# Going Rate for Hay Help



## ewalker (Apr 14, 2010)

Just wondering what some of you are paying hay help, I had a ouple boys that helped me around the place last year that I paid $8 hr, what are some of you paying for help?


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## BCFENCE (Jul 26, 2008)

I pay 10 and 12. It depends how much they help me more than anything. A person that helps me alot i try to take good care of them.


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## enos (Dec 6, 2009)

20 for tractor drivers, 15 for crew in barn. Pay any less here and you'll learn to do alot of things your self.


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## bowlnchamp219 (Jun 17, 2010)

enos said:


> 20 for tractor drivers, 15 for crew in barn. Pay any less here and you'll learn to do alot of things your self.


CAN I WORK FOR YOU. We pay $8hr for our help and after all that money goes out for costs of fuel string and and the help me and my dad split it 75% to me and 25% to him.


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## darren (Nov 18, 2009)

I pay 10 bucks cash per hour.If they aren't worth that much ,then I don't ask for their help again.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

enos said:


> 20 for tractor drivers, 15 for crew in barn. Pay any less here and you'll learn to do alot of things your self.


I had not realized that the Canadian dollar had edged so close to the United States dollar. Exchange rate currently is $1 Canadian to $0.976 U.S.

At this rate of hired help pay, what do you get per ton of alfalfa hay in small squares, if you make these?

What ever happened to paying by the small square bale handled by the pickup/hauling crew? Didn't these crew members work a lot harder when paid this way?


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

vhaby said:


> What ever happened to paying by the small square bale handled by the pickup/hauling crew? Didn't these crew members work a lot harder when paid this way?


Not sure, my cousin tried that awhile ago. Had a few guys that expected to be paid for everytime they handled the bale.

For example, had a guy on the wagon chucking them on as fast as possible, then when the wagon was empty he'd head up and help stack. Which is fine except he'd pay very little attention to how he put em on the elevator and some would never make it up in the first place. others would be on so crooked they'd catch i n the door and bust em. Course he was also putting them on fast enough the guys in the mow would fall behind and some would bust as they had no where to go and the elevator would bust em. Then of course he was enough of an ass that he though if he handled 120, then the guys in the mow should only get paid for 40 each as they had three up there.

Cousin started using a set price for each wagon unloaded, if the help wants to fart around, then they are just making less an hour. Also no point in getting careless and doing a half ass job of unloading as my cousin can only fill the wagons so fast so if they bust their asses to hard and get it done real fast, they can wait on the next wagon anyways.

^^^ is the reason I quit making small squares.


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## kfarm_EC_IL (Aug 5, 2008)

$9-$10 I get what I pay for. Lot easier to pay for good help. Currently we are trying to come up with some type of bonus plan. Handling hay is not a fun job unless you have a bad habit of enjoying baling hay (like me). But not all kids are going to love it. They do like money!

Checking my records over the last few years I found that basically everytime the hay is handled it cost me $0.25. 4 workers 8-10 cents per bale going up in the barn. I would like to try this, but I do see the pitfalls that have been mentioned.
mark


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

$10-12 here.We do most of it ourselves.

Had a partime guy for a quite a few yrs.Since he left my repair bills have went way down.


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## enos (Dec 6, 2009)

vhaby said:


> I had not realized that the Canadian dollar had edged so close to the United States dollar. Exchange rate currently is $1 Canadian to $0.976 U.S.
> 
> At this rate of hired help pay, what do you get per ton of alfalfa hay in small squares, if you make these?
> 
> What ever happened to paying by the small square bale handled by the pickup/hauling crew? Didn't these crew members work a lot harder when paid this way?


Grass hay, Stack 2000 behind the barn with NH bale wagon and call in 5 guys. 6 hours later it's all stacked inside and i'm doing something else. $80,000 tractor and baler, do you really want it run by the lowest bidder? Don't know how much a tonne but $7.50 for a 60lb grass square bale 1st cut here so I guess it's all relative to what you pay for what you get when you sell it. And remember about employees boys, They don't own a bolt in the outfit so they may not care as much as you and if you could hire yourself you would probably fire the a$$hole


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## hillbilly hay (Sep 21, 2009)

I paid the help last year $8/hr which was going good til i broke down and the boys just sat. So i had to stick to my word and i paid them which cost me an extra 4 hours for each 4 boys, on top of a poor yeild i just broke even. This year i paid 6 cents a bale i the barn for 4 boys and no break downs so far. The boys are averaging around $9/hr so it's working so far.


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## rank (Apr 15, 2009)

$11 for equipment drivers. $13 if they can drive a truck and load themselves.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Can't even find anyone here to help no matter what you pay. That's why we went to big squares and me and dad do it all. Sure as hell can't find anyone competent enough to run our equipment and not have it broke down all the time. Plus, the hours suck, nobody wants to work on Sunday afternoon or half the night picking up bales before a rain.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

If we could bale everyday for 12 hours each day, we could get all the Mexicans we want. But they want to work everyday, not just between rains.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

This^^^^. Even if I expanded drastically, I'd be hard pressed to find enough for the help to do year round. I got tired of training temporary help a LONG time ago. Years of putting up with that when we still had the dairy turned me off on having to have too much help around.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

mlappin said:


> This^^^^. Even if I expanded drastically, I'd be hard pressed to find enough for the help to do year round. I got tired of training temporary help a LONG time ago. Years of putting up with that when we still had the dairy turned me off on having to have too much help around.


Same HERE.Often thought of getting a full time guy,but to keep him busy all winter I would need to expand my cattle opperation.Is it worth it









Part time help is ok BUT to get someone to do help is getting harder all the time.

One guy asked about working for me but will not work Fri-Sun because they camp.

Another guy said he wouldn't pick rock because he was 50.

Another won't help if it is hunting season,but will ask for help during bean combining.









Had a couple high school kids that were good but now they have moved off to bigger and better things.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

haybaler101 said:


> Can't even find anyone here to help no matter what you pay.


I was able to find teenagers until a couple of years ago....they can make the same money slinging hamburgers, it's steady work, and air conditioned.



haybaler101 said:


> we could get all the Mexicans we want.


Around here when you go to the "Mexican Store" and say the words "hay" or 'bales" it's like flushing a covy of quail....they run in every direction. When you find any that don't know what the words mean, you spend most of the day either showing them what to do or standing over them trying to do things right. That's why I went to the Hoelscher....it's a "Hydraulic Mexican". It cost a little more but it's a lot less trouble.


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## hay hauler (Feb 6, 2010)

When I get my friends to help it depends on the job moving hay. All of our stuff is for hire so it's a little different, but we do it on shares.

For example, the truck is a share, and each person is a share, we usually don't have more than two people on a truck and we can work fast.... Figured around 20 an hour per person....

Some times I can not stack hay in the barn with my wagon... so we charge an extra 50c/bale to stack it inside by hand. I usually just find one person and tell them to get as much help as they want but they only get 50c/bale so the more people the small the pay per person... works out well doesn't cost more than a phone call for me and my customers like not dealing with it. I still make 50/c per bale with the wagon.

I find it a lot easier to pay a little more than continuous finding new help, also women drivers seem to be in a little less rush and easier on the equipment, and the eyes&#8230;.


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## ewalker (Apr 14, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies this was great, well I got 4 High School kids to load trailer and stack in barn for, $8 hr. They worked pretty hard and I was glad to have them. Hard to find a few good workig boys these days, back when I was in school we had a few different crews that all the local farmers knew and our football coach was not concerned about us lifting weights all summer.


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## oliver (Aug 8, 2009)

8 to 10 /hr. depending on whether they are a help or hindrance. Hard to find good, experienced help, but if I could find someone, I would definitely pay more. There was an ad on a local Craigslist early this spring wanting help stating "needing 3 to 4 boys or young men to help bale hay. Will pay 5.00 / hr. plus good food." I bet they had a lot of takers.


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## whitebc (Nov 3, 2009)

darren said:


> I pay 10 bucks cash per hour.If they aren't worth that much ,then I don't ask for their help again.


Me too.

Got lucky last year and had a buddy of mine lost his job(farming) He gets 10 bucks and hour cash money and runs all my equipment better than I do, he calls me before he starts a job then calls me when he is done to see if there is anything else to do... last year he had a few break downs on some of my "old wore out" equipment and he would just tell me about it at the end of the day after he fixed it and got the field done! cant ask for any more than that









He is happy and I am happy, guess in the end that is all that matters.

Ben


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## Cannon (Aug 18, 2009)

On my operation we start at $10.00 to drive tractors. If they can operate more than just simple operations then I will move them to $12.00 fast. If they prove that they don't need a babysitter then I will even pay more. All of my work is tractor or acquaintance type of work. NO small squares


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## Dolphin (May 21, 2010)

We have a pretty good old country buffet here. I plan on taking all my help (family) there after baling. That will be the going rate


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