# Hay acres for 2011?



## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

So what is everyone doing for acres this yr.Seems like everyone i talk to is down on acres.Around here i would say 50% of acres got ripped out last fall.I dropped 40% of my acres in 09 after winterkill and havn't reseeded.

So around here I would say atleast 25% reduction in alfalfa acres.

What say you?


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Plan to drop from 250 acres alfalfa to 125 this year. Still have about 80 acres of grass, same as last year. Plan to start the reseeding rotation again this fall, did not plant any new hay last fall. Looking for more reclaimed coal mine ground for more hay acres in the future.


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## Riverside Cattle (Jun 4, 2008)

I plowed under 40% last fall but will replant back to hay crops. However, I added about 25% more ground this year. I don't get much of a crop the first year so this year will be lean.


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## scrapiron (Mar 10, 2010)

I am going to double my total hay acres this year. Russell will be up 125%, Tift-85 up 25%, adding some Tift-9 bahia & alyce clover, taking out some mixed bahia. Locally hay acres are way down, growing to many houses & horse barns.

scrapiron


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I'm down to about 75, from 110. I have 35 acres in wheat, scheduled to be replanted come August.

Ralph


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## dbergh (Jun 3, 2010)

Down 60% but will be back up slightly going into the fall with some additional new seeding. It was a good chance to rotate some stands out and take advantage of some high grain prices.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Taking some out this spring and no-tilling it to corn. Not taking out as much as I planted last fall. So I guess I'll have even more cheap hay this summer.


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## Hayking (Jan 17, 2010)

we planted 400 acres in the fall this will give us 900 for the summer hay market looks strong for the upcoming year hope everyone else has a great year


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

In the last week!

Was talking with one friend.He has his mower/conditioner for sale.He tore out his 40 acres of alfalfa.0 acres for this yr.

Talked to another who had 50 acres last yr.0 this yr.

Delivered hay to another friend who has 70.He is thinking plant it to corn and buy all his hay.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

swmnhay said:


> In the last week!
> 
> Was talking with one friend.He has his mower/conditioner for sale.He tore out his 40 acres of alfalfa.0 acres for this yr.
> 
> ...


Music to our ears!!!!


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Not sure if it means people just aren't making hay in my area this year or what, but I had a lady call and talk to the wife today and she was practically begging the wife for me to make her hay this year as she can't find anybody else to do it. Wife told her I wasn't looking for anymore (which I'm not) and that I already have more than I wanted (which I do) and if anything I might take a few fields out yet this spring.

Started out wanting me to rent it for $150/acre, by the end of the call she was down to $120/acre. Even if it was $60/acre I wouldn't make that field again, did last cutting for her the one year and not only did they not pick up any rocks, whoever plowed and planted it should have been shot. Plowed in and never worked the dead furrows shut on the outside of the field then never worked the headlands or the dead furrows level in the field either. Was mowing and would look back and if the mower was straddling a dead furrow it might have left a foot of uncut hay in the middle or if I was on a headland and the mower was running down the headland it looked like the mower was on a teeter totter as the ends of it would be off the ground. Either way I'd have to make a pass down and back on the dead furrows or headlands to get it all cut. First field ever I thought I was going to run out of spare knives for the discbine before I got all 16 acres of it cut as it was that rocky.

This is the same field I had to make organic a few years ago that involved all the cleaning of the equipment before I could go down there. The owners desperate enough now she said I could make it anyway I wanted if I didn't want to mess with the organic bs. To be perfectly honest she rubbed me the wrong way then and kinda pissed the wife off today when she implied if the wife would have switched to a all organic diet a few years ago like she suggested, the wife wouldn't have needed the open heart surgery last fall. Like yah, an all organic diet will cause a heart valve to grow back that was already surgically removed years ago.


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## Haymike56 (May 3, 2010)

WOW some people just don't get it and probably never will! You can't be demanding of people that you might need help from in the future and then be so calous to say things that offend the people you are asking for help. What goes around comes around. We all need to be decent and fair to each other because life is just TOO short.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

As I am loosing my day job this fall am hoping to line up more ground for next year and beyond...folks around here are jumping on the corn wagon may not be much alfalfa to be put up.


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## LeadFarmer (May 10, 2011)

I tore out 500 acres last fall to clear more ground for cotton, am currently farming around 550. I would like to be around 850-1000, but th cotton market is excellent and most of my remaining ground is tied up iñ Bermuda grass.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Had a guy that would stop in where ever I happened to be making hay several times last year and ask me to make his as well, wanted me to make it and buy the hay off him. I never do that as usually I never sell much hay thru the summer as the price almost always goes up enough when the snow is on the ground to make it well worth the cost of storage. So since I don't sell much thru the summer, eating the expense of making somebody elses hay then buying it off them seriously screws up my cash flow.

He even bought another thirty acres early this spring and 20 of it happens to have hay on it. Now he wants me to make that one as well. Started out a month ago saying I could have it all in exchange for three bred heifers, I turned that down as it looks to be another wet spring/early summer and being the fourth year in a row for that, I'm getting really tired of fighting the weather while making hay. He told my Dad yesterday I could have all his hay ground for 2 bred heifers.

We have a nice cross of angus/hereford/shorthorn heifers atm and I told Dad to tell him I'll sell em a couple of 500 pounders and he can bring em back to be bred when the time's right, but I ain't making any more hay.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

Mlapping, try telling him he can breed the heifers and the buy the calves! Lol.


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