Hay supplies

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henryhorn

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www.narramorehorses.blogspot.com
Just a quick post to say we may be making haylage late but wow what a crop..We have got in almost double the number of bales off fields, and although it isn't quite as good quality it will provide bulk..
So prices may not go up after all.
Now if it would just stop raining for another week and we could get the remainder in......
 
Yep, we baled the hay last night thankfully because it's been chucking it down all morning. Not the best but it's ok and there's loads of it. I've asked around locally and the price hasn't changed from last year really apart from the odd person who cut it late may and have sold it all in the last few weeks to people panic buying for extortionate prices!
 
Phew! Some good news about hay at last. I have resisted panic buying so hopefully my local supplier will be as organised as you and made some haylage this week. Lets's all pray for some more sunshine!
 
I have kind of ignored the "Hay shortages" scares as I can not remember a single year where the local Farmers have said "ooooooh,,,,,,gonna be a tight year this year me lover,,,,not a lot about mind,,,,,prices'll be 'igh"

Everyone is cutting and baling like mad the last couple of days.
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Don't normally feed hay but have a fatty who is on limited grazing so go through a bale or two aweek. Was charged £4.75 a bale last night!"
 
Loads of haylage being cut here and a number have cut hay although it tipped it down earlier so what state it will be in after its baled I dont know.

Got big supply of old hay which will keep me going till next spring for Tom plus Jack is on horsehage anyway and thats very plentiful now.

There are always scare stories and my horsehage man told me of a midlands grower planning to bring small bale hay down to our area and sell it at £9 a bale!!
 
Well I am still glad I got 80 bales of last years hay in regardless! I will top up with this years if it is not too pricey!
 
I only feed haylege and my local supplier is on his second cut of the year, got one cut just before badminton and one this week.
 
Well I have 2 acres ready to be cut, but the contractor is flat out catching up with silaging and combining and has told me he isn't even considering hay yet. Most other contractors seem to be the same. I do understand that my little patch is hardly worth them bothering with but it is very frustrating!
 
i have been quoted £4 a bale already - and that is buying in bulk (YO) and we havent even been hit with floods etc here - in fact we have been very lucky with the weather compared to other areas. i just hope hes just trying it on and will realise that maybe it isnt going to be that bad...
 
We just finished bringing in the last of our first cut yesterday. All of our fields are down - average yields are half of what we usually take, however a couple of fields are not far off their normal yields which surprised us a little.

We have 2 fields which were cut earlier in the year and we will be taking a second cut from them at some point over the next couple of weeks as they have come back quite nicely.

Hay quality overall is quite nice, but it is isn't seed hay; will be sold as meadow hay this year, but I doubt it will make much difference to the price to be honest. We haven't set our prices yet but I would think it will be somewhere around $1 more per bale than last year, to cover the loss of supply.
 
My hay has just been cut - but I'm having a problem persuading the farmer to consider small bales. I've got enough for myself from the last two years and small bales seem so much more saleable.
 
Yes small squares are the most saleable. We make large 1,700lb bales for our own horses here but we sell pretty much all of our small squares.

% wise; you will make more money from selling small squares than you will selling large rounds, so you are right to try to have the farmer bale in this manner.
 
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