What should I charge to square bale?

A few years ago I cut raked and baled on the ground for $1 per bale. He changed his mind and wanted it put in the barn but he coverd the extra cost of fuel and labor. I might have been high but he was happy.

In my neck of the woods, MS, a square bale sells for 5.00-6.00 per bale.  There are a couple ways to determine your labor price.  Take the total amount of bales (maybe projected bales) per day and divide it into thirds.  One third being your price.  Another is to take into account the fuel, insurance (if needed), and come up w/ an hourly or daily figure that you feel justifies your time and efforts.  You could also charge as a rental company does and price the job based off of each piece of equipment that you place on the job.  A field laborer down here makes at most 12.00 per hour as a hired worker.  Hope this presents some ideas for you to determine your price.

I have been paying 55 cents a bale.  My windrows. Just him baling, dropped on ground. Around 300 bales a year. I round bale the rest.

Here in east Texas, advertised rates vary from $1.50 to $2.25 per square bale.
This is cutting, raking and baling by the baler contractor. Hauling by the hay owner.

We get $1.25 per bale to bale plus $65/ hr to cut, kick, rake.

Labor picking up: don't do that so unsure.

I think this averages out to a couple bucks a bale which is about 1/2 of what a bale costs. Sometimes less, sometimes more. I consider this the fairest so if it rains, we don't spend time kicking/ raking over and over and not get payed.

PS: we let the owner tell us when to cut- we let them be the weatherman, not us.

HI!!  wrong area of the country but these numbers are off of the Utah State Extension service site. These numbers are the average. $16.23 per acre for swathing (one machine that cuts conditions and windrows).  91 cents a bale to bale for small bales,  and 66 cents a bale to haul and stack, that would be with a New Holland bale wagon.  I wish there were more custom hay work around here, most of the ground is growing houses.  I try and use the state wide average as a starting place adjusting is according to the person that I am working with.  I will make changes for the financial condition of the owner, travel distance,  size of the job, how rough the ground is, and how the person is to work with on this job and when I need something.  If they give me no break they receive no break and the price will go above the state with average.  The age and speed of your equipment should also be a factor in what you charge. Our old Deere 224 WS baler will walk away easily from the Allis 442, but the new Challenger SB 36 (Hesston 4590) will walk away from the Deere.  The Deere is kept in reserve  and the Allis is gone.

Heres the Ohio State University fact sheet.

But wouldn't most Allis collectors pay for the privilege of exercising their machinery?

Gerald J.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/pdf/a3-10.pdf

Above is the web site for iowa custom rates. Wouldn't recomend using the university of maryland for much. They are too worried about the chesepeake bay and not nearly enough with agriculture, which is the number one industry in our state. Bill

I got the field baled yesterday. I mentioned 40¢ a bale. Probably should have asked for more but I'm satisfied. It was about 300 bales. They were going to count them when they unload them (no counter on my old 270) so I haven't gotten anything yet. They were so unprepared for the work it takes even for 300 bales and the space they told me would hold 500 bales would be lucky to hold one wagon load. I hope they got the wagons unloaded last night cause it looks like rain this morning or it did at 4:30 this mourning.