Hay situation

Vikki89

Vikki89

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Rang to order a round bale of hay this morning to be told he has run out, has some haylage and some small bales left, so have ordered a haylage instead but we are worried now that he will run out of this soon aswell and we have another 4months of the horses being in at night:(
Somone elsewho uses him rang round to see what other farmers had at the begining of winter and they didn't have as much as usual either.

Anyone else in the same situation?
 
We buy ours in straight off the field in Summer so have a barnfull. Haven't heard of amy shortages in this area although a friend told me her supplier had less than usual.
 
Yes, you probably will struggle to find hay. Those that do have it, either want the moon and stars for it, or are stockpiling for the bad weather expected.
Haylage is different though. This year there seems to be a glut of it our way, and we are paying far far less than ever for it.
 
joeanne said:
Yes, you probably will struggle to find hay. Those that do have it, either want the moon and stars for it, or are stockpiling for the bad weather expected.
Haylage is different though. This year there seems to be a glut of it our way, and we are paying far far less than ever for it.
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Doesn't seem to be the case with prices here, they have gone up from last year but hay is now £30 or was before it ran out and haylage £35
 
**la la la*** I can't hear you [sticks fingers in ears and ignores talk of hay]

Having tried to secure some hay in the summer, having only cut 43 bales on our land (119 year before and sold all bar 36 before getting ponies) and been told sorry we are keeping it for our regular customers. I've acrued a little on the way (my car fits 12 bales). I've enough to last till the end of January if the snow stays on the ground, or longer if it doesn't.

If I can get to mid February and the grass starts to grow again, I think some stockpilers may want to shift some, as they did last year (when I got 40 really solid heavy bales quite cheaply). I refuse to pay £7-8 a bale.

I've also put word out locally in the farming community via friends, and might hear back if someone has a bit spare and might part with it at a reasonable price. I also know of some near a friend at £3.50 a bale and hopefully will pay a visit - difference in cost between there and here will more than pay for a trip, and I'd be going to see them anyway.
 
Yep it's not good here either. My normal supplier could only sell me 20 bales for now as he needs all his for his cows and is reluctant to sell anymore. I might try him again in a few weeks,if not i'll try my friends supplier. The local feed shop is limiting peoples purchases but at £6.50 to £7.50 a bale i refuse to pay that much. Mine are £4.50 (were £4 last year) so not too bad. I might even change to haylage as someone i know charges £30 a large bale. Mine don't really need it though so will see,if it's easier to get that then may have to.
 
Im ok for now as get it direct from person i rent from however he has stopped selling to people who ring up and is keeping what he has left for regular people who buy from him every year. Dread it if he runs out as no one really left selling hay in area.
 
winter happens every year. this winter was predicted very early on. like a girl guide the motto is be prepared!!!! buy and pay for it in june/july even if you have to pay a bit of storage for it!!! good luck finding hay/haylage now.. it will all be premium price
 
OP, we are in the same situation as you. We have very little room to store either hay or haylage A local YO practically begged us to have his hay last year (it was very good quality). He told us this summer that he had made haylage instead and that he had plenty. We swapped to haylage rather reluctantly. Last week he told us that his liveries have used so much that we can't have any more. We have enough to last another week and those suppliers we have contacted so far have none available.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
winter happens every year. this winter was predicted very early on. like a girl guide the motto is be prepared!!!! buy and pay for it in june/july even if you have to pay a bit of storage for it!!! good luck finding hay/haylage now.. it will all be premium price
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If i had the money to pay for it all upfront before winter and had the space to store it then i would but sadly I can't/haven't been able to.
I've fed haylage before, he ran out of hay near the end of winter last year so also had to feed it then but thanks for the advice :)
 
Easy to say that we should buy and store it -- I had 300 bales stolen last year - *******s turned their back towards the CCTV and loaded all my hay into an IFOR trailer. I get it delivered in 50 bale batches now and hopefully my friendly hay dealer will make sure I have enough. Expensive times, though!
 
I'm having to buy my hay from a guy who lives over an hour away! It's still £4 a bale, but it's better than £7! The difference will more than pay for the journey but it's an awful fuss considering I normally make a fair bit myself and get the rest off a friend who lives 5min away :(
 
Very fortunately we dont have a problem here. Our farmer delivers me large bales of excellent haylage at £32 delivered six bales at a time, and another livery yard makes excellent quality hay in small bales at £3 a time collected in 40 bale lots at a time. I couldnt bear not to know where our next bale was coming from! We have 20 ponies on our small stud so to be in the position to have to source that much would have me sleepless !
 
Well I have just moved back to my old yard and they have bought in and reckon it will last us all at the yard, 30 or so horses there.
My YO was telling me earlier though that she heard at an auction a man turned up, he had traveled miles and miles and then paid £7 a bale and then delivery costs on top! Scary :eek:
 
frozzy said:
I couldnt bear not to know where our next bale was coming from! We have 20 ponies on our small stud so to be in the position to have to source that much would have me sleepless !
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It's doing much for our health either but we thought we were sorted. We are both very cross about being let down at such short notice.
 
Well when us sheep farmers are buying ewe concentrate at £215/ton it is not surprizing all other feed is not being given away with the winter we are having sheep eating more than normal so doesnt look good.
 
My hayman in Surrey has told me yesterday that with the bad weather so early this winter, and such a poor yield, he will probably run out of haylage and hay early next year. He has advised me to start feeding part straw. Apparently there is no forage available to buy in bulk south of Birmingham. Once this bad weather clears then he is hoping to buy some in from Cumbria. Not quite panicking yet as hopefully small bagged haylage/horsehage will still be obtainable. My big horse has an asthma problem and I've got to be careful with him. Not looking forward to a long hard winter at all.
 
looks like hay steamers should be on wish list, cant br too fussy over hay, ours eat what sheep eat, just wet it if too iffy.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
winter happens every year. this winter was predicted very early on. like a girl guide the motto is be prepared!!!! buy and pay for it in june/july even if you have to pay a bit of storage for it!!! good luck finding hay/haylage now.. it will all be premium price
Click to expand...

no farmers in our area let people do this this year. In fact in July I had a mare on box rest for a month. She was eating over half a bale of hay a day. I rang up and wanted to roder 15 bales, and they said no! I had to beg for 10!! Even then they weren't happy.... thought I was trying to bulk buy. :(

The normal bales of hay around here in May were £4, June they went to £5, July £6, Oct £8!!!! I haven't heard if they've gone up any more.... we're sharing large bales of haylage. (of which stocks are running short, and suppliers will only bring 2 at a time!)
 
charmeroo said:
Apparently there is no forage available to buy in bulk south of Birmingham.
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Total tosh..... You just have to know where to look. Might not be the cheapest, but it IS out there.
Coles are based in Okehampton, but deliver nationwide.
There are several ads on NFED, many have large bale and can be purchased in bulk.
 
sourced enough hay to do both my 2 & feild companions 2 through till next march (back in september) but at the end of october some theiving B******** nicked the lot by which time they were forcasting this bad weather & now we are struggling to source any more plus i am not in the position to afford to buy in bulk again.

i resorted to calling in to farmyards with livestock & asking politely, its got me 30 bales at £4.75 each so far.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
winter happens every year. this winter was predicted very early on. like a girl guide the motto is be prepared!!!! buy and pay for it in june/july even if you have to pay a bit of storage for it!!! good luck finding hay/haylage now.. it will all be premium price
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Well said. I know it sounds harsh but it's true. I purchased my winter stock of hay off the field at £2.00 per bale in June ( lovely stuff) and my haylage stock in august at £6.00 per 30kg bales. So I have plenty to last.
 
Crikey! I feel very lucky reading this, as I've had no trouble at all.

I am buying two types of haylage for mine.

The top notch fattening stuff for my veteran is £34 for 220kgs.

The meadow haylage, which is also second cut, that I requested as something less rich for my fatty is £32 for 220kgs, and very dry for haylage - it's more like v good quality hay.

These are the same prices as last year, and although I know my supplier is super busy, he hasn't mentioned shortages to me at all. I tend to buy 4 220kg bales at a time.
 
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ofcourseyoucan said:
winter happens every year. this winter was predicted very early on. like a girl guide the motto is be prepared!!!! buy and pay for it in june/july even if you have to pay a bit of storage for it!!! good luck finding hay/haylage now.. it will all be premium price
Click to expand...

All very well, but we knew it was a poor year as soon as we cut ours, and on asking about in June I couldn't get anyone to commit to supplying me with 50-100 bales even in the summer because they wanted to keep it for their regular customers, and I was told to ask again in September if they got a 2nd cut which they didn't or if they did their current customers had panic bought anyway, although I did manage to get some at £4.25 and some at £4 a bale in the summer but not enough. I'm not regular because I'm new. Can't be regular till someone will supply me, so I will gamble and hang on for the spring sell off....they'll need empty barns again for June.
 
believe me ours will be empty even if we dint sell another bale, and if they arent we wont have to buy as much very expensive fert to put on grass, food wont ever be cheap with prices of land fert diesel baling equipment and corn and price of building to store it in.
 
I think hay situations are worrying most horse owners. My farmer ran out of hay at christmas last winter, so I was very worried after this years small yields but he put more fields to hay this year and has a 2nd source coming in the new year so im hoping we will be ok. Ive got enough to last till end of feb I think. But plan to buy more in in Jan when I have the space.

As we all knew hay was going to be expensive and scarse I started increasing chaff and fibre feeds and ensuring my horse had a large straw bed to munch on if needs be. I have also been keeping a months supply at the back of my storage area for encase I phone and supplier has none left, I know I have a month to find an alternative.
 
Just to upset you all I bought 200 small bales at £1.50 a bale ;) Thank god though as noone has small bales now and big bales are £45! I still have tons of grass left on our paddocks - might sell some nearer the end of the winter ;)
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
winter happens every year. this winter was predicted very early on. like a girl guide the motto is be prepared!!!! buy and pay for it in june/july even if you have to pay a bit of storage for it!!! good luck finding hay/haylage now.. it will all be premium price
Click to expand...

Nice if you have that option. I'm in Kent and my main regular supplier sold me all he could, which was 30% of what I normally have because he only got 30% of his normal crop. So he was trying to be fair to all his regulars. My other supplier could only let me have 50 bales straight off the field, and it's rough old stuff. Normally it's easy to buy hay straight off the field in my area, but it wasn't on offer this time. I also couldn't find anyone willing to take on a new customer and store hay for them, they simply didn't need to bother with that.
 
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