Costing of baling via contractor v baling yourself
- Thread starter t murrr
- Start date
I was in the same position last year when a neighbour who usually bales mine was giving up. I was offered his baler as I have my own wrapper but I couldn’t make it stack up, due to time really, I couldn’t physically rake, bale and wrap and carry on my own. Not only that I couldn’t really make it stack up financially, it will be getting on for £1 per bale in netwrap and diesel when chopped let alone the cost of repayment on baler and depreciation so I now get another neighbour in to bale and I just wrap them and in return go and wrap his bales
M-J-G
Member
How much help and time do you have?
Who are you placed for tractors?
Are you better off just shifting bales as the contractor bales them?
I'm not sure it warrants the hassles for 500 bales.
Keep in mind a contractor is an extra man doing a job, so it's worth considering that if you have to pay another driver if you do the job in house.
If a dad, son or a full time worker etc. is on farm anyway it always helps spread the cost if they can take a machine.
Who are you placed for tractors?
Are you better off just shifting bales as the contractor bales them?
I'm not sure it warrants the hassles for 500 bales.
Keep in mind a contractor is an extra man doing a job, so it's worth considering that if you have to pay another driver if you do the job in house.
If a dad, son or a full time worker etc. is on farm anyway it always helps spread the cost if they can take a machine.
Would you bale hay/straw as well?
Lateral thinking.... Loader wagon and clamp it yourself, full control on quality then?
Although I am sure you have contemplated this already.
Last edited:
TripleSix
Member
- Location
- Helmsley, North Yorkshire
I wanted our own baler, was let down by a contractor and the hay got rained on.
We've a lot more flexibility and can pick and choose when and where to bale.
We only make 200 ish bales of hay/haylage a year and 200 bales of straw, but struggle with the straw from a rotary combine so got help with that last year.
Have a New Holland 650, paid £1000 for it, it's had a couple of belts and chains and a bearing but nowt serious.
We've a lot more flexibility and can pick and choose when and where to bale.
We only make 200 ish bales of hay/haylage a year and 200 bales of straw, but struggle with the straw from a rotary combine so got help with that last year.
Have a New Holland 650, paid £1000 for it, it's had a couple of belts and chains and a bearing but nowt serious.
dinderleat
Member
- Location
- Wells
Spend the money on a silage pit
- Location
- Galway Ireland
As a small contractor I don’t think it makes sense unless you’ve got free labour from family as you’d be all year cutting baling gathering on your own. We always plan our work so our customers are never let down I see a lot of negativity towards contractors on farming forum which I think is very unfair I’d say 80% of farms here in Ireland rely on contractors and 50% of them are keeping contractors going while the rest take there time paying!!so basically I’d say the 50% fast payers are never waiting for there contractor for to long!!!!
Boohoo
Member
- Location
- Newtownabbey
Having tried contracting and driving for contractors, including one who had a Taarup Bio I'd say baling 500 bales yourself will cost you more and result in lower quality silage than getting a contractor to bale for you.
betweenthelines
Member
- Location
- southwest
How's the quality going to suffer? I'd say you would get better silage if you're in control of the job
I'd say that if you're doing your own you can pick just how much you want to do at a time and when. You might have two fields that might not be ideal to cut and bale at the same time and you can do each when at the right time rather than wait and do both together just because the contractor doesn't want the hassle of two smaller jobs.
Could easily get better silage giving you higher lwg or milk yield.
Boohoo
Member
- Location
- Newtownabbey
Quality will suffer when your own baler breaks down and you're either waiting for parts, fixing it or waiting for a contractor to rescue you.
deleted user 837354
Member
500 bales- the thought of that makes my head spin. Met someone who makes 3000 round bales a year. Sheer masochism.
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
Hmmm my concern with 500 bales would be getting a contractor to come and do it, unless you did it all at the same time. Good chance you'd get moved down the list if someone bigger came shouting.
We do 1100-1200 bales ourselves (silage) and wouldn't even consider relying on contractor. We do it as/how/when we want. It's no bother in a good year, like the last 2. But get a summer like 2012 again and you'll be glad of having the kit sitting.
We do 1100-1200 bales ourselves (silage) and wouldn't even consider relying on contractor. We do it as/how/when we want. It's no bother in a good year, like the last 2. But get a summer like 2012 again and you'll be glad of having the kit sitting.
Greythundercloudys
Member
Yes, can't beat your own baler, you can watch the forecast and just go but a contractor is always busy if weather is bad and comes when the rain is just starting to fall at 7 at night, 500 bales isn't a big number. Just do it yourself.
I can totally relate to being left sitting when its mowed and in prime condition for lifting .I know this causes a lot of controversy but I could n t see the point in raking it .great in a wet year less rows but I would auto swade .There would be two of us at it and I sort of stagger the grass for baling not to leave a slap to do at once .My only concern is what price point could you put on your bales doing it yourself
I would stick with a contractor myself as you said you will be pushed for time doing everything. A Tarruup bio isn't a very modern baler so you are more likley to have breakdowns, net and wrap costs will go up as well as you will get less weight in a bale with an older baler so will have more bales. We currently make 1000 round bales of silage and 1000 round of straw a year and I would never consider owning a baler or wrapper. I would like to as I like to be fully in control and not rely on others but there are only so many hours in the day especailly if you are a one man band. Mowing, raking, carting, stacking and post cut fertiliser take up enough time before you include all the day to day sheep, cattle, arable and random jobs that pop up!
Greythundercloudys
Member
There only two of us, making about 500 bales, just cut twenty acre at a time, can bale wrap and stack 100 bales a day no bother. Fast enough for us, make it in between clipping sheep.
Monty
Member
- Location
- Nantwich, Cheshire
Horses for courses. Yes you can do it cheaper yourself if you go down the older cheaper baler route if you don't mind sacrificing a bit of speed and reliability. It's extra work for yourself but being able to bale exactly when you like is worth an awful lot and will lead to improved silage quality. If you buy a machine you will easily pick up some contracting work if you wish to do some (I turned down quite a lot of new work last year). We do 1000 bales each year for ourselves and would never go back to using a contractor for baling
Last edited:
I have a baler for less than 500 bales year total.
As above it is more to do with having time to do it all.
If I have to rake, bale, cart and wrap myself about 60 bales a day is enough.
I much prefer it if a neighbour will bale for us, and I can get wrapping before lunch.
Because you can do it all doesn't mean you should.
As above it is more to do with having time to do it all.
If I have to rake, bale, cart and wrap myself about 60 bales a day is enough.
I much prefer it if a neighbour will bale for us, and I can get wrapping before lunch.
Because you can do it all doesn't mean you should.
We bale less than 500 rounds with a JD 568. It is easy to cost the labour and fuel etc but the real issue is the repair cost of an old machine. Ours was out of action for a while due to the control box which just stopped working. So we had all the costs of ownership AND a contractor for part of the season.
The previous year was virtually repair free. The chance you take. We value control of the process so we carry on. Slowly.
The previous year was virtually repair free. The chance you take. We value control of the process so we carry on. Slowly.
- Location
- somerset
brilliant idea, and totally agree, except for the legal requirements, which are, every pit since 92, have 'legal' items on it. It's got to meet requirements. Having had an EA visit, f##### council drain, they have stopped us using 2 silage pits, 1 stone bottomed, has to be concreted, and a e pit, the other, concrete bottom and sides, we have to install 18 cubic meter effluent pit, circa £12000, and I chap who quoted, said we were really lucky, most have to do a lot more ! And they follow up. He wasn't happy with our lagoon, and had aerial photo's, showing when we dug it, and when we enlarged it, both illegally.
So, be warned, what most of us think is ok, probably isn't, but will only surface when a problem occurs, our problem, a council drain they wont unblock !