Baling And Wrapping charges

[RastaBoy]

sorry if covered before but doing some for neighbour could you tell me what people are charging this year,
Fixed Chamber with chopper ?
Wrapping no wrap supplied ?
Mowing per acre ?
Tedding per acre ?
Raking per acre ?
Stacking ?
Thanks in advance don't want to overcharge but also not a charity.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

 

[RastaBoy]

Thank you for that I did see it but it seems a bit over the top on baling and wrapping charges. I was thinking the wrapping should start with a 1 but perhaps I am living in the past.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Thank you for that I did see it but it seems a bit over the top on baling and wrapping charges. I was thinking the wrapping should start with a 1 but perhaps I am living in the past.

I thought that....I'm not sure people like divulging what they charge (different rates for different customers and they don't want other contractors knowing what they charge) but I don't think round bailing will start with a £1 I'd of thought a 4foot found would be around £2.20-£2.40 a bale now, but I've been doing my own bailing for a long time so I may also be out of touch

 

[DrDunc]

Baling 4 foot fixed chamber chopped £3/bale plus diesel. Solid centre bales still charged the same as there's only 2 in this district, but I don't contract with mine, and the other one isn't screwed up to full density.

Mowing £10/acre plus diesel

Tedding £4/acre plus diesel

Raking £6/acre plus diesel

Wrapping £1.50 / bale for 4layer, £1.90 for 6 layer, wrap not supplied, plus diesel

Carting / stacking £30 / hour plus diesel

 

[RastaBoy]

Thankyou for that.
I'm thinking £1.50 to wrap and £2.80 to bale. Which is what I'd be happy to pay.
We've used all our own diesel so would £12 mow and £6 for raking and tedding be fair ?
I always like to think what I'd be happy with.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Thankyou for that.
I'm thinking £1.50 to wrap and £2.80 to bale. Which is what I'd be happy to pay.
We've used all our own diesel so would £12 mow and £6 for raking and tedding be fair ?
I always like to think what I'd be happy with.

£1.50 to wrap...who's supplying the plastic?

 

[RastaBoy]

£1.50 to wrap...who's supplying the plastic?

They are

 

[DrDunc]

£1.50 to wrap...who's supplying the plastic?

The contractor

It's over £1.50 a bale for 4 layers of plastic!

 

[Northeastfarmer]

The contractor

It's over £1.50 a bale for 4 layers of plastic!

I know what it costs...I wrap my own

 

[DrDunc]

Thankyou for that.
I'm thinking £1.50 to wrap and £2.80 to bale. Which is what I'd be happy to pay.
We've used all our own diesel so would £12 mow and £6 for raking and tedding be fair ?
I always like to think what I'd be happy with.

Mowing will be 16 to 20 l/hour diesel for 5 to 7 acres per hour, so worst case your £12 per acre diesel included will be spot on compared to the prices here.

Tedding and raking will be 10 to 14 l/hour so I think an additional £2 per hour over the going rate for plus diesel may be a bit high. Depends on the crop and machine size how many acres an hour though.

 

[RastaBoy]

It's a good crop single rotor rake and a haybob. Maybe £6 rake and £5 tedding.

 

[hindmaist]

So,to get a contractor to do the whole job on two cuts might be £180 per acre plus?

 

[DrDunc]

So,to get a contractor to do the whole job on two cuts might be £180 per acre plus?

Say 15 bale to the acre total for two cuts.....

£67 for baling and wrapping
£20 mowing (an acre twice), same for tedding and raking, so another £20.

Carting and stacking £30 per acre roughly.

Plastic £2 a bale for 4 layer and net, £30/ acre.

Total £167 per acre plus diesel, so you're about spot on.

Scary paying a contractor to bale and wrap isn't it!!!!

I own all my own (second hand) kit.

Don't have a pit for a chopper crew here on a tenanted farm. Diesel usage difference pays for over half my bale plastic though.

 

[RastaBoy]

Say 15 bale to the acre total for two cuts.....

£67 for baling and wrapping
£20 mowing (an acre twice), same for tedding and raking, so another £20.

Carting and stacking £30 per acre roughly.

Plastic £2 a bale for 4 layer and net, £30/ acre.

Total £167 per acre plus diesel, so you're about spot on.

Scary paying a contractor to bale and wrap isn't it!!!!

I own all my own (second hand) kit.

Don't have a pit for a chopper crew here on a tenanted farm. Diesel usage difference pays for over half my bale plastic though.

There would be another £7.50 per acre for net
You've not added that onto your plastic. Think it works out about 50p per bale. Am I putting too much on

 

[kill]

The contractor

It's over £1.50 a bale for 4 layers of plastic!

Really. 90%+ of my wrapping either with Fusions or static remote is 6 layers and 20 bales per roll. 12 turns Fusion or 24 remote wrapper turn with single spool (£3 a Bale roughly).
The other done with with remote wrapper at 17 turns and I have never got above 27 bales a roll. Silotite is around £56.50 a roll currently so £2 a bale and I supply almost all the wrap. And any damaged bales are rewrapped at my cost for free and damaged netwrap bales always get an extra covering of wrap on me
Very often customers like to pay a year+ later
I guess milk still gets paid monthly tho?

 

[DrDunc]

There would be another £7.50 per acre for net
You've not added that onto your plastic. Think it works out about 50p per bale. Am I putting too much on

Four layer of plastic is about £1.70 a bale. Net is 42 to 46p per bale for 2.5 turns.





Comparing self propelled to the £170 per acre plus diesel for two cuts baled and wrapped:

Chopper £28/acre is £56/acre two cuts

4trailers, and two on the pit is £200 / hour, at 20 acre per hour average twice, £20/ acre

Mowing £20/acre

Tedding and raking £20/acre

Total for two cuts £116 per acre plus diesel.

Diesel costs for the two systems will be about 20l per acre per cut for baling, and 40 for self propelled. So over two cuts factoring in diesel, baling works out at approximately £190 per acre, and self propelled £160.

I allow the grass to wilt longer than is possible with pit silage, making forage that is about 50% dry matter. This reduces the number of bales per acre by about a third compared to baling at conventional pit silage 25% dry matter. Reducing the number of bales per acre by wilting reduces the cost of baling using a contractor by about £20 per acre for two cuts.

The cost per acre for baling two cuts including diesel then is within £10 an acre of a self propelled team. So not expensive!



Factor in the losses at a pit, and paying a contractor to bale and wrap works out cheaper per acre than contractor made precision chopped pit silage.

Unless you are a large scale producer, owning and operating self propelled forage equipment is not financially justifiable. Owning your own baling and wrapping equipment is though.

 

[Onwards and Upwards]

Surely you should also cost in the disposal of wrap and net at the other end. Also feeding quality of pit v bailed?

 

[BobGreen]

Round here mowing is about £8/acre and Self propelled forager about £18/acre
Crazy crazy about what I was charging 20 years ago!

 

[DrDunc]

Surely you should also cost in the disposal of wrap and net at the other end. Also feeding quality of pit v bailed?

True, aye

I get about 200 bales wrap into a solway recycling bin. Get about 400 bales worth of net into a bin. Uplift is £20 a bin here.

Say 20 acres worth for simplicity, that's just over two pound an acre for recycling.

If the grass going into a bale is the same as a pit, it'll be the same quality coming out. There will be less dry matter wastage with bales according to the "experts".