# Square hay hauling rates?



## bnewsom10

Last week we squared about 500 bales and about killed myself hauling it. Just trying to find out what the going rate is for somebody loading out of the field on a trailer and then stacking it in my barn. Didn't know if they get so much watch bales or by the hour or however. Let me know what y'all come up with thanks!


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## somedevildawg

I’m not sure I understand....you want someone to get them out of the field and unload back at your barn? If so, good luck...at any price.


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## Ox76

Unfortunately I have to agree with somedevildawg. It'll be cheaper for you to buy the hay and have it delivered and stacked while renting out your hay ground than having your own equipment and land and hiring someone to move and stack your own bales.

I know it's easy to spend other peoples' money but have you looked into accumulators and matching grapples? It's the ticket for one man show small square bale (idiot bricks) hay operations. It's what I'm doing. Yep. Me doooin idiot bricks.


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## r82230

Location might be a concern (I'd take the job, but you are about 40 years too late  ). you might not have any applicants. But because of the time you need them (now, hay's ready) and it's a short window to retrieve them (Mother Nature doesn't care about baled hay laying on the ground).

Hire 2 guys, $0.25 a bale for each guy. Minimum, amount $125 each, plus possibly beverage (ice cold, adult if legal age). That way if they get to humping, they could be possibly done in a couple of hours. If they take their sweet time..........................., they still get $125, just their hourly rate would be lower. 

This might sound like highway robbery, but it's what I would look at verses doing it myself and I don't handle many by hand. I'm in Ox's camp, accumulator/grapple one man show.

Larry


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## HayMike

Stackwagon.


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## stack em up

For 500 bales I’d hire someone to bale it. You won’t make enough in a hundred years to pay for much of an accumulator or a stack wagon.


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## JOR Farm

If you want to try stack wagons I have 3 that would be purty easy to pay for. They are all new Holland 1010's 1 works great, 1 ok, and 1 for parts. I never intend to bale peanut hay again therefore no need for them plan on keeping the bale bandit hooked up and sticking with grass and straw


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## KS John

r82230 said:


> Hire 2 guys, $0.25 a bale for each guy. Minimum, amount $125 each, plus possibly beverage (ice cold, adult if legal age). That way if they get to humping, they could be possibly done in a couple of hours. If they take their sweet time..........................., they still get $125, just their hourly rate would be lower.
> 
> This might sound like highway robbery, but it's what I would look at verses doing it myself and I don't handle many by hand. I'm in Ox's camp, accumulator/grapple one man show.
> 
> Larry


I am not sure you can hire anyone for $.25 a bale anymore! When I quit hauling (about 40 yrs ago) I had to pay $.12 a bale. A word on stack wagons, when I checked you needed at least a 15 foot wall barn, as the stack wagon is 13 feet tall when unloading.


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## JRehberg

I'm assuming your in Leon County, Florida. I live in Leon County also and can almost guarantee that you won't find anyone willing to do that around here. We are a government and university town (Tallahassee, FL) and we have very few people (and especially their offspring) willing to do any real work. You're best bet would probably be to find a good used bale wagon and have a barn to back it into to unload. Ironically, we have a large horse community in our area but most of the hay is shipped in from surrounding counties and south Georgia. The gentleman that rents the hay fields at my family farm an hour west of us (Marianna, FL) sells quite a bit of his horse hay over here. What kind of hay are you baling?

Jesse Rehberg


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## somedevildawg

Guess the OP is still lickin' the wounds....

wonder if he was talking about Leon FL, you're right, he's really out of luck there 

I'm bettin' we've all "been there, done that" 
Hayin' Looks purty easy from the road....


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## Ray 54

A dollar a bale by machine is rock bottom out here. Most are 1.50 to 2.00 a bale. But I am talking 3 string 100 to 120 lbs bales,700 to over 1000 bales in a day. Been 30 or 40 years since any hay has been done by hand.


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## Shetland Sheepdog

My hay goes into kicker racks, so the only hand work is unloading!

My storage is all "second floor", so up a conveyor!

I charge 50 cents more per bale for hay out of storage than for hay on wagon!

That being said, I could pay that 50 cents per bale for unloading & stacking, and break even!

At present, brother and I can unload and stack a 100 bale load in a 1/2 to 3/4 hour, and he is 77 & I am 81!

So, a couple young fellows could pocket upwards of $50 per hour each, if they were willing to break a sweat!


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## Shetland Sheepdog

Stack wagon & grapple, or accumulator & grapple would certainly eliminate the hand labor, but ones storage has to be compatible!


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## Tx Jim

Shetland Sheepdog

My congratulations to you & your brother on Y'alls small sq bale handling abilities at your """young ages"""!!!


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## r82230

KS John said:


> I am not sure you can hire anyone for $.25 a bale anymore! When I quit hauling (about 40 yrs ago) I had to pay $.12 a bale. A word on stack wagons, when I checked you needed at least a 15 foot wall barn, as the stack wagon is 13 feet tall when unloading.


I found a couple of "young" guys that do it at rate, see above post by Sheepdog. Seems him and his little brother do it for about that rate.   :lol:

Larry


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## Shetland Sheepdog

Larry, do we have to bring our own conveyor?  Might be a slight upcharge! 

One other thing, we get mileage! :huh:


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## Lostin55

Here locally a guys baler was not working right. The length was from 34 to 52 inches. Rather than fix the baler, or maybe he didn't notice, he baled it all.
Fast forward. He tried to hire me with the stacker. Nope.
He hired three kids and a older guy. They charged $1/bale. It took them over a week. It was maybe two or three thousand baled.


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## Hayjosh

r82230 said:


> I found a couple of "young" guys that do it at rate, see above post by Sheepdog. Seems him and his little brother do it for about that rate.   :lol:
> 
> Larry


Must be gold dust in your water up there. I pay $15/hr here and the kids prefer to work for me for the pay than working at a lame country club or a dairy farm that's paying them in peanuts, if it remembers to pay them.


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