I need someone to hay my pasture

[valleyview]

I have close to 10 acres of pasture that is primed to make hay. The problem is that I have no equipment. Is it common to get someone else to cut and bale? If so, what is a reasonable price. Should I give them 1/2 the hay, more?, less? The grass is mostly Timothy grass I think. Just curious if this is a common request. I am new to the board and am learning a lot from the old pros. Thanks!

 

[CritterZone]

It depends on where you are, but I don't think this is uncommon. We trade pasture space for tractor work. This year he will cut and bale our 10 acre hay field, and we will pasture 20 cow-calf pairs until fall. Last year we paid him to hay our field and he charged us an hourly rate to cut and a per-bale price to bale. We ended up with 30 ton of hay, and were able to sell enough to cover our costs. If you can find someone close to you who has the equipment you may be able to make a deal with them.

 

[greenmulberry]

I would post this on Craigslist, in the farm and garden section. Propose splitting the hay if they harvest it, and see if you get any takers.

But this is not uncommon for people to do.

 

[BrownSheep]

Nope not uncommon. There are "Custom" farmers who make a living doing just this...That might be another option, looking up custom farmers in your area. although I think they typically do larger acreages.

Your best bet is probably going to be craigslist.

 

[Martin Farms]

We do this too, cut on the halves and deliver it for them. We get half and they get half. A lot of farmers around here do this for the ones who don't have the right equipment to do this. And i agree with greenmulberry , post you an ad on your local Craigslist or post in a bargain finder or trades time if your area has one.

 

[Womwotai]

I have close to 10 acres of pasture that is primed to make hay. The problem is that I have no equipment. Is it common to get someone else to cut and bale? If so, what is a reasonable price. Should I give them 1/2 the hay, more?, less? The grass is mostly Timothy grass I think. Just curious if this is a common request. I am new to the board and am learning a lot from the old pros. Thanks!

I know this is an old thread and you probably already got the answer you want but your situation sounds so similar to ours that I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents anyway. Our pasture is 7 acres and we wanted to harvest the hay in order to over-winter our small sheep/goat herd on it. I asked around and posted an ad on a Facebook swap site dedicated to "farm animals and equipment". Someone saw my ad on Facebook and contacted me with the name of someone. One thing led to another and we did get our hay cut. Around here the arrangement is that the property owner gets ⅓ while the hay cutter gets the other ⅔. In our case, the guy who cut the hay only has a round baler and we don't have the equipment to move round bales, so wanted our hay in square bales. The hay cutter had a buddy with a square baler so the day after the hay was cut, the buddy came in and baled it for us. They split the ⅔ between them, so everyone was happy Meanwhile, our ⅓ is lasting far better than we anticipated and I've just placed an ad on Craigslist to sell the bales it is now apparent we will not be using.