Hay prices

I've kept the horses in the winter fields until now, and they don't seem to have a lot, but they are all grazing busily, keeping weight on and the empty fields have good growth in. I think the ground temperature is still a bit low, hopefully it'll start growing more with this better weather. Although my hay chap said he had to spend a fortune on fertiliser after last summer, so you may well be right that next years hay price remains high to cover that, and anywhere that hasn't fertilised has less than normal.
 
Mine moved onto their rested summer field 3 weeks ago, they've eaten most of it down but it must still be growing enough to keep them happy as I've put hay out and they're not interested. I walked the winter field at the weekend and it has greened up a lot but not loads of growth on it yet, it did get a battering though. We've had plenty of mild and wet weather here but not much actual sun, so I'm hoping with the improving forecast we'll start to get a bit more growth.
 
We have been able to cut down the hay, but not completely stop.

The ponies will be boxing out to alternate grazing for 4-6 weeks to give the field a rest.
 
Ours have just finished the last round bale I plan to buy so I've opened up the summer side. They seem happy enough with that. I'll supplement the poor doer for a few weeks with a bucket feed but the fatties can make do with the pickings on the ground and the hedges.

I'm going to try and buy off the field this summer like we did a few years ago. As long as the price of wrap isn't to high I should be able to save a little that way. I've already asked a few suppliers to bare me in mind.
 
I've just had to order more haylage at £55 a large bale. It was £48 but extra cost covers included delivery for fuel.
 
I moved mine off her winter field to her track round the edge at the weekend and got it harrowed. Its looking ok but i have far more clover patches than i have before last summer so i'm going to be spending a lot of time trying to keep them and the buttercups under control this year! I will be spreading muck on the next load of rain but there is nothing really forecast for the next week and after last year, that makes me a bit twitchy. As she is on the track i will be feeding more hay but i got through winter without haying in the filed until late Feb which was good.
I personally dont think prices will come down that much, depending on how well fields recover, farmers will be spending money on fixing them and unless the price of oil and fuel drops right back down when its time to cut, its going to affect prices,
 
I've been told the price of fertiliser is expensive this year and that's going to increase prices. I get mine delivered free but obviously this is rolled up into the cost so I expect the price of diesel will impact the delivery as well as the production costs. Areas of grass are growing so I'm using less hay but there are large areas of bare mud this year.
 
I don’t mind paying more I’m just hoping for better grazing this year. I was haying my fields from June last year which wasn’t ideal.
 
Our yard owner (farmer) has ordered wrapped hay in from Germany (His yield was down 30% last year). Today is the first day it’s being delivered to the liveries. It’s going to be £9 for a small bale 😳 although apparently they are big small bales. Not seen yet so don’t know.
 
Dopeydapple said:
I think there's more coming through than we realise, paddock still looks quite bare but pony has fat above her eyes to imply she's already getting too much sugar 😭
Click to expand...
Tbf it is probably fluid not fat and suggests hyperglycaemia.... Still not good though. It's so difficult with the really good doers :(
 
Young farmer came Friday to see about cutting my fields, he feels the price will fall for this year because a lot have put land to grass. I am not so sure because if you want a commercial crop you need fertiliser and have to factor in the diesel cost. There is very little home grown hay left to buffer if it is very dry again, and they have to start feeding cattle early.
My grass that was cut last June looks fairly good, but because of the cold and the wind the other grass is really too short to graze, so they are mowing the lawn
 
honetpot said:
Young farmer came Friday to see about cutting my fields, he feels the price will fall for this year because a lot have put land to grass. I am not so sure because if you want a commercial crop you need fertiliser and have to factor in the diesel cost. There is very little home grown hay left to buffer if it is very dry again, and they have to start feeding cattle early.
My grass that was cut last June looks fairly good, but because of the cold and the wind the other grass is really too short to graze, so they are mowing the lawn
Click to expand...
Also, most years they don’t use this years hay till after Christmas, this year there isn’t the reserves so we will need more ….. and to boot it’s really dry in East Anglia, I will just settle for not having another drought 🤞
 
Feeling incredibly lucky here. The dry weather last year meant our fields got absolutely stripped and we were worried for the winter. We needn't have been, grass came back well and we have not needed to feed hay all winter. 2 ponies, 1 small horse and 26 sheep on 14 acres. Only the ponies/horse are on the 14 acre now as sheep are in for lambing. We have plenty of grass and even the sheep who are in at night are barely eating hay. We are still using up hay we bought several years ago, dusty but seems ok. Mostly using it for bedding too for the sheep.
 
tda said:
Well my farmer friend turned up Saturday with two round bales of hay, (was hoping for four) better than nothing, £60 each
Click to expand...
That's what ours went up to recently. Farmer delivers 2 bales at a time, as we don't have a lot of storage so he has to cover his diesel costs. We are just glad that he has enough andwe are long-standing customers.
 
£10.50 a small bale here now (West Berkshire). Most recent hike (50p per bale) is due to fuel costs (free delivery, but they obviously need to pass that on somehow). I can only store 5-6 weeks worth here, and can't deal with/store big bales, so very beholden to market forces. It is always amazing quality though. I soak my mare's hay due to previous laminitis, but the two geldings eat it dry, and never have an issue with dust or anything else.
 
supagran said:
Just seen someone has had two v. large bales delivered (15miles) at £120 each! It is lovely hay though!
Click to expand...
If those are 6 strings they’re roughly half a ton a bale- so equivalent to 25 20kg small bales at less than £5 a bale delivered. As someone who’s partners main business is forage for horses/ sheep I don’t think that’s a bad price at all!
 
  • Like
Reactions: tda
We buy our hay off our yard owner, used to pay £55. But they're having to buy hay in this year, and now we're paying £80 per bale. It won't last, so we're just riding the process out.
 
We have made the decision this year not ti make hay.
We used to make hay and sell the surplus, but the costs are just too high to make it cost effective and if I stay with just one horse, I have hay left and will buy in of I need some.
 
I keep seeing this French hay for sale now. There was a time that some dealers round here were travelling to France and coming back with lorry loads.
I assume people with ever purchased or horses don’t like it.
It’s weird looking, like Lego hay. Dead straight edges as it’s it’s been cut to a perfect rectangle and had that plastic stuff they put around parcel boxes instead of string.
Did anyone try it?
 
poiuytrewq said:
I keep seeing this French hay for sale now. There was a time that some dealers round here were travelling to France and coming back with lorry loads.
I assume people with ever purchased or horses don’t like it.
It’s weird looking, like Lego hay. Dead straight edges as it’s it’s been cut to a perfect rectangle and had that plastic stuff they put around parcel boxes instead of string.
Did anyone try it?
Click to expand...
That sounds like the stuff we’ve just started using on my yard which I’ve been told is from Germany. I’m still on the old stuff so can’t comment on what it’s like yet. The bales look really small though and are £9 a bale 😳 - just hope they are super-compressed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top