[BAKEWELL11]

 

ooooohhh.. £75? now I'm REALLY scared!!!  Definately looking into straw as forage!!! doesn't help that both my mares can polish off a small bale each  over night easy peasey!! When we were in a livery yard, everyone else had neat haynets to carry across yard every night and I would be bent over under a whole bale on my back!!   
Poor chooks work hard evry day producing eggs, and later on will give thier lives if table birds, our pigs presumeably will give their lives or their children to the knife, horses?? Well, they simply eat and just are!! eat, grow teeth feet and not enough winter coat, all of which result in huge amounts of money needing to be spent, they demand more time and attention than all the other animals put together.. even my own spawn actually!
Couldn't wouldn't be without em tho!

[loosey]

We cut our own hay in July and I'm hoping that 100 bales will be enough to last my two. I can top up with round bale haylage from a local farmer for £30 delivered but can't find straw for love nor money!

My mare is on shavings but they irritate my gelding, I'll be cutting up newspapers at this rate!

[faith0504]

we got alot of straw here(moray) but it seems to be going on to the carrot fields, they use loads on them, its incredible,
have you tried hemp bedding?

[Hermit]

According to my merchant the price of the large hay round bales goes on weight. He got some cheap ones and then some expensive ones. He sold all the cheap but no one would buy the expensive as they 'looked' the same so he small baled it and got half as many bales again as the cheap large bales had. So the expensive large round bales might sound a lot but be a good buy as content goes. (If you can understand what I am saying.)

[Sylvia]

Good hay is £7 a bale here (South Devon) more than twice as much as last year. Why didn't I save my own this year I will next year and you can be sure farmers won't be able to give it away!!

[loosey]

I've tried hemp but both of my horses are over 18hh and both get through at least 2 bales of shavings/hemp etc per week which works out quite costly! My mare is kept on shavings as she eats straw and is always overweight!

[scotelf]

West Lothian area, big round bales - decent quality/weight are £30 each and wee rectangular bales £4 each. Seems to be enough to go around at the moment, hope that doesn't change! 

loosey - have you tried rubber mats with your bedding? I got some a couple of years ago and they help as you don't to have to put bedding down in all of your stable. I put them where my horses stand to eat their hay and by their doors - found I use less bales of shavings.

[Castle Farm]

I have 200 bales of good quality hay from old pastures. Full of herbs and no ragwort.

Harvested dry and stored off the ground and perfect for horses (ours likes it).

Looking for £3.50 per bale, but 100 or more £3.

This is a nice bale of hay and not sour, mouldy or full of thistles.

[OhLaLa]

How wrong can we get it - we always end up giving our excess hay away, so this year we cut down on the work and cut less, but as the weather was so dry we only got half the average quantity and consequently ended up short ourselves.  Tried for a second cut - it rained. Doh!

[scotelf]

Castle Farm, wish you were closer!

Hay is such a precarious thing to get right.

[lazybee]

I can't believe the prices you are being asked to pay I was getting it here in France for 40 centimes a bale collection that's 34p. It might be worth sending a truck over here and picking up a load.

[Hermit]

The pony studs in Shetland used to go to Denmark for their hay! £1.00 a bale there but no ferry now to Denmark. Glad we did our own this year