Haylage price? £45 too expensive?

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mhorses

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I have a feeling im being ripped off! How much would you pay for a large round bale of good quality dry haylage this year?
 
Big round bales are bigger than most square bales and so I don't think £45 is that excessive, if at all. I pay £38 for square bales probably half that size. Each bale weighs approx 225kg. It includes delivery and I buy by the lorry load. I don't buy round bales even though they work out much cheaper because they are so difficult to deal with.
 
I pay £26 per bale for the large square ones (definitely think they are bigger than the round ones). That is in south west Wales. £45 sounds expensive to me, but I suppose it depends on where you are and also you have to take into account that this has been a bad year weather wise.:(
 
I think you also have to take into account quality. I buy Heston bales. They are about 250kg. I pay £30 per bale (pick them up myself)
Compared to some locally this is expensive, but it is haylage produced specifically for horses & a full analysis of each crop is done (they do 2 different energy levels) guaranteed ragwort free any spoilt bales he comes & replaces no ifs or buts.
 
I went to a farm dispersal auction in Shropshire last Saturday. Big bale silage[which was really haylage it was so dry and good] went for £18. BB hay £15 and BB straw £11. They buyers did have to remove it though and stack at their farm. so there are transport and handling costs involved.
 
£45 a bale sounds a very fair price, if I'm selling!:D

Really, these "How much is it worth?" threads are a bit silly when the bales are large heavy items that are difficult to transport and parts of the country are very short of fodder while others have a surplus.

Another thing, quality is going to be highly variable this year, at least around here. Some got good hay during a brief spell of fine weather earlier. It was cut at the correct stage (i.e. when it had just come into flower) and then a lot was cut when it was past its best and almost straw.

That, of course, is on top of the usual variables such as how many years the grass has been down, the species sown, how much fertiliser, when cut, how long rained on, condition when baled, how stored, whether there is ragwort in it, how quickly the owner wants to sell, etc., etc.

How long IS a piece of string?:rolleyes:
 
Wish I could sell mine for £45 a bale!!!. I have 4 string large bales and can't get rid of them for £20. I can't deliver so they need picking up which puts people off but they can be manhandled into trailers!!
 
I paid £35 a large oblong 4 stringed bale delivered last year. Hopefully the price won't have gone up too much this year! I'm in Sussex
 
Off field, trade normally.
If putting a price on around the £30 mark for large square. Wouldn't touch round bales if I were feeding a small amount of horses though. Square are far easier to work with.
 
I pay £30 delivered for large 6 string square bales - around the 300kg mark I imagine.

Depends on where you are in the country I imagine, but for Shropshire, I would say that was expensive.
 
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