Any yards already restricting hay due to shortages this year?

[Morgan123]

Just interested - I've heard of some yards in the NW that are already policing one (weighted) haynet per day per horse due to shortages, and prices rising to £60 per round bale. Just interested if this is an isolated area or happening in other places too?

If so, how are you coping with this?

(my horse is out 24/7 so this doesn't affect me, but I'm interested to hear others' situation)

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Not heard anything like that happening around here yet. We’ve got plenty of grass so not feeding much yet. I’m on DIY and have a regular hay supplier plus the farm I’m on seems to be storing a huge amount - far more than I’ve seen in the 8 years I’ve been there.

 

[Alibear]

Livery has gone up to cover the increase in hay prices, over in East Anglia.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Not heard anything here my rounds are still £35 and supplier has not said his stock is any less than last year.

 

[Nudibranch]

One net per horse? So what will they do if the horse drops weight?

No change in hay prices here although straw went up a couple of years ago anyway, before this year's weather issues. There's a lot of Chinese whispers and bandwagon jumping as far as I can tell.

 

[Tarragon]

I was thinking the same - unless you get one hay net per horses included in your livery and all others are extra.
I must admit that when I have considered livery that includes the hay I wondered how they catered for the difference between the amount of hay a pony needs compared to say a TB. It never seemed fair in my mind to have a single price.

 

[milliepops]

Wow. I'm struggling with virtually every aspect of my yard at the moment but at least I have my own hay supply!! I would *really* lose the plot if we had the same problem. I'm super lucky that my OH makes my hay and keeps back as many bales as I will need before selling the rest. we have such rubbish turnout I really rely on the hay to make up their forage requirements.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

We have a lot less than we normally have but we haven’t been told to ration it. Same as straw.

Our YO didn’t seem to get as much yield this year as previous years I gave to say.

 

[windand rain]

plenty of hay about round here and last I saw the farmers weekly was saying there was a glut as people were not buying it. Might have been a one off though prices seem to be stable too at around 30-35 a big bale

 

[Dreckly]

Our livery yard is on a farm and the farmer produces all the hay for the yard. This year there was a shortfall in what was produced to what we know we will need until next year. Our manager bought in the required shortfall a month or so ago and the horse owners all contributed a one off payment spread over 2 months to pay for it. A bit of forward thinking we are all grateful for. We have been lucky with good weather so far and grass is still growing but we have only just started winter with months to go yet. All local producers were reporting much lowers yields this year in Essex

 

[jules9203]

I run a small yard and was able to bulk buy most of my hay for the winter, so fortunately don't have to put the increase on my livery bills, but just checked my suppliers website and its already gone up by £5 per large bale. I use 2.5 - 3 bales per week so already that would have been an increase of poss £15 per week.

 

[alainax]

We have just hay this year no haylage. Been told to be conservative with wastage which is fair enough.

 

[JFTDWS]

Round bales stable at £35 round here, no drama about supply that I've heard from any of my contacts. I feed hay, haylage or straw in varying quantities anyway, so I'm quite happy to switch to alternative forage, plus they're out and still have some grass (and a resting field which is, oddly, growing a bit).

 

[Dave's Mam]

I was thinking the same - unless you get one hay net per horses included in your livery and all others are extra.
I must admit that when I have considered livery that includes the hay I wondered how they catered for the difference between the amount of hay a pony needs compared to say a TB. It never seemed fair in my mind to have a single price.

Ours is included, not limited & produced from home. Yep, my pony gets through one hell of a lot less hay than some of the big guys, but it's just one of those things I accept.

 

[tankgirl1]

We pay per bale as all the horses need different amounts. Price has gone up 50p a bale from last year to £4.50

 

[SO1]

No hay restriction but our livery has increased substantially due to extra costs. It is really hard to predict how much hay one is going to need over the winter as it will depend on the weather. We still have plenty of grass on our yard so at least turnout is not restricted and horses are mainly good doer types who need to loose weight anyway.

We don't have a certain amount of hay allocated to us but the horses get what they need and the amount will differ depending on how hard a winter we have and size. Some years I expect we don't use as much as forecasted and YO profits more and other years when weather is bad more hay is needed than budgeted for so part liveries benefit.

I don't remember a year when there has not been talk of hay shortages/price rises.

 

[MagicMelon]

I really hope they arent limiting hay for stabled horses? In my area, Ive heard of hay prices going up a bit to £30 a round bale, Im paying £5 more per bale than last year (£25) but I cant complain as I have a fantastic local farmer who brings them to me whenever I need them so delivery is in that price too. Id have a huge problem if I couldnt find hay as I dont have a huge amount of grazing.

 

[Surbie]

No restrictions here, and I am having to call a LOT of yards around my area (my yard has just been given a month to quit) and none have said anything like that. In fact most are at pains to say that there is no concern about hay supply.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

No restrictions here , plenty to order

 

[Cragrat]

i think yields were low, due to wet spring/dry summer,but harvesting conditions were perfect,so it was easier to make decent hay/haylage - less wastage during harvest. So hopefully it balanced out.

Grain and straw yields are a different matter though!

 

[meleeka]

My rounds are still £35 and I’m not aware of any shortages yet.

I did hear of someone this morning on livery who is restricted to half a bale of straw a week and 2 slices of small bale hay a day, with no option to buy extra. Said person is looking for yards as we speak!

 

[Morgan123]

That's good, must be isolated to some bits of the NW then! This was indeed for stabled horses, which is why I was interested to see if it was a wider problem. Good to hear it's not!

 

[SEL]

We haven't got restrictions but the yield was much, much lower than usual (South East). I'm not surprised because our grass didn't green up and start growing until mid October. "Luckily" we're on notice of closure so the hay in the barn will last longer than originally planned as its only 50% occupancy. I've got 2 big horses and 1 net a night wouldn't get them through. If you can't supply your own that's ridiculous.

If more hay to be bought in then livery bills will need to go up, but I'm fine with that - better than starving the horses!!!!

 

[Annagain]

Not restricted as such but we were asked to use hay nets rather than hay bars to reduce wastage. Within a few days it was clear my boy was wasting far more from the hay net (I think he was getting frustrated at not being able to eat freely so was getting overly aggressive with the net and throwing hay everywhere!) so I spoke to YO and I've had special permission to go back to the hay bar. He's a weird one my boy, not a scrap a wastage from the haybar. Once he's got his head down eating I don't think he comes up for air until he's finished!

 

[9tails]

I've noticed a lot of fields are growing grass this winter rather than crops. I hope there'll be plenty next year.

One supplier has decreased the size of the bale and increased the price by over 10%. My yard seems to be OK, they bought plenty and so far the price is stationary. We buy small bales rather than hay being supplied, DIYers tend not to waste it when they're paying for it.

 

[sport horse]

Due to the prolonged drought, not only were the yields of hay/haylage well down in many areas this year but also the grazing grass did not grow and many farmers were feeding their stock in the summer/autumn so you have a situation of demand exceeding supply which as all economics students will be aware equals price rises and loss of availability.

I have a stud/competition yard and I buy all my hay/haylage in at harvest time. I also pay for it then! ON the basis that most liveries would not be able to purchase their year's supply nor indeed store it, I would suggest that people are prepared for increased costs and difficulties in supply. We could be lucky and have a mild and/or short winter which could save us! Certainly do not waste anything!

 

[JustMe22]

I'm in South Africa but interesting reading - we had a severe drought for about two or three years (Cape Town still has water restrictions in place) and farmers had no crops, cattle had nothing to eat etc.

Result of it in terms of horses was that hay prices hit the roof, and unfortunately most of us had to find alternatives to hay as after a year or so there just wasn't any to be had. Luckily for our yard we found a farmer who had managed to grow oat hay and we bought a colossal amount of it and stockpiled it.

 

[southerncomfort]

I'm in West Yorkshire and all the suppliers up here say they have enough for regular customers but won't take on any new customers.

Round bales have gone up from £30 to £35.

I have my horses at home but I haven't heard of any local yards running low. I guess it's going to depend on what sort of winter we have. I think very wet could be as bad as very cold!

 

[Ddraig_wen]

Bales round here have shot up. £48 -£55 for round hay from some people. Round haylage £50 to £64. I know a couple of places that are cheaper but even the local feed shop has upped their prices. £7 small hay and £7.99 for small haylage.

 

[conniegirl]

my yard owner makes her own, we have much less than normal stored in the hay barn so she is not selling as much as she used to.

We have no restrictions as such but YO does get quite grumpy if she sees wastage. Luckily I have a welsh cob and there is never a blade to be found in the morning!