Forage ...how short.?

[Goweresque]

Yes, 4x4's about a half mile down the road and pick up and load ourselves from the field. Sorry @Goweresque but I think a rise of 25% is taking the p*ss, especially after prices already going up due to the shortage in Spring. Supply and demand is not at any cost.

As you say there are good years and bad years for grass and everything else, but it seems to escape many people that in the long run things even out. So another of our regular guys is charging the same as last year, and the year before, and the year before. Because he has the big picture where the market AND customers come together. The result is that one has lost our business because he needs to stick the needle in at the first opportunity, and not for the first time.

Thankfully we make our own haylage and only need a small quantity of hay for odds and ends. Not a great deal of money changing hands, it is the principle.

Have you ever been offered 25% more for your livestock from one year to the next? Did you refuse to take it and give the money back to the buyer?

To be honest a 25% rise for a volatile product like fodder is nothing. Look at the straw buyers, they were getting straw for £50-60/tonne a few years ago, now they're paying double that in some cases, or more. If it was me I'd be glad I'd secured supplies in a potentially difficult year for not drastically more than last year.

Unless you ever sell your livestock for less than the going rate just to be 'nice' to the buyer, I don't think you have a leg to stand on, morally speaking. When your vet puts his fees up do you call him greedy too? Or just accept that price rises are part and parcel of a free market? Why should a farmer forage producer be any different? He's paying more for his fuel (thats gone up 25% alone since last summer), more for his net wrap, more for his sprays if he uses them, more for spares for his machinery etc etc. If the market is tight why shouldn't he be able to benefit from that fact?

 

[johnspeehs]

It's called water nowt will grow without it!

Except dockings

 

[Henarar]

Have you ever been offered 25% more for your livestock from one year to the next? Did you refuse to take it and give the money back to the buyer?

To be honest a 25% rise for a volatile product like fodder is nothing. Look at the straw buyers, they were getting straw for £50-60/tonne a few years ago, now they're paying double that in some cases, or more. If it was me I'd be glad I'd secured supplies in a potentially difficult year for not drastically more than last year.

Unless you ever sell your livestock for less than the going rate just to be 'nice' to the buyer, I don't think you have a leg to stand on, morally speaking. When your vet puts his fees up do you call him greedy too? Or just accept that price rises are part and parcel of a free market? Why should a farmer forage producer be any different? He's paying more for his fuel (thats gone up 25% alone since last summer), more for his net wrap, more for his sprays if he uses them, more for spares for his machinery etc etc. If the market is tight why shouldn't he be able to benefit from that fact?

spose the answer is if you don't like paying volatile prices for fodder grow your own and cut out the fodder suppliers and merchants from your business
in other words don't be over stocked
the same thing could be said for bedding though more areas would struggle to grow it though there are alternatives to straw

 

[Goweresque]

spose the answer is if you don't like paying volatile prices for fodder grow your own and cut out the fodder suppliers and merchants from your business
in other words don't be over stocked
the same thing could be said for bedding though more areas would struggle to grow it though there are alternatives to straw

Exactly. Once you stop being able to supply your needs from your own land, you open yourself up to being a price taker. Just as we have to pay fuel prices that are beyond our control nowadays, when in the old days the motive power would have been horses that would be fed from the farm itself.

 

[Dry Rot]

Sadly, by it's very nature, many (most?) farms are located remotely so local suppliers have a bit of a monopoly. But that cuts both ways. If I'm not in a hurry, it often saves me money to buy from China rather than the local retailer a couple of miles away.

Haven't looked up prices for hay and straw on Alibaba yet, but it's a thought. (Probably have to order a boat load!). I do remember when they were importing hay from Canada because of shortages here though.

 

[ladycrofter]

@Grassman our haylage costs us in in the region of £11.50/bale and that is a contractor cutting baling wrapping stacking. Thankfully we have had a good few days of slow rain but I can't see the yield being what it was last year. I still like to have a bit of hay, for instance have a cow in just now for a few days, just calved.

Funny isn't it how the prices for straights and straw go up and down, but the price of hay has never fallen in my experience of 20 years.

 

[ladycrofter]

Sadly, by it's very nature, many (most?) farms are located remotely so local suppliers have a bit of a monopoly. But that cuts both ways. If I'm not in a hurry, it often saves me money to buy from China rather than the local retailer a couple of miles away.

Haven't looked up prices for hay and straw on Alibaba yet, but it's a thought. (Probably have to order a boat load!). I do remember when they were importing hay from Canada because of shortages here though.

I thought you were joking!!!

 

[bobk]

I'm selling hard , it's it rains there could be a glut , if it doesn't .......

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I'm selling hard , it's it rains there could be a glut , if it doesn't .......

There’s one thing you can guarantee....it’ll rain...

 

[Grassman]

@Grassman our haylage costs us in in the region of £11.50/bale and that is a contractor cutting baling wrapping stacking. Thankfully we have had a good few days of slow rain but I can't see the yield being what it was last year. I still like to have a bit of hay, for instance have a cow in just now for a few days, just calved.

Funny isn't it how the prices for straights and straw go up and down, but the price of hay has never fallen in my experience of 20 years.

That's the harvesting bit which not too expensive at that.
But what about the rest?

 

[Dry Rot]

I thought you were joking!!!

View attachment 693268

I think I'm going to order some of that London hay. Now, would that be Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens because I'm rather fussy?

 

[Benr]

Genuinely starting to get concerned now. We had a nice bit of rain forecast for this week but now that has changed.
Probably got about two thirds of our winter forage in and I am now starting to think we may not get any winter sheep keep if dairy farmers decide to keep their stock out longer to try and make up there shortfall.
Going to have to start feeding some stock soon as well, this is what our ewes are on at the moment

 

[ollie989898]

Genuinely starting to get concerned now. We had a nice bit of rain forecast for this week but now that has changed.
Probably got about two thirds of our winter forage in and I am now starting to think we may not get any winter sheep keep if dairy farmers decide to keep their stock out longer to try and make up there shortfall.
Going to have to start feeding some stock soon as well, this is what our ewes are on at the moment
View attachment 694414

Holy heck!!!!

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Absolutely p!ssing down here

 

[had e nuff]

Absolutely p!ssing down here

Droughts over. Got some fert on this afternoon so soon have grass everywhere.

 

[Grassman]

Absolutely p!ssing down here

We got a few drops on the windscreen

 

[Skintagain]

Just started raining as I put fert on last field Christ I must be mad throwing money at it with the state it looks!

 

[Northeastfarmer]

We got a few drops on the windscreen

Thunder and lighting here

 

[Grassman]

Droughts over. Got some fert on this afternoon so soon have grass everywhere.

For some perhaps

 

[dazza b]

@Grassman our haylage costs us in in the region of £11.50/bale and that is a contractor cutting baling wrapping stacking. Thankfully we have had a good few days of slow rain but I can't see the yield being what it was last year. I still like to have a bit of hay, for instance have a cow in just now for a few days, just calved.

Funny isn't it how the prices for straights and straw go up and down, but the price of hay has never fallen in my experience of 20 years.

£11.50 a bale what does that include? I sell my haylage for £30 a bale and can always sell without a problem nobody complains