Teens Succeed With Custom Baling Business

Teens Succeed With Custom Baling Business SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 22-2-4 Two South Dakota teenagers who started their own custom baling business a couple years ago now say they now have almost as much business as they can handle. Travis Hostler, 18, and Jayson Plamp, 17, started their business at the beginning of the 1996 haying season and now have 15 to 20 regular customers in a 55-mile radius around Mt. Vernon, S. Dak. "We each bought a new New Holland 664 round baler at the beginning of the æ96 sea-son," Hostler explains. "They're equipped with all the options so they ran about $26,000 apiece." Business grew first by word of mouth, then by putting up flyers and taking out ads in a few newspapers. Several other area custom balers had recently gotten out of the business, which also helped. The two young entrepreneurs focus on pleasing their customers. "If a customer isn't satisfied with the way a bale is tied or if the tie is broken, we go back and re-bale it," Hostler says. They charge $5.50 apiece for 5 by 6-ft. twine-tied bales and $6.50 for net wrapped bales. Hostler estimates they've made 11,000 to 12,000 bales between the two machines in the past two seasons. The balers also get use on their own family farms. Hostler will attend Mitchell Technical Institute and Plamp South Dakota State University next year, but they say they fully in-tend to continue with their baling business. "We'll probably run with these two balers another season, then trade for new," Hostler said. "We'll go with New Holland again. They'll cover a lot of ground in heavy hay at a pretty good clip." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Travis Hostler, 39886 252nd St., Mt. Vernon, S. Dak. 57363 (ph 605 236-5209) or Jayson Plamp, R.R. 4, Mitchell, S. Dak. 57301 (ph 605 996-8813).

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