# Alfalfa vs Corn & beans for next yr?



## swmnhay

Alfalfa market has finally came around to where it should be.BUT I've noticed alot of fields got sprayed off with roundup this fall as I've been delivering hay.Was going to tear out some more alfalfa acres but as of now I'm leaving them.Good stands yet and look like good $ per ton for next yr.

Here I thought I would get in more fishing next summer but not looking that way now.So looking to be about same acres for next yr plus a newseeding field.So whats everyone else going to do for next yr?


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## mlappin

Not doing a lot of anything. Depends on hay prices this winter. Will be tearing more out in 2014, but will be planting some to replace it. Still gonna stay around the 175 acre mark.


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## Bob M

For now we are going to keep our hay ac around 350ac, might have made more money this year with corn.We have a great hay customer base and you can not get in and out of the hay business and maintain those customers.


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## Waterway64

I guess I echo the others. We are operating on irrigated land and still deep in the drought. If there isn't a lot of snow this winter in the mountains we will not have much water to irrigate. A cow right now walking across a hay field will kick up dust! Tillage of any kind is out! We will maintain present hay fields and plant much more small grains without more water.

Mel


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## Vol

Bob M said:


> For now we are going to keep our hay ac around 350ac, might have made more money this year with corn.We have a great hay customer base and you can not get in and out of the hay business and maintain those customers.


Bob has said alot in his statement about your customer base....long run costs can be substantial when chasing the crop dollar....commercial hayproducers need to think long and hard about losing customer base...those customers will find somewhere to fill their needs and it is very difficult to get them back in most instances. If you are oversupplied, then you might look towards diversion, but if you sell all of your forage regularly, then someone is going to be left out.

Regards, Mike


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## rjmoses

I'm pulling some more ground out of hay and putting it in row crops. The hay market here has been hurt pretty bad--I've lost several of my good customers because of death or cutting back on their cattle. Horse hay need is shrinking because of the economy.

Ralph


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## Vol

Probably about the same ratio.... too much invested into haying equipment/automation to let it sit idle and like Bob M says...gotta take care of my customer base while I still have one.

Regards, Mike


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## Teslan

I'm curious. How many of you guys have the equipment for both hay and row crops? I myself have no equipment for corn besides an old 6 row cultivator. Which in the past with corn prices much lower then now made little sense to have to have all custom work done if I wanted to raise corn. No beans here. I could plant wheat as I do have a drill, but no combine or grain cart.


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## Vol

Many of us Teslan.....if you thought about a planter...4 or 6 row would probably be sufficient starting out depending on acreage and definitely no-till. JD makes some great planters and should be able to get a 7000 series fairly reasonable.....you would need a sprayer for sure if you don't have one. Not nearly as equipment intensive as hay. Hire someone to combine your crop for you.

Regards, Mike


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## rjmoses

I contract my row crop work--it's just slightly more costly than doing it myself in terms of time and fuel. And I don't have enough ground, nor desire, to justify the cost of equipment.

Ralph


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## haybaler101

I have it all. Hay equipment is all less than 5 years old. Row crop equipment is 25 years old. Building hay acres again after our disastrous row crop year. Planted 40 acres alfalfa this fall. 120 more fall of '13. Want be at 300 acres in 3 years.


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## Teslan

Yes I'm sure I could find a 6 row corn planter fairly easy. We have fairly large 3 point sprayer, but I'm pretty sure everything about it needs replaced besides the frame. But we'll see how this Teff hay works for a rotational crop instead of something else this next year.


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## mlappin

Same as Haybaler, Hay equipment around 5 years old or so. If I was strictly or heavily hay some years around here I would have lost my shorts on that one.

Trying to expand more on row crops than hay. Have the equipment for row crops more so than hay. 16 row planter, 30' Hiniker for beans, 60' foot 3 point spray boom, 4 wheel drive tractor with 750 gallon tank to carry the spray boom with, MF 8560 for cutting beans and a MF 8780 for corn, 3 grain trucks and a 675 bushel grain cart.


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## NDVA HAYMAN

I'm like haybaler and mlappin, Have it all. When I updated my hay equipment around 5 yrs. ago, prices were good. The next year they were in the tank. People were selling off or giving away horses and they were my main client base. I still raise a fair amount of hay because it gives me something to do after planting season and I have maintained my customer base. You could say that I am a little more diversified. I have grain farmed in the past and still had all of my equipment except a combine. There are no custom harvesters in my area, so I bit the bullet and bought a green one. All of my hayland in ND has been turned into row crops. It was just too time consuming and travel for me to raise hay in 2 states. Now that I can relax a little more, Life is Good!


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## jtpfarm

I have hay and row crop equipment. I only have about 20 acres of my own alfalfa and 40 that i do on shares but i cut alot of road ditches too. My hay equipment is not that new but it seems the older stuff is sometimes built better(by older i mean late 90s) I do alot of costom baling too. I have about 300 acres of row crop lad that i rotate alfalfa through because it seems to be really good for the land. Corn on plowed up alfalfa usually does about 20 bu/acre more. This year i am getting into costom planting too


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## dbergh

We are about 50% hay, 25% grain and 25% row crop going into next season. Planned on rotating some hay acres out but market is good and stand is still reasonable. Trying to maintain our hay acreage to take care of our customer base as so many others have not done so when corn prices went crazy a few years back. It has been a great niche for us and has grown 100% in acres every year for last 4 years. Diversity is important to me as you never know when any one (or maybe all) of these will hit rock bottom prices one of these days.


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## astropilot

One thought is to rotate between soybeans, alfalfa and timothy here in KY. It uses all of the same equip. (Rental of No-till drill) with the exception of the combine.


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## swmnhay

Well,I commited 50% of my acres to corn for next yr.I have all the N,P & K on.

28% in hay.Alfalfa,Alf/grass & Grass hay.

22% in soybeans.

Corn was most profitable here this yr,followed by hay then beans.


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## brandenburgcattle42

We have a decent row crop operation 2000 acres. We run a fairly updated planter tractor cart and combine but after this year making 100 bu corn on the richest land in the nation we are expanding our hay operation to the biggest we have ever been gonna be baling over 150 acres in 2014. To some of you guys that is nothing but in our area hay is TABOO. We can pick up hay ground that is cheap and very capable of raising 5+ ton an acre alfalfa. To me there is money to be made and after total row crop failure we really want to diversify our operation. You have to look at the cattle market lowest numbers in 60 years on the beef heard they are projecting a good comeback and not every beef producer is going to be making enough hay so i say stick wih it guys.


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## swmnhay

brandenburgcattle42 said:


> To some of you guys that is nothing but in our area hay is TABOO. We can pick up hay ground that is cheap and very capable of raising 5+ ton an acre alfalfa. To me there is money to be made and after total row crop failure we really want to diversify our operation. You have to look at the cattle market lowest numbers in 60 years on the beef heard they are projecting a good comeback and not every beef producer is going to be making enough hay so i say stick wih it guys.


Here good alfalfa hay ground is also good corn ground.So what would be the difference there?There is some lowland hay,waterways and ditches baled here and people are fighting over that.Basicaly evey inch of ground is farmed in some way.

I've always believed it is good to diversify.Opposite of what the farm magazines,Ag teachers,etc have been preaching for yrs.


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## brandenburgcattle42

Ya i understand where your coming from. My area it is fence to fence farming but my hay ground would not grow 120 bu corn. But everyone in my area wants to be a super row cropper and want nothing to do with a 20 acre HEL. Thats where i can jump and and pay a third cash rent compared to our flat black and turn a good dollar. Very few of us want to put the effort in for hay, but all i see is $ and a way to provide for my family. I am also only one of three people in our county with a REAL commercial beef heard. Diversification can save a farm on a poor year.


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## swmnhay

Yea I hear ya on the small fields.I do have a 24 acre farm that has 2 fields with a road dividing it.RR tracks on 2 sides.A couple cotton woods in the middle.3 drowned out spots.Acreage in one corner.Definatly not worth $400 per acre.


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## mlappin

We used to say some of our ground was too droughty for anything but alfalfa, but with no till and improved hybrids our worst yield was 102 b/a on a field we were going to chop right before it started raining.

So unless it's a real small field or very irregular in shape it's safe to say all the ground around here will grow row crops as well.


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## barnrope

I'm seeding in 20 acres of oats in the spring which I will harvest the grain and straw, with a new seeding of alfalfa and grass underneath. That'll make a little over 80 acres out of my 470 acre total. Hay is taboo here too. Corn is king. I also do custom haying.


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## brandenburgcattle42

The nice thing for me people have 20- 30 acre patches around here that nobody want to farm cause they are cut up and a little hilly. My area if its not flat black and over 30 acres one piece thy dont want anything to do with it. Beside most of these people are tired of weeds and being surrounded by corn so i come in and offer $100 dollar rent and a pretty looking field after its established. I tell em its better that looking at a weed patch of CRP and i am taking care of the fertility needs of the ground. Win win. Pluse they can get outta a contract in four years unlike crp. I am stickn with hay cause the price of corn will fall out trust me. It might be another two years but these prices need to get back to normal for everyones sake. Good luck boys.


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