# How to charge for 80 acres of oat hay.



## T & R Hay Farms

We have a neighbor that would like us to cut, rake, bale, and transport 80 acres of oat hay twice a year. We are wondering how we want to accept payment, do we charge for cutting, raking, baling, and hauling. Or do charge so much per acre? Another option would be for us to do this on shares. What would be a reasonable share ratio? 50/50 60/40? We are kind of up in the air about this, because is there a demand for oat hay? We are located in the upper Midwest.

Ps: for hauling he lives about 10 miles on a straight road from the field.


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## rajela

Not sure about oats but here it is $22.00 to cut, rake and bale a 4x5 roll of grass hay and if the meadow makes less than 2 rolls per acre then there is a $100.00 charge for equipment moving. Most meadows will make about 3 rolls per acre on average with some of the better making 4 rolls per acre. Never new of any charging by the acre but I would guess about $66.00 per acre here.

If your cutting on a share basis it is 60X40.

As far as hauling a couple buck per bale depending on length of haul or $3.50 per loaded mile.


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## panhandle9400

Here it is very common to charge by the acre. Swathing is 15 to 17.00 per ac. , bailing big rounds and big squares 18.00 each, raking is 6.50 per ac. stacking bales at the edge of the field is 5.00 each. it may be a here thing ? Been getting these prices for the last few years................. Dont price it so cheap you shoot yourself in the foot , mans got to make a profit.............


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## deadmoose

View attachment FM1698.pdf


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## T & R Hay Farms

Another question I had, is what can we be expecting for tons per acre? The owner is roughly thinking 4 tons per acre, but we have never cut and baled oat hay. I am thinking the share idea is going to be better, since we supply to beef operations in our area and it will be easy to sell to them.

Thanks for the responses.

Richard


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## swmnhay

How do plan on getting 2 cuttings?

Cut early in boot stage and then cut regrowth?

Cut in dough stage and replant and try for double crop?


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## T & R Hay Farms

The farmer is thinking of cutting in the dough stage and then replanting. So yes, trying to double crop. This is his 1st experience as well.

I would like to put up the best quality possible if we do it on shares so I can sell the bales to my clients. So what is the best stage to cut at?

Thanks,

Richard.


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## swmnhay

There will be a huge amount of difference in tonnage depending at what stage you cut it at.If it was me for fat cattle/stock cows I'd cut more tonnage milk-soft dough stage.

If you cut in boot stage you may only get half the tonnage.

There are some varieties of oats specifically for forage.I'd check that out.I'll see if we have any available.I've never sold any.Its more popular out west.


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## T & R Hay Farms

We would like the tonnage, and what are the varieties mostly raised for forage crops? I will relay this information to the farmer, since the more tonnage means more money to our operation as well.

I discussed it with the farmer today, and we would try to cut milk-soft dough stage. Since he would like to have more tonnage, and being we are the custom cutters, would like more tonnage as well.

Thanks for the good information so far.


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## barnrope

Pretty common here is cutting for $12/acre, raking $6/acre, baling 5x6 rounds for $12-$14. The later crop will likely be much lighter than the 1st. Last season the oats planted after July 1st here only went about 1.5 tons per acre.


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## hog987

I dont know what breeds you can get there but here baler oats is a good forage one. You guys might have something different. Oats can take awhile to dry and they are harder to tell if dry thsn hay. Have to make sure the inside of the stems are dry. I dont know how long your growing season is but here we need about 70-80 days to get the oats to soft dough stage. If you have a forage oat cutting in soft dough will get you some grain in the heads but the leaves will still be green.


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## LaneFarms

At that stage of maturity it is hard to get oats dry enough to bale. I have seen some down here lay on the ground a 3 or 4 days and still be 50% moisture. To put up dry oat hay I like to wait a little later and cut just before the plant starts to dry down naturally. You will sacrifice a little quality this way but they dry a lot quicker.


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## swmnhay

I'd look at a couple other options besides oats.That you could seed 1 time for the yr.

Annual Ryegrass.It would be seeded once.And you should be able to get 3 cuttings.It would be finer hay then oats.

Japenese millet you would get multiple cuttings also.


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## T & R Hay Farms

swmnhay said:


> I'd look at a couple other options besides oats.That you could seed 1 time for the yr.
> 
> Annual Ryegrass.It would be seeded once.And you should be able to get 3 cuttings.It would be finer hay then oats.
> 
> Japenese millet you would get multiple cuttings also.


do you have a rough estimate of the TPA for the year on Annual Ryegrass?

Thanks


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## swmnhay

I normaly get 4-5 tpa as a cover crop seeded over alfalfa.Cut 2x.I seeded 8-10 lbs acre and used 50 lbs of N.This is on heavier soil.

If you was just going after tonnage I'd plant maybe 20 lbs acre and bump the N up.

It does like moisture and N for maximum production.


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## BisonMan

I put some oats down as a cover crop as I'm working to build a pasture and it keeps the weeds down, and will bring in some extra money. I'm a rookie too and because I have high alfalfa / BF trefoil in my mix I went light on Nitrogen - 30lbs / acre.

Anyway the oats ended up costing more than the grass seed, so we will see how it all comes out. I am only looking for 1 cut of oats and can be patient but how is this gonna turn out?

I suppose I could get in there and spread some manure along the way.


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