How much could I charge for my haylage?

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myhorsefred

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Hi all, I have made my haylage! yay! We were really lucky with the weather and cut it last saturday, then baled and wrapped in on Monday. No rain on it, and breeze dried rather than scorching sun baked, which the contractor tells me is better. Contractor tells me it will be gorgeous haylage as we cut it at just the right height and got the moisture content just right too.

My question is: where do you think I could advertise best to sell it. ( I have contacted local tack shops and they all have existing contracts with large suppliers and all the livery yards I have contacted make it themselves)

Oh, and one more question (sorry!): How much do you think I could charge per bale? it is the small oblong bales, about 3 slices longer than a normal bale of hay. There is more in it than the usual small round bales of haylage. A good 3.5 haynets per bale. It is organic, made from meadow grass, free of ragwort etc. Was thinking of charging £6, but not sure. (small round bales sell here for between £6.50 and £7) What would you charge? I have 100 to sell.

thanks.
 
Where are you based? If near enough I could be interested.
Last batch of small bale haylage (approx 35 kilos a bale) was £6 a bale delivered, good stuff and well wrapped. I can buy it locally from retailer at £7.50 per individual bale
 
If the quality is good and they're chunky bales then I would go for around £6.50 a bale - you can always give a little bit of discount if someone buys a bundle (just in case you don't sell them all at once!)
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£6.50 is around the going rate for good haylage, lots of yards use the big round bales as it is easier if you have a lot of horses on it. I make big bale haylage of superb quality and keep 7 horses for 1 wk on one round bale that I charge my liveries £25 per bale for. The other problem you have is that feed suppliers have to take out extra insurance for selling haylage as it can kill horses if it is not good so they tend to stick with a farmer they have dealt with for years that they know supplies them with continued good produce. I know this as I have a friend that owns a feed merchants whom I approached about selling mine, he explained about the extra insurance for haylage! You may find it easier to sell off the field if you advertise in a local newspaper, horse people tend to turn up with horse trailers to transport it home but they wont pay the full price as they can have it delivered to their feedroom for full price. Good luck
 
If you live in Wales, usually it costs more over there...compaired to Yorkshire area at least (spend a lot of time as relatives in Wales) I was shocked to hear how much people pay for their hay over there let alone haylage and that was years ago, I'm happy paying around £7.00 if there reasonable bales/weight and of good quality.
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