Hay prices - going up or coming down?

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canteron

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The last time I bought hay is was £7.50 per bale (it was nice hay though).

Am hoping the price has come down for the main Winter stock, what was the second cut like and will prices stabilise?? I don't mind the farmers making a reasonable return but if it is £7.50 for the whole winter then thats all my pocket money sorted!
 
I'm in Kent and the answer for me is down. Speedgate Farm are selling at £5.50 I'm told, but the farmers who waited and cut later are getting a decent crop and a lot are selling accordingly. I'm paying £4 per bale delivered. So I'll cross my fingers for everyone!
 
Kind of irrelevant to you in the UK but perhaps interesting to have a price comparison. I am shocked to see how expensive hay has become there.

Have been in the US for 10 years now and admittedly we do live in one of the 'hay growing' states but I pay a maximum of 2.30 pounds (did the conversion) per small square bale. People in places like Florida have to pay up to about 8.50 per bale which is more like the UK.

Are there fewer hay growers than there used to be?
 
It's not to do with fewer hay growers - it's to do with horrendous hay growing (or not!) weather we have had in the last few years - for example the ridiculously hot spring we had this year, meaning, in the South East at least, it was not lush green growing grass, more shrivelled up brown dust!

It's a bit of a cummulative effect as there are no 'stocks' of hay like there were a few years back - what the farmers are cutting, they are selling...so I think hay prices will stay the same as last year, if not increase.

Best way to save money with hay is get it off the field, and have the farmer delivery it in massive bulk to your yard, so they don't have to store it themselves....
 
I cannot believe you's pay £5+ for a bale of hay :eek: My friends hay at the start of the year was £2.50 per bale (as far as im aware still is) and my small baled haylage was £5.
 
I have bought mine for £5.00 per bale delivered, which is the same price as last year, from the same supplier.
 
Two winters ago in Kent I paid £2.50 for small bales straight off the field and there was as much as I could take. Last winter I couldn't actually source hay to buy off the field, but the most I paid for hay was £4.50 per bale, which I had to collect myself. However, some friends were paying £6.50 per bale just up the road from me at Speedgate. (If you're a livery you have to buy their hay I believe).
So this year doesn't feel too bad. £4.00 straight off the field, but delivered and stacked (the lovely bottle of red I buy the farmer each year doesn't go amiss, he has it with his Christmas dinner!).
 
Thanks everyone for your reassurance.

They actually answered the question fairly definitively on 'Farming Today' this morning.

Hay crop is marginally up on last year. The main 'horse' areas are South East and Home Counties so there is a trade from West/North to East/South.

I really believe that the farmers should get a return on their investment, BUT I have concerns for many horses (and owners?) welfare if the prices are too high.
 
lyndy said:
I have bought mine for £5.00 per bale delivered, which is the same price as last year, from the same supplier.
Click to expand...

This year is the same for me. Last yr was £4 delivered into the barn.

Local feed merchant also brought off same fields mine came from & paid the same (he collected) and it selling same for £6.50 per bale if brought in loads of more than 15. Otherwise is going at £6.95
 
Last winter I paid £30 for those long bales and then the farmer ran out earlier this year so we bought some small bales from another farmer for £5.50.
New place I am on now the farmer makes his own and we have to buy his, alright I could get it cheaper elsewhere but I don't have the hassle of sourcing it, and then storing a load so worth it IMO.
 
Think ours will be up by 50p from what farmer said so £5 bale. Just starting to have to feed it now though as grass nearly gone :-(
 
I had quotos for hay this year and small bales range from 4 upwards and big rounds at 50.00 upwards
I don't think it's the price we got to worry about it's about how much there is To go round
I spoke to one farmers wife in Ashford who was saying that her husband only managed to get half of what they usually get a couple years ago
 
Hiya our hay is going up so is the haylage..we will be selling at these prices

Small bale hay 4.00 organic

medow hay 8 x 5 foot square bales 40.00

Haylage 28.00 per bale

I think those are fair prices, we are in south wales
 
For those in the South East / Kent. I cut 2 fields this year, one early Late June the other a couple of weeks ago. Both yields were up by around 15-20% on last year. I sold mine for £3.25 a bale off the field and will be charging by liveries £3 per bale. Also...... there does seem to be a lot more fields being cut for hay this year in my area - I dont think quantity will be too much of a problem?
 
I am paying £4 per bale of small square hay bales, and when winter kicks in we use the big round bales in the feeders at £30 per bale and the big rectangular straw bales are £20 per bale. We are in worcester- my hay supplier still has bales left from last year and they still seem to smell good/not too dusty
 
i am paying £6 for meadow and £7 for seed (small bales) I have been told that this will not come down this year but price is set by yard and we're unable to go elsewhere.

I'm based in Leics - anybody got prices for around neck of the woods please?
 
Update from Kent. 150 beautiful big heavy bales today, delivered and stacked in my barn for £4 each. Farmer says plenty more where that came from. He quoted a field that he got 600 bales off last year that has yielded 1350 this time. I mentioned certain local places selling for £5.50 and even as high as £6.50 per bale and he said they were "avin' a larf". Hopefully people will shop around before paying the same prices as last year, because it does look as if there is hay about at reasonable prices.
 
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