Hay!!!!

Well, as I was paying 3.50 last year and I presume they made a profit at that I cant see that 7-8 a bale can be justified.
I realise that it must increase a little but a increase like that? Dont tell me they are not making a big profit at that price.
Sorry, but in my opinion thats not on.
I feel very sorry for all the horses and ponies who will be sold or put down if people cant afford to feed them at these prices.
 
The simple fact is there is less hay. This increases its value. As rough as it is for those who struggle to feed their horses, you can hardly blame the situation on the farmers - they didn't grow less on purpose did they. A rant at the weather man would be more appropriate!!
 
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itsmylife said:
Well, as I was paying 3.50 last year and I presume they made a profit at that I cant see that 7-8 a bale can be justified.
I realise that it must increase a little but a increase like that? Dont tell me they are not making a big profit at that price.
Sorry, but in my opinion thats not on.
I feel very sorry for all the horses and ponies who will be sold or put down if people cant afford to feed them at these prices.
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Well, lets assume that they made 1000 bales last year and got £1 profit on each.
This year, they barely scraped 600, so need nearly £2 on each bale to make the same money - it's already £4.50.
Now, the diesel is more expensive, the fertiliser prices went through the roof, the 600 bales haven't cost them any less to make than the 1000 bales last year... possibly even more.
You do the maths.
 
I have a third of my usual supply and have been told that even though my ex-boss has loads (he cut the same as last year) he is being funny about selling any to people on my farm.....prices are still the same off him.
 
TBH a lot of farmers don't make a big profit from hay, they carry on doing it to help people out! In ten years the price of hay has hardly altered, yet the price of diesel, herbicide, fertiliser, machinery, labour costs, and even string has shot up! I know lots of farmers who have said it is not worth their time to make hay, yet they do it because they have 'regulars' who rely on them. A price rise has been a long time coming TBH.Yes, perhaps it is a bit excessive over a short period of time, but as glosgirl says, the farmers did not choose to make less hay, the weather has dictated that - just be glad there is any about at all!! IMO there will be a lot of skinny horses and a lot of horses for sale in a few months time!
 
I'm paying £20 per bale for my hay at the moment, they are about 4ft - 5ft long. I only paid £10 a bale last year, but my supplier hasnt even cut half of what he did last year so is only supplying me and one other and has had to drop the rest of his clients for this year. I've only got 10 bales in my shed as that is all the space I have, he is keeping more in his store for me, I'm hoping that he'll have enough to get me through..? I did ring round others in my area but they all came back with the reply that they arent taking any new clients as they cant supply thier existing ones.

Also I completely understand why the prices have gone up, why shouldnt they? Dont get me wrong its a bummer as its costing me twice as much as last year, but they have to live too. How could they exist on what they charged last year when like my supplier they have cut less than half of what they did? Not only that you have to take into account the rising cost of fuel... Yes they have to drive to fields to cut hay, there is the repair and maintance of the machinery and even the silly thing of the price of bailer twine would go up each year, not to mention the wrap on haylege. Its their business at the end of the day! Not charity, I'm gratefull that it wasnt me he let go this year.
 
Once again, im not saying prices should not go up, but to double in price is not on. I have spoken to a few people who have said they made the same amount as last year but they are still putting the price up.
That is greed to me.
However, Ive had my say and time will tell whos right.
 
Well, in my example, just to make the same money, the farmer would have to charge £5.85 per bale... so the £6-£7 is not out of the way at all.
As to the others bringing the prices in line - that is just business sense. Why would they want to make less if they can make more money easily.
You wouldn't refuse a pay rise, would you? And maybe this price *hike* will eventually allow farmers to pay themselves Minimum Wage, because tbh, they rarely make that much.
 
My partner who is a farmer has 'hiked' his price up to £3.00 from £2.75 and people are complaining about it. Last year we got just under 1200 little bales off our big field this year we were pushing 400. As for the bad winters - who'd have thought we would have had three bad summer - '07, '08, '09 in a row.

It's all very well people moaning about farmers putting prices up, but diesels gone up, fertilizer has rocketed. Not to mention labour of getting little bales from the field to the stack. It's flippin hard work you have to handle them to get them on a trailer, handle them off the trailer, handle them on the stack and then handle them off the stack and into the trailer to deliver them to someone whose going to moan about a price hike of 25p!

Keep on hiking that's what I say!
 
As has been said, most farmers have only made 1/3 of what they usually take off a field, so the demand is going to be greater!

I dont have a problem with the price increase, I just want to be able to buy some hay!!!!!

If anyone knows where I could get 100-200 bales delivered in the Ringwood area PLEASE let me know! :(
 
hannah28 said:
why are you assuming this :confused: ? we are just as likely to have a worse winter ! look at the weather now ! we are in for a long cold winter ........
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I am sorry but there is absolutely nothing you can do about winter, it's weather, and it is coming, wet and soggy or white and hard.
You had a hard winter last year, so you know what to expect and there won't be any surprises if it happens again.

Farmers/suppliers can't be blamed for taking advantage of horse people, it is just business. I grow my own and buy in a lot (I book it off the field in Spring), what I don't need I sell in March/April and easily get top dollar for it. Business, pure and simple.
 
ok guys i think we all agree that the prices have rocketed but are divided whether it is fair or not, but the question now is will the price come back down on next years cut ?
 
What ever you think of the price increase this year its going to turn in to a welfare issue. a lot of people will not be able to afford to feed their animals properly and will sell them or have them put down. This will have a effect on horse prices too as there will be a lot for sale.
This price rise will have a much bigger impact than just having to pay more for hay.
 
As most things have gone up in price, diesel,baling twine etc I've noticed a lot of farmers have stopped doing hay, small bales etc as a lot of horse owners have gone over to haylage. This year has been a very bad year weatherwise, deep snow for several weeks and then no rain when needed. Hay is down I know as am 126 bales less then last year and my cost rose just to get it to the end product this year, so will be buying in straw not just for bedding ,but to mix in with my hay in their haynets as a belly filler.
 
I have the large bales around £25 with 3 to feed on not much grazing I am feeding ad lib hay already,looking around for spare fields that could possible rent for a few months to give ours a break
Also am going to see if i can pay in advance and reserve some hay ready for really bad weather. Local farmer really good.
Its not a new position and i have been known to hand graze for hours to give them some grass as a top up.
Lucky they are good doers and dont need mountains of hard feed.
 
Farmers have been subsidising peoples equestrian hobby for a long time. Hay needs to be £5 a bale just to keep up with the cost of living,even in a good year.Dont exect it to go down below £4 a bale.
 
...... sitting smugly reading this post! I'm so glad I sweated buckets in June to fetch my lovely organic meadow hay off the field in Dorset where I've got it for years, the lovely couple who own the farm were most apologetic that they had to put it up to £2.20 this year because the price of string had increased! Also still manage to have about 50 of last years bales left despite the harsh winter, so really hoping I should be OK. Really feel for the rest of you though. I'm also planning on having my horse turned out for as long as possible as we have reasonable grass that doesn't get too muddy so should be able to use a little less hay if I'm careful, also minimise waste (how much gets left on the floor of the hay shed although it's perfectly good hay), and increase fibre feed.
 
K27 said:
Also- sorry this may be a silly question!!- will chaff/Alfalfa products be in short supply as well? if hay/haylage is in short supply in some areas of the country?.....
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Alfalfa will be fine!! the plant has very deep roots enabling it to get access to water, unlike grass which really stuggles in dry conditions.
Oats, I'm led to belive have also had a good year - we certainly have a good supply of quality oat straw, which chaff id made from, so no probs there, products such as graze - on and redigrass may run out if people panic buy as might haylage...
 
Mike007 said:
Farmers have been subsidising peoples equestrian hobby for a long time. Hay needs to be £5 a bale just to keep up with the cost of living,even in a good year.Dont exect it to go down below £4 a bale.
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That's so true mike - horse owners have had it too good for too long - the sheer amount of wastage on my yard is DISGRACEFUL - there is no need to ad-lib small FAT ponies, nor to lob so much hay into a field it's all trodden in a piddled on wrecking the grass in the spring - what IS wrong with people????
 
people often think farmers are rich but they are not often they are struggling just to keep their farms going and they work so hard as well compared to the average 9-5 office person.

farmers should not have to subsidise horse owners and why not take advantage of good prices if they can after all they may have some years when it is very hard to sell hay for a decent amount if there is a glut yet the costs of making it are the same.

the farmer will need a certain amount of money to just break even so if he only makes half the amount of bales and he has some fixed costs to cover that do not vary according to the amount made then he will have to charge twice as much. if hay is production is reduced by 50% then the farmer will need to charge 50% more per bale to get the same income as last year. additionally the RPI has gone up so the farmer will need more money just to feed himself and his family than he would have needed last year and with the vat increase coming up soon as well that might have an impact too.

if farmers are making not big profits on hay then they can't afford to not put the prices up as there is so little profit margin to reduce which they would need to do keep the prices the same.

i think we have to accept the days of cheap anything are over.

i have seen canada hay advertised so perhaps there will be some hay imported which people can buy so hopefully there will be enough to feed horses if people are willing to pay for it.
 
We have just cut ours - first cut!

We decided we couldn't leave it any longer as the trouble with getting into september and hoping for an indian summer is shorter daylight hours as well as more cold dew and the risk of frost, all of which equals less chance of the grass drying properly and making hay.

We might have to wrap small bale haylage if it doesn't dry out enough, and that will be starting to cost us. We will try and sell some and have been told we can charge between £5 - 7 for small bale haylage which sounds a lot, but when we add up the rental of the field we use for the hay, the baling costs and the wrapping costs, we will be lucky if we break even.

Yield is defo lighter this year and it is simple economics, as most of you have said, as to why the prices have gone up. If yield halves, then prices double - simples!
 
SO1 said:
people often think farmers are rich but they are not often they are struggling just to keep their farms going and they work so hard as well compared to the average 9-5 office person.

farmers should not have to subsidise horse owners and why not take advantage of good prices if they can after all they may have some years when it is very hard to sell hay for a decent amount if there is a glut yet the costs of making it are the same.

the farmer will need a certain amount of money to just break even so if he only makes half the amount of bales and he has some fixed costs to cover that do not vary according to the amount made then he will have to charge twice as much. if hay is production is reduced by 50% then the farmer will need to charge 50% more per bale to get the same income as last year. additionally the RPI has gone up so the farmer will need more money just to feed himself and his family than he would have needed last year and with the vat increase coming up soon as well that might have an impact too.

if farmers are making not big profits on hay then they can't afford to not put the prices up as there is so little profit margin to reduce which they would need to do keep the prices the same.

i think we have to accept the days of cheap anything are over.

i have seen canada hay advertised so perhaps there will be some hay imported which people can buy so hopefully there will be enough to feed horses if people are willing to pay for it.
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Aparently it hasnt been too good in Canada either.
 
I feel sooo lucky, our YO has enough small bales for our stables ones in winter and I rang our supplier who assures me he has plenty of big bales, and that is knowing we were buying 4 - 5 a week last winter. I had put off ringing him because I just didn't want to hear him say he was going to be short but I am a happy bunny now!
 
Having bought some hay at £2.50 a bale, I'm now paying £5 per bale, but to be honest - the £5 bale is so big and heavy - its well worth the money and the hay itself is fantastic.

Was also speaking to a hay merchant in Newmarket the other day, after he'd seen my WANTED HAY advert pinned up, and he said that he had thousands for sale, but that he wasn't going to sell any until the New Year and would then be charging over £6. I cheekily asked if I could have some now for a cheaper price and he said he couldn't do it for less, as he'd had to go down to Devon to bring it back and they had charged him £5 per bale anyway.

I still need about another 700 conventional sized bales, so if anyone knows of any more good quality hay looking for a new home between Ely and Newmarket - please PM me.
 
omg i think i must be very, very lucky! I spoke to my hay supplier as i was worried that supplies would be limited this year, she said that she wasnt going to be short and that prices would be staying at £2.75 for small bales and £20 for very large round ones but straw woud be going up to £2 which im defiantely not moaning about. The hay has always been good quality as well.
 
After making enquirys I have been told that there is quite a lot of hay around but some suppliers are hanging on to it and will sell later in the winter when they can get a higher price for it.
 
I think that farmer's are taking the p***! I know they need to make a profit but why should we have to pay ridiculous amounts of money so they can make the same profit as they did last year?
I work for a property company, and if we have a large number of empty flats, we don't immediately charge our other tenants more money so as to make the same profit as we did last year. We just end up with less profit or make a loss!
As far as hay prices are concerned, on our yard we are only paying £3.50 for a small bale and £20 for a large bale as our supplier had told us that he won't be ripping us off!!
 
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