What's the fairest way to charge liveries for haylage?

Where I am now it's £5 a week for ad lib hay but I think I'm just spoilt :) Moving to a yard next week though which charges £40 p/w for stable, arena, bedding, turnout and adlib haylage and straw.
 
We weigh ours and mark it on a chart - I don't know the cost per pound (only moved a few weeks ago). Means we can use as much as we want when we want as we all pay fro what we actually use.

We are more than happy to do this as where we where they locked the hay away from the full liveries (i am full) so having free access to hay is wonderful!!
 
I would try and keep it as simple as possible.
Put a price on a bale - for arguments sake £30 per bale,

Then those liveries that would like to use it can 'opt-in', at the end of the month you will split the cost of total number of bales used equally between those liveries who opt-in.

Less hassle for you, if people over-use it's no issue as you get paid for it. If particular liveries don't like the arrangement then they can opt out and buy their own small bales instead. But I would lay a bet that it would still be cost saving to opt-in even if you aren't a big feeder. Buying small bale haylage is very spendy.
 
Leg_end said:
I think I would charge per week/ month. I would charge £25 for ponies and £40 for horses on a monthly basis. We would go through a large square bale in 3-5 days with 6 horses and a pony. A bale here costs £35-40 depending on supplier so I'd work out your costs, add some margin and divide.
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Its a real mine-field and even the animal size can be irrelevant. I shared a bale with someone and we split it evenly but after a while I realised she was feeding her 14hh pony more in one net than I was feeding my 15.hh horse in the entire 24 hours. She refused to compromise so I told her to stuff it and I went onto small bale which was better quality anyway so worked out cheaper in the long run. Also my horse was a bit fussy and would sometimes go off a bale within 3 or 4 days as the lovely "freshly opened" smell wore off, so using up a small bale prevented this. She loved Wrightpak the best.
 
I'm on assisted DIY in Hampshire and buy hay from the yard. It is £1 a net (we use our own) if you use it as and when. It is £16 a month for ad lib hay for horses that come in for hay in the day and £30 a month for horses overnight hay. We only have to pay for the months we need hay so in the winter I pay about 4 months of day hay and the rest of the year I pay for haynets as and when I need them. We mark on a chart when we take a net.

I love it. I think it is a good price and having done the buying my own or making my own before it is so hassle free!!
 
Since the hayshed at the yard came down under weight of snow a couple of winters ago we no longer have sufficient storage to have our own individual bales. So like others have mentioned, we have a set of hanging scales and a board. It was agreed that 10lb constituted 1 net and we simply tally up how many nets we use and YO divides cost at the end of the month depending on how many bales have been used. We're a very small yard and this system works well. Some fill 10lb nets only, I tend to mix and match weights, tot up how many pounds I've used and mark up accordingly. It's a bit of extra work for YO but keeps things tidier and if we get a slightly duff bale no-one is stuck with it on their own.
 
My old yard used to charge a £10 weekly supplement for hay in winter, so it was £25/week in summer and £35/week in winter, ad lib all year round but TBH they hardly ate any in summer.

To be absolutely fair, I'd agree a set weight of hay per horse with each owner, ask each to supply labelled nets, and you fill them to their desired weight each day. The haylage is absolutely fair and people pay for exactly what they've used and they've said they need, even adding a very small charge on to cover your time in filling nets you will still come in cheaper than they pay externally plus it's another service for you to make a bit of money on, and the liveries have the luxury of filled nets. If you get the pricing right it ought to work out for everyone.
 
Theocat said:
My old yard used to charge a £10 weekly supplement for hay in winter, so it was £25/week in summer and £35/week in winter, ad lib all year round but TBH they hardly ate any in summer.

To be absolutely fair, I'd agree a set weight of hay per horse with each owner, ask each to supply labelled nets, and you fill them to their desired weight each day. The haylage is absolutely fair and people pay for exactly what they've used and they've said they need, even adding a very small charge on to cover your time in filling nets you will still come in cheaper than they pay externally plus it's another service for you to make a bit of money on, and the liveries have the luxury of filled nets. If you get the pricing right it ought to work out for everyone.
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Yes this could maybe work quite well. Thanks for the feedback it gives me another fair option at least
 
Theocat said:
My old yard used to charge a £10 weekly supplement for hay in winter, so it was £25/week in summer and £35/week in winter, ad lib all year round but TBH they hardly ate any in summer.

To be absolutely fair, I'd agree a set weight of hay per horse with each owner, ask each to supply labelled nets, and you fill them to their desired weight each day. The haylage is absolutely fair and people pay for exactly what they've used and they've said they need, even adding a very small charge on to cover your time in filling nets you will still come in cheaper than they pay externally plus it's another service for you to make a bit of money on, and the liveries have the luxury of filled nets. If you get the pricing right it ought to work out for everyone.
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I agree with this. I am no longer on a yard, but when I was, hay/haylage was the most contentious part (well, apart from turnout, but I'm not going to start on that!). People would take the **** even with a perfectly decent weighing scale to hand, plus the yard owners themselves would take hay out of our hay nets to feed their own, as the supply was shocking and they'd often run out before ordering in more.

I'd have loved an arrangement where a decent YO/YM took control and doled out the nets, to the owners' specifications. That should be a win/win.

Hope it all works out well!
 
Don't make work for yourself by filling everyone's nets a horrendous job! If most of your liverys are out in the summer, I would supply winter only a flat fee per month , for all horses.
Worked at my yard we payed an extra £40 in winter. And we took what we needed.
Why make things more complecated and time is money.
Remember in the summer, you do not want to open big bales hayledge unless enough are using it as otherwise it will perish
 
As if being a yard owner isn't hard enough having to do everyones hay nets and weighing them!! OMG. Surely for a few £s here and there there is practical solution? I was only ever on livery where haylage was included - flat price summer and winter. There will always be some wastge as long as costs are covered does it really warrant YO doing haynets!!
 
Polos Mum said:
As if being a yard owner isn't hard enough having to do everyones hay nets and weighing them!! OMG. Surely for a few £s here and there there is practical solution? I was only ever on livery where haylage was included - flat price summer and winter. There will always be some wastge as long as costs are covered does it really warrant YO doing haynets!!
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I don't have any intention of filling the nets for them, I'm not that strict! I just thought if I provided 2 different size nets clients could choose which size would suit their horses needs and they fill it and then write on a white board maybe how many they have had on a daily/weekly basis. I just want to make the haylage option available to everyone and as some of our liveries are good doers, they won't want to use much if any, but it's still nice to be able to feed a small net if you want to. Ideally, horses would maybe have a net of each, i.e 1 haylage 1 hay for those that don't want too much protein in the diet. We only have a small number of horses on the yard that I would class as being in moderate work so they could probably cope fine with just being fed haylage alone. Lots of ideas anyway so thank you to everyone who has replied so far, much appreciated!
 
Last livery I had, I charged her a share of my haylage. there were 4 in the field, and they all had free access ad lib. OK share for share maybe she got charged more than she would have alone, BUT I also did the sorting out, feeding them, clearing up, and because I got bulk not individual bales, she ended up paying less than 2 bales of hay a week.

I am sure that you know who feeds hugely more, I would do 2 bands, ponies, and horses (about 15hh split) again, if they complain, compare the small bale price locally to what they are getting, and insist that they keep the place clean and minimal waste.
 
I think you're making it unnecessarily difficult and complicated!

It you start doing it by weight or nets worth, there's always those who feel someone's cheating.

Get big bales (both hay and haylege), tell everyone they can use as much as they want and charge a flat rate per week. If there's big difference in amounts eaten (I.e fat pony on diet compared to skinny TB) you could have two or three rates but it's decided by YOU as to which ones they're in (assuming you know how they feed their horse). Unless they're selling it on the side, or using it as bedding there's only so much hay/haylege they can use per horse, even fed adlib. If they're throwing out excess too often, change them extra until they stop!

Make sure your weekly price more than covers each bale as they are also paying for the convenience of 'on tap' hay and you need to cover inevitable wastage. But by doing so you will need to make sure there is always an open and ready bale, and remove old foosty stuff and it needs to be easily accessible.

My two big horses eat a large round £30 bale in just under 2weeks, completely adlib with no grazing. So about £8 a week max. So maybe have £8 bracket, £6 bracket and £4 bracket for dinky ponies? And reserve the right to increase prices if it's not enough and even say you'll refund if it ends up being too much.

Have you also thought about hay in the fields? Much much easier all round if you organise and just charge accordingly. Like many I'd be happy to pay a little extra for someone with a tractor etc to organise.
My pony on livery has hay/haylege and straw included for either £28 with no stable or £35 with. That's as much as I could possibly feed him AND a bale in the field by tractor as needed in winter. Over the winter he eats his fair share, in summer he gets nothing even though he could if I wanted but it's worth it for the convenience.

And if they don't like it, let them opt out (apart from possibly field hay, if you're doing it) and they can struggle along on their own!
 
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