Angry rant - starw for £1 and shapism

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lizstuguinness

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So with the rain and my usual supply of cheap bedding (sawdust) being pinched by everyone else im really real struggling to get bedding - 3 bales since xmas!!

Being unemployed and having horses up for sale means I CANNOT buy shavings.

I find a farmer supplying round bales of straw at £14 including delivery or conventional bales for £1 delivered - however have to order at least 400.

However my yard will not allow me to have round bales (er why?) and wont let me store more than 10 conventional bales at a time!! despite having an area set aside for storing hay/straw which would accommodate around 50-60 and still have plenty of room spare for rugs, feed bins etc.

A friend was having the rest of the straw for her yard.

So im pissed off with my yard being shapist and not allowing the round bales and now im stuck as I have looked all over Leics and into the surrounding counties - as far as market rasen to get straw.

Please can anyone help me find some bedding for my poor girls?

alternatively do you need straw and can store at least 50 bales? if I can get enough people together to buy in bulk it would save so much money.
 
Firstly, round bales make a heck of a mess, which is probably why they don't want you to have them. If your yard won't allow you to store more than small 10 bales at a time why not buy more and store them in your garage? If your answer is that they'd take up space you use for something else then you miight have a gist of why the YO doesn't want lots of small bales around the place!

Or perhaps you could go and fetch 10 small bales of straw at a time, and get a good price.
 
My yard has so little storage room that I have to keep my bedding at home and bring it in. Its a nuisance but would that be possible for you ?
 
OP I'll pm you name and number of a nice company local to sleaford who sell straw and do deliver - not sure exactly where you are so you'll need to check they deliver to your area - a lot nearer than market raisen to Leics for you anyway and you can certainly collect.
Their bales are £1.50
 
Could you try and get a local farmer to deliver a Heston of straw, they are about £20,you can then take a slice off a time which is about a small bale. You use the strings on the bale to hold it together with a slip knot, hay is also cheaper this way,
 
Wish I could get straw for £1/bale! It's £3-4 here!!

Do the horses have to be in? Can you not look to have them on grass livery 24/7? Alternatively, butter up any wood merchants or timber companies local to you and as for their shavings/sawdust. I know a couple of people that do this, and all they pay for is the bags for the shavings to go in (thick clear bags from morrisons - £2.50 for 10) and the fuel to pick them up.
 
I suppose yards have to have a rule on the number of bales you can store, if all the liveries bought 50 bales at a time the yard would need a shed to store them in and I suppose you pay to livery our horse and wouldn't expect to pay to store your straw. We rent out part of our shed and would expect £20/wk to store 50 bales. It is also not the yards fault you are unemployed. Round bales are incredibly untidy too.
Can you store any straw at home?
 
We don't have round bales at home - not only are they messy as hell but they are also very fiddly to stack, and take up more storage space due to their awkward size. Also if you have someone stacking them who isn't particularly handy you risk the whole thing falling down on someone, believe me it happens.

Good luck with your search, let me know if you get really stuck, we have some small bales that I could part with if you were in serious trouble.
 
Running a small livery yard myself, it seems you have the same attitude as my liveries. They once asked if they could take delivery of rounds. I told them no, as they would not fit into their storage cupboard (I call it a cupboard, they actually get a 12x12 stable as storage AND a 6x24ft cupboard that runs along the back of two old stables) and I don't want them stored out side due to mess and they're an eye sore. They looked at me like I had two heads !! Surely I'm not being unreasonable!?! It's just common sense :)
 
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