does anybody pay LESS than £4 for small bale of hay??

M

Mel1

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 January 2009
Messages
197
Location
Nottingham
Visit site
just wondering if i should even bother to try looking for cheaper than £4 as in the east midland area
i read on the forum some goes up to £6-7 a bale!!!!!
 
Well I hope so, £2.50 a bale last year, I'm hope it's not gone up to £4.00 a bale on our yard this year otherwise I will have problems :(
 
Yes. Currently paying £2.50 for last years hay and paid £3.00 throughout the winter. All good hay, now a bit dusty hence the 50p drop. We just soak it now.
 
S.East rip-off: £4.25 going up to £5 for hay, and £2 straw. My friend in Dorset pays half that. Wish she could post me some!!
 
We are in the East Mids and I have just had 60 bales delivered and stacked @ £4.50 per bale. However if I buy a bale locally of last years hay it is £5.50 a bale......
 
I have been told by my usual farmer supplier that he can't say if he will be able to supply all the hay I will need this year and what he does have will cost £5 or £6 per bale. Won't fix a price yet till he knows what the market price is :-( We're in Cambs and it's got me seriously worried about how much my boy will cost me this winter.
 
£3 to £3.50 for small bale hay (lovely quality) depending on where I get it, includes delivery - even for small quantities. East Devon.
 
Free hay and straw (bonus of being a farmers daughter!) BUT when/if the current stock MAY run out, will have to buy some in and thats normally £10 per large bale, so still good value I believe?
 
Rant to follow . . . .

So, Lincs / Cambs / Norfolk borders and I have been buying my hay off the same very small local farmer for 10 years and paid about 25p extra per bale each year for inflation.

Farmer has always said he will supply to me because, I quote ;

1) I buy all the hay he makes.
2 I have all the hay delivered in all one go so he doesn't have to store it over winter.
3) I pay him cash.
4) He doesn't have random people calling or knocking on his door for a few bales at time.
5) It's good hay but I take what I get and don't winge if the odd bale is not 100%.

However, this year he states he wants £3.50 a bale for it (£2.25 last year) so I can take it or leave it.

I tell him I'll leave it and stick to using all haylage instead (I usually mix it).

He then says his £3.50 customer let him down so I can have just 80 bales at £2.75 as I have been a good customer, which I agree to.

However, when I ring a few days later to arrange delivery of the agreed 80 bales he then announces that I can't have any hay after all unless I pay £4.50 a bale and collect it myself !!

I politely declined and deleated his number from my contacts !!

Now, I have no problem whatsoever with someone getting top price for their produce and I had no hard feelings initially. But after the second call I felt I was being held to ransome over a bit of hay and it really pissed me off.
I didn't say anything to him but I do hope he doesn't become short of 'good' customers a year or more down the line because I won't be buying a blade of hay off that git ever again ....... even if it was 50p a bale !!!

RANT OVER LOL :-)
 
Last edited:
wonkey_donkey said:
Rant to follow . . . .

So, Lincs / Cambs / Norfolk borders and I have been buying my hay off the same very small local farmer for 10 years and paid about 25p extra per bale each year for inflation.

Farmer has always said he will supply to me because, I quote ;

1) I buy all the hay he makes.
2 I have all the hay delivered in all one go so he doesn't have to store it over winter.
3) I pay him cash.
4) He doesn't have random people calling or knocking on his door for a few bales at time.
5) It's good hay but I take what I get and don't winge if the odd bale is not 100%.

However, this year he states he wants £3.50 a bale for it (£2.25 last year) so I can take it or leave it.

I tell him I'll leave it and stick to using all haylage instead (I usually mix it).

He then says his £3.50 customer let him down so I can have just 80 bales at £2.75 as I have been a good customer, which I agree to.

However, when I ring a few days later to arrange delivery of the agreed 80 bales he then announces that I can't have any hay after all unless I pay £4.50 a bale and collect it myself !!

I politely declined and deleated his number from my contacts !!

Now, I have no problem whatsoever with someone getting top price for their produce and I had no hard feelings initially. But after the second call I felt I was being held to ransome over a bit of hay and it really pissed me off.
I didn't say anything to him but I do hope he doesn't become short of 'good' customers a year or more down the line because I won't be buying a blade of hay off that git ever again ....... even if it was 50p a bale !!!

RANT OVER LOL :-)
Click to expand...

I've had a similar situation, so can sympathise with this. Last year, he put hay up saying it was a bad year etc and I decided it was still excellent value, although I collect it off the field as he bales it, so he doesn't even have to handle a bale. This year he puts it up again, trying to claim there is still not a lot, even though I drove past his fields and it was overflowing with the stuff and the field behind my house, a silage crop, has been cut THREE times so far this year. Most farmers around my village have done two hay cuts already, but they all do large bales which I can't store. *cries*.

A few days after fixing the new higher price, he calls me to say he's been 'speaking to hay dealers' and they said he should be charging £4.50 OFF THE FIELD! So, this coming winter I'm going to be looking at 'last year's crop' and then I'll tell him to get stuffed. I can swallow price increases for fuel/baler twine/cost of living, but a pub conversation is just taking the piddle. Everyone is entitled to make a profit of course, but when you've fixed a price, you've fixed a price. It's business ethics.
 
PStarfish said:
Where abouts are you in EA Brandy? Can't find anything under £6 round me. Getting worried for winter....
Click to expand...


Ditto this... just had a ring round and the cheapest i can find is £5.50 if we go and collect, and £6 delivered

And then the most expensive is £8 a bale - and that is not even delivered!!!!!

And im in Herts
 
£7 for a small bale :( Think its oging to be an expensive winter for me! If anyone knows any more suppliers in Essex please let me know!!
 
A local farmer makes most of his money from hay and sheep, he sells in to London and has invested in machinary so there is virtually no man handleling so the bales whilist small are nearly six foot and weigh nearly twice what a normal farmers bale does.
His last hay went in the hay auction in January and he got £6.70 a bale, which is not expensive as it is the M&S of hay, if he would sell it you you could get it for £6 from the farm.
He says hay will be no more expensive this year as loads has been made in other places and nationally there's plenty of hay and haylage, it just may be in the wrong place for you.
I think perhaps people ought to get to gether and buy in bulk trailer load, it may be no more cheaper than buying over priced hay locally but perhaps it would stop the oppotunests
 
Fransurrey said:
I've had a similar situation, so can sympathise with this. Last year, he put hay up saying it was a bad year etc and I decided it was still excellent value, although I collect it off the field as he bales it, so he doesn't even have to handle a bale. This year he puts it up again, trying to claim there is still not a lot, even though I drove past his fields and it was overflowing with the stuff and the field behind my house, a silage crop, has been cut THREE times so far this year. Most farmers around my village have done two hay cuts already, but they all do large bales which I can't store. *cries*.

A few days after fixing the new higher price, he calls me to say he's been 'speaking to hay dealers' and they said he should be charging £4.50 OFF THE FIELD! So, this coming winter I'm going to be looking at 'last year's crop' and then I'll tell him to get stuffed. I can swallow price increases for fuel/baler twine/cost of living, but a pub conversation is just taking the piddle. Everyone is entitled to make a profit of course, but when you've fixed a price, you've fixed a price. It's business ethics.
Click to expand...


That's really bad Fransurrey, in my day a deal was a deal too :-(

Hope you get sorted with another supplier. I've stocked up with big bale hay from a new supplier and haylage from my usual company so I'm fixed up until next year.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top