Hay now £6.50 a bale and rising - price of haylage?

Slinkyunicorn

Slinkyunicorn

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Just been told by YO we are close to running out of hay - a variety of reasons none of which can be changed:rolleyes:

Anyway our usual hay is 3 quid a bale and the CHEAPEST hay he has found is £6.50 a bale and was told the prices will be going up as there is now a shortage - in the 10 years I have been here we have never had a problem getting hay at any time of year and the price has always been the same.

So i was looking at haylage - is £6 a small bale a good price? and should I be getting a load in as no doubt demand for haylage will start to rise as well?:confused: or is there generally more haylage around due to it's 'longer' shelf life?:confused:

Apologies from the haylage Numpty for the stupid questions....;):D
 
Three depts in France had 'official drought' last summer and we were one of them. No hay for sale locally which means expensive transport costs. We are being quoted 250 euros per ton which is over £200 per ton.

last week's Farming Today R4 said the UK price was £120 ton.
 
Can you not club together with a few people and buy a large round one? It works out so much cheaper.

Hay in my area is £8-10 a bale. My 15.3 mare would get through about 2 a week I reckon. Large round bales of haylage cost £45. One will last my ISH mare, friends cob and friends tbxhann (who has ad lib) 2 weeks. My personal contribution is £30/month. She has one large stuffed haynet a night.
 
we are lucky then as our normal bales of hay are still £3, our large round bales for the field are £45 (they have gone up £10 in a matter of weeks!)
i have just started feeding haylage to my boy, and im just buying the small bales from my feed shop but if anyone knows of anyone in the cambs area i can buy it from in larger bales please PM me!
 
Our prices have been going up since october last year - it £4 a bale, then the supplier said they would only sell to regular customers (she had people coming offering to buy the whole lot). it then went up to £5 and is now £6 for a small bale.

Fields were just not yielding the same volume as before. fields which would have given 600 bales were giving 300, that sort of thing. its not good.

a bunch of us ended up buying a lorry load of big bales in october, as its all we could get - came to us from miles away. there are people selling, but its not cheap. if you have room to store big bales, then call around and you can usually find someone to deliver. however small bales, i'm afriad the price you are being quoted is quite normal to me. I'd buy what you can afford for now. :(
 
These are 6 quid for 20kgs - the cheapest round here. They do large bales - haven't checked price as we would never get through one fast enough so the amount of waste would make it expensive. 0thers on the yard are taking the ostrich view on it all and are doing nothing - not prepared for mine to go without or pay stupid money in a few weeks time when there is no hay left:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
slinkyunicorn said:
These are 6 quid for 20kgs - the cheapest round here. They do large bales - haven't checked price as we would never get through one fast enough so the amount of waste would make it expensive. 0thers on the yard are taking the ostrich view on it all and are doing nothing - not prepared for mine to go without or pay stupid money in a few weeks time when there is no hay left:rolleyes::rolleyes:
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Chandlers are charging around £5 for the 22kg ones.
 
slinkyunicorn said:
These are 6 quid for 20kgs - the cheapest round here. They do large bales - haven't checked price as we would never get through one fast enough so the amount of waste would make it expensive. 0thers on the yard are taking the ostrich view on it all and are doing nothing - not prepared for mine to go without or pay stupid money in a few weeks time when there is no hay left:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

our large ones are open 2 weeks and we throw none away at all. It's not very wet, rich stuff so it isn't going off.
 
I can get 100kg haylage for £20, it lasts 10 days for one horse (other horse is on hay)

I was lucky to buy all my winter hay at £2 per bale, and am managing to buy big square bales (approx 30 small bales per 1 bale) at £70 inc delivery for adlib feeding in the field.

I am hearing a lot of stories of £6 per bale round here as well though!
 
We have had the Gelstone in the past and been pleased with it, but last year we had a really bad load of it, every bale practically we opened was green with mould, now Iam realistic and if it was just a bit of white yeast I would carry on and feed it, but some were black, I heard other people had trouble with it last year. I kept taking it back to feed merchants, they actually accused me of purposley putting holes in the bales!! WTF would I do that for, it was hassel continually driving there to take it back all the time, I actually rang Gelstone and told them. So we go some where else now for feed and Equilage bales, and its good stuff but we can do a bales in 2 days/1 horse, so quite expensive.
 
No idea, it's the first time I bought it... the reason being that my horses for whatever reason won't touch any forage produced in the fens this year, hay or haylage... so I went for Gelstone as they are Wolds, but it's too expensive and fairly small bags/bales. I'm getting Staffs grass in both forms now and they are happy eating it :rolleyes:
There is some bits and bobs on e-bay around Derby, would that be any good for you?
 
Surely at £6.50 a bale where you are it must be worthwhile getting a trailer and travelling to the counties where hay is cheaper at say £3 a bale, even with the fuel costs it would still be cheaper?
 
Hay has been about £7 a bale near me since last summer, so I had to switch to haylage. The cheapest way I can get it for one horse is £6.40 for 25kg... I can get this to last my horse 3days if I up his dengie Hifi

I hate it because I want to feed him ad lib, but he would eat me literally out of house and home.

I am trying to convince Hubby though that if I got another horse we could get the 250kg bales and it would actually cost less (I,m not mentioning the extra shavings, farrier, feed lol).
 
Popped into my local feed merchants yesterday to settle up the January feed delivery bill.
Was asked if I wanted hay at all (as had needed to get some in before & just after xmas) but said I was ok & should be fine now till the spring grass comes through - as having moved the neds 3 weeks ago into a paddock rested since October - I hadn't been feeding hay in the daytime. (The hay I have, should last till mid April if I feed full rations day & night till then, so ought to have some over as have saved a bit already).

I stupidly asked the price (was £6.95 in late dec - delivered).

It WAS £7.95 last week & they are now charging £8.25 delivered!!!!! :eek:
I'm so glad I have enough, but feel sorry for those who cannot store much - or who are 'having' to pay those prices! :(
 
Ours went up to £6.50 at the end of January so I have now reduced the amount of hay I am feeding and replaced it with a mix of speedibeet and hi-fi. It is not a massive saving but I figured it is saving me £3 per horse per week so it adds up!
 
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