Hay prices

I've just had 2 rounds delivered - £50 per bale and £20 delivery. I think it's still good value and will probably see me to mid-end Jan with another half bale still to use up. Hay is lovely - soft, green and never dank. Farmer has assured me he'll keep some back for me even though he yielded 50% less this year.
 
Ours have gone up another £10 a bale this week, hay he's sourced from further afield. Grateful he is doing his best for his regular customers, but almost double the price from last year already.
 
Lincolnshire, my hay farmer was very apologetic that prices were going up this year - you can imagine my relief when he said it was by 50p a bale. So I pay £5 a bale delivered and stacked. I asked if he had enough for winter as I'd been offered 2 rounds at £45 each so I would have bought those if needed, but he says he has enough for current customers but won't take new customers on. He's also only made small bales this year
There is someone locally advertising big rounds for £70 a bale. There's been outrage at the cost, but he's said it's been imported and he has to cover the cost of haulage.
 
I don't expect prices will go down, I think the climate will continue to be unstable, costs will continue to rise, all of that. I'm on a DIY yard that supplies haylage and straw in winter months luckily, but we still order hay all year round for various reasons. My hay man of many years standing did the best he could, gave me months of notice that things were going to be bad, and prices would rise. In late Sept he went up from £5 to £7 a small bale and assured me he had enough for our needs- he's looking after his regulars, not taking on new customers, he's very good, will deliver small loads, even at short notice in an emergency and will swap out if there's a problem. Some of my fellow liveries were understandably concerned at the rise and started regularly using another guy charging £6 but the bales are smaller and lighter so I guess everyone is doing what they can with what they have. For me, although a £ cheaper a bale, I feel this other supplier is less clear about what he can actually supply longer term and certainly not willing to work with us the way my guy has over the years, and I feel like this counts for something, especially when times are tough.
 
Northern Europe here so not too interesting for you probably, but I'm considering relocation after reading this thread. I'm currently buying one bale weighing about 380 kg for approximately £73. Haulage, so not extremely dry. It's pretty good feed and we can pick it up one bale at a time. We couldn't have gotten it cheaper, this is cheap.
 
I’m getting through what we made so fast. I think I’ve used more this year from baling to now than I’ve used in previous winters 😩
Also my hay that should in theory have been absolutely bang on this year I love now decided was maybe bales a little late. It’s pretty smashed up.

OH has bought me 13 round bales from Wales just incase!
I figure if nothing else it gives some variation to their diet!

God, I hope next summer is better!
 
My horse is a retired, good do-er and we still have plenty of grass at the moment. I'm mixing straw with hay to eke out the hay I've got.
 
Ours has gone up from £40 to £50 because they’re having to travel further to source it. They’re hoping it will last the winter, but aren’t sure - they’ve never said that before.
 
poiuytrewq said:


This was the sale by us last week. Hay fetched big money this year. Last year lots were going unsold.
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I wonder if this is the sale my supplier was telling me about today. He said it's just made prices go crazy now sellers have seen what people are willing to pay. He's talking of bringing some over from Ireland but it won't be cheap.
 
We were paying €55 per bale delivered last year, this year we managed to cut our winter fields(roughly 20 acres) which had been grazed by 3 horses/ponies all winter and no fertilized.
We managed to get 88 round bales :eek: I was in absolute shock.
I thought we may get 30!
We just started feeding it this week, its cut short like sheep hay, but smells beautiful and its clean.
Not complaining! I think they cost us €25per bale to make.
 
ameeyal said:
We sell hay and haylage, ours hasn’t gone up much at all, we have still made the same amount, but we are turning new customers away, small baled hay £5 big hay £30 square haylage £32 based Cheshire/ staffordshire
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I travelled to Daresbury from North Wilts on the train during the height of the drought, it looked a lot better the further north I went, but I'm not a farmer so don't know if other factors impact your yields- Still, it's nice you've managed to keep your prices reasonable for your customers
 
I bought a large round bale this week in N. Shropshire and paid £60 for it delivered the 6 miles!! Thankfully with a fair bit of grass still available its only supplementary feeding so thankfully I shouldn't need many at that price
 
Goodness, glad I relocated to Devon!

I used to pay £55 for a heston back in Kent. Last year a heston here was £30 and it went up by £5 this year. Dread to think how much it would be back where we moved from
 
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