Over priced hay

Hay has been underpriced for years - about time hay farmers started getting half-decent returns for their hay.
 
tbh, dont mind paying bit extra for hay...has been very cheap :s

and if you cant afford to keep your horses....sell em...

The hay we are selling this year, is more expensive than last year, purely because we didnt get as much done due to all the rain, lost about 10 acres
 
If you say its for sheep you probably won't get best hay .I am willing to pay a premium price for dustfree hay.I've got the best I have ever had this year and paid £3.00 a bale and great straw for £1.50
 
not so, our local farmers always keep the best hay for the shep, the second best for hrses, although buyers think its best quality and the least good stuff for the cattle. I have relatives who farm and this is their policy too.
 
Anyting is only worth what someone is willing to pay.... no one makes people buy anything.

We sell hay, if it is to people with horses it is more expensive because they usualy only want about 50 bales. If they bought more it would be cheaper.

We keep the best hay for the sheep, 2nd quality for horses and the naff stuff for cattle.

When we make wraped hay, it is sold as haylage to the horse people and silage to the farmers.

The cost of everything has gone up... wages, fuel, insurance. It costs more to produce the hay in the first place.
 
isnt the word 'swindled'? have never heard of swingling
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horses cost alot of money, not sure why horse owners always seem to think their expensive hobby should be subsidised by farmers, livery yard owners and other horsey businesses.
 
Have to agree with dutch-viscount, all the people we deal with are trying to make a living, our motto is find a good supplier/craftsman whatever and stick with them, loyalty does pay.
 
we are paying around £4 a bale atm.
The hay is great, dol loves it and it is delivered withing 24 hours of me requesting it.
We all knew hay was going to go up this year, due to the crap weather.
You get what u pay for, and im very happy with mine!
 
I've got really good hay this year from my supplier, I paid the same price as last year...& why was that?....well my supplier actually got considerably more bales off her fields than she did last year.

She keeps the best quality for horses & any considered not quite as good goes to sheep & cattle...... she never has much cattle quality.

If next year we have a great summer next year do you think those that have inflated their prices this year will drop them back again? or will they rmain the same
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Anyone who actually produces wrapped bales will tell you that the costs of the wrap and mesh have simply rocketed up, in line with oil price rises. Surely suppliers shouldn't be viewed as charities, they need a return on their work and expenditure.
 
Does any one know the amount of work that goes into producing good quality small bales of hay?
If you realised,or have done it like i have then you wouldnt mind paying 5 pound a bale!Believe me its hard work.
 
It is like any industry, whether or not agricultural, that you can only charge what people are willing to pay.

Some blame hikes in prices on production costs, others on the lack of a decent yield, but whilst other farmers are still selling at the same price as last year; You can not blame the customer for wanting to get the best price.

It is hard, manual, labour to be able to produce a bale of hay but even still- You still have to be competitive in the marketplace. It is just the way of the industry- It is not the type that brings in high returns. Like, I said, many other industries- Not always the customers fault because they are not willing to pay through the nose...
 
Fuel is now double what it was 3 years ago,minimum wage is now for farming is now 6 pound something an hour,and it takes 7 days for hay to be able to dry and turn in decent hot summers,which this year wasnt.Hay also has to be turned 3 times a day with a tractor and driver,and then every bale has to be loaded on to a trailer,then taken from field to shed and unloaded to finish the cycle.
Farmers are selling hay at what it costs to make with hardly,if at all any profit.If you want cheaper hay,then you have to buy big bales,but not many equine people have facilities to store,or handle big bales,so if you want to keep using small bales then you have to pay for it.
 
hmm wouldn't say they selling at cost personally. my mum grows her own at home but gets a contractor to cut turn bale and bring in for her which is always going to be more expensive than doing it yourself. total bill £1500 for 800 very good quality small bales so less than £2 a bale. hay in jersey is now approaching £10 a bale for decent stuff, very glad we grow our own!!
 
As long as some farmers are able to produce hay, in their current production set up and price, with a profit then why should I pay extra for your hay because you can not?

I do understand where you are coming from, as I have family friends in the milking industry (who suffered many years of bad returns), but as long as some producers are still able to produce hay at a reasonable price; you can not expect people to automatically pay more for yours because you can not do the same.
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By the time you look at the finer details santa-clause,like we have to do as farmers,then there is hardly any profit envolved.All aspects of farming is like it,we certainly dont do it for the money it makes,but the love!!
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i know farming isn't profitable as well that is why my grandparents stopped (cattle farmers) and my mum didn't continue with it. We still have the land though which costs more in rates then what we get back in rent as no other farmers want the land, well it did until we got paid by a mobile phone company last year to put a tiny mast up in the middle of nowhere in one of our hedges which they now pay us in rent the equivalent of all our rates on all our land!!

What I am saying though is the pure production of hay is not what is causing the losses it is other areas and the price of hay is being used to subsidise the failing parts of the business (or am I incorrect?). Most commercial hay producers will be producing several thousand bales minimum (taking note our 800 came off 2 acres!) which will probably cost them I guess about 50p- £1 a bale to produce in terms of labour, materials etc depending on the quantity and what machinery they have, they then sell on for minimum of £2.50 a bale (not seen anyone lower than that in a long time) meaning if a minimum of 5000 bales your talking about £7500 profit before taking off other costs.....

basically farmers would be on to a winner if they could produce hay all year round but sadly they can't and most won't risk using the fields for anything else through the rest of the year for fearing of reducing their crop!

Oh forgot to mention the £1600 included fertilizing the field earlier in the year!!
 
Why is minimum wage for farmers higher than for anyone else, I've never heard that before.
 
the point of the post isnt about the price of hay per se, its about the fact that some farmers are charging more to horsey people for the same quality hay, than they are charging other farmers. So if you say you want the hay for sheep you should get it cheaper.
after all, does Marks and Spencer charge more for their t-shirts if the buyer is a horsey person?
 
TBH I don't see what the issue / problem is?
So we may pay a bit more for the hay? Us horsey people can not only be quite demanding at times but we also buy in fairly small quantities and there are a fair number of people that chop and change suppliers at the drop of a hat!
Also, selling hay at lower rates between farmers doesn't surprise me at all, this industry relies a lot on co-operation and the hay seller may get a cheap rate in return on a different service.
 
I havent got a problem for paying for good quality. I am very lucky in hayledge prices have changed very little for us for 2years , and I pay 2.50 a bale for very very good meadow hay. This is cheaper than some of the suppliers customers pay, but that is because they know we will supply them with regular orders, generally collect ourselves and are pretty trouble free.
 
i have "LARGE" round bales on my yard...they average 15 small bales each..

i wouldnt sell them to ANYONE for less than £35.00 each....

just because "we" are horse owners doesnt come into it as far as i'm concerned...Fodder is reletively cheap if the rises in fuel/labour are taken into consideration.....

maybe the OP shouldnt mention they have horses??....i cannot comment on that as i've not experienced that personally, as ALL my suppliers know i'm buying from them for horses....
 
This is probably very unpolitically correct, but I am so tired of hearing farmers whinge....about horses (who contribute quite a lot to the rural economy)....about supermarkets....about everyone they can think of....
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A few years ago...they seemed to get subsidies for getting out of bed in the morning....but they didn't worry about any one else who wasn't doing so well....
But now the subsidies are not as generous...we are all meant to feel sorry for them...
I've never met a poor farmer yet....
S
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QR.

If people didnt pay it they wouldnt get overcharged time and time again.

I can get good quality hay round here at 2.75 a bale. We have our own hay, and use "haylage" (hay wrapped in plastic... which IS silage) at the back end of spring.
 
No. Silage is NOT the same as haylege in the UK. Hay is dried, haylege is partially dried, silage is not dried at all.


So, why do farm workers get a higher minimum wage than other people? Still awaitibg an answer please.
 
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