# Email me on how a kid could get started custom haying



## Interested (Jul 10, 2011)

Who ever has used equipment for sale would like to give me advice or would like to give a gift to me email me at [email protected] Im fourteen almost fifteen and would like to start custom haying


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Glad to see ambitious young people ready to work. Do you have any experience with farming or hay in general? Your best bet at this point is to hire out to someone already in the business to get experience and have them help you establish a clientel and possibly some ownership in equipment. You are a few years away from taking off on a business venture like this on your own, you gotta finish an education first and get a driver's license. Custom hay making can be rewarding, but it can also make you old long before your years. I have been doing custom round baling for 11 years now, I am 38 years old. Trust me, their long days, nights with out sleep, your social life from May to September will be non-existant (kind of important for a guy your age), and at the end of the season, you may owe more money than you did at the beginning. Where are you located, I could always use some help.


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## charlesmontgomery (Jun 4, 2011)

Yep, go work for somebody else and get some experience and save your money so that you can buy some equipment later on. If someone gave you the equipment you don't have the experience to run it anyway. Are you a mechanic, can you fix your own stuff? Where will you get the money for diesel, parts, etc. Got any idea on how to get customers? You can't drive so you can't even go to the dealership for parts. What do you know about custom baling? Have you ever cut, raked or baled before? If not you aren't ready to run a business anyway

Go find someone and work your butt off for them. Do everything they ask and even more


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

All good advice so far!! I would say to get into custom haying you need to have a good set of marketable skills doing hay. The best way to aquire that is to work for someone else in the business for a while. The following are strong points you should have:

Ambition - YOU are going to need to get things done

Some kind of liking of hay - it can be fun, it can be challanging, it can be maddening; if you dont like it you'll eventually get tired of it

Mechanical skill - hay is very time sensitive; you need equipment that is reliable, well adjusted, and when (not if) something breaks, your ability to fix quickly is almost priceless

Experience - "The smart person knows the rules, the wise person knows the exeptions"

and Money - Use what you earn wisely, and dont forget about your credit rating: if you do start a viable business it is very helpfull if the bank will work with you

I work for someone else doing custom hay and now do some of my own custom. Listen well, learn as much as you can!! Good luck.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

"The smart person knows the rules, the wise person knows the exeptions" I love this quote it is with out a doubt a must in any business. Your post is absolutly dead on. Young man no one is discouraging you from the hay business only showing the road to success. I have worked for my father since I was old enough to sit on his lap on the John Deere D I am now 50 years old and have a full time job at a aircraft plant 70 miles away for the last 25 yrs. I raise 25 cow calf pairs and put up my own hay. I have gone through some rough machinery patching them up to get it done in the time I have. My job is headed to Mexico and with God's help will TRY to make it Haying. Learn what you can, forget nothing and slowly build your machinery assets. Finish school doing the best you can so that in the real world you will be able to do the best you can. Good luck...Martin


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## Interested (Jul 10, 2011)

actually I can drive I am a mechanic I can weld and fix my own stuff and I have a full time job on our 5000 acre ranch yes 5000 acre and we do hava a circle of hay


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## charlesmontgomery (Jun 4, 2011)

Then use your daddy's equipment for free or rent it from him


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Let's see, you are 14 and you can drive, I could drive at 14 but for some reason the state didn't allow that, get caught driving and you won't get your license until 18, not a good start! And you're a mechanic, come on, mechanics don't just turn wrenches, they diagnose, troubleshoot, and repair. Those skill sets take years to develop, you are no mechanic young man, you may be handy with a wrench and the fact that you know what a wrench is, that's a plus, but a mechanic, I doubt that. A welder? Really?! Borrow dad's/moms equipment, lean on them for a few years, you will quickly realize that making hay is very unprofitable even with borrowed equipment, slow down, live your life, you are in the best years of your life and can't see it for what it is, enjoy yourself, you are 14 now but in a blink of the eye you will be 25, then you may be accomplished enough to call yourself a welder or mechanic, until then consume knowledge, and girls (in moderation of course) they will be more of a challenge than farming, and surely will distract you from the rigors of farm life. May even make you change careers, probably a good thing, good luck to you, I do admire your ambition, if only more were like you, this country would be in much better shape!


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

somedevildawg said:


> And you're a mechanic, come on, mechanics don't just turn wrenches, they diagnose, troubleshoot, and repair. Those skill sets take years to develop, you are no mechanic young man, you may be handy with a wrench and the fact that you know what a wrench is, that's a plus, but a mechanic, I doubt that. A welder? Really?!


Never know, I wasn't even fourteen yet and was completely rebuilding my race bikes. Split cases, rebuild transmissions, forks, or whatever I screwed up the race before. Started out fixing bent exhaust pipes using a torch, borax and a coat hanger. Got into high school and finally had access to a wire welder then. Gotta admit dragging a caved in exhaust pipe to school on the bus kinda sucked.


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## dbergh (Jun 3, 2010)

I am going to tell you some things that you won't want to hear at your age based on your post but this is what you need to be doing in the next ten years:
*Finish High school
Go to college and get away from the Ag industry for a while. 
Live your life as a young man and become well rounded.*

As mentioned you will probably find a girlfriend /wife at some point in this process and that will also change your viewpoint on most everything in life.

Farming and raising hay in particular can be a great way of life but not always a great way to make a living. It is extremely competitive and profit margins are razor thin most of the time. It requires a wide range of skill sets in management that you will not necessarily get if you don't leave the farm for a time and get an education while you are young (and when it is the easiest to do so). It requires terrible hours many times and working through what can appear to be impossible problems and obstacles at the most inopportune times. You are dong your self an injustice if you don't take this time to learn about many different things, and experience some other things not all farm related. There is a big world out there and we can all learn things from it- especially at your age. 
I have raised four adult sons over the last 28 years and they have all taken a route similar to what I have described here and are doing quite well in life. I purposely did not encourage them to return to the farm because I did not want them to feel pressured to do so. I wanted them to go live life first and then decide if this is something they still want to do. Only 1 out of 4 boys has chosen to come back and that is the way it should be in this business-you have to be 100% certain that this is what you truly love to do and be fully committed to its success. *You have to love it or you will eventually hate it!*. No disrespect intended here but you simply don't know a lot of life's answers yet, (in fact you don't even know most of the questions so far!). I have been at this business for 30 years and have learned many things the hard way that I would have already known if I had taken my own advice at your age!
If you do these things you will be well positioned to come back into the industry as a professional and be most likely to succeed and be much happier with life in general. In addition you will have a greater depth and understanding about how the rest of the world outside of agriculture works and how you can put some of these things to use in your own business practices. 
Your ambition and skills to date are to be commended and will serve you well in time, but you are a long way form being in a position to do what you want to do successfully at this point in your life. Dont be in a big hurry-you've got the rest of your life to work!
Sorry for all of the philosophical rambling but there is more to life than just cuttin' hay and turnin' wrenches and I want to see you succeed in this business, not get frustrated and quit at such a young age.
Good luck to you and let us know what you decide to do in the future!


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Well said, experience the flavor life has to offer, good luck, work hard there's lots of people who are depending on you so they can sit on there arses, another one of life's little realities that you will soon come to realize!


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