Hay prices!!!

L

lauren123

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2007
3,329
1,397
113
East Yorkshire
Well goy the latest in my area regarding hay/haylage.
My YO doesnt have loads of hay or straw so its looking like sox might be going onto shavings.
Supplier A has put his hay up to 35 quid though itd very loosely wrapped.
Supplier B only has haylage and thats 38 quid per bale
Supplier C i am waiting to hear back from
Supplier D only sella small haylage bales at 7 quid each and lasts sox 1.5 days.
Supplier E has sold out
 
Ovet here we use shavings more than straw.

Shavings are$ 6.50 to about 7.99 a bag depending on the place

I get nice decent size Canadian bales of first for $ 8.50 and second from
$7.50 to 8.50. American

I'm not sure how much a quid is??
Is that a pound?
 
Ahhhhhh ok.

35 and 38 seems awfully expensive unless they were big round bales or similar
To large squares?

They are sold here and also very large bales called big squares.
I dont know the prices on those because we have no way to shift them.
 
We have gone up 50p per bale but they are more tightly packed than last year and heavier.

That’s small squares.

Average large round here is about £45
 
One supplier here shot his 5ft round prices from 35 up to 50 a month or so ago. Another of my suppliers didn't have any excess to sell this year. I just got in a hesston (big 6 string square) and that has gone up from 60 to 70. My haylage is coming from Lincolnshire and they only have 'midi' bales (its 4.5ft round height but only 2.5ft diameter) and they are 22 quid each and min delivery of 6. I'd be happy if I could get meadow haylage in big bales for 38 quid delivered 1 at a time.
 
Last edited:
We’ve seen a big jump in price too, understandably given they’ve only taken one cut this year and most of last years has already been used through the summer. I think we’ve all got an expensive winter ahead of us.
 
I'm not sure how hurricane Florence will
Affect things here

The first cut comes out of Canada.

The second is more local.

But with the flooding in the area of
Florence and Texas and parts of the midwest having had horrible rains too
If lots of hay won't be diverted down there
For much higher prices.

Thankfully I only feed 2 not 20 horses and 7 goats.

I'm less concerned with price as quality.

Some areas of the country are so different I guess maybe if they are more farmy...

All the feed stores here sell hay mostly Canadian and New York hay.

But I know someone out in Illinois near Wisconsin and feed stores sell feed only
Not hay.
You have to source hay directly from farms.

She would drive a big hay wagon from a field 18 miles to her house. Its not a drive I could make

No way would the drivers in this area put up with being behind a hay wagon...
They would run you off the road.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trewsers
Big bales here are £50 a bale, just finishing my 2nd one off from the summer thanks to no grass to speak of. we usually take small bales, already been warned a slight increase but our supplier has some put to one side for us will get them in next month. we are buying veteran bagged haylage in for Tess, have 4 weeks worth in store now, but use by date is end of December so dare not get any more in as not knowing wether she will need it or not, if we have not used it all by mid December then will soak it for the boys. the bagged haylage is restricted to 2 bags per order, so we will have to be a bit canny if its a bad winter, fortunately she only needs it if snow deep on ground or frozen solid. No Second cut here.
 
Our small bales were £3.50 which I think is very good value. It's meadow hay and not that appealing for them but it's good to have some in stock and I mix bits with hayledge.
 
To be honest, I've been paying those prices for years!

I'm currently paying £40 for a 6 foot bale of hay & £30 for straw.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lauren123
Ultimately most places have had a bad year for getting a good amount of hay & who can blame the farmers if they put the prices up a bit? The cost of making hay has been going up for years, the price hasn't really changed that much. Never mind the price, I'm just hoping I can keep getting reasonable hay for the year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jessey
We are £3.50 per small square bale and £30 for a big round bale, although this is mates rates and he sells for £45 to his other buyers. I've seen round bales going for £60 and know of another supplier selling little square bales for £7. But they sold at these prices in previous years so not a result of a price hike. I'll be getting hay made off my fields next year to save a few pennies!
 
We are paying in UK £42 a bale for best quality haylage delivered in. Went up from £38. Straw is impossible, £5 for a small bale, £38 for a big one if you can find any at all. We could get it slightly cheaper locally but it's treacly and too rich, and also we have to collect.
 
I got a giant bale lf straw other week which was £30 excellent value really. It just had to be partially unraveled to fit into the pig barn.
 
carthorse said:
The cost of making hay has been going up for years, the price hasn't really changed that much.
Click to expand...

I so agree with this as someone that makes our own and sells a bit if we have some spare.
We have been so lucky this year with our haymaking. The barns are full, we made loads and have plenty for cattle, sheep and horses. Hopefully we won't have to buy in any.
When i think back to this time last year, it was a disaster for us as we only had about 300 small bales of hay in the barn for the horses and sheep, and cattle if they had to be in for any reason. The rest of what should have been hay for cattle ended up being made into some not very nice silage for the cattle, which was awful to manage for our set up. Hope we never have to do that again. We also ran out in April and had to buy in very expensive hayledge to feed to cows.
Grass is still plentiful. I'm hoping as long as we don't get any frosts that I won't need to put hay out for the horses till January. This time last year at the yard I had already had to start feeding hay because the yard owner was being difficult. Normally I wouldn't have feed till at least December.
 
The high prices sound like normal Shetland prices to me from last year. I haven't had to buy any hay this year yet so god alone knows how much they will charge. A lot more, you can guarantee that.

But, for me, the worst bit is that if, say, next year there is a glut of hay, our prices will still remain the same. They never go down according to supply. Just go up according to demand.

I have depressed myself by writing this. Reminded me what a bunch of sharks they all are.
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back