Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Making Plans
Whether you plan to use your pasture for year-round grazing or have decided that it would
be more profitable to take one cutting of hay before allowing your horses to graze, the prin-
ciples of raising hay will give you a good idea of how to improve a pasture.
You may be interested in developing temporary pastures, permanent pastures, or both.
A temporary pasture is intended for 1 to 2 years of vigorous year-round grazing. Because
the plants are never allowed to develop deep roots, they can be more susceptible to damage
from hooves. Cool-season plants such as rye, wheat, alfalfa, and clover work well for tem-
porary pastures. Of course, the investment of labor to initiate such pastures is high in rela-
tion to the number of years of use.
Permanent pastures are those you plan to use for 10 years or more before major renov-
ation. Along with a well-established base of native plants, they may have an introduced
population of perennial grasses. Such a pasture has a well-developed root structure that tol-
erates temperature and moisture stress and resists mechanical damage and erosion.
If you want to harvest hay from some of your land, whether you do it yourself or hire a
custom baler to do the work for you will depend largely on three factors: the size of your
property, if you have the necessary equipment, and if you enjoy field work.
Figure that you'll need a tractor, mower, baler, and pull-type stacker, equipment that will
cost you a minimum of $20,000. Such an investment wouldn't be warranted unless you had
10 acres or more of good hay ground.
Custom farming terms can vary greatly, but generally, if you contract with someone to
harvest your hay, you'd pay all expenses associated with the care and maintenance of the
land and the harvest and you'd give one-third to one-half of the hay to the contractor.
If you want to do part of the work yourself or pay cash for the work, you can often hire
a custom hay farmer at a certain amount per acre to cut and rake the hay plus the cost of
baling and stacking the hay.
