Hay 2022

61 bales made this evening

Baled yesterday, just about fit, wrapped the head lands. Met eireann were giving rain for this morning but no sign yet if it doesn't rain I will be raging with myself for baleing to soon. Fcuk me it is so hard to get it right sometimes.

Mayo

I stand to be corrected but to the best of my knowledge we don’t export round bales to America so the price of hay in America in a drought a few years ago has about as much effect on the price of hay in Ireland in summer 2022 as the price of a haircut in Australia does.

If cattle are going to be very expensive next Spring that will have the opposite effect on feed prices as lads will factory off lighter under fleshed cattle instead of buying expensive feed for them. The best hope you have of getting €60 a bale for your hay is if cattle are at a bad price but there’s hope for a big price rise in the near future and we have a severe Spring like 2013 or 2018 as lads may just keep their cattle on then in the hope of recovering their costs.

I was talking to a good friend on the Roscommon Leitrim border yesterday who does a bit of contracting. He says they’re only really getting going at silage there in the past week or 10 days and 18-20 bales per acre is nearly the norm. He says the farmers have never seen crops like it so I think your market in the west and north west will be fairly diminished too.

I have my silage costs worked out at €43 per bale without a land charge so I won’t be selling any for anything less than €50 per bale. That means I’ll have silage left over to use myself in winter 2023 as there will be plenty of poor quality silage available at €30 a bale and possibly less as the year goes on so no-one is going to pay anywhere near €50.

A local field of hay was cleared here yesterday evening at €28 a bale with the seller happy to see it gone. Very little appetite for hay yet as most buyers are expecting the prices to drop so they’re holding off.

We all know that the price of feed in the USA has little relevance to hay prices here. I merely used it as an example of how quickly and extreme prices can go. I could have used the used the example of spring 2012 when we were importing feed from the UK and France at over €200 a bale.

"If cattle are going to be very expensive next Spring that will have the opposite effect on feed prices" not the case as it has been seen many times. Most Farmers do not sell when prices are high which is a contributing factor to the high price but they are all selling there cattle when the price is on the floor again a contributing factor to the low price.

When the price of cattle are high Farmers have no issue paying extra for feed as they feel its worth it as the value of the cattle cover the extra costs, and again the opposite when cattle prices are on the floor farmers see no value in buying feed at any price no matter how low the price is gone, they usually end up throwing away the cattle for half nothing instead.

Great day here in north kk

Hard to believe it's going to rain tomorrow.

Busy week topped of with 139 bales this evening

61 bales made yesterday. 40 of them in the shed tonight

Well at least they got the forecast right

Neighbour rang me this evening, he'll deliver bales of hay for 35 euro into the shed. I'll give him a bit of drink money along with it. Another lad looking 50 euro a bale.

Having seen both types in action here, i reckon tedders with hooked tines are a far better job.

Anyone any recommendations for a hay turner. Wouldn't do much hay here but could do with 1 all the same

I’ve a hooked tine Tedder- often get lads in to help if I’m busy- straight tine are a disaster

This is what I'm talking about. Hooked tines if not set up right leave nothing but lumps

No idea- could just be down to driver and machine not set properly

What are people seeing as a realistic price per bale in your areas ?

Know of a few in North Cork asking and getting 35 off the field

Hay will be dear then for us poor divils in the rainy NW by the time regular hauliers take account of increased price of diesel while buying it out of sheds up the country next Spring to sell down here outside Marts etc. Would imagine a minimum of 4-50 euro a small square bale will be the price by time it gets here.

We didn't get any of the dry week got down the country where a lot of the posters here got nice hay made. Know of one fella up here (with good ground by Leitrim standards) that saves 20 acres+ of hay a year. Not looking good for him this year....suppose we aren't into July yet so hopefully some spell comes as majority of Silage not touched here yet as ground soaked.

Would people in 'hay making areas' down the country say that 70%+ of hay that's usually made for sale was got safe in the recent good spell iykwim?

Tullow mart have a hay auction tomorrow at 10, it will be live on Mart Eye app.

I'll be at work, so probably won't be able to check what's happening

I throw it into a round feeder on rough ground to a few cattle that are outwintered....great job

don't feed a whole lot of it, only if the bales of silage are wet. Then 2 bales silage and 1 bale of hay in diet feeder.

hopefully from Saturday on, badly needed really.

Get yer sun cream and shorts out so

Round 2 to begin next week so!