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templars
Platinum Member
England
1852 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 1:19:32 PM
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Chris
Don't totally agree with you (but then again, as a farmer's wife I wouldn't would I?) Hay and straw prices have always varied around the country. When I lived in East Anglia I used to get straw for string money and I was shocked when I moved back to Lancashire twelve years ago to find a bale of straw cost as much as a bale of hay.
I can't speak for general hay and straw mechants because I haven't used one for a long time, but I can definitely say that our local farmers are hardly making any money at all from haylage. Jingo is right, by the time you add in all the costs of producing a crop and the harvesting, it is a very small profit indeed. I know our neighbour harvests to sell and he doesn't make a lot at all from selling large round bales (and of really good quality).
We have had an excellent crop (weather conditions seem to be the same as for Gaby) and we are having down pours on a daily basis. We're hoping to get a second crop from our main pasture fields and we still have 4 paddocks to harvest for their first crop but can't get going because of the rain!
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   www.eviepeel.com    |
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justine
Gold Member
England
641 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 1:57:34 PM
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We are lucky enough to make our own hay but we are 50% down this year and will have to buy some in.
Straw will also be expensive round us this year. Our local merchant and farmers are 50% down.
Im happy now to have been sensible over the last few years and kept horse numbers/breeding down.
For a lot of owners this will hit hard, they will try to sell horses cheap, get passed from pillar to post, some will die....
Hard feed and shavings will rocket too! |
jbassindale |
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Dark Angel
Silver Member
England
285 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 2:17:07 PM
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Just an idea but maybe we should all get our heads together and start a new topic on ways to save money this winter.
I'll start with the first suggestion...
Some people might be able to change to shredded paper bedding. All you need is a paper shredder and some polythene bags. Unwanted paper and newspapers can be sourced pretty easily. Some companies, particularly offices,shred paper anyway and you could offer to take it away for free. |
Hereford |
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Nichole Waller
Gold Member
England
1168 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 3:58:47 PM
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I've just ordered 25 round bales from a new supplier and he wants £40 a round bale at the moment, but won't guarantee that they will stay this price throughout the winter. These are much smaller (almost half the size) of what i was getting last year for £25. (our regular supplier is not selling round bales at all this year, only small square ones)
He also won't let me pay for them in advance (so i can secure the price) and as we have no where to store 25 round bales i'm reliant on him delivering them each week and then putting the price up as he sees fit...! He is definitely a greedy man who is working on supply and demand. As the demand goes up and there is less hay around, he increases his prices.... I know everyone needs to make a living but i think this is just greedy.  |
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Edited by - Nichole Waller on 02 Aug 2010 3:59:33 PM |
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LesleyH
Bronze Member
78 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 6:29:35 PM
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| I have just paid £4.50 a bale for last year's hay and this year's is going to be £5 a bale. This is in South Bucks. My supplier has bought enough for his own liveries but doesn't have enough to supply his other customers so I will have to find an alternative supplier somewhere! |
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jaj
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
4324 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 7:06:47 PM
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I have 20 bales at £4 each - last years but suits me fine as have laminitic pony and so don't want her having hay that is too new. Not sure what I will do when it runs out though and a bit worried as I don't have storage for lots of bales.
Someone tried to sell me 3 week old hay for feeding now - tell me I'm not the only one who would never feed new hay but would always leave it 6 months? |
     
Kuraishiya (Maleik el Kheil/Kazra el Saghira) and Sahara Bey (Kuraishiya/WSA Charismma) |
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Roseanne
Moderator
United Kingdom
6708 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 7:21:41 PM
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It's always possible to get a few pallets from the local builders and a tarpaulin with rope and store some hay alongside your haybarn. There is of course, the danger of theft, but several people have said they don't have anywhere to store sufficient hay.
When I was offered a field across the road for hay one or two years, I made my own haystack as above, and refilled the hay shelter when necessary. You do tend to get some damp bales but all in all, it's better than being without hay in deepest, darkest January!! |
Roseanne |
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Callisto
Platinum Member
6905 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2010 : 8:30:32 PM
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We've already got the bales we can't get in the haystore on pallets and covered in tarpaulin, we use this first to restrict loss from rain damage as much as possible.
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  Zahkira (GR Amaretto x Taffetta)
Linda
East Sussex |
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shanaz
Bronze Member
England
84 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2010 : 10:41:02 AM
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| I have just paid £28 per big round bale of hay, up £3 from last year. Managed to get 10 but will have to get some more in. |
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s.jade
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
2401 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2010 : 10:50:18 AM
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We were panicking that we wouldn't find any, our usual haylage supplier has already told us he has none (contracted to local agri college and so far down on last year he has none for us spare) and we use all our land for the horses so can't cut our own.
Next door's farmer has said they are at least 1/3 down ontheir cut and it was sold even before baling
Luckily we have managed to find some very cheap, excellent quality round bales but can see many people struggling this year.
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kimzi
Gold Member
865 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2010 : 2:30:39 PM
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| Well we had a crap crop last year and will have another poor one this year but it is not to do with rain, more to do with discovering that neighbour has been having shoots and we are now some kind of rabbit wildlife haven. But speaking with nice friendly farmer (who is honest, a rarity these days), he says he has more than enough and not to worry as he won't be hiking the prices up over winter and he reckons that many others are coining it. |
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Justme123
Bronze Member
229 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2010 : 3:23:01 PM
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| I have paid £3.50 for my small bales and £25 for large hay rounds straight off the field ready for the winter same prices as i paid last year so i think im really lucky :-) |
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Evie
Platinum Member
England
3513 Posts |
Posted - 05 Aug 2010 : 11:33:46 PM
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We are in Somerset and have had hardly any rain this summer. My friend who has her own land where I keep Tara, kept her 7 acre field to cut for hay/haylage this summer. It was managed very well by the farmer and he cut it in June. he managed to get five large bales of hay from it(!!!) nowhere near how much as was expected, he kept 3 1/2 bales for payment so that's left us with one and a half large bale hay to feed three horses (one Arab, one elderly Connemara and one young Highland) over the winter!! It is not going to be enough and we are desparately searching for more grazing as although we have grass at the moment it won't last more than another month or so unless we get some decent rain!!!
i went to the local feed merchants a couple of weeks ago to see if I could get a few bales of haylage and they didn't have any!!!
I am getting very worried about this winter already, not because of having to pay more for hay/haylage, but the fact that there may not be any. All the farmers round us aren't selling as they say they are going to need it for their own stock!! Also my mare and my friend's Connemara can only eat extremely good quality hay and even then it has to be thoroughly soaked as they both have COPD. |
Bristol |
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SueB
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
3218 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 10:14:48 AM
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Maybe everyone could help one another with providing phone numbers via pm's for any hay or haylege available.
We've just paid £4.00 a bale for hay and only have a quarter of what we need to feed over winter. All we can do is sit tight and pray for a break in the rain here to get some more hay or haylege. Yes we do have rain! |
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marionpack
Gold Member
England
1073 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 10:49:50 AM
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| Its not just the hay going up, my farrier came yesterday and said that he had just bought a bag of Denghi for £11.00, 2 weeks agao I bought one from the same supplier for £9.95, maybe we should start thinking about stocking up on hard feed as well as hay |
Berkshire
   
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Kazzy
Platinum Member
England
3335 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 11:31:08 AM
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I have just ordered some of last years hay for £3.00 a bale!! Have been everywhere and the cheapest I could find that was any good was £4.50 for this years hay and thats going up next week to £5.00 a bale its nice hay but its very bitty and I lost half a bale transfering it fromt eh van into the barn to see if he would eat it. my local feed store wants £6.00 a bale now!!
This I have got from last year is still nice and green and lush smelling and has meaning has he will winter out again (providing everything goes ok) I think its good enough.
Janet |
     
Sunny Cheshire |
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Dark Angel
Silver Member
England
285 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 12:50:49 PM
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Marionpack has a good idea. Only last week I saw advertised large round bales of threshed ryegrass for sale at £9.00 a bale. I'm in Hereford. I only use small bales as I only have one horse to feed but they would be good for someone somewhere.
Caroline |
Hereford |
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Dark Angel
Silver Member
England
285 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 12:53:35 PM
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Sorry,, it was SueB who made the suggestion about letting us know about hay for sale  |
Hereford |
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LadyLuck1
Gold Member
England
730 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 5:03:24 PM
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I found a web site that do all well known feeds much cheaper that local merchant. Not sure if I can put name on here we are going to order some this week. Savings of up to £9bag on some feeds and they do horse hage.
Mary |
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Smiler
Gold Member
England
1217 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 6:33:54 PM
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there is no here to store any hay at our place so we buy off the farmer i use the round or very large oblong bales the round ones are £50 this year up from 35 the oblong was 75 so i should think its about 100 !!!!!
we have had no decent rain all summer one farmer who normally gets 300 large round bales only managed 30 this year its going to be bad would not be so bad if it rained enough for the grass to grow but if there is no grass going into winter and a shortage of hay its going to be crazy !!! |
   
http://www.freewebs.com/newforestanimalrescue |
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phoenixbruka
Gold Member
England
1190 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 8:33:35 PM
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The farmer who owns my yar d is 50% down per field for hayBUT be envisiages no problems as hes confident of a 2ND cut as the weather is so favourable for growing  hes been out fertilising like mad so fingers crossed
Straw however is a different matter its gone up from £80 to £90 a ton in a matter of a week!!!
One of the farmers tried to swap a ton of barley for a ton of straw recently at market and got no takers!!
Lets hope the shavings dont go through the roof for a bit of racketeering 
susie |
   
www.liveryatcordwell.co.uk |
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JanetCourt
New Member
1 Posts |
Posted - 09 Aug 2010 : 1:13:55 PM
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| We've had lots of rain in Cumbria and so lots of grass. I've just made 48 large bales of organic haylage because the time was right and the contractors small bale baler had broken! I don't use haylage!! I'm buying small hay bales for £4 which appears to be the going rate. If anyone wants my haylage please make me an offer!! |
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egyptianmare
Bronze Member
England
59 Posts |
Posted - 09 Aug 2010 : 2:56:37 PM
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Can anyone pm me please if they know of any hay/haylage at a decent price around Wiltshire or Hampshire please.
Thanks |
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sasha
Gold Member
United Kingdom
518 Posts |
Posted - 09 Aug 2010 : 4:01:20 PM
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may be worth looking on a well known auction site, quite a few people selling hay/hayledge in different areas. |
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LadyB
Gold Member
England
964 Posts |
Posted - 10 Aug 2010 : 10:57:09 AM
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I have just had some hay delivered but only allowed 10 bales at a time (livery restrictions) so does make it difficult. I did however request to pay him up front for what I think i will need for the winter and he keeps it for me, currently awaiting a reply so fingers crossed!!
He charges £3.50 per bale. Nice hay but bales were a tad on the small side...
This is from his first crop and he mentioned his 2nd crop is not growing as well as he would have hoped so may not be able to get one...
Lets pray for a 'mild' winter so they do not have to stay in due to ice and snow... |
Louise
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Topic |
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Hay prices ??
