $211/100 pounds. So 40 lb/acre/seed. I think he was putting it on heavy to be sure some seed would take since there was an existing stand, and it had also been a drought year. The first time he tried to plant the ground was so dry his drill wouldn't even cut into the soil. He aborted that and came back later after we had a nice rain and the ground was moistened and soft enough.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Hayjosh said:


> Custom seeding rate was $230. He put on 200 pounds of magnum alfalfa at $255/100 pounds, 200 pounds timothy at $119/100 pounds, and 200 pounds OG at $211/100 pounds. So 40 lb/acre/seed. I think he was putting it on heavy to be sure some seed would take since there was an existing stand, and it had also been a drought year. The first time he tried to plant the ground was so dry his drill wouldn't even cut into the soil. He aborted that and came back later after we had a nice rain and the ground was moistened and soft enough.


40 lbs an acre for each?

Absolutely no way I would do that.Seed will only fill in so much,after so many seeds it will just thin itself out.

This is what I'd recommend to interseed depending how good of stand you started with.

10-15 lbs alfalfa seed

5-10 orchard

5-10 timothy


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## woodland (May 23, 2016)

Hayjosh said:


> Custom seeding rate was $230. He put on 200 pounds of magnum alfalfa at $255/100 pounds, 200 pounds timothy at $119/100 pounds, and 200 pounds OG at $211/100 pounds. So 40 lb/acre/seed. I think he was putting it on heavy to be sure some seed would take since there was an existing stand, and it had also been a drought year. The first time he tried to plant the ground was so dry his drill wouldn't even cut into the soil. He aborted that and came back later after we had a nice rain and the ground was moistened and soft enough.


That's 600 lbs!

We'd cover 40 acres with that much. Either he doesn't know what he's doing or taking advantage of you.....


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