hay prices at yard

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lcw

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Wanted to know if anybody pays per pound at there yard for hay/hayledge, ive just left a yard (from hell) reasons firstly my hay bill was just rediculous each week, i bought my own hay when i first went there and the owner decided we had to buy of her instead, she made it pay as you go, last week my hay bill was £25.30 that was for one week, they were out for three of the days out of the week, and i used 154pounds of hay or 70kilos.which is not a great deal(my ponies on diets too) i cant see how it is justified when i have just bought a large round bale at my new yard for £40 which will last my two ponies a few weeks, my previous yard owner paid the same £40 a large round bale and said she wasnt making profit, I dont know any other yards that have tarriffs, we had to weigh each net and write it into a book then it was totaled at end of week. it was a pain in the arse, having to weigh it to nearest pound, god help those with large horses that move on. How many kilos/pounds are in a large round 4ft bale of hay?
 
What a palava! No wonder you got fed up. When I was on livery the Farmer had a simple system. They counted how many large bales were put out in the field each month, this was then divided that by the number of horses in the field. I generally paid about £70 per horse per month (slightly more when it was really snowy) and this was ad-lib.
 
That is mental, sounds like they were onto an earner there....

I am "all in" and makes life very easy, but it is the same price for my 13.2 pony (5 kg or 10lb) and my old 17hh TB who ate 9 kg (18 lb) a night and had hay in the field, i s'pose it equals out in the end...
 
I think if you are obliged to buy hay from YO then it should be sold at cost (allowing for a charge for any work in unloading it) or just a bit more. Otherwise it is unfair. (and I am normally defending YOs but in this case I think it is not right to add a big margin when there is a captive audience; otherwise its just a sneaky way of putting up livery charges.

Where hay is included it should be either a set amount or ad lib; if theres a limit on ad lib (which is prob sensible as some peeps do waste a lot!) then that should be clearly stated.
 
ours is very nice & is cut & baled on site, YO charges £5pw natives & £7.50 for all others for ablib hay. YO will say something if hay is being wasted though & asks that hay left in nets when they need refilling goes into the feild racks & not into the muck heap.
the racks are emptied weekly & any old stuff put in the chickens run, works really well too.
 
A YO will always add a little to the hay

for the cost of unloading and and storage

One of my x liveries bought extra hay for her horse ,
when she left my yard she wanted me to buy it for the same amount she bought it for I said no, i will offer a £ 1 less per bale as i gave you storage for it . she said no so i said well take it with you then.

That amount above does seem allot though
 
We pay by the bale for our hay and for 2 fairly big horses out through the day in at night i use 5 bales a week at £4.50 a bale so i pay just over £20 a week though if they are i a lot i would use about 7 bales a week.
 
The cost price to me per horse is £20 per week. This is quality large bale haylage bought in bulk. So the OP's hay bill for two does not seem much at all.
 
lcw said:
Wanted to know if anybody pays per pound at there yard for hay/hayledge, ive just left a yard (from hell) reasons firstly my hay bill was just rediculous each week, i bought my own hay when i first went there and the owner decided we had to buy of her instead, she made it pay as you go, last week my hay bill was £25.30 that was for one week, they were out for three of the days out of the week, and i used 154pounds of hay or 70kilos.which is not a great deal(my ponies on diets too) i cant see how it is justified when i have just bought a large round bale at my new yard for £40 which will last my two ponies a few weeks, my previous yard owner paid the same £40 a large round bale and said she wasnt making profit, I dont know any other yards that have tarriffs, we had to weigh each net and write it into a book then it was totaled at end of week. it was a pain in the arse, having to weigh it to nearest pound, god help those with large horses that move on. How many kilos/pounds are in a large round 4ft bale of hay?
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That is a hell of a lot to charge for hay, I would be furious!
I have been at yards where you could buy hay or haylage from yard owner.
First place was great as they cut and baled their own hay and you just took what you needed, wrote it down and paid for it monthly. Hay was around £3 back then for a small bale and I think I went through around 5/6 per week for 2 horses ( 1 is a giant).
Another place they would get haylage in for you and told me it was at cost ( ie no profit) until I spoke to the guy that brought it and discovered that for every bale they sold to me they made £5 profit. Not much you might wonder but it was when I was the first and only one on DIY at the time. Then others moved on who had hay instead. Yard owner had to go and fetch it ( so fuel costs). I then discovered that they were actually charging the other liveries less for it, ie charging them less money for what they were using. It was not based on the amount as it would be have been less considering they had 1 animal to my then 3. But rather that he gave them a discount. I was bloody furious about it and not long after I left and that was one of the reasons why.
Another place had ad lib haylage in winter and in summer months charged by the net which was weighed. A good system as you wouldn't use much in summer as there was plenty of grass so would only really apply to injured/sick horses that were in or if people chose to keep them in. They also bought in hay which could be bought by the bale or half a bale. Again really reasonable costs considering and nothing like the rip off yard of OP and one that I had been on.
Another sold haylage which were bigger than normal and also did larger hay bales as well. Again reasonable costs for the sizes and bigger meant it lasted longer too.
Other places have had to buy in which is a pain if storage is a problem or else you are doing so with other liveries as it can be hard if you are a multiple horse owner to tie in with others.
Also prefer to buy from yard owner because you know that it is there and if paid for on a monthly basis is easier on the pocket than if you have to run around going and fetching it from all over the place and if you have it delivered and you are only one then there are usually minimum orders which can be 3 figure sums.
 
I'm getting large 4ft round bale haylage that lasts 3 14hh ponies a week, they are £45 delivered, i know other people locally that are paying £50 for the same size bales and no better quality.
 
I'm feeding £7 per day in hay to my lot. If we get bad weather this will double at least. But they live out ATM and still have grass too.
 
lcw said:
last week my hay bill was £25.30 that was for one week, they were out for three of the days out of the week,
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Just...wow :( Price and the faffing about weighing the stuff...

We buy by the bale from the farmer we livery with (not mandatory but much easier)... In our case the large rectangular haylage bales between myself and my daughter... £25 and it'll do 3 ponies, 2 horses (inc 1 TB who has the appetite of two small elephants) and a foal for six days... They're all in at night atm...

One of the old lambing barns is used by the liveries to store bedding, haylage etc...
 
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