Hay and livery price increases

[HelpMeHiveMind]

How much are you now paying for bales and livery vs this time last year? I really feel for the farmers and yard owners at the moment, but equally it's starting to become a bit scary how fast the costs of pony care are rising- between hay and livery increases, I'm hoping it doesn't become unfeasible.

Interested to know how much everyone else's have increased.

My diy is £80 a week

With the very dry weather we're having here (West), the huge increase in the cost of fertiliser, and the big increase in fuel prices, I really think hay (and straw, probably) prices will increase massively. For those saying 'but people won't pay it', the farmers just won't be cutting as much, so what there is, there will be demand for. As mentioned above, last year farmers were mostly getting 2 or 3 cuts, but only managing that by careful field care and use of fertiliser. Not only is fertiliser something like 4x the price this year, it's in really short supply, so they just won't be able to make as much. Last year it was hard to get hold of hay towards the end of the year, as already, due to weather an d increasing costs, less was made. Usually I've bought enough by now from last seasons to last me until Christmas, but all of our local suppliers are already out of that, so that won't be possible either. Horse feed has also increased in price - same reasons. I think there will be quite a few people really struggling to carry on by the end of winter.

It's heading towards a welfare crisis I think.

There is no grass at the moment where we are in the East either due to lack of rain…..

We've had a tiny amount of rain this week, but not enough to boost the grass, so still nothing much for them to eat