Hay Baling Own vs Hire Calculator

Should you buy a baler, or keep paying a custom baler by the bale?

Enter your acres, yield and equipment cost, and the custom price per bale. It compares the year's cost both ways, finds the acreage where owning starts to win, works out your cost per bale and the price that earns your margin, and shows what to charge neighbours so outside work pays for its share of the machine.

Planning arithmetic on your own numbers and stated assumptions.

1. Your hay

Acres of hay you make per year

Yield per cut (tons per acre)

Cuts per year

Bale weight (lb)

What a bale is worth, sold or fed ($)

Profit margin you want (% of price)

2. If you own the equipment

Price of baler plus the mower and rake it needs ($)

Resale value at the end (% of price)

Years you will keep it

Interest rate on the money tied up (%)

Insurance and shed (% of price per year)

Fuel per acre per cut ($)

Repairs and maintenance per acre per cut ($)

Labour hours per acre per cut (mow, rake, bale, haul)

Value of labour per hour ($)

Twine or net wrap per bale ($)

3. If you hire it done, and baling for others

Custom price per bale, wrap included ($)

Extra you pay per acre per cut for mowing or raking ($)

Hay value lost waiting for a contractor (%)

Bales a year you could bale for neighbours

Questions people ask

Is it cheaper to buy a baler or hire custom baling?

Owning is a fixed yearly cost (depreciation, interest, insurance and housing) plus a variable cost per acre and bale; hiring is a price per bale. Owning wins above the break-even acreage, where the fixed cost is spread over enough bales that your cost per bale drops under the custom price.

How many acres do I need to justify my own baler?

Divide the yearly fixed cost of the equipment by what you save per acre by not hiring (custom price per bale times bales per acre, plus the value of timeliness, less your own fuel, repairs, labour and twine or net wrap). The calculator shows that number for your inputs.

Why count hay lost waiting for a contractor?

Cut hay that sits through rain or past ideal moisture loses feed value. Entering the share of value lost from waiting puts a price on baling when you are ready rather than when the contractor arrives.

What should I charge neighbours to bale their hay?

Baling for others spreads your fixed cost over more bales. The calculator shows the rate per bale that covers your variable cost and your share of ownership at the margin you choose, and compares it to what contractors charge.

Is this farm business, tax or financial advice?

No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type in. Tax treatment, financing and insurance are out of scope.

Not decided

Whether you can get a contractor when you need one, the weather and forage quality in your fields, the market for your hay, financing and tax treatment of the purchase (including depreciation rules), tractor cost and capacity, insurance, and equipment safety. The defaults are placeholders, not forecasts: check yield, wage and the custom price against your own records and local custom rate surveys.

Related farm tools: the custom farm rate calculator, the beef cattle ration optimizer and the cow-calf break-even calculator and, if you sell the hay you bale, the hay sale price calculator.