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Good Equipment Crucial for Neubauer’s Hay Business
By: Ann Marie Edwards
Good-working, dependable equipment is essential when you have customers who demand high-quality hay. That’s why Cliff Neubauer, his father Ron, and his brother Clay, of Fairfield, Iowa, use a Kuhn FC 4000 RG mower conditioner and a Kuhn GA 4120 Gyrorake.
In addition to having 2,000 acres of row crops, the Neubauers have 200 acres of hay, 100 acres of alfalfa, and 85-head of cows. They sell a lot of their hay through their commercial alfalfa business catering to horse owners, many of whom have expensive horses. The Neubauers began this business with some local advertising and it has grown. Last year they sold hay in five states.
“Expensive horses are picky about what they eat and their owners are even worse,” Neubauer said jokingly, but he admitted that is important for them to deliver the best hay possible to those customers.
The Kuhn mower conditioner and the Kuhn Gyrorake have become an important part of their hay business.
“Depending on the weather conditions, we’re saving between one to three days drying time when using these two machines,” he said.
They purchased the mower conditioner about a year ago from Helmuth Repair in Kalona.
“I wasn’t looking at Kuhn when I was shopping around but Helmuth had this model which had been a demonstration machine and it caught my attention,” he said. “The more I looked at it, the more I liked it.”
Neubauer compliments the way the machine is built and how well it has worked.
“It is built good all over and really sets it apart from the competition,” he said. “There aren’t any drive belts. It is all gear driven. It has worked great and we loved it.”
They mowed about 800 acres with it without any problems last year and there weren’t any maintenance issues.
“The finger comb conditioner has been great in every crop we've had it in, from pure alfalfa to oat hay and sorghum/sudangrass,” he said. “In grass hay we've been able to mow one day and bale the next.”
They purchased the Gyrorake during the fourth cutting of 2006.
“We weren’t happy with the rakes we were using. Helmuth brought this rake down for a demonstration and it never left,” he said.
The Neubauers had used wheel rakes for years and thought that they didn’t rake clean enough and left some hay behind. Then they tried a bar rake that roped the hay and they found the hay wouldn’t dry as fast.
“So we went to a rotary rake and it is the best of everything,” he added. “The rake and the mower conditioner have saved the day more than once for us. During the fourth cutting of 2006, we finally gave up on our other rakes and had Ray from Helmuth bring down the GA 4120 rake to demonstrate it. We couldn't have been happier with it. We started the 2007 season with five different rakes but the GA 4120 covered 90 percent of the acres because it works so good and usually saves about a day on drying time. For the 2008 season, a second GA 4120 will be added to our operation.”
The Neubauers hope to keep building their hay market and increase customers.
“For the horse hay market we are selling to, providing consistent hay is tough but that is what the customers are looking for,” he said. “The Kuhn products have helped a lot and Helmuth is great to work with, plus they understand the challenges we face trying to provide a premium quality hay for a very demanding market.” |
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