Being Ripped Off? (Hay Prices Please)

I think it depends alot on where you are in the country as to how much you pay for any size bale of hay or haylage. When you trawl the internet you see the most reasonable hay/haylage for sale in the West Country, they had marginally better weather last year than many other parts so they got in plenty of good quality forage. Other areas didn't do as well. Different areas of the country have always had different prices & some places have historically always been cheaper.

I am in the Midlands & we buy large round bales of haylage at £30 per bale delivered & we have 10 delivered at a time. I know he charges some yards more but they only have a couple at a time. Supplier prefers to deliver large load as it saves him time & fuel. We pay the same as we did last year & it's good stuff. It's a small yard & we get through araound a bale a week at this time of year.
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
Weight is important but some farmers get complaints from horsey buyers of small bales that they are too heavy and they can't lift them. :-))....so it's not always a ruse to make more money
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Agree Lachlanandmarcus, hadn't thought of small bales, was mainly referring to large bales which no-one should be able to lift :) Also worth noting that size also chosen on the baler so a 'large round' could be 4ft, 4.3ft etc up to 5.6ft so a huge variation in the size / quantity of hay. Unless know the exact size and weight can't really compare the price accurately I don't think.
 
I paid £25 per bale of good quality haylege delivered to us if we took 60. That means I am responsible for storage and I had to buy a tractor with a bale spike to move it (Best part of £2500) so while on the face of it £45 a bale sounds expensive when compared to some of these prices it is always easy to ignore the hidden costs.
 
if youre not happy, cant you buy your own in? & remember that your yo has to pay a huge amount up front for bulk buying & has to store it. plus moving it around on demand for you. :-)
 
I pay £18 for the large round Hay bales delivered, and £22 for the large square haylage delivered to me £45 sounds like daylight robbery.
 
I buy massive rectangular bales from my yard (seriously, I've never seen hay bales that big). They are also very tightly packed. They're old hay and quite crispy which suits me fine as my pony is a really good doer. One bale will last me approx 6 weeks at the moment (feeding about 12kg -ish a day). I pay £80 per bale which is a lot but it's delivered direct to my storage area and if it's a dodgy bale I can send it back and get it replaced.
 
£32 hay rounds, £30 haylage rounds and that includes delivery here, farmer will deliver at short notice and at weekends, helps roll them into the field and opens them for you.
 
Ours are £25 a bale and they are made on the yard and dropped off at the bottom of the barn. It depends what the quality is like too. Are they really nice bales?
 
W pay £32for a 4ft bale and have seen offers of £50 for a 5ft bale, stating that a 5ft bale is double a 4ft bale ....... Am a bit lost on that one ?

Last year I bought at the same prices and little bales for £5 but that was being ripped off from a yard owner :mad:
 
I have a long square bale which cost 35 and is the equivalent of 12 small bales. Each individual small bale is 4.50 each, and this is the expensive hay as it is pure soft meadow grass, not thistle or stalky. The man who delivers is only a few minutes down the road. Previously, I paid between £7.50 per bale collection only, £6.50 collection only, and the cheepest being £5 collection only, all were not of the best quality. If you yard owner makes her hay or it is local I think paying 40 per round bale is not too much to ask. The horses will enjoy it, and you know it's decent quality from local stuff (you will be able to see how the fields are maintained and done etc) :)
 
If the rule is you have to buy from the YO, then you really have hobsens choice, whatever price you find is the average unless you put your brave pants on and will risk being asked to leave, what can you do

I was at a yard, you were not even allowed to bring in carrots from off the yard - the same as for supplyments - hay was £5.00 for a small good quality hay bale - I was using 40 a week for 3 horses when they were snowed in for a week - so you can tell how small they were !

Someone else did put brave pants on, and asked why when the price went up, did it never come down, and the size of the bales were half of the previous year - she did it very politly - she was told if she did not like the charges then the yo had plenty of folk waiting on her stable.

Good luck - but you will have to maybe bite your tongue till the spring and have a look around what else is on offer prior to next winter, but if all else is good at the yard, maybe you have to take it on the chin?
 
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