Is anyone else panicing about lack of hay??!!

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mitchellk

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Starting to worry about the winter, we still haven't had our hay cut, and its horrible now so even if we get a dry spell its going to be rubbish.
Has anyone got a plan of action- think my ggs will be eating haylage this year- it going to be an expensive winter me thinks!
 
I own a large hay farm - so I will always be okay, so long as I hold back enough for my own horses.
 
I got most of mine into our shed today! It was cut a couple of months ago by the local farmer in the dry spell and he said i can have as much as i want, so consider myself very lucky this year! I will probably start using it in a month or so cos it has been cut for two months now so should be fine.
 
A friend who has a livery yard phoned me this afternoon to ask if I knew of any hay. I gave her 2 numbers who always have it, they are both sold out and have waiting lists. I am not using any at the moment but only have about 30 bales left. I am hoping to get 2 acres cut if it ever stops raining and had been quite relaxed up till now but am now getting worried. Even if we do get a dry spell I know my little bit is way down the contractors list so may not get cut. If any one knows of any hay in N shropshire/S. cheshire please let me know and I can pass it on to my friend. She is pretty desperate- about 1 days worth left!
 
well im not, my supplier has managed (god only knows how) to his cut and stored and has been known to cut hay and haylege in september if he has to so dont think haylege will be a problem at all
 
just been up to see to my girlie and there is no hay left in the barn! - i have 1/2 a bale left - dont know if YO has any coming - horses will have to live out if there isnt any x
 
Well at the moment No as I went to see our hay today and its not Due to be cut till next week but it looks like its going to need 2 more weeks before its ready to cut. So hopefully we'll be ok and we've still got 1/4 burn of last years hay left as it was a good year for hay last year.
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I spoke to the farmer that makes our hay for us and he says that this years hay will be really dusty but he thinks we'll get just the same amount of hay we got 2 years ago and that got us through that whole year.
He got a bit upset when I said we could make it into Haylage
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No, YO (who is a farmer) has started getting the hay cut and baled. We have had 4 days of no rain and the barn is starting to fill up again. Before this weekend we were getting worried that nothing was going to get cut but am more optimistic now
 
We havent been able to cut ours yet either and its already begun to go to seed so this year i think our hay is going to be pretty crap this year.

We still have a fair bit from last year as not many people brought their horses in for the night (out of 20 horses about 9 actually came in)

I have never fed haylage but may try it this year who knows lol
 
Not really - haylage/hay is included in the livery so its up to the YO to find it! None of the fields have been cut so far, and YO has just gone on holiday - the first dry days we've had so far
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. If there's no haylage they'll just have to live out over winter, there should be enough grass.
 
We were lucky as our yard managed to get hay and haylage cut in the last hot spell in the hope that we will get another cut september time. With all this rain its looking good providing we have a dry spell in spetember to cut it!!
 
Farmers have been cutting, turning or baling like mad over the last few days. Mind you, I saw an advert last week for last years hay at £6 per (standard) bale.
Luckily we should have enough grazing for our lot to last the winter.
 
Well, I'm not panicking yet but my plan of action, such as it is, is to get the elderly LBO started on some sort of bagged haylage which he can continue with over the winter if necessary, so I only have to worry about hay for the Baggage!
 
If no one is cutting for hay, then you can rest assured they're not cutting for haylage either.

We managed to silage for our cows just before the rains started. Lots of farmers locally haven't even got their first cut of Silage in and we've usually done a second cut before now.

My hay supplier has plenty at the moment. I live on a dairy farm but hay is so cheap here that it's not cost effective to make my own. However we may have to consider baling haylage later in the year, just in case of a shortage, if we get a decent dry spell in the next 6 weeks or so.
 
We have just had a delivery of hay and it is this years hay and at the moment it is rather green, luckily I have amounted a bit of a stock pile so mine can sit for a month or so before I need to use it, then I guess I will slowly mix it into some of the old. As a new owner I've no idea what happens if hay runs out, at £6-7 a bale it will be cheaper to feed hi-fi (assuming you can get that!)
 
I have been really struggling in June but luckily a local farmer cut and I bought 20 bales not that good quality but just looked at some at me feed merchants they are taking orders so fingers crossed I am going to try and get a load in to get me through and hope I dont move!!!!
 
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