Hay prices - rumours of £12 a bale!!!!

I got 50 bales of good meadow hay for £3.50 a bale delivered i live in Yarm Stockton but its been hard to find any one to sell thier hay in this area as the farmers are holding on to it.
 
Every year H&H runs some ridiculous sensationalist story about hay reaching stupid prices like this. Every year it is proven to be incorrect and people are flogging off left over stuff come spring. Seriously, this isn't journalism, this is tabloid-style drivel for the mindless masses, which isn't a story until someone prints it, people believe it, panic buy, merchants say 'shortage' and come April, hay is back at sensible prices. It is nonsense. Yes, hay is now £5/bale for me - but then again it was £3/bale when I had a pony 18 odd years ago, so given the change in fuel prices since then, that's not exactly a ridiculous increase, is it?!
 
We should start calling these type of threads 'haymongering'. The more this is allowed to go on and we give in to these outrageous profiteers the worse it will be for everyone. I pay £15 per big bale top quality. Costs farmer around £7 to make. Everyone is happy. All we need is this to get into mainstream and everyone will double their prices.
 
It`s not as ridiculous as it sounds! Here, Down South they have cancelled Hay & Straw sales due to lack of entries and the ones that have gone ahead have seen the dealers paying averages(before xmas) of £8 a small bale and in the more recent sales of £5-£6 a small bale and they`ve got to haul it, deliver it and make a profit on top of that! Large bale is not going for a whole lot less (per kg).

It`s actually cheaper to feed hage over hay this year.

I`m fortunate that I bought mine in at harvest prices and have got some fabby Oat straw which i`m bulking it out with. But not everybody has the luxury of storage and I really feel for them this year :-(
 
Last edited:
Mike007 said:
I WISH PEOPLE WOULD TALK ABOUT HAY ON A PRICE PER TONNE BASIS ,all this per bale stuff is meaningless. :mad::mad:
Click to expand...

Not if you buy it by the bale surely:)

I have no idea, or desire, to know how many tonnes I get through.
I do know approximately how many bales I need to feed a given number of horses though. I don't buy by weight or the bale, I reserve 1st and 2nd cut off a field and get what I get from that 30 acres. If I don't need all of it I sell it back to my supplier.

It's like my shavings man delivering my shavings in yards, who cares? I want a trailer full, I don't give a flying stuff what measurement it comes in;)

The prices I pay are irrelevant but I pay $3 for a small bale, $30 for a large round.
 
Last year was contracted to get hay from landlord at £3.25 bale (delivered). South Bucks. This year, moved horses to new place in September, so no longer contracted to former landlord - and didn't want to pay his prices (now at £6/bale) but couldn't find new supplier (all suppliers only selling to regulars only - not taking on new customers), so for a while before Christmas was buying from retailer at £5.50 (cheaper and better quality hay than from previous landlord eh!), but have now moved on to big bale haylage at £40/bale as for my 4 it's far more cost effective.

Sorry, no idea of weights!
 
Last edited:
Well I'm in the South East, so one of the most expensive areas, and buy my hay from a feed merchants, so one of the most expensive ways to buy. My hay is costing just over £5 a small bale delivered to my door and often stacked as well. So nowhere near £12 a bale!

To be honest, if small bale prices reach that height then horse-owners will turn to feeding hay replacers instead, as more economic.

And I do agree with posters above that scare-mongering articles in the press don't help, but just send people out panic-buying.
 
£3.00 for a traditional small bale, grown by YO and excellent quality this year. Running out though, so they've bought in at £3.50/bale. Not sure what new batch is going to be like though as haven't started using it.
 
I paid £520 for 2 tonnes of hay on October - this works out to be £8.67 per bale.

Round bales are currently £75

Rectangular Bales I have seen advertised for £100

I am in Southern Hampshire.
 
I've just paid £4 per small bale of seed hay & had to collect it collect it myself locally. Worth it I think as they're eating every scrap. I'm in Lincolnshire.

However the supplier told me that another supplier from Suffolk was planning to come & take the rest & his transport costs alone would be costing him £900!
 
SpottedCat said:
Every year H&H runs some ridiculous sensationalist story about hay reaching stupid prices like this. Every year it is proven to be incorrect and people are flogging off left over stuff come spring. Seriously, this isn't journalism, this is tabloid-style drivel for the mindless masses, which isn't a story until someone prints it, people believe it, panic buy, merchants say 'shortage' and come April, hay is back at sensible prices.
Click to expand...

Have to agree - Rumours, where did you hear these rumours?
 
Mike007 - £120 per tonne Staffs haylage, plus whatever it costs me to bring it over to Lincs.
£200 per tonne Lincs Wolds haylage, the haulage obviously cheaper than from Staffs
£160 per tonne delivered Warwickshire hay in heston bales when I buy a full load (12t)
 
South East - the local feed rooms are up to £6.50 per bale and talking about it going up to £7. However, if you can transport your own and search a bit, hay is still available at £4.50 per bale. I know the yield was down, my very reliable hay man only got about 30% of his normal crop. However he only put the price up 50p per bale and did his best to look after regular customers.
I suspect that a lot of panic buying by those who had storage earlier in the year wiped out the more obvious sources, who are now buying in from further afield and charging accordingly. However, the man selling the hay from his back gate has hay left at a fairly reasonable price.
I did notice how hard it was to buy hay off the field this year. I think farmers knew the prices would be higher than normal and chose to store it and take more money from the crop.
 
What ultimately bugs me.... once prices go up [for genuine reasons] they rarely drop right back down again - even when there's no longer a shortage. Doubt small bales will ever be £2.00 again. Expect the cheapest will be around £3.00/bale even after a good harvest.
 
well when red diesel has just one up 20% and the prise of fert is never goin down as related to oil prices, plus machinery prices cost arm and a leg then labour and land prices people have to acsept realistic prices or go without.
 
Some of the prices people are paying are a bit scary :o I live in North Yorkshire, I get hay and straw from the same farmer, hay is 3 bales for £10 and straw is 3 bales for £5. I usually get 30 bales of each at a time, it's free delivery and he helps me stack it :)
 
about £8 a small bale, so ive been told. I use large bale haylage, which has gone up, but not like the small bales. This is getting rather silly, someone somewhere is making a lot of money.
 
Im in hertfordshire and mine is £4 a bale delived and stacked, The hay is the best quality I have had in years but I do have to say I have noticed it is very loosely packed, the bales are really light this year!!
 
Small bale between £3 and £6 each and Im paying £35 per round.

H+H please can we stop this rumour mill about £12 bales (its obviously spurious)....it only takes my local feed merchant to pick up on this and he will be whacking his prices up again!
 
I bought my hay from my usual grower in the summer, I had 200 bales @ £3.00 per bale. He charges that wether you have 10 or 100. He was however down on the quantity he'd cropped.

As for local feed merchants, in our area they have always sold their hay at inflated prices & always had hay left over as no one wanted it. I suppose this year they will manage to sell all theirs at their high prices.

The hay from our local suppliers (mine comes from a small holding) has increased in price to £3.75 for the small bales & the large rectangular bales are now £25 I believe, so not much profiteering here. :)
 
I am in Essex and currently paying £4 per bale but the yard also produces its own hay so I am worried what prices are like elsewhere as i know a lot of people have changed onto haylage.
 
martlin said:
Mike007 - £120 per tonne Staffs haylage, plus whatever it costs me to bring it over to Lincs.
£200 per tonne Lincs Wolds haylage, the haulage obviously cheaper than from Staffs
£160 per tonne delivered Warwickshire hay in heston bales when I buy a full load (12t)
Click to expand...

See everybody how simple was that. Yes merchants buy hay often by the bale from auctions ,also by the barn ,or bay of barn ,and also by weight. But ultimately we (yes I was a hay and straw merchant for 20 years) have to calculate the weight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top