How much is everyone paying for their hay this year?

[dooit]

I've just paid 2.50 a bale for 250 bales of superb quality stuff straight off the field. Does that sound reasonable to you? I was very pleased with that but a farmer friend thinks it's OTT. Are we just immune to the expense since prices shot up the last 2 years?

We were paying 4.50 from our feed suppliers last autunm.

That included delivery and stacking in the barn BTW.

All down to quality and size of bale. What type of hay is it (Meadow, timothy, alfalfa?) and was it from a field specially sprayed etc to make hay?

We're paying about 4.50 a bale for decent hay off the field. I think 2.50 is a bargain (although I appreciate you did take a bulk load) especially as they stacked it for you - in fact an amazing deal.

In fact I don't know what your farmer friend knows about hay prices unless he is offering hay from unprepared fields with weed stalks etc.

Hmm, sounds like a bit of a bargain then. The farmer friend is a lovely old chap but I think perhaps he's working in old money. He did say it only seems like yesterday that you could get hay for 50p a bale!

The field that the hay came from belongs to my old farmer friend but since he's retired he's let it out to a neighbouring farmers' son to cut. It's been a dairy farm up until about 5 years ago so the grass is lovely quality. Not a weed in sight and blooming huge bales too. I'm feeling rather pleased now. Thanks for that Butkin.

Oh, I forgot to add, I didn't pay 2.50 but 2.25 a bale!

Using haylage, £6.50 a bale, but very good quality. Use 1 bale every 3 days to feed 2 horses. £2.50 a bale is a bargin if it is good stuff

To get a rough idea on hay prices go to the Farmers Weekly website.

They have an updated table every week.

The prices quoted for Pick-up baled (i.e small bales you can pick up by hand) are quoted on the left and are £/tonne that merchant would pay the farmer (i.e before costs of delivery and merchant's profit margin). Seed hay is better than meadow hay as reflected in the premium price.

To convert £/tonne to £/bale just divide by 50 as there usually about 45 - 55 hay bales per tonne.

If you are buying in small lots from a merchant expect to pay 25- 35% more than the prices quoted here to reflect delivery costs and merchant's profit margin but if you are buying direct from a local farmer you should only be paying only a little bit more than the price quoted here.

Notice that prices vary quite widely across the country and there is little new hay available yet.

So as I'm in Yorkshire I would divide 65 by 50=1.30 a bale? That sound wrong doesn't it?

dooit - remember that by the time winter comes the price of hay could easily be double what it is today as new crop hay straight from the field.

Prices are very seasonal and add on a 35% premium for buying it from a merchant and in a small lot and you could easily be looking at £3.00 - £3.50 per bale by December and much more in areas of scarcity.

I'm with Butkin - thinks that sounds a really good deal. We're paying £4 a bale at the moment although it is really good stuff.

We were paying £2.50 a bale approx 15 years ago - I am not sure if you have got a bargian or I was being taken for a ride

I think that sounds a really good deal - even in Yorkshire (I'mk there too) - especially as they helped stack it.

Blimey, we let ours go really cheap then although we didn't actually sell any this year. It costs us £1.00 ish a bale to make and we sell it off the field for £1.50, for that they have to come and get it. Every time we handle a bale we put another 25p on it so if we put it in our barn it goes up to £1.75 and if we then take it back out again and deliver it it goes up to £2.00, plus delivery fee.

When we had to buy in because we ran out we were paying £3.75, we must be lucky in the South, not heard of anyone paying over £4.00 per bale round here.

Forgot to say ours is organic meadow hay from old pasture with guranteed no weeds.

We pay £4.50 a bale but they are about a foot longer than the average size and so tightly packed i can't pick them up. In the winter we get 1 tonne bales for £50 which lasts about a month for 2 horses.

I would say you had got a good deal!!

Are you all talking about the little rectangular bales rather than the large round ones?

We'd usually pay £30 for a big round one. We've just ordered 50 bales off the field and delivered for £3 per bale. There are other people advertising it cheaper but they won't deliver small amounts and we can't store any more (and no way of collecting it ourselves). As it is half of them will have to take their chances on a pallet under tarpaulin but we are hoping we will get away with it if we use those up first.

Anyway, we bought hay from this same lady all last winter, it was good stuff and she was very reliable with delivery so we will stick with her.

Tbh, if you find someone who always has decent hay and delivers, it is worth paying that bit more to know that you have got decent hay at the end of a telephone call.

Well, the hay arrived last night in the middle of a really bad thunder storm, not ideal! Nice stuff though, and the lady has a new baler which makes enormous bales (took two people to lift them) so looks like they were a bargain at £3.