What will you do if there is a hay shortage this year??

legaldancer said:
I asked a local farmer this as Alfalfa/Lucerne is grown locally but all goes to Dengie etc.

Apparently we don't have dry enough weather to rely on to dry the long Alfalfa needed for bales. In this country it's cut/harvested shorter & goes to driers before being processed for the feed companies.

I think simple systems can supply it in bales but it's much more expensive than hay & imported I think.
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Ah ok, yeah I guess that makes sense -you cant guarantee the dry weather, and the snows/cold winters would probably kill it off anyway lol! It was just a thought though as mine to well on it. It is a bit too rich really but mixed with oat straw it is fine.
 
Seriously worried about this year. I've got my two on part-livery and hay/straw is supplied by the YO. It is always very good quality but last year the yield off his fields was much lower due to the weather and we had less hay and it cost more (£5.50 as opposed to £3.50 the previous year). He then ran out and had to buy and transport more which was £8 a bale. I go through about a bale a day in the winter - we don't have lush grazing and they are back in at night from September onwards.

This year he has already warned us that there will be less than last year off his fields and that the price will be higher and he is having to buy in again. I'm considering fast fibre to try and reduce the amount I feed but sugar beet isn't an option as both of them go really silly on it.
 
half my hayfield is suffering from wind-burn and all of it is stalky, it has put up stalks and flowering heads when at this time of year it should be tillering and putting up leaf. Its f
due to the stress its recieved because of the cold winter and early hot weather this spring combined with the drought.
 
I'm lucky that my horsey cousins in Devon have got 100 bales of haylage spare for me to bring up to the yard I'm on in Hampshire at a cost of £15 each! Very good price considering I currently pay £45 (delivered) for my haylage each from a friend.
This supply will last the 4 horses on the yard for the whole winter and more. If I have to much I can sell some on as a profit.
I'll also keep feeding hard feed. I fell very lucky that I'm sitting pretty going into winter this year, for once! I know the feeling of looking at the haylage bales shrinking and wondering where I can get my next load.
 
I'm hoping that we will have enough this year. Have still got 9 of the huge rectangle bales from last year put aside and just ordered another 24 but may increase that order to 35 to make sure we are covered. All ours live out and we currently have no grass but we have very good land and the grass grows like wildfire as long as it rains!
 
Well, when it is late May and no one has cut yet...I am not going to start worrying! Panicking and worrying now just causes a stir than then boosts the price generally in the marketplace...which wont help any of us.
This is not aimed at anyone here, but the amount of hay I see wasted on the ground in fields is dreadful and yet we are all worrying about shortages...feed the right amount for a start and stop chucking it on the floor to be wasted and trampled...fine if you have a good supply and can afford to waste it but otherwise...think about ways of feeding less so it is not wasted?
I cut my lad down on his hay at night last year so my bales lasted longer overall and did not feed any in the field during the day, just strip grazed him each day. He was un-rugged and lost no weight at all. I upped his hi fi a bit at night too and that is what I will do this year too. Easy I know when you only have one and can manage your own grazing, but we horse owners can help ourselves a bit more I am sure.
 
It's a real worry as I put livery up last year due to the haylage prices soaring. I buy all of my haylage in and am already having to feed it in the paddocks twice a day. This is unheard of as we usually have plenty of grass to sustain them at this time of year and don't usually have to start supplementing it until late August. :(
 
I'm worried already, i have two horses that are kept at home. We have about 1.5 acres but it is very poor, They hold their weight quite well but they spend alot of time stabled in the winter. Usually in the summer we still feed hay but have run out already and can't seem to get hold of any.
Can anyone tell me more about replacing hay with hi fi etc?
 
I have far too many horses and ponies for my own good (and OH's for that). Might have to make some hard decisions regarding the older ones come winter, but will worry about that later.

For now, my farmer has run out of his own hay and haylage, and has managed to buy some in from about 50 miles away, so paying a bit more but not too bad. However when that is gone, it will be tricky. He is not optimistic about the current crop which is not growing at all.

I have started trying to conserve the 40 bales I have stored by:

1) Grazing the back garden (OH not impressed but needs must!)
2) Replacing lunch time hay with large scoop of speedibeet each with sprinkling of cheap nuts and hifi - I haven't worked out the actual costing, but speedibeet is about £10 per sack, and will last me two weeks I think, but will go down and do the maths on that.
3) Putting all haylage into tiny holed nets and feeding half of what I would normally.
4) Using oat straw - half a bale in the starvation paddock for the fatties and 2/3 sections each when in on top of small net - they all love it, fortunately.
5) Hot fielding - instead of having all horses out all day and night, some come in overnight now, and the others are in all day, so only have 3 out at a time. They are bored, but needs must.
6) Stealth grazing - I have taken a leaf out of the local travellers' book and started dumping the odd pony on neighbours' gardens/spare plot of land/paddock (with permission I hasten to add) for a few hours, or - good one, this - take lorry load to local show and graze the old two while competing the sound one (I am not joking on this one!). I have even moved the lorry forward a few feet so they can have fresh grass. Is that very baaad?

Any other ideas? :)
 
Crackedhalo said:
I'm worried already, i have two horses that are kept at home. We have about 1.5 acres but it is very poor, They hold their weight quite well but they spend alot of time stabled in the winter. Usually in the summer we still feed hay but have run out already and can't seem to get hold of any.
Can anyone tell me more about replacing hay with hi fi etc?
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Yes you can replace hay with hi-fi or hi-fi lite. Also try hi fibre cubes . Sugarbeet is fibrous,its mid way between hay and cereals so to speak.
 
Our hay has gone up 100%. I cant swallow up this increases at this rate. Im therefore not
buying it. This time last year it was £30 for a large long bale. Now he wants £60 !!!!!
its a stuggle i can tell you. Like others say, I wont be feeding much of it at this rate.
He has put the straw up as well. I only wish I could earn money as quick. I am seriously worried about the way things are going. It seems anything to do with horses is expensive and increases on a regular basis. My livery has gone up, my trainer has put up fees etc but no increases on my salary. Not to mention the cost of living.....Phewwwwwww rant over.
 
I will be buying as much as I can afford (and store) in bulk at the end of summer. Then my normal supplier will bring me the big round bales while he has them. if we run short I'll use my stash, if not it'll sit covered with a couple of old rugs in the barn in case the following year is pants!

If it gets that bad I'll be mixing hayledge with straw or putting hayledge in 2 hayledge nets and increasing hard feed. OH works for a large hayledge producer so hoping hayledge will remain obtainable!!
 
diesel price has increased even red diesel. fertilizer price is through the roof,weather is bad at the moment for hay,lots of stalk and not much leaf,thin crops. I was buying big bale barley straw at £8 a bale in august and by November it was £20 a bale and still is. In put price increases and transport increases and low quantity harvest = price escalation. Its supply and demand.
 
Llewelyn said:
I have far too many horses and ponies for my own good (and OH's for that). Might have to make some hard decisions regarding the older ones come winter, but will worry about that later.

For now, my farmer has run out of his own hay and haylage, and has managed to buy some in from about 50 miles away, so paying a bit more but not too bad. However when that is gone, it will be tricky. He is not optimistic about the current crop which is not growing at all.

I have started trying to conserve the 40 bales I have stored by:

1) Grazing the back garden (OH not impressed but needs must!)
2) Replacing lunch time hay with large scoop of speedibeet each with sprinkling of cheap nuts and hifi - I haven't worked out the actual costing, but speedibeet is about £10 per sack, and will last me two weeks I think, but will go down and do the maths on that.
3) Putting all haylage into tiny holed nets and feeding half of what I would normally.
4) Using oat straw - half a bale in the starvation paddock for the fatties and 2/3 sections each when in on top of small net - they all love it, fortunately.
5) Hot fielding - instead of having all horses out all day and night, some come in overnight now, and the others are in all day, so only have 3 out at a time. They are bored, but needs must.
6) Stealth grazing - I have taken a leaf out of the local travellers' book and started dumping the odd pony on neighbours' gardens/spare plot of land/paddock (with permission I hasten to add) for a few hours, or - good one, this - take lorry load to local show and graze the old two while competing the sound one (I am not joking on this one!). I have even moved the lorry forward a few feet so they can have fresh grass. Is that very baaad?

Any other ideas? :)
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Hilarious! My paddocks back onto cattle and sheep rearing farmland. I'm toying with a 'gate accidentally nudged open' plan and cultivating a suitably horrified/embarrassed and apologetic expression for the benefit of the farmer in advance. Using the variable metabolism theory exploited by native ponies (that which confounds us with its ability to weld the fat to ponies' ribs) I intend to allow mine to gorge to point of no return this summer and then feed them nothing after September. It's what happens in the wild, more or less... :D
 
I have been seen in the dykes pulling the lovely fresh grass and putting it in my fields, that way they get something fresh each day.

Im loving the grazing at shows, always knew there was a benefit to hanging around all day!!

Im planning on grazing mine on the grass verges at the weekends. Also this weekend they will be loose around the yard tidyong all the edges whilst I paint my jumps. I think its going to be a case of get grass where you can as there is none in the fields. i have a loveley big garden so mine may make a few trips home during the winter so they can have a belly full.

I have also been looking at those lucie brixs from simple systems. Not sure if they are a good idea or not, but if I can store them and they are equivalent to one section, at least I can stretch hay out as far as possible.
 
The only up side to this is that people who have spare land and couldn't be bothered to cut it because it wasn't worth it are now taking a crop off it.
There are two fields that were set aside near us which have been made in to hay the last couple of years and a field that normally floods instead of having winter wheat has been sown with grass.
I always give hay/haylage and barley straw. Last summer when there was little grass they ate straw to save the grazing. I've put extra fertilizer on so when it does rain it will grow, a low nitrogen that make the grass thicker but not lush.
 
Well today at my brother in laws farm they got only 3 large round bales off! They usually get a lot more. The grass just has not grown at all....hearing £10 a bale normal rectangle size already!

I think going to read back through all the options on this thread....£10 is crazy!
 
I am actually more worried this year than last, due to the lack of rain there is no grass to cut to make either hay OR haylage :(

I go through about 500 bales of hay and around 20/30 large bales of haylage, I have started to stockpile small bale haylage.

Oat straw was like hens teeth before, it is even worse now so that is not a real solution, there is always barley straw but I suspect that this too will be short - nothing is growing it is very worrying :(
 
God knows, I have a poor doer and with a lack of hay I would worry how he'll cope.

I suppose I'd up his hard feed and probably have to mix straw with the hay and possibly feed redi-grass.

Worst comes worst I'll import hay from Europe or somewhere else where there isn't a shortage.
 
God only knows....any advice very greatly received!! One of ours isn't too bad she can stay out overnight to save us an evening net. The other is just recovering from Cushings induced lami and we can't give her haylage or freshly cut hay (when there eventually is some!) Can't even turn her out properly yet....we are in dire situation!!
I think we've got 2 bales left.....eek!! :eek::eek::eek::eek:
K x
 
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Becca-84 - Look at buying in avenate at the moment - it has just gone down to less than 4€ a bale and is MUCH better for them than the alfalfa, stock up now as the quality is fab this year (due to the rain) :D

If I brought my horses back to the UK they would live on oat straw, as they do here.
 
I have pre-ordered and payed for my haylage already. It was cut this week and I walked the fields before I paid for it so know exactly how good it is (walking silage/haylage/hay fields part of my job which is handy). Those hoping to rely on straw...well unless the UK gets some serious rain grain crops are in big trouble which will drive both straw and feed prices way up! Grain is being forward bought for feed at way above what was paid for Malting crops two years ago. Also be very wary of "fillers" in cheaper feeds. Price of cereals being so high result in alot of crap being put into feeds to keep costs down!
 
Well, a local supplier has slashed shavings prices from £7 a bale to £4.50... no idea why ? I think with the crop growth issue, we will all be stealing from paper banks and buying shredders !!
 
To make sure I'm not wasting the hay I already have can you advise whether I'm feeding too much hay at the moment?

Pony is 14.1hh and is out for 10 hours per day Easter to October so just needs a haynet when she's in overnight in the summer.
In winter she's out approx 7 hours per day but for only 4 days per week, she's in all day the other 3 days so I'll definately need more hay in winter.

How do I calculate how much hay she needs? - she's eating everything I give her at the moment but I suspect that may be more than she needs (greedy cob!)

I was thinking to make the hay last longer I'll only feed her 'required' amount but double net it to make sure it lasts the night.
 
Dorey has been on straw/hay since she moved anyway (when she eats the straw).

Our local suppliers are limiting to 5 bales a customer at £8-£9 a bale.

I'm paying a local farmer £6.50 but he buys it in.

I can also pay another less local farmer £5 a bale but I have to transport it myself and it's awkward as I don't have a trailer and too much weight in the car blows the thermostat.

I cannot honestly believe hay shortages are real when there's a discrepancy of £5 a bale across the country. When you look at how many hundreds of bales of hay farmers deal in, thats a LOT of money!!!!
 
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