This One Hurt! Slapped with the harsh reality of small farm USA 

It cost me $22 to make a bale including all inputs. I have less than $60k invested in all my equipment...

It is refreshing to see someone that is actually doing it showing the facts of it beyond theories and assumptions. Many thanks for another great video.

Hey Josh, here is a liitle FYI, I have done both round and square bales. The reason the hay is brown on the outside is due it being exposed to sunlight. If you store roundbales outside or in an open shed the outer layer becomes the sacrificial layer and protects the rest of the bale from light and rain, thats why the inside is still green. If the roundbales are stored inside a barn with little or no natural light they stay much greener but also will lose some color over time. We backed a wagon into an open shed for a few days and it started to turn brown but when you flipped the bales over it was as green as it was when it was baled. The less exposure to light the greener it will stay.

I think it's so good of you to disclose the finances of the farm. This way those who are interested and thinking of doing something like this get a good idea what they're up against.

I've been watching your channel for years and I'm amazed at how pristine your property is for a one man operation.

We were feeding hay last year in the summer as well. We had drought conditions here in Love County Oklahoma. Thank God this year we are good. I’ll be praying for rain to come your way.

You don’t know what a drought is till you experience an Australian drought. The last big drought in south eastern Australia started in 2016 and ended in 2020. It ended with the summer bushfires of 2019/2020 that killed many people and destroyed a lot of property. Between 2016 and 2020 there was little to no significant rain. It was a disaster. In 2017 I was given a few army surplus raincoats. They were giving them away as they did not need them anymore. When I picked them up I thought I’d never wear one. Then it started raining in 2020 and did not really stop till this year.

I live in North Carolina. We’ve been experiencing that dry weather with you. Just got some rain the last few days, and our lawn has totally come back to life. Hopefully your fields are starting to improve with some recent rains.

Has always amazed me how someone else knows more about how you should do your job than you do. The number of patients that told me how I should nurse when I was at the beside was truly remarkable, especially as most of my colleagues and patients thought I was excellent at what I did. Don't fret about it Josh. The health if your animals, the quality of your product sayyou're doing it right.

As I was taught by my grandfather ... unless you have more than a ton per acre ... leave nonliving machinery in the shed and allow your animals to mow for you. Consider you are a grass producer and animals are harvest machines

I'm in Central VA and dealing with the severe drought all summer, so bad here our well went dry. Been feeding hay also but finally just started getting rain this past week. Been a tough year for sure, hopefully things turn around for the fall. Good luck to you.

It's that high pressure. Last year in Central Texas we had a drought. Now we have plenty. Had 3 inches last Thursday morning. 1.25 last night, and another 1.5 today. Epic.

Josh I really like your channel, and I am also a farmer. I had the same problem you are having now and I had to make some hard decisions. I cut my herd from 115 cows down to 40. Taking that action turned my whole operation around. I only fed 100 bales this past winter , and it was all cutt off my own farm. My cows are now much healthier and I have a lot less stress. I would suggest dropping to 20 cows and your grass will do great . I am not judging you my friend, and I pray you succeed. I hope my knowledge from my own mistakes can help you

You are going through what we did last year with the dry hot weather. We were feeding hay all summer ourselves. We are getting plenty of rain rite now just need a break so we can cut hay. Enjoyed the video and hope you catch some of these rains this week.

Whatever works best for your operation is the best way to do it. Whether making your own or buying, as long as the animals are getting fed right and taken care of is all that should matter to anyone. Thanks for sharing the way you manage your farm and sharing the numbers too. Cheers, 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸

Seasons have seemed to have shifted later in the year for us. We dont 1st cut until mid june now, 2nd cut might be all the way to late aug to sept. The winters and springs have been so freaking wet we have had good growth.

Tractor Cab theraoy is the best stress reliever in the world!

Feeling your pain brother. I am in SW Pennsylvania and we are having a drought also. Pastures are suffering and 2nd cutting hay was very short. Hoping for a 3rd cutting. Prayers for all of us farmers. The Lord will provide, be safe and hydrate in the heat, farmer rod

Haven’t had your videos show up for a while. Anyhoo this one was really interesting. Thanks

Josh, Love your channel; watching your learning process and the best thing you do is to admit when you're not doing things the best possible way. I am also a retired veteran and have returned to farming for the last 22 years here in Eastern Washington near the Canadian border. We have 80 acres that we rotational graze horses on along with cattle and goats. After the first 5 years, I segregated the cattle from the horses and that helped a lot. To improve and renovate the cattle portion I fall planted forage turnip and tillage radish (helps with adding organic matter + pulling nutrients & minerals back to the surface) and once the first hard frost hits let the cattle do limited winter grazing on it with limited hay input to fill out the cattle's nutritional needs. This has saved a lot of money on feed inputs. It has generated at times about 7 tonnes of dry matter per acre for grazing. Check with your county extension pasture/range specialist to see if this is something that would work where you are. I have also inter seeded switch grass (does better in hot dry conditions) into my pastures. Lots a folks will tell you that it's crazy and you cannot mix warm and cool season grasses, but it works and helps the soils biodiversity. Keep up the great channel!!

Have you considered buying plastic wrapped round bales if they are available in your area? I have read that they keep the mosture level higher in the hay and stops it drying out like the open storage bales. I believe they are called silage bales.

🙏❤️ Love from Scotland ❤️🙏

We have really good rain in central east Texas this year already got 3/4 cuttings the grass grew two feet in between last 2 rains

In Ireland we are having completely the opposite issue at the minute no sun all rain too cold for grass to grow 🤦‍♂️

Great video ! Wish I could send u some of this rain we been having everyday here n Louisiana -sorta hard to get grass to grow n a drought . 🙏for rain for ur cows and land . Like how neat u place ur bales ! 👍🏼👊🏻

I do a lot of hay baling on Farm Sim. You're totally right...Need a tractor, plus a mower, plus a tedder, plus a rake, plus a baler. It's a lot money that you have to put out just to start it.

I am here in Kansas I only have 9 acres with good grass when it rains but for the last 4 to5 years very little rain and hay got very expensive and hard to find close to me I had Dexter cattle and last year we had to get out because paying $80.00 to $125.00 dollars for a bale of hay for 9 Dexters and started feeding like you are right now I wish you the best of luck and lots of rain my friend👍👍🇺🇸

if you just....... keep doing what you do brother! Love it and your channel....

I'm in Alabama. Here , some farmers seed half their fields with winter rye, and claims a lots huge savings during winter , including saving time. Didn't know if that may be helpful option for yourself. Thinking I remember you already own a seeder. Here, one can rent one from our farmers co-op. Best of luck.

Up in Alberta Canada here a round bale of that quality cost about $150 to $175

Had a good hard rain last night here in Raleigh

So a couple of things I take me apx 12 per bale to do also I’m in se Minnesota some of the hay here gets brown cuz of dry time if it’s humid. But your right if you don’t have it to bale then don’t bale. Keep up the good work

Josh, always entertaining and educational!

When you let cows graze on land, they trample a lot of grass into the ground. That's good for soil. When you cut hay, all of the grass is removed and very little goes back into the ground. Since Josh is trying to build soil, his current approach of grazing and supplementing with purchased hay is best for his farm.

Enjoyed watching your channel all the time I love see the animals ❤

Just about time to be thinking about some hay for winter here in the desert in Washington state. We have three horses and 10 acres of pasture. I can only haul seven bales at a time on my car hauler, so we will likely need four or five loads. I put ours up on pallets in a covered shed to keep the winter snow off them and to keep them off the ground. The first year, we lost about three bales due to rot from sitting on the ground. This year we only lost what the bunnies and the deer help themselves to.

Same here! We live in Seagrove, NC.

Thank you Josh

SRF my pastures over here in Forsyth County are toasted brown. One good rain in the last week hasn't helped. Maybe this weekend it will I hope

Back in the early eighties when round baling prevailed it was understood to save labor just store outside with sisal then poly no net hardly any carry over bales were close to 1800 lbs left front of my tractor w weights front and back now a baker new is 45k. No way do I sell my hay turn key operation best of luck

Josh,may you get some rain soon and at least your smart enough to know that your cattle need hay 👍😮😊❤

Sir.. your doing a grand job... enjoy it.. stay safe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

$50 a bale is a good price. We’ve had a very wet year, lots of hay around, and most is still going to be more than $50.

Hey Josh, Do you ever envision a time when you’re not going to have to be buying as many bales during a year? I guess what I’m trying to ask is that as you continue what you’re doing, I would suspect that your land and soil would improve and be more regenerative so that hopefully you can reduce the number of bales you’re having to buy. Of course this assumes that the number of grazing pastures on your farm remains constant.

The farmer I get my hay from told me "the best hay equipment is a good truck and trailer"...

Also balers can catch fire (yeah, I've been watching your channel for a while). Best of luck with what you need to do.

YUP! You can ONLY bale HAY if there is SOMETHING to bale! Cute Kitty! BLESSED BE!

Really glad your reducing your numbers I think that is the right move. Overstocking is number one reason small producers fail. I'm in upstate new york much different climate but I run 2.5 acers per brood cow and calf. 2023 calendar year I only fed hay for 86 days for 22 animals. I'm hoping 2024 to narrow it down to 80 days but it depends if we get snow before first Christmas this year.

I have 3/4 of an acre in Woodland Hills Los Angeles CA with two horses on it for the last 20 years, I like picking up my own hay bales from the feed store and bringing it back to my place and stacking it. My friends can't seem to understand why I get so exited when I find good quality hay and bringing it home and stacking it neatly in one of my stalls, I guess its' the country life that i live in my fantasy world. LOL

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL SUSH A GOOD LOOKIN FARM THANKS FOR THE VIDEOS

josh, speaking from experience last year when we were in a drought in South MS and we had no grass for cows to eat or hay to bale.....we made the tough decision to sell off about 25% of our cows and still almost ran out of hay before the spring flush this year (which was late too). we are now working on growing out herd back that we have rain and grass this year. It's not feasible to have to feed hay for more than about 4-5 months per year. just my thoughts. Good Luck

I know it is area dependent. Around here some years it is cheaper to buy hay. Some years it is cheaper to put it up yourself. But when it don't rain hay is expensive, regardless of the area.

Im wanting to run the same plan, so i appreciate you sharing. We have a pretty big mess at our place. Josh do you think bale grazing would be the best move on our bare patches for the stump removal?

Perhaps you could buy hay 2 times a year. Purchase hay in late spring and the fall. If you could find hay left over from the winter you could purchase it, store it and either use it in the fall or over the summer. Also maybe you could use some of the lumber on your property to make a hay storage building. That would save you some money.

If you think about where you are going to place your hay when unlading, and park so that you are making a big V or Y in moving your tractor for the process, it would be easier on the ground and save some time and fuel.

You need to get your dedicated hay pasture established. 20acres of dedicated hay pasture properly managed will provide what you need for your operation. Figure 4 large 4x5 round bales an acre, in Nc you’d be able to do 3 maybe even 4 cuttings a year with proper rain fall or sprinkler irrigation. 3 cuttings would net you 240 bales more than enough for your current operation. While saving you money. You don’t need brand new state of the art machinery. Good used equipment net wrap balers going from $15k-$25k, hay rakes $5k or less, Tedder $5k or less, mower conditioner $15k. A $45-$50k investment will have paid for itself in a little over 2 yrs of paying for hay. Also your wasting hay storing it outside, it’s brown on the outside from sun bleaching and exposure to the weather. It’s devoid of nutrients, even storing it direct contact on the ground your loosing hay bc it absorbs moisture and rots. A 3 sided building to stack the hay in is preferable but if it’s stored outside starling it to shed water and protect it from the sun is preferred. Your using so much hay bc of waste. Round bale feeders will keep the cows from trampling the hay and wasting the majority of it.

Josh you should look into Sea-90 it is all natural and will help your pastures produce more

Love the farm that you built. :-)

East Texas more rain then normal excellant hay crop . Pray for rain.

Looked great all lined up nice.

May our Lord continue to bless ya, sir! 👍🇺🇸

I have my own hay equipment and knowing my operating cost. Depends how much hay you use per a year tit would be cheaper to by hay versus owning your equipment. I do contract hay baling to help offset my expense with the equipment.

Have a good day Josh farm looking as good as it can hopefully we will get rain soon but mother nature will do as she wants

Have you tried just not dragging? I'd think with the intensity you're grazing they'd just cover more spots next time. I know it's not actually cultivating but it is scratching up the dirt and I've heard you mention how thin it is there. Just a thought. I'm sure you've had the same one.

Rolls of hay store better outside in long rows butted end to end. It reduces weathering on the ends of the rolls.

What HP and model is little T? I need a cab ….. want a cab tractor. This heat ! Whew. Getting older and comfort is worth the cost.

stack them bales tight end to end keeps the side bright and dry then when it comes to baling your own if you have ground with no water and limited fencing then have a custom baler do it if you can rotate the grazing then buy hay graze your land keep trying!!

Why don't you put the bales on logs like Greg recommends? Right now it is dry, but as the bales are feed for the winter, you'll hopefully get some rain until then ...

I used to have hay baled on my farm, with original plans of buying equipment. But after doing the math for my place, it just doesn’t make sense. So like you, I buy my hay and it was the right decision. Our hay prices went up during a really bad drought a couple of years ago and have never returned to what they were before, but it is still cheaper on me to use my land for livestock and purchase hay. This is the 3rd summer in a row that I have had to put out hay by July or August. I pay 70 dollars for pure Bermuda, no weeds and high protein. I have figured it many times and I save money by purchasing the high quality hay at 70 compared to the so called cow hay for 50, which more than a quarter of the cheaper hay the cows won’t eat and just leaves weed seed on my pastures. Every farm has to decide what is best for their situation. For me, it is buying good quality hay and less of it.

Great video

The effort my hay man puts into his grass and the quality of hay he produces for the amount he charges me I’ll just pay him for my hay I have more important farm chores to worry about

Josh, is there any co-ops in your area for hay. I was even thinking, if you had enough farmers in your area, you could start one. I think it would be beneficial to a group of you, for both the start up costs, and harvest.

Josh, I think a new fifth GEN Cummins diesel is in your future

Only problem I'm seeing is your production setup currently would be perfect for a perfect year, at that you may have been able to squeeze in a little more. Problem is we're having a perfectly crappy year. Now on the idea that you can buy it cheaper than bale it yourself it's only partially true, if you rotate not only your graze but your balling as well you can cut those input costs dramatically. Far as balling yourself on a better year of you were using a smaller round baler like the older 4*4 Heston yes you'd have to make more but can pull and power them with more options, could do less at a time. And if you wind up with a surplus it would be easier to sell to people that only have a couple goats or sheep seeing they don't need a big wompin goose neck to pick it up with.

Another day in the neighborhood

Where did you find your drag. Does it work with the rocks. For I have rocks

Hey Josh thank you for the video woo

I get the fact that some folks are saying it costs more to bale and others say its costs more to buy, in the long run youll save money with the small amount of hay most guys feed. if you deal with an old twine baler, older bar rakes, and maybe not the newest disc mower but a haybine. you can really put up some cheap hay. you can bale a lot of hay with a 60hp tractor on flat ground id say 75 if your in the hills. also land can be had in most areas for damn near free to bale if you offer to keep it cut down for someone who would traditionally bush hog it or pay to have it cut. i know a few farmers who feed cattle on handshake free hay leases only. you dont always need to fertilize if theres a good mix of forage in the field. dont over harvest it and a decent hay field will self manage. in joshs case a drought is a drought and you cant make any hay but he could in a good year thats for sure. we were bone dry in ohio last year and i had to feed winter hay starting in october until may which is unheard of in ohio. got low enough on hay i had to buy in stalks and feed grain for a month cause i ran out of hay and so did my supplier. i dont have enough head to justify purchasing my own equipment but josh sure does.

Is there ANY way to get a ground well and a 2nd hand rotating sprinkler system in the best growing spots? That's probably 20K but it pays back in years 3 onward... Thinking high grade alfalfa or other high nutrient crops in select spots to supplement the base grass you have (fescue, timothy, etc.). Put in 2 or 3 of these "high quality" zones to feed the cows in each hot month, then move them to the lesser quality stuff that grows in the rainy season. Reminds me of the food lot operation we had for cows in the off months of the year... The steak was still yummy despite the work moving the herd around.

14:50- Hope you didn't destroy the camera and tripod by running it over... 🙂 Thanks for the great video Josh!

I don't begrudge anyone hauling hay vs baling own. I haul in all the hay I need for the winter (about 2/3 as much as yourself) - will start in about 6 weeks. I can't justify the expense of baling equipment even buying used old equipment and the amount of land one needs to get the hay I need (one cut per year). But I do struggle with the hauling in of carbon which is removing from someone else's land - it is almost hypocritical in some ways, depending on how I look at it. Because of when the hay is cut (unless cut late), in my opinion, a large majority of seeds will not be developed enough to be viable, but there will be a few. My price is a bit more than yours once I include hauling...hay pricing, something I have never been able to figure out. Good video.

I make my own hay for 19 cows I use the cow manure to fertierilize the hay fields. I used to raise dairy replacements about a 100pergroup 3 times a year so I had manure I could not get rid of while the row crops was in the field. I sold the hay to the farmer that owned the dairy raplacements. that we raised. We made about 200 bales per year I made hay with very cheap equpment the first few years borrowed equipment and split hay with a neighbor farm to rool the hay as I bought the equipment as i made money i bought better equipment. I have hayfever realy bad and yes, i was an open staition tractor at first but I managed. so you don't have to buy a 200,000 worth of equipment to start on day one I started with a small tractor Ford 1920 (my dads) and a 81 HP Jd 2400 (Zeter) i paid6$6500 for I paid $500 for a Ford 535 haybine and had a neighbor rake and bale it for a few years. It can be done for cheap and SRF plan works until there is a drought and you have to buy all your inputs I know I did it his way also until we we had a drought here is Ohio and hay was 75 for 4x5 that was all weeds and sticks.

My way of making hay is not prefect, but pretty cheap. Any 50 to 75 hp tractor with a loader can do it. I have a few smaller places that I cut. I found 2 or 3 areas that nobody was cutting and i do them all the same day. I cut 3 areas like this. Each takes about 6 hrs to cut. Each makes 40 to 50 4x5.5 bales. I have a 9' cutter that was 4k and a v rake that cost 2.5k. I pay someone $15 per bale just to bale. I have plenty of local baler operators that can run over and bale in a couple hours. This seems to the cheapest and easiest way to make around 200 bales per year. (I get 2nd cuttings, but they don't make as much) basically 3 6hr days cutting and about 9 hours of raking would get most of the hay you need in 1 cutting. This took some hustling and phone calls at first to pick up the hay meadows, but most were glad to not have to mow them. I am in North east Texas and lots of people have 10 to 15 acre hobby farms and are getting out of livestock. It is a win win for both parties

I came to the same conclusion. Not worth it, rather buy the hay if need be. Everyone has unique situations.

I think were all in for a ride this year everyone is broke it seems like

U say SE very DRy but Justin in Northern NC says it is wet. Now where i live it is dry very dry the ground is cracking. Go 5 miles in any direction and they are doing good. Where do I live: Latterly about halfway up the very East side of the Allegheny Plateau Just one mile up from PA boarder in NY. So U know geography U can see where I live otherwise u are just SOL

Did I miss something? Is that your new crew cab Cummins and Gatormade trailer?

Nice truck

Do think once your land builds up enough good quality organic soil that can hold water that you will be able to grow grass thru the drought times?

Would it be feasible / more cost effective to grow the hay on your property, and have one of your hay guys harvest/ bale it? A partnership? 🤔

We set our bales tightly end to end to keep the water from penetrating all sides of the bail and it allows the water to shed off them as well. Is there a reason you set your bales like that? Also, if you had grass do you think it would be worth having a farmer cut hay for you at 2 for 1?

Good morning !!!! 🌹🌹🌹

The more topsoil you build, the less and less hay you’re going to buy. Which would also make the return on investment for haying your own fields longer and longer. Not to mention when you hay, you’re pulling from the land.

We were paying 470 US dollars a ton , and up to 260 US dollars a roll …. My cows didn’t look good buy end of season

Josh, about how many months out of the year are you able to grass feed the cows!?

Hay... It can be a lot of trouble. My sister has horses and any usual summer there's enough grass that just moving the horses around the fields they get enough to eat. Then some years back we had an extreme summer and the grass was just gone. The farms bailing hay didn't have any either and my sister ended up buying hay from another country. This was in Europe so it's more like buying from a few states over. Anyway when it was delivered she discovered that it was just crap. A investigation showed that only about 30% of it was grass suitable for horses. Most of the rest was weeds that would not only be useless as feed for the horses but also would make them sick. It was a horrible summer. She only had six or seven horses, but that was enough to become very expensive. And that was the summer when hay should be easy to get. The winter wasn't any cheaper. Summer heat can really be a problem. Here it's extremely uncommon with heat like that and no rain for several months. An ordinary summer we have rain about every third day or so.

Don't hate me for the comment, this is just an idea. I wonder if you posted on marketplace or Craigslist about grass clippings? Anyone local who bags their grass if they could contact you and then feed it to the cows? Imagine it would have to be fresh and worth your while to pick it up...or pay them by the bag a dollar or two to drop it off? Just trying to think outside the box. Hope it helps.

What part of North Carolina are you. I have family that has 100 acres in Misenheimer North Carolina. I am from South Carolina and when growing up we would take our summer vacation on the farm.

Did you get rid of your portable sprinkler system that pumped water from the pond

Isn't that water hot that comes out of the hose that has been sitting in the sun?