Hay prices 2021

[Puzzled]

Collected straight off field it’s £3 a bale in South Wales…give or take 50p. Never seen so much advertised for sale ????

 

[chocolategirl]

If you counted the time, cost of leaving the land and blood sweat and tears getting it done and risk adjust for the years when the weather ruins it all - it would be cheaper to feed them gold flakes

It makes me a bit cross tbh when some people whinge about the price of hay, particularly if it’s good stuff, well made? the price isn’t the same as the cost is it? We make our own, and it’s the most stressful period every year, I bloody hate it! Huge relief felt though if we manage to actually make decent stuff, and no 2 years are the same?‍

 

[chocolategirl]

I think maybe what a lot of people overlook when it comes to pricing of Hay/haylage are the less visible costs.
Depreciation on tractors, balers and other hay making gear, wagons and trailers. At our place just one tractor and baler costs more than some houses.
Then the man hours (small bales being more labour intensive ) and fuel for the tractors and wagons that haul them back to the yard. Also the costs of storage should be taken into account.

We only put prices up when we have to buy in, so our own bales will cost the same as they have for the last few years.

Exactly this!

 

[HollyWoozle]

We pay £5.50 a small bale here in Bedfordshire but they are heavy and tightly packed, excellent quality, and they get delivered regularly (it was 21 at a time and is more than that in a delivery now).

Friend, also Beds, is selling small bales of meadow hay for £4 collected off the field or £4.50 delivered within 10 mile radius.

 

[Keith_Beef]

it seems just to be priced on what everyone else is charging and what it was last year

Setting the selling price of anything at all can be really difficult, and as my old marketing lecturer used to say "set your price as high as the market will bear".

Imagine that it cost you £4 to reap, bale and deliver each bale of hay and you want to make 12.5% profit, so selling at £4.50. If somebody else in the area is selling at equivalent quality hay at £4 per bale, delivered, what do you do?

Keep offering it at £4.50 and risk not selling any? Match the £4 a bale price, at least not making a loss? Hang on to it in the hope that all the £4 a bale hay will sell out and then you can sell yours for £5 a bale?

 

[Sussexbythesea]

It makes me a bit cross tbh when some people whinge about the price of hay, particularly if it’s good stuff, well made? the price isn’t the same as the cost is it? We make our own, and it’s the most stressful period every year, I bloody hate it! Huge relief felt though if we manage to actually make decent stuff, and no 2 years are the same?‍

I’ve re-read the thread and I can’t see where anyone has complained about the price of hay?

 

[Limit]

Not got our bill yet in for 2021, but in 2020 we paid £275 for 155 small bales to be mowed and made off our own field, which worked out at £1.78 per bale. That's very favourable mate's rates prices from our lovely next door neighbours.

We didnt sell any on, and I needed to buy in 50 more bales in late winter which cost £7 per bale as usual from the feed merchants.

I don't understand all the modern trend for the wrapping of hay. Aren't we trying to cut down on plastics use? Well made hay keeps as long as it is undercover, surely?

I have made my own hay for many years, 28 of them in Cambridge where it is (usually) exceptionally dry. Since moving to deepest Devon, i now buy large wrapped square bales from local farmer. The weather on the fringes of Dartmoor is some else, and not unusual to rain most of October to March. Many barns have slotted sides, so wrapped hay not only saves wastage from rain, but also keeps the dust out. £33.00 per bale delivered.

 

[tda]

would love to be able to buy wrapped hay if it wasn't so expensive to wrap it

Some of ours is going to be wrapped hay, it's been so hot it's hay already, and I have nowhere to store it indoors so has to be wrapped to live outside
I just bought 2 rolls of bale wrap, £65 plus vat per roll

 

[brighteyes]

I’ve re-read the thread and I can’t see where anyone has complained about the price of hay?

Give it time!

 

[brighteyes]

I think we got 2200 this time, first lot not as dry as the second which was really well got. No excuse not to be, really. It's the barn storage and sweating out process you can't often do buying it off the field and carting it home. And that's also a cost factor.

 

[NLPM]

We're paying £4.50 per small bale delivered, which from memory is what it's been for the past few years. I only tend to buy 20-30 bales at a time because of storage space; if I bought more it would be cheaper. £4.50/bale still works out far, far cheaper than getting someone in to make hay from our fields for us though!