Silage / Straw / Hay Price Tracker

[glasshouse]

Agreed, but the horse buyers tend to want the lighter bales that are basically damp hay rather than the more whiffy and damper stuff that offends their sense of smell.

Definitely quicker and more cost effective to make the heavier two day stuff that has only been tedded two or three times.

But if the equine buyers say ‘nitto’ you are then left with cattle quality stuff that you can’t really ask more than £30 a bale for without a plethora of cloth capped horny handed sons of the soil clambering into their Toyota pick ups, and leaving the yard quicker than Usain Bolt on his way to the carzi with a severe case of the two bob bits.

Just saying it how it is.

The heavier bales are not damper, just heavier. If haylage is too dry it moulds.

 

[aangus]

The heavier bales are not damper, just heavier. If haylage is too dry it moulds.

When baling really dry haylage I’ve found that a belt baler is the only thing that will stop the mould forming

 

[roscoe erf]

Im guessing people are Wow'ing as i've actually posted prices!!

novelty for a price tracker

 

[Hfd Cattle]

When baling really dry haylage I’ve found that a belt baler is the only thing that will stop the mould forming

....and even that has been a struggle this yr . Talking to friend at Tenbury last week and he was commenting about the amount of mould about this yr in haylage even when it appears to have been done in near perfect conditions.

 

[DeeGee]

The heavier bales are not damper, just heavier. If haylage is too dry it moulds.

Not in my experience it doesn’t. But you might well have found to the contrary.

Any heavy bales here tend to be much damper, or even wetter, than normal, and more like high DM silage than haylage. The contractor baler man always makes uniformly tight dense bales - it is the moisture of the crop that determines their weight.

Obviously we never set out to make heavy bales, but sometimes circumstances dictate that you have to bale a field or two of haylage that is not ideal, for whatever reason.

We have baled hundreds or rather thousands of dry haylage and wrapped hay bales that we didn’t have shed room for. In my experience there has been very little mould evident in any of these.

What can happen though is that old weathered hay in a bad season can mould due to the poor quality of forage being wrapped, and maybe the puncturing of triple wrap by coarse stemmy material.

I am not denying that mould can ever occur in over dry forage; but in my own experience it is quite rare.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I used to make 2000 a year ,I make more selling the grass standing to local diary farms and it's a 1000 times less stressful

 

[DeeGee]

I used to make 2000 a year ,I make more selling the grass standing to local diary farms and it's a 1000 times less stressful

I appreciate that you may not wish to divulge business information, but I take it that the income from selling standing grass is much greater than say a £25/bale margin over variable costs that selling haylage at £40 brings in?

Also bear in mind that I am an AHA tenant farmer, and thus anything that I sell has been grown and harvested by myself, not an outsider.

So you might appreciate that this also has to have some bearing on my farm policy. But in essence do you definitely find selling standing grass to be a better option than selling bales?

 

[Still Farming]

WTF.
New methods is it??

 

[glasshouse]

Madness

 

[Mc115reed]

Wheat going to be £100pt delivered shortly to west wales. Guess barley will be £110

paid £160 for best meadow hay delivered last week.

Our round haylage going out a £55 a bale for very good quality stuff. We’re aiming for this to be the price all winter.

Want some square haylage ? Iv loads of 120x90 square haylage can’t give the f**king stuff away at £30 a bale without selling it 1 bale at a time

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I appreciate that you may not wish to divulge business information, but I take it that the income from selling standing grass is much greater than say a £25/bale margin over variable costs that selling haylage at £40 brings in?

Also bear in mind that I am an AHA tenant farmer, and thus anything that I sell has been grown and harvested by myself, not an outsider.

So you might appreciate that this also has to have some bearing on my farm policy. But in essence do you definitely find selling standing grass to be a better option than selling bales?

It's that £15 costs to produce a bale
Would cost me a lot more than that
Potash replacement costs would be a fair chuck
Cutting bales of ground will remove a lot nutrients, the livestock farmers return that

 

[RhysT]

Want some square haylage ? Iv loads of 120x90 square haylage can’t give the f**king stuff away at £30 a bale without selling it 1 bale at a time

Where are you?
Probably the wrong shape bale for us unless we were really short!

 

[RhysT]

It's that £15 costs to produce a bale
Would cost me a lot more than that
Potash replacement costs would be a fair chuck
Cutting bales of ground will remove a lot nutrients, the livestock farmers return that

It costs us about £35 a bale to make a nice round bale.
Fert, chemicals, land rent and all labour accounted for.
We’re lucky we’ve been doing it for years, in a predominately small holder area. We also buy up a lot of our competitors bales to re sell back on.

 

[Mc115reed]

Where are you?
Probably the wrong shape bale for us unless we were really short!

Staffordshire … it’s too big of a bale really but was destined for hay and I sh!t out because of the weather any amount of people want it 1 bale at a time but by the time I drive too the stack too get 1 bale then deliver It, I’d be loosing money any less than £50 a bale then all of a sudden they’re not interested

 

[RhysT]

Staffordshire … it’s too big of a bale really but was destined for hay and I sh!t out because of the weather any amount of people want it 1 bale at a time but by the time I drive too the stack too get 1 bale then deliver It, I’d be loosing money any less than £50 a bale then all of a sudden they’re not interested

That’s the problem with the 120 x 90’s. They’re too big to make any money from! Great for baling and using yourself

People only ask what price a bale is! And not the weight!!

Most of our work is delivery. We’d never go out with a delivery less than a pickup load of 3 big bales anywhere and sometimes those loads don’t pay.

our furthest haylage delivery is 35 miles though!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

That’s the problem with the 120 x 90’s. They’re too big to make any money from! Great for baling and using yourself

People only ask what price a bale is! And not the weight!!

Most of our work is delivery. We’d never go out with a delivery less than a pickup load of 3 big bales anywhere and sometimes those loads don’t pay.

our furthest haylage delivery is 35 miles though!

What do you charge for delivery

 

[som farmer]

local farmer, who is as tight as the proverbial duck's ass, mate has done a lot of little baling for him.

most of the little bales end up in horses.

he will come into the field, when baling, pick up a bale, stop the baler, and screw it down. This would put decent bales, into heavy bales. Mate will say, you sell per bale, not on weight, more bales = more money. So slacken off tension, a bit, grumbling away.

give it 30 mins or less, back in, tighten down again, using to much string ! A scenario that has gone on, every year, for a long time.

save a penny, to lose a £1

and that, is just one example, of how being to, tight, costs money, that theme flows right through his farming system, everything is done, 'on the cheap', and costs him money, but he is incapable of changing.

 

[Full of bull(s)]

local farmer, who is as tight as the proverbial duck's ass, mate has done a lot of little baling for him.

most of the little bales end up in horses.

he will come into the field, when baling, pick up a bale, stop the baler, and screw it down. This would put decent bales, into heavy bales. Mate will say, you sell per bale, not on weight, more bales = more money. So slacken off tension, a bit, grumbling away.

give it 30 mins or less, back in, tighten down again, using to much string ! A scenario that has gone on, every year, for a long time.

save a penny, to lose a £1

and that, is just one example, of how being to, tight, costs money, that theme flows right through his farming system, everything is done, 'on the cheap', and costs him money, but he is incapable of changing.

How old is the guy? The older generation who have lived through truly hard times where there has been no choice but to save every last penny find it hard to change their mindset, and their children tend to either follow suit if father lives to a ripe age and holds the purse strings, or if he doesn’t they often rebel, go wild and become every salesman’s dream. Those who get off farm to college and then work elsewhere for a while usually tend to get the best balance. Isolation is a farmers worst enemy usually

 

[som farmer]

How old is the guy? The older generation who have lived through truly hard times where there has been no choice but to save every last penny find it hard to change their mindset, and their children tend to either follow suit if father lives to a ripe age and holds the purse strings, or if he doesn’t they often rebel, go wild and become every salesman’s dream. Those who get off farm to college and then work elsewhere for a while usually tend to get the best balance. Isolation is a farmers worst enemy usually

old enough to know better !!

in fairness, he had a good job, and ran the farm p/t, retired at 57.

 

[devonbeef]

please whats the big square HAY 340kg bale weight trading at , good young grass june hay , looking at to buy , neighbour has some for sale, Thanks