Cost of Hay

I bought some, off the field 2 weeks ago, during the last really hot spell. I paid £4/bale in Surrey. It is the most I have ever paid for hay, but I wanted to have some in the stable. I bought x 50.
 
Am also in Hants and Kitnocks and Sheddies were saying about £12.

That was heard second hand though.
 
£12 is stupid money, I am going to buy mine off the field next month, should get it cheap, wondering if its worth my while to buy extra to see on!! thinking i might do that!! so if anyone wants any from the Winchester basingstoke area let me know!
 
Yes £12 is stupid money but G Smith has closed and his customers will have to go somewhere. Supply / demand blah blah blah.

Am also getting a winters supply off the field from nice farmer for sensible money.
 
my OH heard today from his mate a large contractor. This person was supposed to go and combine 1000 acres of straw in cambridgeshire later in the year. The farm owners rang him yesterday and said yield will be down so much they dont want him,they will plough in what bit of straw there will be. And very locally to us they have tried to make silage ,mowed it but the crop in the middle of the fields was so sparce that the machine couldnt pick it up and its all lying there like lawn clippings all over the fields. Complete waste of time and money the farmer should just have turned his cows into graze he said.
What price hay and straw this winter? I wouldnt like to guess. We make our own hay but buy in straw, last winter it went from £8 large bale to £20 same size bale in a few weeks.
I'm holding off asking what it will be this time, but am putting away [saving up]£40 a bale just in case.
Meanwhile a late frost last week has killed my french bean and courgettes and touched a few potato plants,but our neighbouring farmer has lost half his potato field to the frost. What price food this winter?
 
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I was talking to another farmer with no vested interest, ( he doesn't know I have horses ), and he was saying his yield is down to 25% this year compared to last so i do think people need to be aware that hay / straw will not be as cheap as last year ( not that it was cheap ).
 
My guess is £8 a small bale for hay and £3.50 for straw.
The straw on our crops is so short we will struggle to combine them, let alone bale anything. The hay had already gone to seed before it rained so either there won't be any there or we will get a second flush and it will make horrible hay and the horses won't eat it.
 
Just been quoted £6.00 per bale for meadow hay ( small bales) going to have a look tomorrow.

I do still have 25 bales of hay left from last year which was good stuff and my horses liked. Have saved some money allready for this years hay but considering I only paid £2.00 per bale last year, I'm not going to get as much for my money!!
 
so you think if they cut it next month its going to be rubbish? i still have some left from last year too but not enough to do the whole winter for 2 horses! doh!
 
I'm currently paying £6.00 for a small bale but am finding it increasingly difficult to source. I can get it cheaper but have to travel, so taking into account diesel costs it's not worth it for small loads. Up until a couple of weeks ago I'd been paying £3 a bale, but when I went to pick up another trailer load was told that the rest of the stock had been sold to a local feed merchant...hence £6 a bale for the same stuff as I was paying £3 for the week before :mad::mad:

I've heard rumours of £11 - £12 a bale next winter. I had thought 'Rubbish!' when I heard it, now I'm not so sure :(

Lets face it , suppliers will charge as much as they can get away with :mad:
 
But no use charging if got none to sell, we haven't cut any yet but fields really patchy were grazed hard until march and no fert, if we sell any it will be to established customers but let's get it first.
 
okay, so the fields on our farm are only graved on by sheep for about a month at a time, because there is so much land. they grass seed is topped off and sold on for racing yards then they normally cut for hay in july, there is plenty off grass out there, so is it likely to be alright hay? just wondering coz i normally buy 100 for the winter but dont want to waste my money if its likely to be rubbish this year?
 
So far I have been paying over £8 for the small bales! i dread to think how much it will be. I have been putting aside money as I like to buy the large round bales if I can get them.
 
I think you are worrying too much, we never make hay until early July and we are just waiting for the weather to settle. We seem to have average growth much more so than last year so I cant see why there should be a shortage. Unless it never stops raining I cant see a problem especially around here.
 
cool thanks dobiegirl, i only asked because I wondered whether it was worth me buying extra to sell on to my friends at a cheaper rate as I get a good price off the field!! so think I will try and grab 200 bales next month! thanks :D
 
Dobiegirl said:
I think you are worrying too much, we never make hay until early July and we are just waiting for the weather to settle. We seem to have average growth much more so than last year so I cant see why there should be a shortage. Unless it never stops raining I cant see a problem especially around here.
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I tend to agree, I saw several fields cropped very early and others cropped before the rain started, later crops after the rain should be reasonable (but as you say if the rain stops!:))
 
Ours is currently £30 for round bales but farmer only had 3 left of new cut stuff. We have had so little rain the yields are down massively and the first cut is sold as soon as baled. Im literally watching for the field to be cut and hope I see first and phone for more bales. There is definalty going to be a shortage in east angila region cause of lack of rain!. Paying £3.10 delivery for small bales of last years hay.
 
I am being told £4.50 up from £2.50 last year and that yields are down 35-50% down and with the rising cost of the fertilizer/fuel, that have got to charge this. I have been told that bales in Essex could be an average of £6 per bale, if you can get hold of it.

We get through something in the region of 1000 bales, so it will cost us an extra £2k per year minimum up to £3.5k+. Put on top of this we have already grazed the fields which would normally last until August so having to put hay out in fields. It is just not sustainable especially with the rising costs of everyday living and we (and others I know) are seriously having to consider what to do with healthy older horses.

Perhaps it is time to look at changing set aside land, not only for hay but also for food as it is ridiculous that there are shortages and food prices going up when there is land not being used.
 
well i suppose im lucky in a away as i have a reasonable size yard to myself, but like you say the two horses ate all the grass in the summer field in a month, so i have had to put some electric fencing up in an old field with really rubbish fencing, luckily thats been unused for a few years so had plenty of grass but will not last until we move over to the winter field!! I wanted to cry a couple of weeks ago, when i saw my farmer out topping the grass in the winter field! i think im defo going to get at least 200 bales then if i can just in case i need to feed it for longer than normal!! and might stock up on feed now before it goes up too much!

thats also my problem my horse is 26, totally fit and she'd pass as a 4 year old the way she acts but as she is getting old she is getting more expensive to keep as she never used to need a hard feed and now she does! looks like robinsons are going to do well out of me this evening with my feed purchase haha!
 
The Voice said:
Perhaps it is time to look at changing set aside land, not only for hay but also for food as it is ridiculous that there are shortages and food prices going up when there is land not being used.
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Just been to a local yard, they have spent £6000 on hay since January!!
There isn't set aside any more, that was phased out a few years ago.
 
On a similar note I met someone who has 35 horses and last year he had to remortgage his house to pay for hay / feed.

He won't be doing the same this year.

I also met someone who had 7 cobs PTS and they were all under ten years old. He advertised them for £1000 each, no interest, dropped the price to £500 and still no interest. Offered them as free and got rid of one and the rest were PTS. So I agree there will be a lot more oldies meeting their maker and also some who are not aged where people are PTSing rather then burdening overstretched charities .

Both these two examples are the churn em out pile em high brigade so not pet homes where I think people generally only have horses in numbers they can afford and who will often do everything they can to keep their equines.
 
Hi there

I have just been reading your views on the cost of hay, and as a supplier of hay based in Cambridgeshire I Sympathise for you all. Unfortunatlly for the past three years the hay yields have been falling dramatically due to the weather patterns that we are having. There is such a shortage of hay around in this counrty now, that producers are cashing in on this situation. I think personally if you are being charged more than £6 a bale then you are having a bad deal. £4 of the field is a good price and if you can find it then go for it.
 
oh my god that is so sad! guess i should think myself very lucky really then! my horse will never be put down because of the cost of feeding her, i will always find a way to feed her! but defo makes me rethink the idea of getting another one in the furture!! what is this world coming to? i remember when i got her 10 years ago, i kept her on a farm for £40 a month with as much hay/haylage she could eat for free!! and when a farrier only charged £46 for a set of shoes!! take me back to those days any day!!
 
thanks intohay, i hope i can get it cheap again this year! i paid £1.90 a bale last year because my dad is the shoot owner on the farm i bought it from, though he did say he doesnt know if the farmer is going to cut hay this year when i spoke to him last night! but i might see if I am able to get just the 200 that i want then he can do what he wants with the rest! fingers x'd as there is no way i will be able to afford anything more as i am a student now!
 
I think there is definately going to be a north south divide this year. One of the farmers I buy from has only got 25% of his usual yield. he is hoping for a second cut. We got some second cut haylage last year and it was fine, our girls all ate it with no complaints - well apart from the straw we mixed it with, and still they got fat. I think I am going to have to sell a kidney or something this year.
 
Thoroughgoods, chelmsford, essex just sent me a card to let me know they are taking orders for hay. I have used them in the past, the quality is good but i have no idea how much hey are charging.

For those that are struggling. It might be worth looking around for a different livery yard that has more acreage per horse and/or somewhere that doesn't hike their mark up on hay too much. You can always supplement with a good chaff, especially if you can find a chaff/alfa bagged thats around £6.

I have my own field for hay, i was expecting an average yeild but now it has rained that will increase. However, as others have mentioned, unless the sun comes out soon we shant be able to bale it.

Fingers x.
 
its scary that we're having to think of this winters hay supply now. we're predicting a shortage on our farm as its normally supplied but our farmer is only going to get one cut this year and not his normal 2 and we dont have anything left from last year so we're thinking of putting deposits down with suppliers in the next month or so just to guarantee some bales since there;'s so few people supplying now.
 
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