Hay supplies - good bad or just profitering!

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canteron

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My hay supplier has put the price up 50% again - that is a massive 150% since last year. It now works out at about £9 for a small bale. The hay is gourgeous, guaranteed raywort free and the horses are happy. I guess that they must feel that the market can stand it, so good for them?

I thought with the mild winter so far that prices should stabilise? I have got through a lot less to date than I expected. What are your experiences.
 
:eek: £9 for a small bale, I thought it was bad here at £5 for a small bale. This time last year we were paying £3 for a small bale which is also guarenteed ragwort free and is very nice (re-seed his feilds most years and then every three ploughs and starts again)

The farmers and suppliers around here are now out of stock. One refused to sell any as he was short for his own yard, the main one sold out before it was all off the field. The other I bought the rest of his supply and then the shop that sells bales sold out last month other than what they need for their yard.

They have to make money like the rest of us but I'd be crying if I was paying £9 a bale and feeding adlib.

I'm currently using about half as much as I expected but I have managed the paddocks well and have a feild of grass still availiable. I've also restricted the access the Shetland has as he could put away a bale a day if you turned your back! Which should work out ok and mean I have some to use through summer for nets when tieing up etc.
 
that is profiteering and its outrageous. I would be buying elsewhere. The farmers where I live in surrey had two crops of hay or haylage, so they have no excuse to be charging silly money. The co I buy haylage from barely put their prices up. I suggest you contact thorogoods, they are in essex, they supply all over the place. their big haylage bales are top, top quality and well worth the money.
 
I think the price of hay seems to be very regional. When I was in Somerset I was paying £6 a bale, now I'm in Cornwall I'm paying £3.50 a bale for very nice hay.
 
At £9 a bale that is profiteering. I appreciate that the prices vary across the country because of rainfall or the lack of it. When you search the net for hay you find it available & reasonably prices in the West Country & up in Cumbria etc as that was where the rainfall was & they got the growth.

I bought 50 bails yesterday in the Midlands & they were £4 a bale, a few months ago the same hay was £5 a bale so the price seems to be settling down in my area. Still more expensive than last year but not too bad.
 
Nobody would supply us last 2 years, but we got 100 bales for £5 each this year lovely tight weed free bales, there is a glut in Berkshire as many folk got 2 or 3 cuts.

I think it was a lot drier in Suffolk hence the price being as high as it was round here last year (if anyone would supply you).

It may be worth considering buying in from further afield if you need a large load.
 
£9 a bale?!?!?! :eek::eek::eek:

It's £6 a bale here in North Wales, which I thought was bad as the farmers up here seemed to get a bountiful harvest this year. One farmer I know got three times as much off his fields than normal years and was giving bales away because he knew it would be wasted. Unfortunately he didn't give any to me :(
 
Farmers in my area made 2 cuts this year so they have loads. I make my own haylage so don't know what they are chargein but its a bit like petrol......it goes up but never comes back down!!
 
£9 for a small bale??:eek::eek::eek: i only pay £20 for a large round bale!!!!!!!! and our farmer doesn't have as much as last year but because he got a good crop of maize for the cattle he's happy to keep his hay price down for us regulars.
 
OP I think I would be hiring a transporter to buy some hay from a cheaper part of the country. Keep what you need and share the rest at a more reasonable price with friends. Robbing sod, £9 a bale is way over the odds.
 
I'm very impressed with myself this year I got rye grass hay at £2.50 a bale. Which meant I could totally fill my barn. I'm hardly using any at the moment 5kg a night, that's it.
But last year I was paying £4.50 per bale for meadow hay.
£9 seems excessive!
 
I am a bit worried to be honest, I have recently bought hay from 3 different sources, all at £5 a bale and all sold as top quality. I did look and smell it but still out of the three lots I have bought I have only been able to use a third, I have burnt so many bales as when opened they are dusty and horrible. I don't know where to buy now as I am worried that quality is down this year, never had this trouble before. Have I just been unlucky??
 
9 quid??? Dear God . . . . . not just profiteering but racketeering.
Round here some people got 3 cuts this year and there is so much hay and haylage about. I bought a load of haylage back in July and unless we get a hard, long winter (if it ever gets going) I shall have haylage to burn . . . anyone in the New Forest area want a few 1 metre square bales??????
 
It was only 6 months ago when the annual rumor that there would be a shortage was spread and so the cost was increased, Seems to be a pattern forming me thinks.
 
I bought my hay just after it was cut at £4.50 a small bale, lovely seed hay. When I went to collect 6 weeks later they said they had taken a 2nd cut . They were baling hay a round us (PE28) in October, and I have just walked the fields they cut and the grass is growing mid calf height.
I also use round bale haylage and had a delivery last week. He had also made late haylage and it was not selling so fast as everyone is waiting to buy.
I would have a look on e-bay/Adtrader I know there was some near Ely at £5. I think some will have stuff left in January. A big hay seller who sells at auction in January said he didn't think it would go any higher than last year and his top price for huge small bales was £6.70 at auction.
 
I live in Suffolk and my husband produces haylage to sell, and despite a bad start due to the drought, we made up numbers to near normal with a second cut. I know hay is in short supply due to the bad weather, it was very difficult to get a window of 7 days of good weather, and my husband was called out to many farms to wrap bales for haylage that would normally have been made into hay.

Perhaps you can look at haylage instead, our big bales work out to the equivalent to £4.50 conventional hay bale!
 
We had very, very little hay this year and as it didn't rain there was no chance of a second cut later on and I have had to feed my hay all summer as the fields have been bare.

However, in some places there has been plenty of rain, so maybe you are in an area where the hay is short. It seems that there is hay available so perhaps you can get some quotes.
Some people think that horse owners are rich and will pay anything!
 
The guy I get my hay from has just had to put his large round bales back up to £40 (same as last year ) despite starting off in august at £35. Not because of any supply problems but because the other local suppliers threatened him as he was cheaper than they were ! Luckily he will sell it to me for £35 but I think it is disgusting they are fixing the price like that . He thought £35 was a fair price for the year as he has plenty and is now worried he will be stuck with some
 
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