How to choose the right hay and silage contractor

And two fodder contractors from opposite sides of the state say they don't mind a bit.

The Australian Fodder Industry Association (AFIA) checklist includes 28 searching questions that embrace everything from the number of strings on a bale through to contingency planning.

AFIA hopes the guide will help to improve communication between farmers and contractors, reducing the risk of disputes during and after the job.

It has seven main sections, beginning with the basics like the contractor's experience and whether there's room in the schedule to get the harvest done.

Machinery, moisture, cost, hay stacking, contract and payment terms, and post-contract conditions are all addressed.

AFIA member, LKF Contracting's Luke Felmingham, Invergordon, says the most common question he fields are about the type of baler, the weights and costs.

At the coast near Yarram, Bowden's Agricultural Contracting principal Wayne Bowden agreed it was important to have frank discussions about moisture levels and bale weights.

But the moisture concerns of Mr Felmingham in the north, where there was the potential for hay to be simply too dry, were quite different from those of Mr Bowden in the south, where the race to dry the grass before the next rain was the main issue.

"Someone with an older baler might be trying to achieve bale weights by getting as much moisture in as they can," Mr Felmingham said.

"With a newer eight stringer or an ultra high density baler, they can put it in just with pressure.

"Now, that can mean that a lot of leaf is smashing off.

"The hay can be really chaffy and it can have the weight but you need five tines on your loader to pick them up because they're really short."

When hay was too dry, Mr Felmingham liked to use steamers to lift the moisture content before baling.

Exporters, he said, were avoiding big square bales with less than nine per cent moisture but wanted no more than 14pc to avoid hay 'sweating' as it reached the equator.

The ideal moisture content for domestic hay was 14-15pc but Mr Felmingham said that, the higher the density, the lower the moisture needed to be.

Ideals were 10-14pc for ultra-high density bales, up to 15pc for high density, 16pc for standard and up to 18pc for round bales.

For small bales, he said, it was possible to have up to 20pc moisture content because they could breathe better.

Microwave moisture meters on balers helped to avoid wet bales that could later deteriorate or present a fire hazard.

Achieving the right moisture content as rapidly a possible was even more critical for silage than hay, Mr Bowden said.

"The minute you cut your silage, the grass is deteriorating because it's still living," he said.

"When you're making silage, it's pretty important that you ted it and you get it into the right moisture content as quickly as you can.

"That's why we always try to work on 48 hours from mowing to finished, whereas there's others who cut it and come back in four or five days and just bale it.

"The quality has gone out the window.

"Those are the sorts of questions that farmers should be asking: 'Are you going to be striving to get it down to 40pc dry matter as quickly as possible?'

"It's all very well for somebody to give you a price but they might may not be prepared to ted it once or even twice."

Price questions were becoming less frequent, the contractors agreed.

"We've been doing this for nearly 12 years and we've got a good customer base and people people sort of trust you," Mr Felmingham said.

"You've got the people on the opposite end, generally a new client who's been let down by the contractor or farmer contractor, we find that a fair bit.

"The neighbour's going do the baling and they've broken down or they're doing their own hay and when you get that call, there's no questions.

"It just needs to be done before the rain.

"They don't ask what you're charging."

Wayne Bowden said larger farms were less likely to ask about price than smaller customers.

"Talking to a fellow about one of the bigger jobs we picked up recently, I said, 'Do you want to know a price?', Mr Bowden said.

"He said, 'No, I see what you do and I want you to do it.'

"'I want you to make money and I want me to make money.

"'And I want us to be in business together for a long time'.

"He said, 'I'm sick of getting half-assed jobs done.'

"That's probably the most common reaction we get from people that are doing it in a big way."

Visit www.afia.org.au for the Guide to Selecting a Hay or Silage Contractor.