The price of hay this year.

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Reading PicoleNicole's thread about a glut of hay, I was wondering if it's the same around the UK and is the price of hay going to go down this year? Or are we all going to have to pay last year's prices? I'm on the Somerset/Wiltshire border and the going price around here is between £5/£6 a bale. I don't know if it's another poor harvest here (doesn't look it!) or have the hay suppliers just got used to having a lucrative income?
 
We have just had out winters hay delivered from out usual supplier - it has gone up to £4 a bale from £3 last year - I have no problem with that as in the 10 years we have got it from there it has only gone up from £2!!:eek: The extra hay we have been buying in from elsewhere since running out has been £5.50 a bale and no where near as nice. We upped the order this year so even with a long hard winter like last year we should have enough to get through to May/June as normal:)
 
I have just bought 30 bales of gorgeous hay off eBay for £3.25 a bale. We are staffs and the guy was only 3 miles up the road. We buy haylage off the yard owner for £25 for a huge bale but I wanted some hay in reserve to feed during the day/ field if we have snow again this winter. My two mares came out of this last winter looking too good on just haylage!
 
gala said:
Reading PicoleNicole's thread about a glut of hay, I was wondering if it's the same around the UK and is the price of hay going to go down this year? Or are we all going to have to pay last year's prices? I'm on the Somerset/Wiltshire border and the going price around here is between £5/£6 a bale. I don't know if it's another poor harvest here (doesn't look it!) or have the hay suppliers just got used to having a lucrative income?
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Im north somerset & there seems to be absolutely loads of hay around, alot of farmers won't give prices at mo, seems abit daft cos most people want to buy in ready for winter. We bought a few in at £3.25 off field which I thought steep but as you said, they've got used to lucrative income :-( Maybe when they can't sell cos others are way cheaper, prices may go down?!?! Was only 2 years ago we were paying £1.50 a bale!!
 
chestnutmarelover said:
Im north somerset & there seems to be absolutely loads of hay around, alot of farmers won't give prices at mo, seems abit daft cos most people want to buy in ready for winter. We bought a few in at £3.25 off field which I thought steep but as you said, they've got used to lucrative income :-( Maybe when they can't sell cos others are way cheaper, prices may go down?!?! Was only 2 years ago we were paying £1.50 a bale!!
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we had haylage delivered from our usual supplier, its this years and i know for a fact hes got a good cut this year and hes kept the prices the same as last winter :-/ still the cheapest in the area but still expensive
 
I can't get hold of any hay at the moment. Having to buy small bale haylage for when they come in for farrier etc. Was hoping to stock up as the normal rate here is about £4 a bale. May have gone up this year again though. Last year I had mine on haylage as it was easier as they delivered it with my feed and shavings (just had baby so much easier!!), however this year my normal hay farmers (who i used for 4 years) won't sell to me as I didn't buy last year so I'm not classed as a regular now!! Trouble is one of mine is a very good doer so needs the hi fibre haylage so I can't buy the big bale haylage off farmers, have to get the packed stuff! Cost me about £9 a day last winter for two horses!! Thought about the hay replacers for him to substitute a bit but would've cost even more as he's 17hh and he'd probably have gobbled it up like a feed!!
 
I've just bought a big round bale for £30 - they were £20 last year, but they last me 3 months so I can't really moan. My friend has just got 160 small bales for £2 each but she had to go & collect them off the field. Most are charging £3.50-£4 around here
 
You lucky ducks, anything less than £4 is a bargain I reckon. I did look into having some cut, a non horsey friend offered me the hay from her 2 acre field, but I couldn't get a quote for having it cut and baled for anything less than £370. As it wasn't going to make good quality hay, huge banks of thistles, I declined. Expect I'll be kicking myself for that later on.
 
to make our 100 bales it cost us £200 that is not including my labour, diesel or storage. the cost of hay will be reflecting the cost of diesel, labour , string , fertliser, seed etc so £4 a bale does not equal a massive mark up to be honest- sorry get really fed up with people going on about the price of hay and complaining about so called massive margins when they arent involved in making it.
 
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NariNags said:
to make our 100 bales it cost us £200 that is not including my labour, diesel or storage. the cost of hay will be reflecting the cost of diesel, labour , string , fertliser, seed etc so £4 a bale does not equal a massive mark up to be honest- sorry get really fed up with people going on about the price of hay and complaining about so called massive margins when they arent involved in making it.
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I totally agree....hay is a pain to make, has crap margins and is nothing but hassle and hard work for the farmer, I think anyone whinging on about the price should be made to make it one and pay for fertilizer, diesel etc etc, If you can't afford it, get rid of your horse, don't expect farmers to subsidise your luxury hobby for you.:mad:
 
I got mine made off 2 acres I had just bought (I think people forget to calculate cost of land into hay price !) it cost me around 1.25 a bale to make which was much better than I thought - i then had to haul 140 bales off field into barn myself (hellish job)- sold 38 for £3.50 a bale delivered - good organic meadow hay made with no rain

friend has just paid £45 per big bale hay

my man I get big bale haylage from was £25 per bale delivered last year but even if goes up this year will stick with him - he was a star last winter and I sold some I had made to ensure I could use him again this year as dont want to lose him as a supplier as he only keeps on a few clients.
 
I,ve just switched NAS back to hay... Local stockists kept running out of mainbale haylage and only had horsehage at £8 a bag.

Rang my usual hay guy and he was £7 a bale and reckons it would go upto £10 by end of summer.

So I rang another supplier known to be expensive and they had some at £5.50 a bale.

Today when I put NAS out he was coughing a lot... :( so looks like I will be going back to haylage once I can get it!
 
Its understandable the price of hay going up with how little around there is or will be!

I was not a happy bunny yesterday though when I went to soak the last of my last years hay which I had paid £5 a bale for(very dear for round here). My supplier had run out so Id bought this 2 weeks ago from someone else as was desperate for hay. Anyway, I took 2 sections & chucked them into the bin to soak, went back to the yard last night to find that inside the hay was loads of old manky horse poo that hadn't been picked before hay was cut, so it had been soaking in pooy water all day. Disgusting. I don't mind paying however much for hay but I at least expect it to be edible!! Needless to say I won't be going there again however desperate I get!!_
 
Well I must be very lucky. Bought my years supply of really good quality hay (200 bales) in June and it only cost me £2.75 per bale and that was delivered. Mind you I have used the same supplier for many years and he says he like to look after his regular customers first. He did say he was hoping to get a second cut.
 
Ours is £5 per (massive!) small bale, collected. It isn't the cheapest around here by a long shot, but it is absolutly beautiful stuff, not even a hint of dust. Well worth paying a v small amount extra to save us soaking it through the winter. (we are in glos).
We just buy hay to see us through the summer and some spare for the winter as yard runs out every so often (livery doesn't have much grazing so we need to put hay out) and buy it off our yard through the winter as we don't have the storage. I hope the hay is better this year as last year it was absolutly shocking, and insanely expensive!! (that could also reflect tight tendencies of yo though!).
 
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