Hay prices

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jumpthemoon

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OMG I just went to the local farm shop and asked if they had any hay - they told me they did but it was £4.50 a bale (samll bales)!!!!! I was paying £2.50 last year! They won't let me have more than ten at a time either because they can't guaranatee they can get any more......
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Apparently some places are charging £6 a bale - is anyone else having this problem?
 
I had to pay a surcharge on horsehage, no hay available. Its the first year Ive ever run out.

The way things are going hay wont cost £6 per bale as there wont be any hay this year!!!
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Pray for sunshine everyone.
 
Its the way its gonna be people
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got 40 acres back home...uncut...dont know when we'll get it done

and lasts years crop was poor due to LACk of rain

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We just bought a heap for £2.50 a bale and I thought that was quite expensive! We normally pay £1.50 for ours but then thats from our usual supplier who we actually help with the making of them!

Our suppliers field is still uncut though..... Am hoping that we have some luck with it otherwise dont know what we'll do for hay all winter!!
 
Our YO says he probably won't get any hay this year and hardly any haylage because the ground is so wet that mud is getting caught in the cut grass. Not really sure whats going to happen by winter, but I bet prices will be double what they normally are
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, if there's any at all!
 
What about getting some big baled haylege?? There's people on WVF site advertising atm, so worth ringing round. We have our own hay, but with 4 big hunters and little man all winter it just won't last. We went over to haylege at the end of the season this year as we'd run out... I'm dreading it!
 
We're not the only ones suffering. I had an e-mail from my friend in Australia (Queensland) this week and they are having the same problem with regards to a hay shortage but for the opposite reason (or like us last year) - drought. Their hay is currently $AU 18 a bale. Now, there are roughly 2.25-2.5 Aussie dollars to the £ which makes it expensive enough but when you take into consideration their salaries are the equivalent of about half ours . . . . . it's even more EEEKK! It's be like us paying about £15.

Like most of the other replies here, my winter "hay" is currently still standing in its field.
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I have just found what is probably the only hay in Cornwall right now, it cost £4 per small bale. Mind you, I saw some sdvertised a few weeks ago at £6 per small bale
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I'm really worried about this as nowhere round us has cut hay yet. If the worse comes to the worse will have to feed loads of Dengie Hi Fi or Alfalfa. Our's are going to live out all winter and we'll rotate round fields xx
 
not sure as we don't feed hay this time of year (except to the two old arthritc sheep lol) but we really don't need this!
the other month Mossburn's feed bill was £701!!! without hay! and we have 6 cows, 5 horses (mabye7 if the two new ones are still here come winter), 2 shetlands and sheep to hay!
 
Yes.....around here nothing has been cut at all. I went past fields today & everything was flat & fields were under water. I think it will be a struggle to get much hay in even if the weather miraculously got better for a month. I think most of it has had it now.....just too late....I hope I'm wrong though. I reckon that with the increase in price as forseen my hay bill will rise by a minimum of £500 this year for my lad
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Last year I was paying £1 per bale for coarse rye grass hay....loads left....I think I'm going to forget about 2007 hay and just stock up on last year's stuff....with as many horses as we have, as long as it's dust free and clean (it is), that's the main thing. After reading all the threads to this post, I think I'll be knocking on the farm manager's door tomorrow morning.....and I'm not joking!!!!
 
Do you have last year's hay left in your neck of the woods then? We only had one cut down here last year because it was so hot and dry (the grass didn't grow after the first cut! Oh, what a difference in a couple of years) so there wasn't any 2006 hay here by the end of January. I bought 5 of the massive oblong bales of haylage at the end of January and still have three, thank goodness. At least it'll be something to start off with.
 
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Last year I was paying £1 per bale for coarse rye grass hay....loads left....I think I'm going to forget about 2007 hay and just stock up on last year's stuff....with as many horses as we have, as long as it's dust free and clean (it is), that's the main thing. After reading all the threads to this post, I think I'll be knocking on the farm manager's door tomorrow morning.....and I'm not joking!!!!

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Is there any of that spare, I could do with some, I could collect as I am near Buntingford, please let me know?

PM if you want.
 
What a great situation for a natural born panicker.

It does look as though there could be real problems this year re quality, quantity and supply, though hope for the best for a late recovery.

Anybody thinking of using haylage should bear in mind that piggy ponies will get through it in two minutes flat and then be looking for afters. It doesn't seem as filling as hay and is much faster to eat - lovely stuff though for the right animal. Ensure you keep it in a rat free environment as well as otherwise the bags will be chewed into and spoiled.

Does anybody have any idea what Canadian imported hay prices/availability will be like if the worst comes to the worst. Or at the very worst price/quality/availability of fodder straw?

9 out of 10 of my panics are unjustified. Let's hope this one is.
 
panicbuyer thats what small holed haylege nets are for.
any way i have a rather piggy native pony and he has a haybar full of haylege every evening (about 2 and a half chunks) and he normaly has some left in the morning. and we put large bale haylege in the field because the grass is dead with 5 ponies/horses on it and even with 3 piggy ponies it still lasts 2 weeks.
Im not panicing there will be plenty for me. my local supplier only does 2 cuts a year, managed to get the first cut in the hot stretch and did more then normal so with what is left of last years and his first cut there is enough for winter. If he gets a 2nd cut we will have too much
 
Hay nets/haylage nets don't work with a true 100% pig. They get unfastened however well tied and are then trashed around the bed, so can't be used for safety reasons. I'm all in favour of piggy ponies but there are limits.

Perhaps piggy can go to Wales for winter if there's plenty of food there. He's all for food.
 
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