Hay - is everyone managing to get some?

F

Follychoppins

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 January 2009
Messages
106
Visit site
Our farmer is in a real tizzy - dry weather means no where near enough hay - yield approx 30 -50%. He warned me it will be like gold dust and at least double normal price. Is anyone having problems "getting ready for winter?" :(
 
lmao! Whoops. Got your attention anyway :) My oh says we might meet you at Badminton fun ride - with your sense of humour it should be grand fun!
 
Our local free newspaper normally has loads of ads for hay but I noticed yesterday that there's none at all. I picked up 50 bales off the field for £2.20 each, I've got no more room at the moment to store any more, but seriously worried that I may not be able to get any later on. Horses will just have to be rugged up and turned out as much as poss through the winter and hope that it's not as cold/snowy as last winter.
 
And straw!

Was speaking to farmer last night, he has a farm up here (aberdeenshire) and one in norfolk.

Said that the oat crop (down south)is due to be cut in a few weeks and is half the height it should be with NO oats on it!

Crop up here is just as bad but has a bit longer till cut.

Says its going to be a nightmare.
 
I was told today that our normal hay supplier is 1000 bales down and it doesn't look lilke he'll be able to supply us with any this year......looks like she'll be on haylage, which does have its upsides, absolutely no waste, she eats every last scrap :rolleyes:
 
I own 2.5 acres and have grown my own this year for my 2 NF ponies, using about half of the paddock for hay. When it was cut on Friday I looked at the thin smattering of grass on the ground and worried. It was turned yesterday ready for baling today. Last night I laid awake for hours worrying if it would rain and spoil that which I have. Luckily it was okay and I have 3 large round bales. In a good year that half of my field would normally yield (allegedly) up to 10 large bales. They are well packed so I hope they will see me through the winter. I am going to try because for every other large bale I could buy and store someones horse may have none at all and I don't work like that :)
 
can seriously see aot of horses being sold pts before winter as people face up tothe realaties of keeping more horses than tey really need hay and straw will be scarce and cost more and i bet other feeds bedding goes up in price.
 
ive ordered 300 bales to come off the field in August - just hoping that i do get them as until they are in my barn i'm worried they'll not come up, fingers crossed otherwise i'll be up the creek without a paddle.
 
My next door neighbour had hers cut over the weekend and she's got a massive 13 small square bales :(

My field which last year saw me through with the two boys (I have one and half bales left currently which should get me through to August) looks like I'll be lucky to get 10 rounds off. Luckily the amazing man that does my hay for me has managed to find me two extra bits of land :D so he thinks that between all that I should get the 40 odd bales I need to see me through the winter - fingers crossed

It's going to cost me way more though because of the travelling time etc to get 3 fields instead of 1 done but I'm not complaining if I get more hay as the prices are already double down here!! :eek:
 
we got ours in yesterday & even though we hayed just over double the amount of land to last year we only managed to get 22more small bales :( luckily its really good quality even with getting rained on, but sadly 361bales wont get us through the winter so now on the search for about 100 more.

The farmer who cuts/bales it for us said the hay yield around us is down by 50% this year & farmers are hanging onto it incase of another harsh winter & needing it for their own animals.

Its also selling for £3.50-4.50 straight off the fields round here, so who knows what rediculous price it will rise to during winter!
 
Hay is very short around me in the south east too, I am buying and storing some already and I am going to weigh the rations, no way are they getting it adlib, their rations will be split so they always have something digesting inside them TBH mine are hardy natives so I'm not that worried yet, they can scratch around for grass as it's what they do best! they certainly won't starve!! I will also look at some alternatives such as fast fibre and sugarbeet.

I think horse owners will start to be more realistic about costs this winter - gone will be the ridiculous wastage of hay just trampled in and chucked on muckheaps....and fat native ponies scoffing adlib hay.

I am also going to get shot down here as my 2 out 24/7 365's will be allowed to fatten up at the end of the summer and will winter through on maintenance rations - it's what the buggers do natrually......
 
Moses - i wouldn't shoot you down as thats exactly how i keep my own natives but as i've just posted elsewhere, i am actually having to hay mine now twice a day just to keep some fibre going thru them, it is utter total madness to me but i can't risk them losing any more weight to be honest, they are slim and trim now, their workload hasn't decreased as much as the grass has so they pretty much their end of winter rate rather than mid summer weight and if i don't get any rain soon then i am in for a ****e winter with them as my field is totally brown and burnt, they have even eaten all the weeds and crappy bits now and no amount of scratching around is getting them anything other than dust, they even come in with brown tongues - LOL
 
moses06 said:
Hay is very short around me in the south east too, I am buying and storing some already and I am going to weigh the rations, no way are they getting it adlib, their rations will be split so they always have something digesting inside them TBH mine are hardy natives so I'm not that worried yet, they can scratch around for grass as it's what they do best! they certainly won't starve!! I will also look at some alternatives such as fast fibre and sugarbeet.

I think horse owners will start to be more realistic about costs this winter - gone will be the ridiculous wastage of hay just trampled in and chucked on muckheaps....and fat native ponies scoffing adlib hay.

I am also going to get shot down here as my 2 out 24/7 365's will be allowed to fatten up at the end of the summer and will winter through on maintenance rations - it's what the buggers do natrually......
Click to expand...

Follychoppins and I had the same conversation today after having inspected the three super bales we have had made. Both ours are NF's and out 24/7, 365.

Like others have said, the farmer who cut and baled ours is getting about half the bales he usually gets from the same land and is currently 350 bales short for the winter :eek:

We will just be careful with the hay, increase their hard feed and add some sugar beet. They survived last winters snow carrying too much weight, so I'm sure they'll be fine.
 
nice to hear that people are intending to be careful on wasteage, investing in feeders to prevent this must be a wise investment
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top