Hay prices

KikiDee said:
Horse owners aren’t completely innocent in all this either, I’m already seeing people who over ordered at harvest and haven’t used what they thought they would selling off their excess at crazy prices, the decent thing of course would be to sell it for what they paid for it and it would still be snapped up.
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I wouldn't be brave enough to sell off yet - last year's drought meant i used hay all summer & who knows what 2026 will throw at us.
 
@Fransurrey that is shocking behaviour!

I am like most who keep their horse on DIY livery and have only a pallet space for my hay. If I wasn't buying through the yard I would be stuck. The one year I bought for myself, I got a winter's supply in early (300-odd bales) and managed to store it in a friend's barn, but that was a 45 minute drive away so while I had piece of mind, it didn't save me any money.
 
SEL said:
I wouldn't be brave enough to sell off yet - last year's drought meant i used hay all summer & who knows what 2026 will throw at us.
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Me neither, it’s mostly bigger yards selling of their excess so I’m guessing they’re feeling more confident about their rested grazing at this point of the year.
 
I get the big 4 string bales, just gone up to £75 from £50. I don't have storage for more than 1 bale at a time and need 2 a month at this time of year. Hay man is reliable and will source in if he runs out, knowing the issues with supply, I'm happy to suck it up and pay.
 
I just got a load delivered at 8.50 a bale. My last lot was £4.75. The boys are tucking in to all the spilled hay on the ground, mare has turned her nose up at it. She's going to have to lump it as my regular supplier ran out completely weeks ago😵‍💫
 
I've noticed a lot of people advertising hay on local FB pages in the last couple of weeks. 20 bales here and 15 bales there of the larger Heston's. But they are a good £20 a bale dearer than what I'd expect to pay from a supplier so I've assumed (rightly or wrongly) it's people cashing in on the shortage one way or another.

Local feed merchant has been charging £7.50 for hay and barley straw since the summer I can't see that price coming back down which is a concern as they are generally my plan B if I run out or the weather is to bad for a delivery.

I'm going to try and by round bales off the field this summer to avoid the anxiety from this year. I did it a few years ago and it worked well. I paid £15 a bale wrapped and delivered as the farmer couldn't get rid of it (he offered it a £10 and I asked for wrapped at £15 which he agreed too) so I took a trailer load (26 bales) and it lasted me nearly 2 winters. I lost 6 bales to mice and the weather getting to them but I still feel I did well, taking into account the lost bales cost the 20 I did use still came in at less than £20 per bale.

I'm not paying much for round bales this year in comparison to some, but the quality isn't the same. Full of docks, thistles, etc (one bale had brambles and Ivy in it which I did complain about and had it replaced) but it's not dusty and my boys are porky so it's there to fill bellies not for the calorie content. I think the farmer has used area's of fields previously left untouched for hay making this year to compensate for the lower yield.
 
Surbie said:
@Fransurrey that is shocking behaviour!

I am like most who keep their horse on DIY livery and have only a pallet space for my hay. If I wasn't buying through the yard I would be stuck.
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That's exactly the circumstance for some of the liveries. Those on grass have set up pallets in their field and it looks a right mess, but I can see why they're doing it. I'll be joining them this summer and getting it delivered in large bales like they do. I've so far found it easier to have small bales and keep things neat, but cost has cancelled that convenience, now.

ETA: For those Surrey based, Rokers have joined the Taking the Piss brigade. They no longer do a discount on bulk and their haylage has gone up a further £1 this week, to £10.95. I'm ordering pallets from Mole Valley now, to see me through until September. I can store those at home, so can still order bulk hay/haylage in the summer for storage in the field.
 
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...and now Mole Valley have upped the price of a pallet by £35. That explains why I was struggling to order, yesterday - they must have been updating the website. It took 3 attempts to put it through. My order appears to have gone through and is 'processing', so hopefully is at the old price, but FFS!
 
Fransurrey said:
...and now Mole Valley have upped the price of a pallet by £35. That explains why I was struggling to order, yesterday - they must have been updating the website. It took 3 attempts to put it through. My order appears to have gone through and is 'processing', so hopefully is at the old price, but FFS!
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The individual bales are up in price also. I've had to do 2 emergency runs to Mole this year when one large bale I had delivered wasn't eaten by any of my horses and then 2 arrived with severe shrinkflation issues and simply not enough food for 3 hungry mouths. There's no weight on the bags or website now and I haven't seen one over 16kg this year :confused:. Marksway have reduced the weight aswell, instead of a heavily compacted 22kg, these are now on 18kg. It's all very stressful and worrying.
 
Marksway has always varied hugely in weight, depending on how dry the contents are. I supplement hay with haylage and get a bag or two a week - sometimes I brace myself to lift the bag and nearly fall on my bum as it's so light, other times they are heavier than my hay bales. I don't think they have reduced the weight per se, it was just a very, very dry summer.
 
Fransurrey said:
...and now Mole Valley have upped the price of a pallet by £35. That explains why I was struggling to order, yesterday - they must have been updating the website. It took 3 attempts to put it through. My order appears to have gone through and is 'processing', so hopefully is at the old price, but FFS!
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I was considering a pallet load so that's disappointing :(
 
Fransurrey said:
...and now Mole Valley have upped the price of a pallet by £35. That explains why I was struggling to order, yesterday - they must have been updating the website. It took 3 attempts to put it through. My order appears to have gone through and is 'processing', so hopefully is at the old price, but FFS!
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Sent you a PM re hay.
 
nutjob said:
The individual bales are up in price also. I've had to do 2 emergency runs to Mole this year when one large bale I had delivered wasn't eaten by any of my horses and then 2 arrived with severe shrinkflation issues and simply not enough food for 3 hungry mouths. There's no weight on the bags or website now and I haven't seen one over 16kg this year :confused:. Marksway have reduced the weight aswell, instead of a heavily compacted 22kg, these are now on 18kg. It's all very stressful and worrying.
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I'm pretty sure it was listed as 20 Kg when I was ordering, so if it's gone down I will be absolutely furious. Perhaps this is why I haven't received a delivery date, yet. It's now nearly 24 hours since I placed the order - are they normally so slow? I couldn't check out the bales in person as the website said it was out of stock in both branches reachable by me.
 
I think I go against the grain here when I say I don't blame suppliers for upping the price. They made less, so the price has to go up for them to make a living wage. It is supply and demand too, why should they sell cheaply when others have put the price up?

Before I get jumped on, I have 2 horses eating their heads off on very expensive hay (H) and haylage (Rigs) that not only is more expensive, but is also smaller per bale. I too wish it was cheaper, but I had issues with growing grass for them to eat last summer so know it is a genuine crop failure rather then greed.

I would do the same if I'd had a poor crop and people were willing to pay more.

At least people are less likely to waste it at these prices.
 
Red-1 said:
I think I go against the grain here when I say I don't blame suppliers for upping the price. They made less, so the price has to go up for them to make a living wage. It is supply and demand too, why should they sell cheaply when others have put the price up?

Before I get jumped on, I have 2 horses eating their heads off on very expensive hay (H) and haylage (Rigs) that not only is more expensive, but is also smaller per bale. I too wish it was cheaper, but I had issues with growing grass for them to eat last summer so know it is a genuine crop failure rather then greed.

I would do the same if I'd had a poor crop and people were willing to pay more.

At least people are less likely to waste it at these prices.
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Completely agree with you. In my local area there has been some awful comments on social media directed at hay contractors. Owning horses is a choice, an expensive choice and a luxury. How some owners seem to think hay suppliers need to be charitable to owners is beyond me.
 
Red-1 said:
I think I go against the grain here when I say I don't blame suppliers for upping the price. They made less, so the price has to go up for them to make a living wage. It is supply and demand too, why should they sell cheaply when others have put the price up?

Before I get jumped on, I have 2 horses eating their heads off on very expensive hay (H) and haylage (Rigs) that not only is more expensive, but is also smaller per bale. I too wish it was cheaper, but I had issues with growing grass for them to eat last summer so know it is a genuine crop failure rather then greed.

I would do the same if I'd had a poor crop and people were willing to pay more.

At least people are less likely to waste it at these prices.
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It should be a proportionate rise though; price gouging isn't acceptable. Nor is it acceptable for people to buy more than they need then sell on at a profit to people who are desperate (animal on sudden box rest, field flooded, no storage etc.)
Of course it is of benefit to product buyers if product makers keep making a profit, to stay in business and keep producing.
 
FieldOrnaments said:
It should be a proportionate rise though; price gouging isn't acceptable. Nor is it acceptable for people to buy more than they need then sell on at a profit to people who are desperate (animal on sudden box rest, field flooded, no storage etc.)
Of course it is of benefit to product buyers if product makers keep making a profit, to stay in business and keep producing.
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It’s never going to be much fun on the thin end, but that’s actually just entrepreneurialism, good old capitalist market ethics, even if it may not feel ethical or moral to the consumer.
Ironic, but the more productive one is, the less value the commodity produced is going to command.
And those producers, who are often not the direct suppliers in agriculture, still have their own increased prices of fuel, machinery, parts, seed, fertiliser, labour, insurance, rents / taxes, transport, everything you might think of - no matter how little is harvested for use or sale. Can anyone point to any of these things which has decreased in price this year? Then the weather….
Sometimes, it’s not clear how people think that grass ever gets into their hay nets at all.
 
FieldOrnaments said:
It should be a proportionate rise though; price gouging isn't acceptable. Nor is it acceptable for people to buy more than they need then sell on at a profit to people who are desperate (animal on sudden box rest, field flooded, no storage etc.)
Of course it is of benefit to product buyers if product makers keep making a profit, to stay in business and keep producing.
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Let’s flip this around and hypothesize that people are not just being greedy….. as a yard owner you have the expense of having the hay delivered or the expense, time and hassle of going to collect it. You then have to stack it (one of the worst jobs there is, generally on the hottest day of the year), you have to keep your storage facility in good order which costs money, you then have the hassle of advertising, communicating with interested people, having your time wasted by multiple people, have to take time out of your day to meet buyers, take it down off the stacks, help load it up…… I don’t really begrudge people selling it for more than they paid for it.
I usually sell off my surplus at the end of the winter. Not because I am greedy or over-bought on purpose, but because I don’t always know how much I will need. If I sell it I do sell it for more than the 'off field' price would have been, for all of the above reasons.
 
A proportionate rise for genuine producers that covers increased costs of production is fair

People buying more hay than they need deliberately to sell on at an inflated profit is not fair.

People inflating prices beyond what is proportionate to cover increased production costs so they get a massive financial windfall is not fair.
 
FieldOrnaments said:
A proportionate rise for genuine producers that covers increased costs of production is fair

People buying more hay than they need deliberately to sell on at an inflated profit is not fair.

People inflating prices beyond what is proportionate to cover increased production costs so they get a massive financial windfall is not fair.
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Massive financial windfall on bales of hay?! I think gold is a more secure investment 😂
Buying more hay than you need is never going to guarantee you a return- many years you wouldn’t actually be able to sell it as people would have enough. No one knew in June how the rest of the growing season was going to work out- certainly when my Haylage was cut I knew my yield was down, but there was no reason to suspect a second cut wouldn’t be possible.
 
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Well I thought I was doing ok, been supplied all winter with a 25% increase in cost - but - no hay left!! Waiting on a call to say if they’ve managed to buy in from abroad?!? If they can’t I’ll be hooking up a trailer and going buying whatever is available, wherever it may be and at whatever cost 😱 luckily mine are happy to munch on straw (they prefer it to bagged haylage 🤷‍♀️) but really don’t want them eating just that if possible.
 
ester said:
Who deems what’s proportionate?
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The purchaser. Is it proportionate to pay xyx to enable me to feed my horse. Owner has the choice to buy or not and the choice to own a horse or not. The vendor isn't bothered because the product will sell elsewhere. We all rapidly realised that this winter was going to be tough for many. Thank god the winter hasn't been desperate for the majority as yet. The south west is having a hard time with flooding but there is still grazing around in many parts of the country subject to good management of course.

Spring needs to be wet and warm to get the crop growing well. Another 2025 spring and we are all going to hell in a handcart.
 
I know someone who has a barn, big enough to fit an aeroplane. Plus they are loaded. When they knew we were going to have a shortage, they literally bought every local suppliers hay. They were very smug to tell me that they have enough hay to last four years ! MY hay supplier, didn’t take on any new clients from the autumn, and his round bales didn’t even increase. I insisted on giving him extra, as I was so grateful that he was keeping his local horsey owners covered. He’s going to be out by probably March. Local Haylage supplier is out too. I managed to get 6 bales just before winter, they made 600 instead of 2000. They only increased by 5 pounds each bale. However, they too had folk buying in vast amounts. So, those who only had space for one week, suddenly had none to buy. It’s like the loo roll situation during Covid. I can understand those who are bringing in from Ireland and selling for 85 pounds a bale as they need to make a profit. But it’s worrying times. I have enough until say March. They will then go on a spare paddock that I’ve specifically kept back. But that won’t last long. And summer paddocks are not open until June. My winter fields are awful. Sooo much rain. Horses are in more than usual. Some of the hay is poor quality. One big bale is pushed to the back as none of the four horses will touch it.
 
Another just hoping we get a good year for hay this year. No idea what we will do if we don't or the grass doesn't grow back on the fields.
 
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