Early Newbury hay and straw auction a success
Date of Article
Nov 04 2010

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Carter Jonas held an early winter sale of hay and straw on 2 November at Newbury Rugby Club.

Auctioneer John Read commented ‘the market for straw and in particular hay has been strong since harvest.  We have held early sales in the past and there was certainly a case for doing so this year’

The shortage of hay led to a reduced entry which met with strong demand.  The highlight was Simon Cottle of Melksham selling his BB930 bales of mixture selling for £60 per bale.  Haylage proved to be popular too with Neil Walker of Abingdon selling Claas 2100 bales for £30 per bale.

The trade for barley straw in both conventional and square bales was exceptional with a 100% clearance achieved.  Prices for big square bales ranged from £14 to £21 per bale with an average on a tonnage basis just under £80 per tonne.  Steve Miller of Andover topped the trade with NH D1010 bales selling for £21.25 per bale.  For conventional bales prices ranged from £1.70 to £2.00 per bale with an average of £88 per tonne.  James Gray of Sutton Scotney achieved £2 per bale for both Winter and Spring Barley straw in conventional bales.

There are more supplies of wheat straw and this impacted on the trade for this commodity.  Nevertheless excellent prices were achieved with an average in big square bales equating to £51 per tonne.  Richard Hazel of Pangbourne sold MF186 of early baled wheat straw for £17 per bale to top the trade.        

John Read commented ‘we anticipate that trade for hay and barley straw will remain good, but vendors may need to be more realistic with wheat straw.  End users have been thankful for the benign weather thus far and much will depend on the weather over the winter period’.

The next Newbury Hay and Straw sale will be held on 20 January and entries are invited.