Hay and straw prices

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Flowerofthefen

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Visited a different feed shop yesterday as it was I the area I was in. Hay was £7.50 for a small bale and straw was £6 a bale. Who can afford those prices??!! My straw has just gone from £2 to £2.50 a bale. We do our own Hay but Hay from the same place I get my straw is £4. If I had to pay those raised prices I would most definitely have to sell my boys 😢
 
Round here, straw is nearly as much as hay and harder to get. At lambing time I chuck old hay on the floor for the sheep and with what they waste pulling out of the hayracks that does them.
 
Flowerofthefen said:
Visited a different feed shop yesterday as it was I the area I was in. Hay was £7.50 for a small bale and straw was £6 a bale. Who can afford those prices??!! My straw has just gone from £2 to £2.50 a bale. We do our own Hay but Hay from the same place I get my straw is £4. If I had to pay those raised prices I would most definitely have to sell my boys 😢
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Can you pm me with that place for hay for £4 please? Thank you.
 
My usual hay man missed the boat and didn't cut in June so he's not made any hay at all. What he has will go for cow silage apparently this year
Everyone expected a normal July so a lot didn't do a first cut in June.
 
Very little hay made yet this year round here, and no sign of a potential break in the weather long enough to make it.

I was chatting to one of the local hay and straw dealers recently. He hasn't made any of his own yet either, and he reported that a number those hereabouts who risked making it in May later lost it to barn fires due to spontaneous combustion 😳.
 
As a livery I have to buy my hay from the farm but luckily they cut hay in June and there was a lot of it. They don't do a second cut as we are now grazing those fields. We pay £4 a bale and after our livery going up earlier this year for the first time in ages I won't be surprised if the hay price increases. I'm not complaining as DIY livery went up to £27.50 a week which is still cheap for Herts.
 
I’d been paying £3 a bale for hay to clear out last years hay for a farmer, he doesn’t have enough to supply me this year. One supplier is £4 a bale the other is £5.50 a bale. Lots round here haven’t cut yet
 
I've just ordered my first 2023 cut haylage and it is the same price as last year... phew!

My straw guy doesn't think he will be harvesting his cereals until late August due to the weather so no idea yet on quality or price 🤞
 
We were in a heatwave in June and the hay fields around here were all cut. Great for quantity less great for my metabolic fatties who really don't need super sweet dried June grass over winter

I'm lucky I can store 14 big bales at a time so helps on cost and means I'm not nervously hunting for hay mid Feb.

Although I have so much grass that if winter can please be dry they won't be needing much hay. I've got green shoots even coming up on the muddy churned bits.
 
TheMule said:
If it doesn’t stop raining soon I'd expect an even bigger increase- a lot of straw round here is going to be awful, and if you didn’t cut early June, the hay is still on the field waiting
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I had high hopes for this year as loads of farmers took their first cut in May!
But with all this rain the second cut looks iffy
 
We grow and cut our own hay. Because of the price of fertiliser we haven't put any on, it would have cost us £1000 to fertilise our 5 acres which would have increased the yield but with hay you can't guarantee the weather. This means its highly unlikely that we will get a 2nd cut and I will need to buy some in. It costs us £4.50 a small bale just to make our hay, not including the time we take off work to do it, which generally equates to 5 days. We used to sell the surplus but we don't have any to sell.

The barley has been cut this last week in the rain, meaning lower quality grain crop for farmers and increased cost for drying the grain.

Last year we didn't get a 2nd cut due to drought, this year we'll be short due to rain!
 
Sealine said:
As a livery I have to buy my hay from the farm but luckily they cut hay in June and there was a lot of it. They don't do a second cut as we are now grazing those fields. We pay £4 a bale and after our livery going up earlier this year for the first time in ages I won't be surprised if the hay price increases. I'm not complaining as DIY livery went up to £27.50 a week which is still cheap for Herts.
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That's so cheap for round here 😱 my previous work exp was going up to 200 and that was just DIY
 
I have the nicest hay man, he tries to keep his prices reasonable. Last year he said it was sad seeing how many people were really struggling financially and had cut everything back to afford their horses.
This year can only be worse?
 
I am watching the 40 acre field of barley, which provides me with feeding straw as a rule, change from a lovely bright yellow to a dingy grey and is now starting to lodge (fall over and lay flat to the floor). Mr R is thinking of talking to some of his merchant friends to find nice early cut barley straw for my donkeys.
 
Approx 2 months ago hay prices were £35 for a big round bale.
I believe the same hay was £4.00 a bale with a minimum order of 10 bales. I was paying £9.00 a bale of good shavings and £7.50 for pellets.
I'm not sure what the price is now but I am buying a shavings bale and bag of pellets this evening on the way from work so I will see as I'm stock piling and want an excuse to visit the yard too!
 
scruffyponies said:
I am currently trying to dry out 200 bales which were used for seating at a festival at the weekend. It got wet on Sunday, and all we can do is stack it loosely under tarps, turning it when we get chance until it's dry enough to go away properly. Such a waste otherwise.
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I am trying to persuade my friends to use bales of shavings instead of straw at their wedding next month.
 
The yard I’m on has made hay for the first time this year and it was made in June in a ten day stretch of dry weather. All the local farmers/contractors muttered we don’t make hay in Teesdale in June..and they waited…and a lot of it hasn’t been cut. Currently small bales are £5 direct from farmer ..I don’t know retail prices. I suspect haylage will be made in September.
 
We were lucky and did ours early in June but hubby did cut all at once, baled and wrapped it now I only have two horses here so I can use what the cows have so none of it gets wasted. I think this year's might be rocket fuel; good job neither are ridden! We've still got 18 big bales of last year's hay to go through before we start on the new. Anyone who didn't cut at the same time around here has totally missed the boat and what's been done lately is dark manky rubbish. Wouldn't like to know what Corbetts will charge for a small bale this time. My heart bleeds for anyone on a tight budget; I can see lots of horses being given up this winter. It's bad when a bag of nuts has gone up by £3 at least this year and that's bargain basement ones, not specialized ones.
 
Straw from the feed merchant round here is £7.50. We only use it for the geese, so it's not worth shopping around, as I go through a bale every 2-3 months. Hay is ridiculous. Our yard hay hasn't been cut yet - it was lovely in June, but now looks a bit weather beaten. Not sure I'll be feeding that this winter. I think I'll be moving to haylage again.
 
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