Kitchen Garden Forum

What are you paying for your pellets these days?
The cost has been rising fairly steadly round here for some time now and I've just had to pay £7.45 for 25kg. It wasn't so long ago that I could pick up a bag for around £5!!!

John

Hi John, thanks for the welcome when I joined. I think my last bag of pellets was £6.75. I wouldn't mind if they ate them. They seem to have gone right off them and a lot get wasted. It is probably my fault as I do give them other things as well which they obviously prefer.

I was paying only £4.75 last year so it is a big increase. The agricultural merchant I get them from also sells various kinds of wild bird food and my hens like the "superior wild bird seed" which is about the same price per bag as the hen food, so they get a bit of that as a treat.

I also give them half a tin of Butcher's Tripe dog food a couple of days a week when they are moulting for a protein boost. (I make sure it is the one without chicken in it!)

Talking about price, have you seen how much eggs are in the shops? I had a look yesterday and the free range ones are going on for £2 for six.

Hi there! My supplier increased his price by 20p a bag to around £5.99 then I realised he'd decreased the weight of the bag from 25kg to 20kg, thus meaning an overall increase in excess of 20%!!! I took the shop to task on this and I was told it was because of increased travel and other costs. What can one do when they are the only local supplier?

And just to add to the 'not eating the pellets' debate, my Sussex aren't that fussed either and will onlt really tuck in if I stay with them and feed them from my hand, otherwise they wander off after a few seconds pecking around! They are completely free range though, so I assume they are getting what else they need by foraging for themselves. I only give them the occasional treat. They seem healthy and happy enough.

Mine has increased - at one go - from £4.95 to £6.45 for 25kilos. No surprise really after last year's poor summer. You may have noticed flour and bread etc have increased recently.

Its not surprising that the feed costs have gone up. The cost of wheat has risen from £80 per ton last year to £170 this year. I would imagine there is a reasonable percentage of wheat in the pellet ration.

UK livestock farmers have seen their feed costs double in the last 6 months but unfortunately the supermarkets are not paying them any more for their meat & eggs. Any increase in price in the shop is not being passed back down the chain - no change there then!

Hi Alan,
There wasn't a bad grain harvest last year and my
tonnage was actually well above average.
I think the increases have more to do with world prices that bad harvests. I suspect the use of grain for the production of ethanol would go a long way to explain world prices.
JB.

My usual went up in price considerably but my merchant saw it coming and switched suppliers . i was paying £4.95 per 20kg and now paying £5.20 per 20kg with a different supplier with no drop in egg production. i only keep poultry for my immediate needs and any extra are sold to cover feed costs.