Round baling silage cost

DrDunc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Dunsyre
Just for something to do while waiting for my fry up I did a few calculations on a parch I did a couple of weeks ago .
....now I know this will be torn apart by some but ....
I put my mowing at £15 acre
Tedding £12
Rowing £12
4'round baling £3 bale
Wrapping £5.50 bale
Including all costs .
Out of the total acreage I had 91 bales hay and 45 of silage .
Hay cost £16.51 per bale
Silage cost £13 bale .

This doesn't include fert / rent or hauling .
This highlights another "issue" with asking for contractor prices: What size are the fields?

Big difference rowing up 200 acres of dairy grass 5 times a year for £6 an acre, and the livestock farm that wants 4 fields doing after an hours traveling, and it totals 30 acres....

..... Especially when it's actually just toppings that "got away from the sheep", and the baler man chases 20 bales in an hour

Rates need to vary according to the time taken at each job
 

PTF

Member
Livestock Farmer
Looking for some advice having read through the thread.
Have some surplus grass that has got out of hand and too long to graze now.
If I was getting a contractor in to cut and wrap for bales, with them supplying everything, what would be the going rate to effectively sell the grass to them?
Contractor would supply all lab and machinery, fuel and wrap materials.
It is excess for ourselves so the contractor would then keep the bales for own use / sell on.
What would be a fair cost to charge for the grass then? Say of a cost per bale.
Approx acres say 15 acres that never seen any fertiliser this year but has got slurry earlier in the year.
Thanks
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Looking for some advice having read through the thread.
Have some surplus grass that has got out of hand and too long to graze now.
If I was getting a contractor in to cut and wrap for bales, with them supplying everything, what would be the going rate to effectively sell the grass to them?
Contractor would supply all lab and machinery, fuel and wrap materials.
It is excess for ourselves so the contractor would then keep the bales for own use / sell on.
What would be a fair cost to charge for the grass then? Say of a cost per bale.
Approx acres say 15 acres that never seen any fertiliser this year but has got slurry earlier in the year.
Thanks
All depends what the local demand for grass is and the crop. It could be worth anything from zero to £50/acre imo
 

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
Looking for some advice having read through the thread.
Have some surplus grass that has got out of hand and too long to graze now.
If I was getting a contractor in to cut and wrap for bales, with them supplying everything, what would be the going rate to effectively sell the grass to them?
Contractor would supply all lab and machinery, fuel and wrap materials.
It is excess for ourselves so the contractor would then keep the bales for own use / sell on.
What would be a fair cost to charge for the grass then? Say of a cost per bale.
Approx acres say 15 acres that never seen any fertiliser this year but has got slurry earlier in the year.
Thanks
If he was to give you £5 a bale then it would be about right .
 

Hilti

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Argyll
Looking for some advice having read through the thread.
Have some surplus grass that has got out of hand and too long to graze now.
If I was getting a contractor in to cut and wrap for bales, with them supplying everything, what would be the going rate to effectively sell the grass to them?
Contractor would supply all lab and machinery, fuel and wrap materials.
It is excess for ourselves so the contractor would then keep the bales for own use / sell on.
What would be a fair cost to charge for the grass then? Say of a cost per bale.
Approx acres say 15 acres that never seen any fertiliser this year but has got slurry earlier in the year.
Thanks
Had couple bits like this recently, no charge for the grass .
 

Sir loin

Member
Location
North Yorkshire
If he was to give you £5 a bale then it would be about right .
Was approached by a land owner to give him a price per bale for grass approx 30 acres which I priced at £5 / bale this land has not been grazed all year . Made hay 8 bales / acre sold out of field for £75 / tonne baled with a fusion. Cut and tedded twice + raked in this heat made hay in 3 days. Big demand for hay in the hills as land droughting rapidly.
 

Enry

Member
Location
Shropshire
Everything supplied by contractors bar silage plastic is what I was told .
College mate of mine is having a nightmare with son who loves to go contracting - makes a big thing of "The money he is bringing into the business" every month, but can't grasp the fact that the farm takes the hit on every repair, finance payments and pays for fuel, and has to cover pt labour to cover when he's off working elsewhere - fine line between stifling his enthusiasm for work and getting him to realise that he is largely working for nothing - started as the odd bit of carting and raking for contractor which offset thir silage bill, and developed into a lot more with main tractor putting on 1000+ hrs a year extra off farm on low paid jobs....boys and toys etc...
 
Location
Devon
Just for something to do while waiting for my fry up I did a few calculations on a parch I did a couple of weeks ago .
....now I know this will be torn apart by some but ....
I put my mowing at £15 acre
Tedding £12
Rowing £12
4'round baling £3 bale
Wrapping £5.50 bale
Including all costs .
Out of the total acreage I had 91 bales hay and 45 of silage .
Hay cost £16.51 per bale
Silage cost £13 bale .

This doesn't include fert / rent or hauling .

Just for something to do while waiting for my fry up I did a few calculations on a parch I did a couple of weeks ago .
....now I know this will be torn apart by some but ....
I put my mowing at £15 acre
Tedding £12
Rowing £12
4'round baling £3 bale
Wrapping £5.50 bale
Including all costs .
Out of the total acreage I had 91 bales hay and 45 of silage .
Hay cost £16.51 per bale
Silage cost £13 bale .

This doesn't include fert / rent or hauling .
£3 a bale for round baling is far too low this year @Hfd Cattle, needs to be more like £3.50 bale and your mowing is at least £2/3 acre too low as well.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
College mate of mine is having a nightmare with son who loves to go contracting - makes a big thing of "The money he is bringing into the business" every month, but can't grasp the fact that the farm takes the hit on every repair, finance payments and pays for fuel, and has to cover pt labour to cover when he's off working elsewhere - fine line between stifling his enthusiasm for work and getting him to realise that he is largely working for nothing - started as the odd bit of carting and raking for contractor which offset thir silage bill, and developed into a lot more with main tractor putting on 1000+ hrs a year extra off farm on low paid jobs....boys and toys etc...
Ought to sit him down and point it out in black and white for his own good.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
16589150964874841370081186396554.jpg


Very poor cost analysis by @Ark Agriculture News in this months dairy farmer.

How you can compare just capital cost of a clamp against the total cost of a round bale is unbelievable!

A unbalanced article that is very much a sales pitch than informative.

Disappointing!
 
College mate of mine is having a nightmare with son who loves to go contracting - makes a big thing of "The money he is bringing into the business" every month, but can't grasp the fact that the farm takes the hit on every repair, finance payments and pays for fuel, and has to cover pt labour to cover when he's off working elsewhere - fine line between stifling his enthusiasm for work and getting him to realise that he is largely working for nothing - started as the odd bit of carting and raking for contractor which offset thir silage bill, and developed into a lot more with main tractor putting on 1000+ hrs a year extra off farm on low paid jobs....boys and toys etc...

I will never understand this.

You can buy your own tractor and fancy kit and then go contracting with it.

Or

You can get a job driving a very posh tractor and fancy kit for a contractor. Money in your bank account at the end of each week.

Explain to me the difference? I can't see it. I know some contractors even buy the machines their long term operators want, New Holland/Deere or even a Fastrac for their mates in their pub to laugh at. What more could you want?
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
At least if you spend £80K on a clamp it is still there after 10 years.

If you spent £80K on wrap and net it's in a hole in the ground after 10 years.
Only 45k on wrap, no interest payments, in a year like this you only pay for what you wrap, clamp costs could be double this year with 50% yields.

Pros and cons to both but the article is blaintantly misinformation.
 

DrDunc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Dunsyre
Only 45k on wrap, no interest payments, in a year like this you only pay for what you wrap, clamp costs could be double this year with 50% yields.

Pros and cons to both but the article is blaintantly misinformation.
Haven't seen the article, but presumably like practically every cost comparison, no mention is given to the cost of feeding out the pit?

Capital investment to feed from a pit is significantly higher than bales. While some will manage with just a forklift and shear grab, most pits will be fed through a feeder wagon and diesel thirsty tractor.

Bales by comparison need only a loader tractor, or indeed just a bale spike on the back of the "wee" tractor, as I discovered this winter when my loader visited the tractor hospital for 3 months!

If we continue to get summers with predictable spells of hay making weather, I'd think investing in a shed and a tedder would make more sense than building a new silage pit
 
Haven't seen the article, but presumably like practically every cost comparison, no mention is given to the cost of feeding out the pit?

Capital investment to feed from a pit is significantly higher than bales. While some will manage with just a forklift and shear grab, most pits will be fed through a feeder wagon and diesel thirsty tractor.

Bales by comparison need only a loader tractor, or indeed just a bale spike on the back of the "wee" tractor, as I discovered this winter when my loader visited the tractor hospital for 3 months!

If we continue to get summers with predictable spells of hay making weather, I'd think investing in a shed and a tedder would make more sense than building a new silage pit

Can feed out silage with a shear grab into ring feeders, no need to use a mixer wagon. Could even self feed if that was desired.
 

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