flyonthewall
Member
So is nobody going by NACC rates in the UK then?
Cost of round bailing
- Thread starter Unknown12
- Start date
d williams
Member
You cannot run a baler for £2.50 bale and make money
2020 we paid £4.40 for six layers of wrap
Baling was £3.10 or £3.50 for chopped
Haven't asked this years prices yet but expect wrapping to have gone up
Baling was £3.10 or £3.50 for chopped
Haven't asked this years prices yet but expect wrapping to have gone up
- Location
- Hereford
Your probably right ...... I suppose if I were a contractor I would think different but my baler is predominantly just for my use and the little I do for anyone else would be more 'to help out' than to make money . Usually when I'm 'helping out ' it's some poky little patch that a contractor doesn't want to be bothered with and for that reason the cost would realistically be about £5 a bale
........but these little jobs are usually paid for in bar tokens !! 
Used to be able to get around 43 to 45 bales per roll out of Volac Enduro, 4 layers, 16 turns, you had to change the gears to a set that didn't drive as fast as the wrap was pre stretched at the factory (I seen it being made) it was quite handy with the twin spool only having to stop every 88 bales.
Then there was topwrap 2000 that would do about 37 IIRC running standard gears
- Location
- South Molton
So what figure have you come up with that you charge and can make money?
Let's say you bale 45 bales an hour.
45×2.50=£112.50/hr
Baler is £35k new plus tractor.
A silage trailer is 20k new plus tractor which you can get for £40/hr .
Can you not run a baler for the extra £72.50 an hour?
- Location
- North Somerset.
While I appreciate they are not easy to deal with, are silage bags still available and if so who stocks them?
- Location
- Devon
would think a trailer would last longer
- Location
- Shropshire
And depreciate less, cost less to maintain.
Net wrap alone would be 50p/bale give or take so would be a cost of £22.50/hr out of the above figures.
- Location
- Scottish Highlands
Baler will do, what, 30k bales in a lifetime? Maybe a few more but not double. Let’s say 50p a bale in depreciation/ wear. That’s another £22.50/hr taken care of.
- Location
- South Molton
It is that's very true .
I put 45 bales an hour but of course in some job you can be up to nearly a bale a minute.
2017 welgar valued at £16000 done 14000 bales
Depreciation £1/bale?
- Location
- Shropshire
Northeastfarmer
Member
- Location
- Cleveland
Every baler I’ve had has been £1 per bale in depreciation
- Location
- South Molton
Doesn't that depend on the age of the machine?
Depreciation is a steep then flattening curve.
icanshootwell
Member
- Location
- Ross-on-wye
That,s a very simplistic way of looking at it, i can,t bale straw with a trailer. I agree, you could earn more from a silage trailer but you would be in contractors cog running from dawn to dusk, that don,t interest me any more, would rather go and bale 200 bales somewhere and be home late afternoon. The problem here as normal is kit getting to expensive and us as farmers trying to justify the purchase cost. I know one chap who bought a new round baler over 7 years, that to me is crazy.
Ceri
Member
We're putting a silage pit in nxt spring, we've absolutely had enough of the work & expence of making round bale silage not to mention the mountain of plastic your left with...... Our baling bill alone will equate to £75/acre this yr without the cost of mowing tedding raking, and the endless days of lugging the things after.... I can get a local contractor £60/acre mowed included & I can leave my tractor parked in the shed not clocking hrs, burning desiel & scuffing tyres...... Of course it won't suit every1 but in our case its an absolute no brainer I literally think I'll save £3/4000 and I can have the summer off instead of lugging feckin round bales.... 
- Location
- Scottish Highlands
Yep, although there’s perhaps a bit of conflict between fixed and variable costs in these things.
All of a sudden, and including net and depreciation (plus presumably a bit more fuel), the answer to..
seems to be “no”
Pistonbroke
Member
There's a big difference in doing a couple of hundred for neighbours as ,almost,a favour and someone doing it as a main part of their income. Wrapping seems a better earner,a new wrapper is less than half the cost of a baler,does more bales per hour,only needs a small cheap tractor to drive and will do double the work before needing anything spent on it