# Hobby Hay, lol



## rlrobinhood (Feb 24, 2015)

Hi all,

First time here, first post. A little background. I'm not a farmer, but have worked on farms as a grunt. I've always had a career on the peripheral of agriculture, so I'm familiar with the lingo and most activities. I've always worked 50-70 hours a week. Currently, I pretty much have a desk job (40-hours/week), but my hours are set and never work weekends. My wife is cut from the same cloth.

Anyways, I'm thinking about buying 130 acres of irrigated land. It currently has grass/alfalfa hay growing on it. Gated pipe for all the acres. 2-3 cuts a year in this area of WY. Financially, I can swing it. Time wise, I'm not sure. I understand my wife and I will be working morning/evenings and weekend. Is this doable?

Any thoughts? Or what other information do you need to help me out with this?

Thanks a million in advance!!


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

With good weather and very good equipment it might be possible. The problem is the weather. You never know when things are ready to go and it gets hard to schedule weather around work. Depending on what you get for dews mornings and evens dont always work the best for baling. You can maybe cut durning those times and try to have it dry on the weekend to bale. It could be done but it will be hard.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

How is the irrigation on the place? For me that takes more time then anything else.


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## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

Probably not? Mother Nature does not consider your time off. I would suggest to ease into it slowly. Buy the property ... lease the property to someone ... learn by watching. The cost of the land is one item ... machinery is another. The newer the machinery the probability of less breakdowns and the higher cost. You do not want to have a crop laid down to bale Sunday and a baler breaks down. Not an Alfalfa producer so do not know the curing time. I do know that week-ends and nights will NOT work.

Case in point - I have been trying to repair 2500 feet of fence while teaching 5 days a week, Hang 2 gates purchased in December. Have had some holidays off too. Weather has been not cooperating with my schedule.

You will have Mother Nature and Murphy's Law to contend with. Expect the Unexpected and you won't be Disappointed.


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## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

Murphy's law pshhh... Try Garcia's correlation. Murphy was an optimist.
-Seth


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## treymo (Dec 29, 2013)

Do it. Lots of guys have day jobs and farm a lot of acres at night 'lighting the candle'. Heck last year I put up 13,000 rounds custom and still go to college and help my father farm. Just don't drag your feet

Trey


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## discbinedr (Mar 4, 2013)

Seems to me it would depend a lot on your climate. Here it wouldn't work because of high humidity and frequent summertime thunderstorms. If you have little rain and can bale till midnight I could see it work.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I would think it would be doable since you have low humidity and infrequent rains.Will probably take 4-5 days to dry down and you will mostly be baling at night I suppose. It will help keep you young. If you don"t have all the equipment or can"t afford it just yet, have it custom done on shares until you learn and can do it all yourself. Good luck in whatever you do.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Very doable in Wyo....you don't get no where near the rainfall or humidities that most of these fellas have...it is great to work the land....especially if you can pique the interest of your little woman.  Are you up in the Bighorn Basin or near Sheridan? You only live once so grab the gusto!

Regards, Mike


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Vol said:


> Very doable in Wyo....you don't get no where near the rainfall or humidities that most of these fellas have...it is great to work the land....especially if you can pique the interest of your little woman.  Are you up in the Bighorn Basin or near Sheridan? You only live once so grab the gusto!
> 
> Regards, Mike


Oh hell! It would even work in Indiana. I think I bale more hay on Sunday than any other day of the week and we almost never cut on purpose to bale on Sunday.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Vol said:


> Very doable in Wyo....you don't get no where near the rainfall or humidities that most of these fellas have...it is great to work the land....especially if you can pique the interest of your little woman.  Are you up in the Bighorn Basin or near Sheridan? You only live once so grab the gusto!
> 
> Regards, Mike


Mike is setting him up for needing help with the crop harvest.....I'm telling ya he don't miss a chance!


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## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

I would do the following:

1. Learn about the soil on the 130 acres before you buy it. http://www.haytalk.com/forums/topic/23929-usda-soils/?hl=%2Busda+%2Bsoils

2. Get soil tests done based on the above results of soil type. For example, if the USDA site shows 3 soil types, then you need 3 tests. http://www.stukenholtz.com/

3. Do the math and how much it will cost to amend the soil, buy, rent, maintain the equipment, etc.

4. Roll the dice if it looks good. Taking a chance is a good thing.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

My guess is you will be able to cut at your convience, on year one.

Have a custom operator rake and bale.

Next year cut and rake, using your equipment. Learn how to rake as it is more important than baling.

Third year cut, rake, & bale.

Fourth and following years aquire enough land to make owning equipment worth while.

Most locations, Nation Wide, You will have many long days and end up working at less than optimum hay making conditions.

With a good pivot irrigation system you probably will able to irrigate.

With a good line roll or side roll irrigation, you might be able to irrigate.

With a hand set or syphen tube irrigation you better have a large family to do all that work.

Hopefully you will be able to have all your hay buyef(s) lined up.

Just thought I knew about hay the first 10 years. The next 10 years were better. Now i am old and tired.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

hay wilson in TX said:


> My guess is you will be able to cut at your convience, on year one.
> 
> Have a custom operator rake and bale.
> 
> ...


Excellent advice! Especially the first two years. And a good raking job makes baling easy (Your custom baler will let you know if you're doing a good job!)

Ralph


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

Except on a good year, there is no need to rake.
1st cutting has been tough to get put up right, usually around the 10th to the 20th of June for cutting. The 2nd and 3rd cutting have been much better to put up. I had to rake 3rd last year but that was unusual.
The good news is that you wont have time to sit in a bar, that much is certain.
There is alot of good advice already given so I will defer to them. Go for it.
which part of Northern Wy?


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Using gated pipe to irrigate with implies that you will be using border dikes and flood irrigation. Gated pipe is relatively easy to use for irrigation, but be certain that you have enough socks to attach over all the gates you want open at one time so that the stream of water coming from the gates is spread so as not to create a ditch where the water first contacts the soil. Also, assuming that this field is in an irrigation district, check with the powers that be to determine how the irrigation water is scheduled for your use. Likely when it is your turn to use the water from the canal, you will be irrigating day and night, meaning that you might make a set in the morning, another set in the evening, and may need to check the water flow at times in between.

Whatever type of bale you will make will require proper equipment to move and stack them outside the field because you likely will not get it all sold in the field immediately after baling. Your semi-arid weather conditions should allow for stacking outside provided you will be selling all the hay the year it is produced.

With both you and your wife having full-time jobs, you may not want to do the haying yourselves as you will have much to do irrigating, moving the hay, and selling it.

Regardless, if it is your desire to purchase the land and get into the hay producing business, by all means buy the land. No more land is being made and opportunities like this don't come up very often.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

rlrobinhood said:


> Hi all,
> 
> First time here, first post. A little background. I'm not a farmer, but have worked on farms as a grunt. I've always had a career on the peripheral of agriculture, so I'm familiar with the lingo and most activities. I've always worked 50-70 hours a week. Currently, I pretty much have a desk job (40-hours/week), but my hours are set and never work weekends. My wife is cut from the same cloth.
> 
> ...


If it is something you want to do-go for it. Do not expect to make big bucks right away. Or any money for that matter. But someday you might learn enough to make a few bucks off your investment .

At least thats what I keep telling myself.

Best of luck.


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## jenkinsfarmsinc (Dec 8, 2011)

I think it all depends on how hard you want to work and how bad you want it. I've been farming on my own for the last 15 years and working full time every bit of it. I'm just now getting ready to make the transition to "semi-full time" farmer. I'm still going to have to do something in the off season. I'm thinking about trucking or something. From my experience, the hardest thing you will face is irrigating. I bought a farm about three years ago that has two pivots on it with wells, which made life way easier, but with flood irrigation and being on a ditch, it was next to impossible. I had to beg, borrow, and steal to get it done before. As far as the hay goes, its money well spent to just pay a custom operator until you get things figured out. On a seperate note, one of the biggest things I learned when I bought my farm was that the land payment seemed like the biggest expense of the project until I started farming, and know I realize its not near as concerning as all the other expenses you don't think about. I spend more on buying augmentation water and electricity then the land payment. Then you have seed and fertilizer, taxs, insurance, fuel, and repairs. Its well worth the homework to figure out all these ahead of time. But, with all that said, farming isn't a job, its a lifestyle. The best lifestyle I think there is, and like I said, if you want it, you'll figure it out! Good luck!


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## farminwithjunk (Jun 23, 2012)

Are you looking to supplement income or just as a hobby? I don't think there is any way it makes sense for income, but if you are looking for justification to buy some land and have some fun doing it then go for it. We hobby farm 80 acres and love every minute of it. Mind you we don't pay for land since it has been in the family for 50 yrs. The equipment we use is old and slow and breaks down often, but we are able to repair ourselves. Sometimes the hay lays too long and ends up getting round baled and sold to the cattle guys. We prefer to small square and sell to the hobby horse people, which usually nets a small profit.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

rlrobinhood

I hope you did not notice I did not suggest you lay the hay out flat and rake it just ahead of the baler.

First of all your nights are cool enough to negate the over night respiration. I expect you will want to rake the hay as soon as possible after dropping the hay on the ground. The hay will not NEED much raking. Figure 5 days to have hay ready to bale. If you pay attention the hay can be cut in the morning and bale that night. Better to plan on baling the fifth night.

Nice thing with your climate is you can roadside your hay rather than putting it in the barn before dark.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

I hope you did not notice I did not suggest you lay the hay out flat and rake it just ahead of the baler.

First of all your nights are cool enough to negate the over night respiration. I expect you will want to rake the hay as soon as possible after dropping the hay on the ground. The hay will not NEED much raking. Figure 5 days to have hay ready to bale. If you pay attention the hay can be cut in the morning and bale that night. Better to plan on baling the fifth night.

Nice thing with your climate is you can roadside your hay rather than putting it in the barn before dark.


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