OMG farmer just informed me of yet another price increase!!

[Rochelle]

I've just called my local farmer to order some large bales of haylage and he told me its gone up AGAIN to £30 a bale thats £60 a week for me!! How much do you pay for your large round bales of haylage? Think I will have to be on the look out for a new supplier, that or put all my liveries on DIY?!

 

[jewel]

£15 to £20 a bale in cornwall

 

[oofadoofa]

Depending on where in the country you are, I think haylage is going to be quite expensive again this year, there hasn't been much chance to make any good stuff and with the price of diesel going up etc this will have a knock on effect. Where abouts are you as we may have some spare!

 

[peanut]

[ QUOTE ]
thats £60 a week for me!!

[/ QUOTE ]

How many horses do you have?

 

[RLF]

is he delivering it for you?
I pay £25 a bale, but my supplier is on site, so no petrol charges

 

[jumpthemoon]

I pay £20 per bale, incl delivery for big round bales of hay. Next year though, I'll be moving to small bales. They are going to be £1 a bale

 

[Rochelle]

I run a livery yard so we have 10 horses at the moment! I easily go through 2 bales a week and obviously more in the winter when they are in more! We are in the yorkshire area. Farmer does drop it off for me but he is only 5 mins away. Its a shame I'll have to find someone else as he is so handy and the haylage is fab stuff!

 

[oofadoofa]

Maybe you could put your prices up slightly to cover the cost? I am sure your liveries would understand.

 

[JessPickle]

Ours have also just gone up to £30 a bale, in the winter that will mean £315 a week on haylage at our yard!! (big RS yard)

 

[chunkytfg]

how much was it previously?

 

[Colline]

God you guys are lucky i know someone who has just paid £60 for a round bale of hay!!! I used to pay about £60 for rounds of haylage but as i am now seeing the son of the farm that makes it then i am only paying £40 delivered to my pony. We are charged £15 per week for unlimited hay/haylage at the farm.

 

[Rochelle]

It was £20 a bale when we first started using this farmer then obviously its gone up over time. It went upto £25 about 2 years ago then about a month ago upto £27.50 and now today £30 a bale. I understand everything is going up but I dont think my liveries will be best impressed if i put up their livery again. Although its just life at the moment I think alot of people will be opting for DIY as they just cannot afford to do full livery anymore?!

 

[BankEndRescue]

we pay £20 per bale, delivered but I guess it depends on where you are located

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

As unpalatable as it is if an increase in price is justified as yours will be with the increase in haylage prices then your liveries will understand. What liveries dislike is when the prices fall & the new prices are not reflected by a reduction in livery prices. As long as you remember this you should be alright.

 

[Maisy]

TBH even at £30 per big bale, it will still be cheaper for the liveries to pay more than to source their own small bales, which round here, were £7 a bale last year......I dont know how much they are this year!!

 

[CBAnglo]

So big bales have gone up another £2.50 i.e. £5 for 10 horses a week? Am sure everyone would agree to pay an extra £0.50 a week to cover the increase - would definitely be more expensive if they had to buy smaller bales.

 

[BigBird146]

Just been discussing this with my friend as our local farmer has only made about 1/2 what he ususally does, so isn't selling any and a lot will be in the same position. I would stick with your current supplier as demand is going to struggle to meet supply this winter methinks.

 

[nuffield]

Here, Shropshire /Powys borders it costs £8 to the contractor to make big round bale hay. this is without the fertilizer and any weedkiller costs.
We make our own small bale hay and have worked out that fertilizer+red deisel+£6 per hour for doing the job+baler twine = 85p per small bale. we own our fields and tractor and equipment outright and there are no transport costs.

If people have to pay for tractor lease or interest rates and wages for staff and land rent then this has to be factored in accordingly.
transport and fertilizer costs have risen dramatically fert for example has gone up approx 150% since last year.

So, I reckon with tansport and fert and wages that £8 to the contractor for haymaking rises to approx £15 per bale for large round bales and £1.50 for small bale hay.VAT needs to be added.
anything above this is profit . If I was selling hay, [which I am not BTW] Ithink £25 for large round and £2.50 for small bale would be about right.
Hope this info helps.

 

[Rochelle]

Thanks nuffield thats really helpful! Think it has risen upto £30 a bale due to my farmer having to buy in from other farmers. Think he is struggling too!

 

[FRESHMAN]

I have been paying £38 per sq bale haylage for some time! It's damn good stuff mind