[BAKEWELL11]

Hi All,
Newbie here.
Have managed to get onto a suppliers list for haylage this year, no hay left... all sold already!  He couldn't give me a price per bale until after the auctions.
But rumour has it that we are going to be paying minimum £40 per large bale haylage. (4foot round bales) Possibly more.  We have 3 horses and will be bringing them in when the weather turns, so haylage and straw are non negotiable. just wonder if the rest of the world are experiencing the same difficulties?
 

[faith0504]

i feed hay, and large round hay in moray is £30, if you can finds any, i move my horses next week to our new home i have 4 small bales to put us on i have not been able to find any more yet!!!!!!!!!!!! first job when we move before we unpack is to go round the local farms and say hi very nicely and see if i can find any, oh gosh  i hope i do, fingers crossed
it is in short supply everywhere

[BAKEWELL11]

  wow!!! Scary!!  best of luck with move, and of course finding some hay. My friend wisely saved half her 6 acres grazing  and just got it cut so has enough haylage to get thru to Feb.  Wish now I'd done the same thing.
My lawn at home is looking pretty long... hmm... reckon it might end up being turnout!!    Are dandelions poisonous??
 

[lazybee]

There is a hay shortage here in France too. There is a Shetland stud in the next village to me who're in serious trouble they have no grass and say they have no hope of lasting through he winter, their plight made the local paper. But for some reason I got 800 small bales this year about a 100 more than last year??

[faith0504]

dandelions are a fav, they love them, they are also good for them, chickens like em as well.
thanks i will wink at new farmers and hopefully i will find some (fingers crossed)

[morri2]

Heard there is going to be a shortage in most places this year.  We are in Wales and our supplier, a l local farmer told us to come and get the bales straight off the field to ensure we have enough for the winter - 150 bales at £3.00 per bale (small bales that is, not round ones).  His surplus will be sold for £5 per bale, 40 per cent up on last year and he has nowhere near as much as last year either.  Most farmers have only managed one cut on their hay due to the bad winter and slow growing spring grass.   I'm not sure we have enough ourselves, if its a winter as bad as last year (we keep sheep, not horses incidently) we could need more than we have in stock, but we don't have enough storage space for anymore.

[plumseverywhere]

Locally We are £20 large bale and £4.50 small bale. must stock up now you have prompted me. looks like prices are going sky high this winter.

[faith0504]

its £3.50 for small bales here at the min anyway!!!!!!

[daddymatty82]

£2.75 small bales and  £31 a round bale and is set price but have to get it off the land owner and is part of the agreement but have worked out it cheaper to buy 2 round bales a month instead of 30 bales as i was origanally planned

[BAKEWELL11]

is that round bales of hay??
I find with haylage, I am pushing it getting it to last 2 weeks...depending on weather and temperature...That said, I am quite paranoid about it, contantly sniffing it, then making everyone else sniff it!   Also, I find it does give em a bit of "whizz, so plenty of turnout before getting on this year!! May try mixing it with straw this year...or does that sound really old fashioned?

[faith0504]

i dont give my not haylage, im an old fashion hay girl, plus  i found it too rich for the shetlands, there is nowt up with bulking it out with some good straw, mine like under sown straw, we might end up with straw if there no hay about, with some feed as an extra

[Hellybee]

Nowt wrong with bulking up with some good straw  

We have 250 small bale hay for the sheep, and then theres 80 odd small bale haylage from last year waiting to be used.  I ll tuck into some of the small bale haylage for the ponies after that i ll be getting lovely haylage off our neighbour at £4-6 a small bale depending on the size of them our ponies look really well and will be rugged up and moved on and on.  I start feeding haylage when they tell me so   ne or two will have a little handful of Topspec a couple of times of week   plus there ll be licks down too.

It is a worry though, wouldnt like to live down south, some mutterings on other forums about huge prices is really quite scary     

My mum pays £18-20 a big bale, which she gets 20 a time, saying that tho she ll have only a small group of ponies at her place this year, so will buy less,  I have most of the ponies here and we ll hold fields back as long as we can, then crack open the bales

[BAKEWELL11]

   Everyone is really worried here... horses being given away in local ads...ads everywhere looking for hay.
Farmers told us last year to finish the year with straw, and gonna be worse this year by all accounts. I too prefer hay, I'm old and always known hay, but no choice anymore, dryish  haylage is as close as we can get these days.
I've ordered 2 big bales a week until feb, but thinking maybe will up the straw order and buy a bit less haylage, just praying for a mild winter!!

[daddymatty82]

is that round bales of hay??

it is hay yess sorry  i forgot to mention but the landlady was looking in the local paper and they were asking £75 a round bale of hay and she had to ring up and find out if that was the price as she could not believe it at that price

[shetlandpaul]

for pity sake thats a daft price. we bought a round bale for 50 from the agi merchent. if we could store 40 we could get them delivered to the dockfor 30. so i suspect someone is trying it on. if your prepared to pay the transport costs then you can get them from orkney for 20.