The word on the street is... Get all the hay you can...

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Gucci_b

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Talking to a lot of farmers that are cutting hay at the moment up and down the country and the word is... get all the hay you can get your hands on this year. Apart from the cost has gone up, there is also going to be a shortage. I hope we don't have another bad winter!!!!!
 
We picked up the shetlands hay last week, beautiful stuff for £4 per bale. My haylage is being delivered this week, from the same farm, at £30 per 300kg bale. Will sleep a lot easier once I know it is all in our barn, and have bought an extra 'months' worth just in case we get a repeat of last winter!
We still have a long way to go to go before autumn/winter sets in so hopefully farmers will be able to get a second cut, which will alleviate the shortage, but only if we get some significant rain. It is hard not too 'panic buy' but after last winter and all the 'lack of hay' rumours, I think people are wise to get it sorted out now......
 
I really wouldn't panic that much, panic buying will just drive the price up!

Most farmers here have made hay so-far this year, and although 30% down on usual, conditions haven't been good enough to make decent hay for the last 2 years - haylage/silage will have to be from a second cut later in the year - if we get the rain
 
There was a similar "panic" a few years ago and fortunately it never really came anything at least not in our area. I know at the time I was worried about how much it might cost or a shortage and in the end didn't pay any more than had been.
 
just got this e-mail....

Farmers warn horse owners of hay and straw shortage

Charlotte White, H&H deputy news editor

3 July, 2010

Check out the latest H&H subscription offers >>

Hay and straw merchants are warning horse owners to stock up on supplies now in preparation for what could be the leanest winter in 25 years.

Supplies of 2009's hay have all but sold out and prices for this year's first cut are already around £3.50 (for a small bale), and could double over the winter with farmers predicting poor yields due to drought.


Philip Judge, whose Stow-on-the Wold business supplies The Queen and Horse of the Year Show, says he is bringing in French hay and expects to import 5,500 tonnes this year.


"Our hay crop is down 50 per cent. Drought is much worse for us than the wet — at least the hay grew last year."


Julian Browning of Perry Farm in the Quantocks says his farm has had just 20ml of rain since early April.


"My grass has had half the yield of other years," he said. "Stocks were used up in the cold spring and now with the dry weather very little grass growth has taken place."


The dry weather has also affected straw, with wheat and barley coming to ear early while the stalks are still short — so there is less straw once it's cut.


Straw prices have risen to around £100 a tonne — making it more expensive than wheat at just £80.


Penny Littleworth of Steve Musgrove Hay and Straw in Lincs, predicts straw will become as expensive as hay in the coming months.


"It has to go in too many directions. Farmers grow shorter stalked strains these days and the modern combine harvester breaks it up more, which means less volume for bedding," said Mrs Littleworth.


"Some farmers sell their straw for biofuel and silage crops are down so cattle will also be fed the straw. Last year's straw is £3 a bale now and this year's won't be any cheaper. I suggest people stock up now."


Anne Hawes who runs a 30-box livery yard near Horsham, West Sussex, says she will not be suggesting her liveries move to alternative beddings, but she will be keeping an eye on the price.


"I have a lot of hunter liveries and I like them to have a big straw bed — it helps them dry off. I don't plan to put the price up but I will review prices if it gets very expensive," she said.


But there is good news for people looking for an alternative to straw — there has been a bumper crop of miscanthus, or elephant grass.


Stanley Dusting of Fennington Fibres in Taunton produces 180,000 bags of miscanthus processed as horse bedding every year. And due to increasing demand for the product, the farm needs to buy a further 800 acres of miscanthus cane.


He said: "With straw supplies low people will be looking to alternative bedding Ours sells at around £5.50 for 22 kilos — that's slightly cheaper than shavings."


This article was first published in Horse & Hound (1 July, '10)
 
hi, they said this last year and the year before that i seem to recall. i am more worried about the lack of shavings that seem to be about. we had a real job getting bales at some points last year and the price just goes up and up and up. i have now only got one horse on shavings as i put the others on straw.
 
We are lucky to have a good supply at no extra cost to the last few years.
I often think hay shortage is scare mongering but after talking to my hay suppliers it is true this year.
One was down by 2/3 this year.
I do believe that if people do not panic buy there will be enough to go round without the panic buyers pushing the price up.
Buy what you need.
 
Exactly....IF we get the rain.

There'll be no second cut this year the way we're going in Surrey which means that there will only be 1/3 of the size of last year's hay supply, and we ran out of that during the snow! Bales round here are £5 each, going up to £6 by the end of the month, and the local farmer reckons that if there is no/little second cut, they'll be charging £7-8 a bale by then.

Oh deep joy
 
we have just had our own cut. it seems really decent stuff and we got 51 for one horse through the whole winter- hope it lasts! worked out £3 a bale so cheaper than normal.
Have to still get winter hayledge for my other horse.

At work all the hayledge we were getting was so mouldy and horrible that we had to put all the horses to hay. however they hay is just as dusty and thorny. prices of hay has really gone up in local farm shops to over £4. our livery owner was finding the hay really ahrd to get hold of especially the good stuff.
 
Tell me about it! YO is already talking about a price hike and a shortage and we have people phoning him to ask for it: thank God he told them no! We ran out a few months ago, so he bought in and had to charge more.
 
to be honest i wouldnt be to worried,
no one can predict the weather for sure, and if people hadnt noticed we live in britain, the great british weather is sure to change and the rain will come :) ,

......also my horse is on a farm where hay and straw is grown and the farmer has expressed no concern to us, i will ask him tmo,

if you have the storage buy some but if you dont then dont worry,

p.s how much does everyone pay ? hay is currently £3 and staw £1.50 at my yard ?
 
I live in Bucks and we have absolutely no grass at our yard (6 acres and 3 horses). I am having to hay in the field.

I spoke to my supplier of haylage and he was pretty frank about the shortage and is charging £40 for a large bale of haylage - supposedly this is 1 third larger than the one I bought last time and that was pretty big and cost £30.

It will take a lot of rain and constant for at least a week to even start the ground softending up and grass growing.

Unfortunately the fact is that we need to feed our horses through the winter and that means getting the hay in now - you might want to call this panic buying but realistically it is just thinking ahead and stocking up in advance.

Thankfully the haylage can be stored outside so storage space is not an issue - just the outlay of cash!!!
 
hannah28 said:
to be honest i wouldnt be to worried,
no one can predict the weather for sure, and if people hadnt noticed we live in britain, the great british weather is sure to change and the rain will come :) ,

......also my horse is on a farm where hay and straw is grown and the farmer has expressed no concern to us, i will ask him tmo,

if you have the storage buy some but if you dont then dont worry,

p.s how much does everyone pay ? hay is currently £3 and staw £1.50 at my yard ?
Click to expand...

surrey, buying in from Kent £4.00 small bale and £32.50 very large bale
 
my old yard in home counties always always bought hay but now they are having to feed haylage, which is unheard of for them. things are def short and down south the harvest is def going to be very poor. with a shortage of silage too for the cattle many farmers will keep their straw to mix in feed, in some places straw is more ££ than hay!

not scaremongering to feather my nest as where we are in NE Scotland the hay harvest is better than usual and earlier too than last year. But while the farmers did cry wolf the last few years, this year the shortage is going to be for real down south, no doubt.
 
We're roughly a third down on last year's main crop and the friend we help make hay with is also 30% down. The grass simply went to seed at a shorter than average length, so stopped growing a third lower than normal.

With rain we'll get a second cut, but it's never as nice.

Small bales here are £1.75 for me to buy in (or less than 60p from my own land) and average about £2.20 to most other people. One of my friends, who knows his stuff as he's a horticultural grower like me, just paid £2.50 a bale and says everyone else is paying £4.00 from that same supplier. He did a deal early at £2.50 and is now wishing he'd ordered more! I did my deal early too and am dreading having to buy more in at full price as we went and took on another horse after I'd made my order.
 
Its still not a patch on the 76 drought,yet even then ,prices and supplies adjusted. \farmers fed more straw and sold more hay. It all works out. Conventional bales in 1976 were making £3.00. You think this is bad:D. The hay market moves in sudden jumps rather than a gradual progress. What we are seeing now is a readjustment to a realistic sustainable price which will allow farmers the option of producing more hay. One thing you can be sure of is that now it has gone up,it will not go down again much ,ever.Since hay prices are not subject to anything but the pressure of supply and demand,it will take two or three years to work through,but we will see more hay of a better quality ultimately,but at a price that gives the farmer a better incentive than he has had for the last 10 years.To sum up, no cause to panic,but you are going to have to pay a fair price.
 
hmm well the price of big bale hay from my supplier has gone down!!!! now £20 for the big bales!
im feeding it year round as we have zero grass, but the quality seems good.
i would think getting a 2nd lot in wont be an issue this year with the sun we are getting plus this rain...?
 
well im not worried this time last year we had no chance of getting haylage cut, we have already done one cut and still plenty of time to get a second! plus still got some hay from last year if necessary.
 
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