Bale of hay, £5??

[1985]

Does this seem about right or rather expensive for a bale of hay? by bale i assume they mean the rectangular small ones not the round ones, any thoughts? it justs eems quite steep? in cheshire x

 

[beh]

very expensivew, we pay £2.50!!!

 

[Blizzard]

Ours are £2.50 aswell

 

[Maesfen]

It does seem steep. Whereabouts in Cheshire are you, there are some good feed merchants out there?!

 

[Theresa_F]

Very!

I have paid this once on a livery yard and soon moved.

This year I paid £2 for hay - I bought 200 bales and paid for it in June to get a bargain price. Lovely chap also stores it and delivers it to me 50 at a time

Last year I was paying between £2.50 and £3.80. Cairo eats up to a bale a day and Chancer has at least half a bale each, so it was worth shopping around.

 

[1985]

I thought so too its extortion! i usually pay about £2.50. on that particluar yard you HAVE to buy from them.

 

[xxcharlottexx]

wow that would be nearly £5 a day for the bigger horses

think ours were £2.50 and i thought that was working out expensive!

 

[WishfulThinker]

Lol, when moving Beau last weekend the price went from 125 to 140, seems the extra was for a HAYNET - haha. makes that bale seem cheap!

When we used to bale our fields we charges £3.20 a medium sized rectangular bale (about 6/7 sections per bale). But this was the price we were told it was worth by the farmer cos it was Medow hay and the best in the area. That was about 10 years ago!

 

[MagicMelon]

We pay £1.50 (we help with the baling). £5 is a rip off!!

 

[Jay89]

£5!!!!! We pay 2.50 per bale!!

 

[1985]

Its shocking isnt it!

 

[ThomasTank]

you will prob find that the same hay was 2.50 a bale when it was made but now they know people who didnt organise themselves last summer are desperate now so can charge what they like !!

 

[Tia]

What's shocking is the amount of work involved in producing, handling, storing and delivering small squares of hay compared to the pathetic price made on them. Not forgetting the initial set-up costs of tractors, haybine, balers, hay waggons......oh and don't forget the seeding, and if used; fertlizers, acids and the cost of the land.

Proportionately to the amount of time, money and work involved, 1 bale of hay should really cost somewhere in the region of £15 to make the farmer any half-decent salary.

Hay seems to be the only thing which has not been hit by inflation - I paid £3 a bale back in the 70's and I'm damn sure the price of all the machinery used to make those bales are not the same cost as they were back then.

So to me, no it isn't shocking - it's about blooming time! But to the lay-person yes I expect it is.

 

[skye123]

£5!!!! we pay £7 for a bale!! (they are quite big though and we have to buy them of the livery yard owners)

now changed onto unlimited haledge for £5 a week. doesnt make sense at all really!?!

 

[Breezesbenefactor]

How big are the bales, are they tightly packed, what do the weigh? Just a theory but in eco homes an alternative form of construction is to use straw these bales are bound extremely tightly so when they are put togehter they form an extremely solid and well form structure....just a theory but £5 on a bale is a rip off, £2.75 seems to be the going rates for good hay

 

[flyingfeet]

Bales vary in size - so larger ones will cost more

I agree with Tia; its so time consuming and expensive to produce large bales. Given that good farm labour is now £8+ /hr and we have contractors we are going to start charging more for our hay (£3.50 a bale).

I don't think the price of hay has changed since the 80's so horse owners must expect an increase sooner or later, or alternatively have the equipment to handle bigger bales.

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

Wether people think that hay should really be more expensive than it actually is sold for is immaterial in this post. The price the YO will be buying the hay in for will be around £2 a bail. It is to be expected that he will want to make a profit, he has a living to make, but to make 100% profit on each bail & demand that every livery buys from him is a bit naughty. On our yard you can bring in your own hay if you wish or order from the YO, who adds 50p I think on each bail. To me this is reasonable but to double the price & be the only supplier allowed...well it's a wonder he has any liveries.

 

[Tinkerbee]

we pay £2.50!

 

[ru-fi-do]

£5!!

Very expensive! I pay £6 per week for unlimited haylage. Bales of hay are £2.50 i think.

 

[sleepingdragon10]

Well,I've just found a place that sells it for £2.50 a bale for lovely,sweet smelling hay.....would NEVER pay £5 for it.

 

[Tia]

[ QUOTE ]
would NEVER pay £5 for it

[/ QUOTE ]
Bet you would, if everyone was selling for that price.

 

[Patches]

I second that Tia.

We don't make our own hay here on the farm even though we usually have too much grass cut for silaging. We could easily bale a good 500 bales from one field. The reason...it's just not cost effective. In terms of man hours, both in preparing the hay and baling, not to mention fetching it up off the field, it's just pointless.

We can buy good quality hay off the field for £1.50 a bale. This is what we do each year. Far cheaper and much less hassle.

I've always thought hay is too cheap. Same with big bale halage. Costs us about £8 to produce it, including wrapping. Some people can buy it at just £10 per large bale!

 

[sleepingdragon10]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
would NEVER pay £5 for it

[/ QUOTE ]
Bet you would, if everyone was selling for that price.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gah! Trust you

 

[Vicki1986]

ours is 3.50 which IMO is expensive enough !! £5 is extortionate!

 

[Lady_Bug]

I pay £30 for a huge round bale of really nice smelling fresh hay. This lasts around a month. I get it off the YO who has them delivered. I used to pay around £2.50/£2.75 per bale at other yards.

 

[RobinHood]

Our prices range from £2.50 if you buy in huge bulk to £4 from some of the local feed merchants. At the moment we are paying £3.25 for small bales and £25 for rounds, all delivered to the yard.

 

[Capriole]

i have to buy from my yard and hay is £2 straw £1

 

[_Jazz_]

£5 is way OTT

 

[M_G]

I paid £3.00 a bale for the finest sweetest meadow hay
M x