Hay prices - am I being ripped off?

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roops

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I am in North Bucks and my hay supplier is trying to charge the same rate - £60 delivered - for a large Heston bale as he did last year during the hay shortage. This year they have had at least 2 and sometimes 3 crops of hay so I feel that it should have gone down a bit! 15 months ago we were paying £30!

Would be good to hear others experiences and in particular if anyone else in the Bucks/Oxon/Northants/Herts areas is paying substantially less for Heston bales?
 
we are in somerset - someone local to me is trying to sell large bale hay at £55 per bale but unsuprisingly is having problems selling. However, my farmer made 600 this year instead of 200 last year (large bale haylage) and as far as I know it will be same price as last year £25 per bale delivered - however he only put it up from £20 to £25 last year so wouldnt expect him to drop back down as delivers as well. I sold some off my own field £3.50 per small bale delivered.

At the rates you are being charged you would probably be better off ordering large order of small bale haylage from fossway, horsehage or devon haylage or similar.

Good luck
 
If that is the same size as i am buying (about 7ft long roughly) then i'd like some please as i'm being charged £80. My old supplier last year charged £35 for round bales but i've had no luck getting hold of any this year.
Finally found a supplier to take me on now and for winter but don't have much choice so have to pay it for a livery yard.
Oh and i'm in West Herts. Any other suppliers that have a stock and will take on new clients would be great......
 
I'm buying the massive long rectangular ones (I think they must be about 7ft long) for £65. Apparently they hold about 20 bales so that's not a bad price considering but I'm going to wait and see how long it lasts me! It should last me a month, hopefully.
It's the same price it was last year. The farmer said he didn't get a good crop of hay this year because of the very dry spring but that could be a load of tosh I don't know.
 
Please all bear in mind that the cost of fuel (hay is very intensive in fuel as you have to cut it, turn it several times minimum, row it up bale it and cart it) has risen again substantially between last year and this. The same applies to fertiliser (if hay is taken of ground year after year without being fertilised, it loses fertility every year, which to replace costs a lot as most fertilisers are oil based).

So added to the erratic weather, I wouldnt be surprised if hay producers down south got a decent number of crops but very low yields (numbers of bales per acre) from each crop. meaning they might end up with an ok total but each bale costs £££ to produce as they are grubbing round the field each time much further to make up one bale.

In any case, hay is a good example of a free market. Nothing is hidden, if you like the quality and the price is OK, buy it, if not, go elsewhere, but bear in mind that horsey peeps are competing with other buyers for forage crops and we also have a reputation with many farmers for being fussy/bad payers (not true of most Im sure but farming forums dont paint us in a good light).

Crops in Scotland have been a lot better than down south because we had rain all through spring and summer (mixed blessing that one). We could be the moon as our weather has been so different to Southern England this year, I dont think we can make any price comparisons across the nation.
 
South West - 3 cuts and very good amounts and quality per cut round by us - do agree that it is labour and fuel intensive but my farmer charged me a total of £160 for cutting,turning,baling 140 small bales off just under 2 acres (excellent price i thought). Obviously large bale is cheaper to make as less labour intensive ... but they do need to make a profit as long as its not daylight robbery.
 
Lol its very expensive 25.00 a bale 4 haylage here and its great quality,hay is 40 for massive big bales that's in south wales
 
"It's the same price it was last year. The farmer said he didn't get a good crop of hay this year because of the very dry spring but that could be a load of tosh I don't know"

No, it's not a load of tosh. We have had a terrible year this year with our yield - worse than last year. We tried to do a second cut on our 12 acre field and got 12 round bales off it - it wasn't worth the fuel cutting it.
 
Lol its very expensive 25.00 a bale 4 haylage here and its great quality,hay is 40 for massive big bales that's in south wales
 
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