Price of haylage.

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Jelly

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A friend (who I board my horse with) got a delivery of 12 round bales of haylage at the weekend. The bales were £25 ea but with an hourly charge to the farmers home and back plus fuel the delivered price works out to £42.67 per bale :eek:

What do you pay per bale (delivered) in your area? She lives just north of Ellon in Aberdeenshire.
 
We made our own big bale haylage last year , but due to the dry weather it was really crap so our local farmer took it for his cattle ( they're not fussy) and we had lovely big bales in return , we paid approx £10 /bale to swap and now we've come to the end of our quota we are paying £24/bale , but it's really good stuff , unfortunately he has no more left so after this bale is gone we'll be back on his small bales of hay at £3 each...yikes
 
Jelly said:
A friend (who I board my horse with) got a delivery of 12 round bales of haylage at the weekend. The bales were £25 ea but with an hourly charge to the farmers home and back plus fuel the delivered price works out to £42.67 per bale :eek:

What do you pay per bale (delivered) in your area? She lives just north of Ellon in Aberdeenshire.
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Jeepers! £25 each is what I pay....but an hourly delivery/fuel rate?? What a scam! I think Mr. Farmer is literally taking your friend for the proverbial ride.

I live just outside Inverurie and mine comes from local farmer who, granted lives about a mile away, but delivers one at a time as and when required, with a couple of days notice at no extra charge.

If I were your friend would be looking elsewhere.
 
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freespirits said:
Jeepers! £25 each is what I pay....but an hourly delivery/fuel rate?? What a scam! I think Mr. Farmer is literally taking your friend for the proverbial ride.

I live just outside Inverurie and mine comes from local farmer who, granted lives about a mile away, but delivers one at a time as and when required, with a couple of days notice at no extra charge.

If I were your friend would be looking elsewhere.
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So the farmer should work for nothing & pay the fuel costs? While he is driving to make the delivery that is dead time, ie he can't do anything else, so can't earn any other money, I would completely expect to pay at least something towards the fuel too. If I thought the charge was unreasonable, then I would shop elsewhere rather than expecting something for nothing...
 
I pay £27 for a round bale, delivered free from about 2miles away. Another local (about 15mins away) supplier delivers free for orders over £100 but charges £10 otherwise. OP's friend's delivery charge sounds well out of order!
 
Get ours from friendly local farmer at other end of village. £24 a bale and he charges nothing for bringing them down, one at a time, as we have little storage space. But the horses do go to Great Western Wines and buy him some nice Rioja at Christmas and on his birthday - they just don't have very nice handwriting for the thank-you card!)
 
kizzywiz said:
So the farmer should work for nothing & pay the fuel costs? While he is driving to make the delivery that is dead time, ie he can't do anything else, so can't earn any other money, I would completely expect to pay at least something towards the fuel too. If I thought the charge was unreasonable, then I would shop elsewhere rather than expecting something for nothing...
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I'm not suggesting anyone should do things for nothing, but in the same token,as others have stated most farmers if local will oblige, and probably have included the cost of time and fuel into the asking price per bale.
As for 'dead time' , anyone who has any knowledge of farming in general will know there is no such thing as an average working day whereby it is consistently 'earning money'.
My theory is if you become a 'valued customer' ie. stay loyal and regular, plus a christmas box to show appreciation, then most farmers will be glad to supply without ripping you off, as it is regular income throughout the winter when everyone feels the pinch financially when keeping livestock. I think it could be called good customer relations.

My reaction was more about the rip off charge being made, rather than the charge itself.
 
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She was buying one at a time as she also has little storage space but farmer said he wont continue to sell one at a time whe he has other customers who are buying in bulk and his stocks are pretty low.

I am totally in agreement with Freespirits. With fuel and delivery it adds an extra £17.67 per bale to the purchase price which is just over 70% of the price of the bale itself. I dont think farmers should work for free either BUT he lives literally a few miles down the road. To load 12 bales on to a trailer and offload them at the other end would take under an hour and the fuel there and back would cost under £10 so where a £200 delivery/ fuel charge comes from is anybodys guess.
 
I pay £25 per bale for round bales delivered, or he has small bales for £2.50.another local farmer charges the same.there is also a supplier I use about 25 miles away(he makes haylage/hay to sell to horse owners), who charges £22 for big oblong bale but I usually get 8 delivered and pay an extra £25 for whle delivery.
 
In Sussex I was paying about £32 per bale including delivery..... until my suppliers ran out with no warning that they were running low, and coming in to the winter they had promised to look after us!- could not find big bale haylage anywhere in or around our area that is any good, and no good hay at a good price either so have had to get small horsehage sized haylage bales delivered on pallets from the west country, which works out much more expensive (eeekk!) but the quality is fab and the horses love it, and best of all they have put mine next pallets aside for me, so brilliant service!
 
Faithkat said:
I can't believe how cheap the haylage is in other parts of the country!! It was £37 a large bale (delivered) round here last autumn :( That was the same price as large bale hay but the haylage bales were smaller.
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I think as well as price, the quality and weight of bales vary greatly.

I pay £34 (ryegrass) and £32 (meadow) for my haylage. They are 220kg, square bales (can't stand round bales, far too much faff!) and have them delievered 4 at a time :)
 
I'm pleased to say that from last winter to this one, mine didn't go up in price. And in fact, I think they've only gone up a few £s in the 5 or so years I've been using this supplier. However, I fully expect a price increase next year due to fuel prices if nothing else.
 
paddy irish said:
We made our own big bale haylage last year , but due to the dry weather it was really crap so our local farmer took it for his cattle ( they're not fussy) and we had lovely big bales in return , we paid approx £10 /bale to swap and now we've come to the end of our quota we are paying £24/bale , but it's really good stuff , unfortunately he has no more left so after this bale is gone we'll be back on his small bales of hay at £3 each...yikes
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Blimey!!!

I pay £45/bale (no delivery as he's just over hill). His hay bales are £8!! (although really nice and slightly larger than the average bale)

Works out about £30/month for me for my horse (share with a few friends)
 
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