Hay baling worth it?

[Monarch]

Is baling hay worth it?
It takes several new machines, about as much time as harvesting and you can't hire someone to do it.
Granted the autostack is quite a nifty little machine, but you only get about $300 on normal per bail (in real life, that'd be a good deal, but not so much in FS) and it takes a great deal of non-automated time.
Does anyone do it regularly?

[Ewana (WV)]

I don't bale, take straw to cows/pigs in wagon from field... Usually have 2 wagons

[Chow]

Using the Follow Me mod will help this process. I usually don't drive the mower faster than speed 1 so I don't get too far ahead of the baler.

If you have the Ursus DLC, making silage bales from your hay bales can make you serious money, usually about $5000 per bale on normal or $2000 per bale on hard. The Ursus DLC includes a baler, bale wrapper and autostack trailer amongst it's lineup of equipment.

I feel it's worth the money for the DLC because of the added capabilities, some will say it's not saying mods is the way to go, but for me they haven't made a mod that works quite as well in game as the baler/wrapper/autostack that comes with the DLC.

Another option you have is to use a modded baler/wrapper like the Lely Tornado, It bales grass so you don't have to tedder the grass into hay, believe you can find it at mod hoster. I've used it, I didn't care for it all that much since it doesn't seem to work well with Follow Me.

[Ric]

I've use it here and there but if you're not using it for feed, I don't find profitable in comparision with the time it takes(as you say you can't hire these jobs out)

[dirrtymartini]

Originally posted by Chow:

Using the Follow Me mod will help this process. I usually don't drive the mower faster than speed 1 so I don't get too far ahead of the baler.

If you have the Ursus DLC, making silage bales from your hay bales can make you serious money, usually about $5000 per bale on normal or $2000 per bale on hard. The Ursus DLC includes a baler, bale wrapper and autostack trailer amongst it's lineup of equipment.

I love a good silage bale as much as the next farmer but TEST your map before making a bunch of silage bales. On certain maps, namely Springhill Valley, you get next to nothing for a silage bale. After dropping almost a $100k to get the equipment, I was more than a little annoyed.

Or before starting a new map, check the silage pricing in the XML files.

[4545287014728]

Originally posted by dirrtygsharp:

Originally posted by Chow:

Using the Follow Me mod will help this process. I usually don't drive the mower faster than speed 1 so I don't get too far ahead of the baler.

If you have the Ursus DLC, making silage bales from your hay bales can make you serious money, usually about $5000 per bale on normal or $2000 per bale on hard. The Ursus DLC includes a baler, bale wrapper and autostack trailer amongst it's lineup of equipment.

I love a good silage bale as much as the next farmer but TEST your map before making a bunch of silage bales. On certain maps, namely Springhill Valley, you get next to nothing for a silage bale. After dropping almost a $100k to get the equipment, I was more than a little annoyed.

Or before starting a new map, check the silage pricing in the XML files.

We know for sure that they work on the default maps but you make a good point. Test your maps/prices before you do anything time consuming. Mods can be a mofo.

[dirrtymartini]

Originally posted by Emo_Emu:

Originally posted by dirrtygsharp:

I love a good silage bale as much as the next farmer but TEST your map before making a bunch of silage bales. On certain maps, namely Springhill Valley, you get next to nothing for a silage bale. After dropping almost a $100k to get the equipment, I was more than a little annoyed.

Or before starting a new map, check the silage pricing in the XML files.

We know for sure that they work on the default maps but you make a good point. Test your maps/prices before you do anything time consuming. Mods can be a mofo.

On most maps, it's a no-brainer. Silage bales are easy money. I usually go straight for that URSUS wrapper too. Never again though. I dropped a full load of silage bails at the straw shed in Springhill Valley and got around $500 US...not the $40,000+ I was expecting.

[dirrtymartini]

Originally posted by Monarch:

Is baling hay worth it?
It takes several new machines, about as much time as harvesting and you can't hire someone to do it.
Granted the autostack is quite a nifty little machine, but you only get about $300 on normal per bail (in real life, that'd be a good deal, but not so much in FS) and it takes a great deal of non-automated time.
Does anyone do it regularly?

Hey OP,

Like many things in this game, it's all about timing. While you are baling, can you put a helper to work sowing or harvesting a field? If you can have a few helpers sowing fields while you're driving a baler, so much the better. I also try to bale while harvesting. As long as a field is doing something - i.e. growing, being sown, or being harvesting -- you are doing ok.

I'm a big fan of baling. Bales provide flexibility. They can be moved around, fed to cows, shredded, or sold at the straw shed. However, if you have enough money, you can do the same with a couple of forage wagons.

Play around with it. Experiment and post your results. This community loves to help out fellow farmers.

[Monarch]

The problem is, while you're baling, you're not driving a tipper so the combines grind to a halt.
They may be worth it when I get animals tho.

[dirrtymartini]

Originally posted by Monarch:

The problem is, while you're baling, you're not driving a tipper so the combines grind to a halt.
They may be worth it when I get animals tho.

Time for you to meet the Inspector mod -- which tells you combine status for ALL of your combines on one screen.

[TheHiding]

I've always baled as soon as I could afford the equipment to do so.
Is it worth it? Eh.. It doesn't really take long for the equipment to pay for itself. Without an auto-stacker it's a PITA and I wouldn't bother.

You can also use the courseplay mod to automate the process. I still like to do the baling/wrapping/collecting manually, while letting courseplay handle unloading the combines. But have had it running a full mowing to selling silage bales completely automated.

[Jeff]

You want hay for the cows. Just put plain grass in mixing station and it magically turns into hay :)