It has just cost me.......

TicTac

TicTac

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£375.00 for 75 bales of hay at £5.00 per bale!!! I can honestly say that I haven't paid so much for hay in absolutely years. Last year I paid £2.00 a bale off the field, but the farmer who supplied it is not selling any this year due to his yield being so low.

This years hay was from a farmer in the village who is also only selling a proportion of what he usually does due to a greatly reduced yield as he needs to keep plenty back to feed his cows. I've still got 60 bales of haylage to buy yet as well :-( I have allready put my order in but I'm having to pay £7.00 per 30kg bale for that!

I could have had a jolly nice holiday away somewhere for what it's allready cost me to feed my horses through the winter ( Does anybody have an idea what we're in for yet?!) but on the other hand my horses give me pleasure everyday and I don't really begrudge spending the money on them.

How is everybody else finding the cost of hay?
 
we're on haylage and it isn't too bad.

I would have thought we're on for a second cut this summer and it's a bit soon to panic but I'm no farmer so I could be wrong!
 
Not so much a comment on the cost but the farm where I keep my boy just about managed to get through last winter with the hay they got off their fields without running out or needing to buy in. They've managed to cut loads more this year than they did last year.

They also cut a field of mine for hay this year, getting about 75 bales, so from our perspective (we're hants/wilts border) things are looking better on the way into winter this year than they did last year.
 
I've just bought 100 bales at £3.50 - in Dorset, average is £5-6 a bale, but found someone local who was selling off the field, any excess they had left after cutting for their own small yard. Won't last but at least I have the bulk of it and can top up when necessary.
 
hiya we sell hay and haylage and straw..we have had our 2nd cut and are hoping for a 3rd in october.

We are lucky , we have had great yeilds of hay and also haylage...we are in south wales and a buyer from leistershire is buying up huge amouns of the field and also standing grass.

Now this company is paying me 40.00 per bale..so off the field in getting 120.00 a tonn for my hay...then he has to make a profit so what will he be selling this at come winter time ?

My hay is 35.00 a bale and my haylage is 30.00 a bale and small bales of hay 3.50..this is for 1 bale...large quantities get discount.

I think hay will be very expensive this year...between 160.00 upwards per ton...who can afford that
 
I've just picked up 40 bales off the field for £100 so £2.50 a bale. Wondering if I should go back for another 40 now!
 
ive been quoted £4.50 a bale and both farmer and local haylage supplier have said they are down on yield. They normally transport a lot away but wont as transport costs are so high.
 
I fear our panic may be compounding the situation. A couple of people who make hay are saying the situation is better than it was last year. Perhaps we ahould calm down and not keep banging on about how little hay there is.

I live in one of the driest parts of the Uk and even a second cut here is looking likely at the moment
 
lots of ads in this weeks paper for £2.50 per bale , then an ad for £7.50 a bale ! bet he didnt get many calls ! my supplier has already taken 2 cuts so im sure a 3rd is on the cards. and his hay has gone down by £2.00 . best stuff in years too !
 
Our supplier has also had his first cut and a second cut in August is looking very likely. He has already told us he will have more than enough for us this winter
 
It really does depend where in the country you are. I am also in Bedfordshire and we are in our 2nd year of poor yields. Ours went up to £5.50 a bale last winter and it looks unlikely to drop. Our supplier had to go to the sales to buy hay last year as they didn't have enough to supply their normal customer base. He is not taking any new customers this year and first cut was poor, he is hoping for a 2nd cut but as the 1st cut was so late it is not likely to be a bumper crop.
 
It's not how many cuts you get but how much you get in them! We've had lots of cuts, but only at half the weight it normally is, two years on the trot now. That means no hay for sale from us this year.
 
I don't get small bales so don't know the price our farmer would charge but a place opposite is charging £3.75, i get big round bales which i was paying £20 for last winter.
our farmer isn't worried at all about the yield this year, last years was down a bit so theres no back stock this year, but he's already done one cut of ryegrass for the cattle and is nearly ready for another , he'll be able to set aside most of his normal hay for the horses so i'm not panicking. Plus OH work in somerset 2 days a week and says they certainly don't seem to have a shortage there!
 
My point is that whichever way you look at it there is more hay around than there was last year. No one had any last year, this year if you can be bothed to travel you will find some. Last year round here there was one poor cut. This year there wil be two. So that is double on last year even if it is lower than a normal year.
 
its the same every year - there wont be enough, low yield, wont be a second cut etc. And yet there is plenty! I am still paying £4.00 per bale and have had hay all year round without any probs from the same farmer i pay £2.00 per bale for straw. I wont be getting my winter supply until end of september.
 
I'm sure in certain parts of the country there will be plenty of hay just as in my area yields are very low. Last year the yields were up here because of a good wet may which in turn led to growth and decent yields for our local farmers. This year the rain generally came to late and most farmers seemed to have left cutting the hay untill about now.

Jesstickle. I am not trying to induce panic buying, I was merely pointing out that for the first time in years I had to pay silly money for hay. Sure, I could look on some scottish hay merchants web site and be able to buy it for £2.50 per bale and then have to pay a huge delivery charge.

I save money each month towards hay/haylage and bedding so that I am able to buy in bulk and try to get it at a decent price. I am also fortunate that I have plenty of storage for me to do this.

Whether or not there is a hay shortage I am pleased that I don't have to worry about running out of hay and trying to get it delivered in the middle of a horrid winter.
 
I'm really not sure about the logic of there being more hay this year...saying there was 'one cut' last year a) may not be true in all areas, wasn't here (yorkshire) and b) means nothing in terms of amount of hay.

Like I say, we are on course for 2 cuts in some places, but at half the yield. It wasn't even as dry here as it has been in the south east. This is the same as last year but of course, due to shortages, last year's hay is used up so none of the usual surplus to go at either.

In other places that haven't been dry (scotland, ireland) they've had the opposite problem of far too much rain ruining crops.

And of course, even in the dry places the weather's been patchy at haying time and I know of plenty that's been ruined.
 
We didnt have a problem last year until the large companies started buying wagon loads making our suppliers short for normal customers. Those farmers who wouldnt sell tried desperatly to get rid of tonnes they had kept back at the beginning of the year to find no one wanted it. The yield up here is alot higher than last year and many farmers are capitalising on last years panic by growing more - needless to say the prices havent dropped to compensate!
 
In somerset there is definately plenty of hay around - for example off 2 acres of a 9 acre field I got 140 small bales of fantastic quality (meadow was not fertilised) - last year the guy cut the whole 9 acres and only got 17 large bales !!!!!!!!!!! he also told me he has got 3 x as much off one of his other fields compared to last year.

Everyone round by us seems to have got 2 very very good cuts min.
 
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