Grr - yards dilemma - quick question to all of you about hay provision/costs/storage?

[ecrozier]

Am probably looking to move for a variety of reasons so have been investigating the local area. Narrowed it down to three possibilities, been to see two and hoping to see the third soon-ish.
But I am finding that even if costs for the actual livery seem pretty reasonable, they all insist that they buy in the hay and you then buy from them... Now this is fine, understandable I guess, but seems to make it very expensive!!
Last few years we have been on a TOTALLY diy yard as in they do nothing at all, so we buy in haylage in large bales (has to be haylage as no barn storage for hay) and it seems to have worked out around the £10 per horse per week mark. Is this ridiculously cheap? The quality was a bit hit and miss last year so for this winter I was planning to buy large rectangular bales at £35 - this would have lasted my boys 10 days in winter so working on 3 a month....I'd be looking at approx £100 a month for two horses to have ad lib haylage overnight...
All the yards I have seen provide small bale haylage, at about £5 a bale, and I think my two would probably easily go through 1/3 bale a night each - or am I misjudging the weight compared to haylage?! One is 16.2hh the other 14.2hh both greedy!
I guess what I am asking is:
How do your yards provide hay?
What does it cost you per month/week for a horse that is in either at night or during day?
How many days does a small bale of hay last your horse?

Answers on a postcard please

 

[ihatework]

Small bale haylage @ £5 is dead cheap - to buy at feedstored you are looking in the £7-8 range. If you meant hay then good quality small hay bales are in the £4-5 bracket round here. Depending on the weight of a bale (they can vary massivley) I would expect to go through 1/3 - 1/2 a bale overnight mid winter.

It is definitelty a more expensive option to go small bale than big bale, and last time I had my horse on DIY (when hay prices slightly lower) I was going through approx £60 a month on hay for one big horse.

The suit yourself agricultural type DIY yards have pro's and con's ... the pro's being suit yourself in most areas but lack the structure and facilities. Getting the better quality of yard does often mean fitting in with some of their management requirements unfortunately.

 

[Tempi]

I pay £37.50 per month per horse for haylage and thats for as little or much as the horses need - its a fixed rate the same for everyone, obviously in the summer they eat less and winter they eat more so it balances out. If your horse is living out in the summer though you obviously dont pay for haylage at all during those months. Thats on a DIY yard - the yard is a working farm and they cut/bale all their own haylage each year so its really good quality aswell.

 

[ecrozier]

Sorry yes meant hay not haylage.
Agree entirely - am at a point now where the appeal of some form of management is very strong!! And my concern about the yard I mentioned as a possibility on sunday that is more of the agricultural style is that we would be going from the proverbial frying pan to fire!
Plus illustrated again yesterday the dangers of hungry horses on large slippery hillside field - darcy on box rest with possible fracture after being kicked/boxed most likely by one of my boys as they are together although could be through fence possibly. The smarter yard I told you about is looking very appealing - safe idividual relatively flat turnout!

 

[ecrozier]

That is very reasonable Tempi, thanks. WHereabouts in the country are you?

 

[acw295]

Our yard is a farm and grows its own hay or haylage

Small bale hay is £3 and I get through 2-3 per week for 1x 14.2hh cob stabled overnight in winter, so £9ish a week.

They also do large square bales haylage which are £25 I think - but can't feed my fatty that so no idea how long it lasts.

We can bring in our own but can't get it any cheaper locally so people don't unless they run out of haylage then they buy the odd bale in (never run out of hay). We get 2 pallets for storage of forage and bedding so can't store more than about 8 bales of anything at a time. But they deliver to your pallets 6 days a week so we just order it as we want it

I'm in the South East but our yard is cheap for the area (DIY only, £18pw)

 

[Leg_end]

As you know I'm only down the road from you and I've had hay/haylage done and priced in different ways. I've always been on DIY until now.
Yard 1 - Had to buy hay/haylage from the yard. Was all baled on site £3 a bale for hay or £20 a month for ad lib haylage
Yard 2 - Initially ad lib hay and straw was included in the £140 pcm livery cost as it was all cut on site but then people took the mick and hay was removed from the contract so we ended up buying 20 large bales off them and I think it was £300 for the lot.
Yard 3 - Haylage only and had to be bought from the yard. Was priced at £15 pw per horse (went up to £20 pw in the winter) and we would go through 2/3 large bales a week in the winter between 5/6 horses. Large baled haylage cost £30-35 a bale so we were definately paying over the odds at the time but TBH I couldn't be bothered to argue over it!

If you have the space to store it then I would definately order in big bales if you can. It works out to be pretty economical when you work it all out and some farmers will do you a deal re storage and paying for it (I know Amners Farm nr J12 will hold prices and you can pay per month if youcommit to buying x amount of bales).

 

[Honey08]

I have bought a mixture of things over the years.

Haybales - good meadow hay costs £5/bale (there is cheaper around but not good quality) and I use 1.5 bales a day for two big ISHs that have nets 24/7.

Haylage costs £25 for a 4' round bale, £35 for a 5' round bale - the 4' lasts my two about a week.

We are in the north west, in a hilly area, so prices are possibly a bit higher as good hay/haylage has to be transported in, and therefore diesel costs go on.. Local hay is made but pretty poor!

I have to say, when we did livery, we included haylage in with the cost, purely for the fact that there wasn't room to store several open bales..

 

[measles]

We let all of our clients on any type of livery have enough storage for a couple of tonnes of small bale hay, straw etc so that they can buy at the best price they can get. We do offer services but life is too short to be over charging clients per bale. Perhaps that is one of the reasons we have no turnover.

 

[ecrozier]

Thanks all - acw295, where are you? Thats very cheap!
Leg_end, thanks. I'd like to buy in and store in bulk but think the two yards with better facilities won't allow that, and have a feeling the third yard would care less but as they are a big farm would bale themselves and that would probably work out cheaper anyway. So irritating as my parents get a hay crop off their land but at 40 mins away it is just too far to be nipping back and forth to fetch hay plus they are tied in with local farmer and he cuts it and keeps it in return for other work around the land (they are being done over as he gets around 500 bales emadow hay but never mind, that is a whole other story!)

 

[ecrozier]

Measles - can you relocate to the SE please?!

 

[ihatework]

To be honest, it was part of the reason I went onto part livery.

In this area by the time you have paid DIY rent on a decent yard (£35-40 a week stable/grazing) added in buying small bales for a single horse on either limited storage (so high price per bale from feedstore) or direct off yard (usually similar price!), added in buying hard feed, added in buying bedding - all at single horse prices it's probably costing £70-80 a week to keep a DIY. Top it off with the odd service here and there and may as well pay a bit extra and not get up at silly o'clock to muck out at all!!

Hope Darcy is ok. It is difficult finding the right yard, and certainly finding one that grows their own hay/haylage and sells at reasonable cost, or finding one that allows to to buy in bulk/big bales is the way to go!

 

[Leg_end]

To be honest, it was part of the reason I went onto part livery.

In this area by the time you have paid DIY rent on a decent yard (£35-40 a week stable/grazing) added in buying small bales for a single horse on either limited storage (so high price per bale from feedstore) or direct off yard (usually similar price!), added in buying hard feed, added in buying bedding - all at single horse prices it's probably costing £70-80 a week to keep a DIY. Top it off with the odd service here and there and may as well pay a bit extra and not get up at silly o'clock to muck out at all!!

Me too.. when I actually sat down and did the maths, plus the time out of my day to do all the jobs, it only worked out fractionally more expensive to go onto part livery. It may be worth you doing the maths and seeing if its worth it...

 

[acw295]

Thanks all - acw295, where are you? Thats very cheap!

North Bucks (not far from Addington)

And sshhh, yes it is cheap even for round here but we don't want YO to realise that, I used to be at a yard 3 miles down the road which is £4.50 for hay

It is a basic DIY only working farm livery - with a rubbish sand school but good unrestricted turnout, big stables and off road hacking. The reasonable price of forage is an added bonus!

 

[ecrozier]

Lol a bit too far north for us sadly, we are very much southern end of bucks.
I'd quite like to go on part livery - but sadly with two horses to keep there and another on retirement livery its just not really feasible, hence working out whether i can afford even DIY on a yard with nicer facilities!
Wish I lived somewhere cheaper!

 

[NR99]

I don't think I am that far from you, if you are near to Leg-End.

We pay, £5, £7.50 or £10 per week for hay with £10 being for unlimited use. We also only pay for it when we use it. Currently both of mine are on haylage and I supply this myself, it works out expensive as I buy from local tack shop.

 

[Tempi]

That is very reasonable Tempi, thanks. WHereabouts in the country are you?

Im in Wiltshire so not a cheap area, yard is really cheap though and I get a really good deal

 

[Cupid]

At our yard, in South Yorkshire we pay for haylage bought in by the YM. It works out a £1.43 a day per horse, which is roughly £40 a month with one but we can use as little or as much as we like and it's great quality.

 

[SpottedCat]

Mine's all in at my yard: £46.50 a week including unlimited hay or haylage (great quality) and the YO doing them one end of the day for you (so either turn out or bring in including feeding and rug changes). I don't use more than the odd net in the summer, but in the winter he's on ad lib so I reckon it balances out for me. I was also pleasantly surprised that the YO doing one end of the day includes them bringing in, feeding and turning back out in the summer when they are living out!

 

[ecrozier]

Thanks all - food for thought! We are in a very expensive area, just outside M25 and easily commutable so an awful lot of yards round here are part/full only. Have ruled one out as its just too expensive IMO, nice facilities but seemed like everything had an associated cost - meter for lights. £7 for 20 mins on horsewalker, etc etc. Fair enough if the livery itself was cheap but that yard was really quite dear just for the livery including nothing else at all...!
The yard I am leaning towards at the moment is mid range on the livery price but they reckon the hay (charge by weight used) comes to around £20 a week for average horse...but am assuming that would be less in summer, will double check though. Having said that for my big lad, 4 bales a week is not unreasonable I guess....
Hmm plenty to ponder!

 

[Auslander]

We pay £1 per net (up to 6kg) where I am - although you already know that as you used to be here!

When Alf is in at night, he eats two 6kg nets a day, so that's another £56 per month, plus £30 per month for feed - so I'm actually paying £220ish per month for his day to day needs, which I'm sure will increase in the winter. I'd be tempted by part livery if I could find one I liked!

 

[Tempi]

Mine's all in at my yard: £46.50 a week including unlimited hay or haylage (great quality) and the YO doing them one end of the day for you (so either turn out or bring in including feeding and rug changes). I don't use more than the odd net in the summer, but in the winter he's on ad lib so I reckon it balances out for me. I was also pleasantly surprised that the YO doing one end of the day includes them bringing in, feeding and turning back out in the summer when they are living out!

Wow, you get a really good deal SC!!

 

[ecrozier]

Auslander - I never fed their hay used to buy in my own haylage as had 4 horses there at the time and was cheaper that way!!
Part livery round here seems to start around the £110 a week mark

 

[Auslander]

Auslander - I never fed their hay used to buy in my own haylage as had 4 horses there at the time and was cheaper that way!!
Part livery round here seems to start around the £110 a week mark

I'm considering switching back to haylage. Himself is not very enthuiastic about hay, and although he's ok at the moment, I am advised that he gets skinny on the winter.

£110???? Ouch! I used to charge £60 per week for full livery incl schooling! Was 10 years ago, but still!

 

[ecrozier]

Lol yep - will PM you a couple of places I have spoken to for prices, will make your eyes water!

 

[SpottedCat]

Wow, you get a really good deal SC!!

I know! No charge for parking the lorry either, and a field to ride/jump in during the summer. Only slight downside is the arena is a bit smaller than 20x40 and on a distinct slope across the short side - however this has actually massively improved my dressage as whenever I go anywhere the arena is bigger and flatter than I am used to so our balance and rhythm is amazing! It does limit what I can jump at home in the winter though. There's a separate lunge pen at the end of the school too, so no clashes with lunging/riding, and a v good dressage trainer (who herself is trained by Carl and who came 3rd in the Winter Champs Inter I freestyle) comes once a week to teach. I can hack to a BSJA venue from it too. All in all I landed well and truly on my feet when someone told me about the space there!

 

[Quadro]

I pay £20 for a 5 foot bale of hay It last anywhere from 3-4 weeks for 2 horses as they are tightly packed ! I can't complain
Q