Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
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?