# Raking and custom pricing



## Speedrower220

I kind of want to get an idea of how many of you guys rake your hay, and secondly how much yall charge for custom hay service.

I rake very little hay, mainly if it gets rained on. I have a New Holland swather and lay down a 5.5' windrow. I tend to find that the hay will dry just as quick laying in a wider windrow as it would raking it and turning it over. Furthermore the bottom of the windrow is dry(14-16%) and has full green color and is not sun bleached. Forage testing also is a better quality not being bleached in both sides.

We charge 18/18. $18/acre and $18/bale for 6x5 Bales.


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## swmnhay

$15 for cutting/ conditioning. $13 for 5x6.Rakeing free with the baling.

HERE most will buy their own eq before paying this much.


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## Tx Jim

Welcome to HT.

Where are you located in N. Tx? I've been custom baling since '87 and have been raking all the hay I bale since about '90. In normal 2-3 bale to acre Coastal hay I rake three 9' swathes to Git-R-Done. I can't imagine baling have to make 3 times the trips around the field to get the hay baled. Think about the 3 times extra wear on baler & towing tractor not to mention the extra labor involved. I charge $22 per 4X5.5 bales for cutting,raking & baling. IMHO what other custom balers charge in my local area tends to dictate what I can charge.With the price of parts & equipment I think my price needs to be increased.

I guess I'm just too set in my ways BUT I'll never understand why baling people charge X $ for cutting & X $ for baling when all functions must be performed to make a bale of hay


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## somedevildawg

I agree.....I charge $85-90 an acre.

If I didn't rake, I may have to charge a bit more


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## Teslan

Tx Jim said:


> Welcome to HT.
> 
> Where are you located in N. Tx? I've been custom baling since '87 and have been raking all the hay I bale since about '90. In normal 2-3 bale to acre Coastal hay I rake three 9' swathes to Git-R-Done. I can't imagine baling have to make 3 times the trips around the field to get the hay baled. Think about the 3 times extra wear on baler & towing tractor not to mention the extra labor involved. I charge $22 per 4X5.5 bales for cutting,raking & baling. IMHO what other custom balers charge in my local area tends to dictate what I can charge.With the price of parts & equipment I think my price needs to be increased.
> 
> I guess I'm just too set in my ways BUT I'll never understand why baling people charge X $ for cutting & X $ for baling when all functions must be performed to make a bale of hay


Some people might have a mower, but not a baler or vice versa. I do a little custom baling with my 3x3 for my cousin. I charge him for baling and stacking. He cuts and rakes. He sometimes cuts with me with his swather. So he charges per acre for that. A bundle pricing makes sense if you do everything.


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## Tx Jim

I understand the need for split charges when 2 different operators combine services to perform one completed task.


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## Speedrower220

Well my 16' header would be relatable to raking two 9' windrows together. The way I see it is if it doesn't necessarily have to be raked then what's the point. If you rake it that is more fuel torake and then more fuel to bale. I charge 18/18 and think about if if it makes 2 bales per acre that's only 27/bale and if it makes 3 bales that's 24/bale. As some one said above $85-90/acre. That would be 4/bales to the acre with my calculations. The big ranches i bale for are extremely happy and I am booked for wheat baling already.


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## Speedrower220

I also see where some people have a 2/bale per acre minimum and a large 6x5 bale with my Calculations would be 54/acre or 27/bale which TAMU says the average for those bale rates are 30$/bale


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## Circle MC Farms LLC

Speedrower220 said:


> Well my 16' header would be relatable to raking two 9' windrows together. The way I see it is if it doesn't necessarily have to be raked then what's the point. If you rake it that is more fuel torake and then more fuel to bale. I charge 18/18 and think about if if it makes 2 bales per acre that's only 27/bale and if it makes 3 bales that's 24/bale. As some one said above $85-90/acre. That would be 4/bales to the acre with my calculations. The big ranches i bale for are extremely happy and I am booked for wheat baling already.


The advantage of a rake is you can pull two of your 16' swaths together and cut the number of passes your baler makes across the field in half. The savings in wear and tear on tractor and baler can be enormous if you cover a lot of acres. Less passes equals less diesel, less tire wear, less pickup wear on the baler, fewer total hours put on the tractor. You could stand to save a lot of money.

If you would like to cut the number of passes even further, consider one of Lacy Hay Products' baler connection units allowing you to rake and bale in one pass. These units eliminate the extra labor and tractor associated with raking because it is all pulled by your baling tractor.

http://balerconnection.com/

Edited to include videos of operation. (Not mine)











Also I have attached a (hand drawn) graphic showing some advantages of raking and especially in your case using the baler connection. I'm willing to answer questions about it, but I am not associated with Lacy Hay Products so pricing related questions will have to be directed to them.


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## Speedrower220

I have seen those rake combos. I like making a nice even bale and with my5.5' windrow I don't have to weave back and forth to make a uniform bale I can drive right over the top of it between the tires and I don't leave any on the ground and the pickup teeth stay full on the baler and the experience I have had doing it this way the bales don't stretch in the middle or get rounded off. One of my hired hands didn't change the windrow widths in the swather after cutting for little squares and he had rake it and weave back and forth to make a bale and then a month later the bales busted with too much hay in one place or the other in the bale(mainly in the middle of the bale)


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## Speedrower220

I am pretty close to buying a 40' dealer header for this big ranches I do. And leaving my 16' header for the little 100acre or less grass fields I do later in the summer


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## swmnhay

Speedrower220 said:


> I have seen those rake combos. I like making a nice even bale and with my5.5' windrow I don't have to weave back and forth to make a uniform bale I can drive right over the top of it between the tires and I don't leave any on the ground and the pickup teeth stay full on the baler and the experience I have had doing it this way the bales don't stretch in the middle or get rounded off. One of my hired hands didn't change the windrow widths in the swather after cutting for little squares and he had rake it and weave back and forth to make a bale and then a month later the bales busted with too much hay in one place or the other in the bale(mainly in the middle of the bale)


If it is raked correctly you won't have to weave back and forth either.I use a V-rake to make the windrow 5.5' wide.It also aids in drying if there is any wet spots in the windrow and increases the baling efficiency with a larger windrow.


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## Speedrower220

The good thing about farming....there is more than one correct way to do something or rather there is more than one way to get something done.


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## Circle MC Farms LLC

Speedrower220 said:


> I am pretty close to buying a 40' dealer header for this big ranches I do. And leaving my 16' header for the little 100acre or less grass fields I do later in the summer


You're going to have a pretty hard time getting 40' of unconditioned wheat to dry behind a draper header. Unless you're cutting in front of some big choppers I would stay away from that.


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## Speedrower220

True, however many people I've seen and heard from say using a canon roller will help with drying still take a little bit longer but doable. I'm getting a draper header and roller anyways for cutting canola...So it's worth a try


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## Widairy

I just smile when I read what guys charge in other parts of the country. Locally I could never get half of the numbers I'm hearing in general. There are guys going around cutting for 11$ an acre. There are other guys running their balers around for 7$ bale.


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## Speedrower220

Widairy said:


> I just smile when I read what guys charge in other parts of the country. Locally I could never get half of the numbers I'm hearing in general. There are guys going around cutting for 11$ an acre. There are other guys running their balers around for 7$ bale.


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## Speedrower220

Dang... you don't make very much then. 12.50/bale. Then take out netwrAp, maintenance, wear, labor...eek


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## MT hayer

I know where you are coming from Speedrower. It is called thinking outside of the box. I have 2 draper heads. A 25 and a 30 ft. I can't type all that I want to cause it will take all afternoon. But what I have learned is, when cutting that grain hay, it is best to employ a bar rake. Reason being the draper head lays it straight back, so the baler pickup will miss some of the bottom. 
I have mine setup for three ways. One is just in the middle, I use it for crop or grain. The second is all the crop out the left, so if the hay is thin I can put 50 or 60 ft together. Just takes a bar rake to flip and speeds the drying up. The third is the right draper slide half way to the left. So I get a little windrow underneath and one out the right. I use this on heavier crops. Less hay in one windrow, and room to drive the rake tractor in between. I recommend a Vermeer hydraulic rake. You won't be sorry. I have had a learning curve with it, but I agree, it is nicer hay. It keeps color just like putting it up loose. With the rake, it will gain you two days sooner baleing time. You have to rake, one, maybe two days ahead of baleing time. Have to experiment.
40 ft might just be too much. Macdon makes a 4 belt draper head which I really want, but too much money.
I agree with you on the no raking a conditioned windrow. It needs to be at least the 16 or 18 is better. If the hay is thin and needs to be raked, I use the draper head, or turn the cows into it and farm it for a couple years. Guys up here rake 2 18ft windrows together, and it gets so big it bunches up under the tractor. Then it makes a crap bale that is terrible to haul. I know when I bale conditioned verses non, the non will weigh more. It takes the baler more revolutions to compact the stems that are broke into a skeleton shape. The non conditioned are straight and lay together.
I want to hear how your season turned out maybe you tried something different? I am at 15 and 15. Plus travel and roughness of the field if necessary.


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## Randy Litton

Conditioned Vaughn Bermuda hay in a windrow, raked in the evening before dew fall. Raking before sun down reduces sun bleaching from sun up to bale time.

Turing the hay over before 1840 MF inline baling the next day seems to make the windrow into a cord that is less easily baled because of windrow pickup.

Tedding the hay then raking produces an easier baling experience.

Comments?


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