hay prices

When I moved I decided to buy round bale hay from the yard owner, which I discovered to be incredibly dusty, full of nasty prickly bits (my hands were often used as pin cushions!) They were charging £40 for a round bale!!!

So I've gone to small bales which are far better quality, but we're going through 6 a week! Here I'm paying £4.50 a bale.
 
I paid £50 each for large rectangular bales recently which I thought was outrageous. I need some more soon. Does anyone in Northumberland know of anywhere where I can get any cheaper than that?
 
Notjustforxmas said:
fodderprices have risen because oil/fuel price is high, [tractors need diesel] its difficult to get loans to buy machinery eg tractors and balers which cost £thousands, the priceof land itself is high per acre,fertiliser price is very high, lime is expensive too. add to that the costs of making,stacking, transporting [fuel and HGV lorries] handling.
This year is the last year we made hay to sell to others. We need to charge £5 per small bale for it to beworthwhile. Here in rural Shropshire people wont pay that. So next year all our horse clients will have to go elsewhere. We are only going to make enough for our own use and graze the paddocks with sheep. As stated above, fert and fuel and land price is astronomical, yet hay has remained cheap for many years due to economies of scale [big producers/contractors] and competition. It looks like a more realistic price structure /return is on the way. £2 or £3 for a small bale is way too cheap, realistically speaking . We will not produce to sell anymore. Hay prices at present are realistic, especially taking into acount that the crop was light this year, ie there is less of it about anyway ,coupled with the cold weather and people needing more , not just for horses but for sheep and cattle too. Unless fert and interest rates reduce substantialy and land prices drop like a stone I cannot see there being cheap hay anymore. Infact there is likely to be even less next year given these factors.
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Hear, hear!!

People just don't realise the costs and man hours that go into making hay - they think the grass is growing for free and therefore farmers are making a killing. If you want to know just how much work it takes, come and give us a hand! Hay has been too cheap for too long.

Ours is £3.50 a bale and selling fast.
 
Just paid £55 for a large rectangular. Nice hay. I know its a helluva lot of money for hay but OTOH the farmer relies on this as a significant part of his income and if not much hay is made then it simply has to be sold at a higher price. It's a struggle to find the money but at least I know I will have enough and am not having to search high and low for inferior bales.
 
At moment a large square bale for £25 however it is going up next bale i have to £35. Which is fine as only need it for 2 ponies as farmer feeds the other 2 his own haylage for free so im actually saving a lot of money and its great haylage as well.
 
Hay at our yard is £4.50 a bale this year, as opposed to £4 last year. I'm having to use haylage as its so scarce that since I had a couple of weeks without a horse I lost my share.
 
The farmer we got some hay off saw hay going for over £100 a large rectangle bale. We paid 30-35 but he ran out so we got in haylage at £25 a square bale. Don't use small bales as we go through them too quick for it to be worth paying £4+ a small bale.
 
legaldancer said:
Matt, sorry to butt in, but if you look under the user name on the left, it will usually give the poster's location! :)

In Lincolnshire I'm about to buy extra hay in for £3.50 or £4.00 per small conventional bale. Have never had to pay more than £2.50 before.
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only some of them tell us that, yours is 1 of the ones that doesn't list the location
 
Currently paying £4 bale from my yard as the farmer cuts his own hay, they average in the area is much higher. Hoping ours doesn't go up.
 
i am paying £4.50 a bale and YO gets hay delivered every week for the whole yard and am in herts. my pony lives out so I don't use a lot of hay, mainly for traveling or a bit extra in the winter.

however I went to visit my family in suffolk at xmas and whilst I was up there we visited some family friends who are farmers and I asked if he made hay and he said yes but only for his own use for his cows. I suggested he might like to sell some as the prices are quite good at the moment and he said he would never sell to horse owners as they are so rude and and are very difficult to deal with (though he said I came and collected it he would give me a round bale for free - round bale = 21 small bales but I have no where to store round bales of that that size as I only have room to store 4 small bales at a time, so no good for me).

However I can see if people are rude to farmers they will not want to deal with them and will charge the maximum they can to make it worthwhile putting up with them!
 
SO1 said:
i am paying £4.50 a bale and YO gets hay delivered every week for the whole yard and am in herts. my pony lives out so I don't use a lot of hay, mainly for traveling or a bit extra in the winter.

however I went to visit my family in suffolk at xmas and whilst I was up there we visited some family friends who are farmers and I asked if he made hay and he said yes but only for his own use for his cows. I suggested he might like to sell some as the prices are quite good at the moment and he said he would never sell to horse owners as they are so rude and and are very difficult to deal with (though he said I came and collected it he would give me a round bale for free - round bale = 21 small bales but I have no where to store round bales of that that size as I only have room to store 4 small bales at a time, so no good for me).

However I can see if people are rude to farmers they will not want to deal with them and will charge the maximum they can to make it worthwhile putting up with them!
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I have been getting my hay off same farmer for many years. He too, says that some people are well fussy about it and will check every bale. Have to say we get 250 at a time and we just unloda and stack them. If there is the odd dodgy one I just accept it. He will often chuck a few extras in. He likes us having his hay as we don't fuss and we pay up!!
 
Hay in south devon, as I am finding is like hens teeth. But I managed to sorce some today large rectangle bales approx 200kg = 10 small bales, £20, ( cheeper that what I bought it off the field for) which I think is resonable, I normally buy mine from the field, but only had half of the normal amount, as it wasn't growing for the first cut, but most of the farmers and hay merchants I have been in touch with are on short supply, I refuse to pay £6-7 a b, madness, hoping for an early spring so they can go out 24/7, but it pays to have a shop around the local farmers, but this farmer I did a favour to a few years back, and I gave him 30 round bales for his cattle, so thats why it maybe a bit cheeper, do nice things, and nice things happen!
 
i bought 2 round of hay/hayledge today between me and a girl at my yard, was £40 each including delivery price over 2 rounds, the YO has now put his hay up from £4.00 to £4.50 and someone told me that there is about 20 small hay bales to a round so that works out atleast 1/2 the price and they can have ad-lib hay.
 
The big round bales we make are about 8 - 10 small standard bales, any that are equal to 20 must be absolutely GIGANTIC!
 
I feel very lucky, I gor a whole winters worth of small bale hay for £2 per bale...it was well worth the 9 hours on the hottest day of the year it took to shift it!!!
 
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