Reflection 2024: A Year of Events in Pictures / News

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What a year, 2024 is almost over. We would like to take a moment to reflect with you on the eventful but fantastic year.

After rain comes…...more rain,

2024 started as 2023 ended, wet and with a lot of rain. 2023 went down in the books as the wettest year ever, and that was mainly in the last part of the year; the spring was even dry. That wetness from the end of 2023 continued well into the summer of 2024. Weather is crucial for our products. Due to the heavy rain, a lot of hay was cut later than in other years, resulting in hay that was less green, less fresh, coarser, dustier, and so on..

We hold on to what we find important: Know what your animal eats! And it is good to know the differences between an analyzed batch and a batch with an average analysis. We explained that in our blog about analyzed batches.

The straw harvest was also a huge disappointment this year. Much less straw was harvested than normal and unfortunately often of mediocre quality. Fortunately, we ended the year on a more positive note. October was even very nice, relatively dry, and quite warm for the time of year. 

Webinar with Metazoa

On March 19, a webinar took place with Marc Jansen, founder of Metazoa.
Metazoa is a line of concentrates containing various additives such as different vitamins and minerals. All concentrates from Metazoa are free from grains, soy, and molasses, making them extremely suitable for all horses that are sensitive to sugars. Marc's vision is to create animal feeds that seamlessly meet the needs of the animal. In the webinar, he explained his vision, which was followed by a very interesting discussion, with good questions and interactions with a huge number of viewers! Did you miss the webinar at the time but would you like to watch it again? You can find the recordings of the webinar via this link.

First participation in Animal Event

2024 was the first year that Hay to You was present at the Animal Event. What a beautiful and large event this was, unprecedented how many animal lovers were present. The entire area in Hilvarenbeek was filled with stalls offering all kinds of snacks for your animal, various necessities for keeping your furry friend, and various clinics and presentations. The weather wasn't entirely favorable, but that didn't stop the 34,400 visitors from coming! A nice aspect of the Animal Event is that you can bring your dog, who must, of course, buy a ticket. A notable detail; in this year's edition, the 100,000th dog ticket ever was sold! The Jack Russell "Pitou" received an XXL surprise package as a memento of this beautiful milestone.

Presentations on horse health at the Horse event "Pro"

Hay to You has become a familiar face at the Horse Event and the Pro edition in recent years. The latter event focuses on the professional rider, but also the recreational rider who wants to make progress in their hobby.
In various arenas, stalls, and stages, all horse lovers are spoiled annually with knowledge, tasty snacks for your horse, rider necessities, and much more. In short, everything you need for keeping and riding horses.

With Hay to You, we once again had a prominent spot at the health square. At Hay to You, we are committed to better keeping and maintaining horses with hay that you adapt to your horse, instead of the other way around. Robin from Hay to You gave various presentations at the health square over two days. For example, about the different types of roughage that exist, but also about harmful weeds in hay. The presentations were well attended. It is gratifying to see that more and more people are becoming conscious about nutrition for their horses!

The youth in full gallop at the Horse event "Youth"

A week after the "Pro" edition of the Horse Event, it was time for the "Youth" edition. The halls of the Horse Event were filled with thousands of children and young people, all sharing the same passion; horses! We find it fantastic to be present at this event and to see how the future generation of horse owners enjoys all the entertainment available. Our well-known health square was transformed for this event into a course for hobby horses. Many children came with their hobby horse to enjoy the hay at our stand, how lovely!

Webinar on winter-ready pastures with Sanne from Paardinclusief

This year, we have entered into a new collaboration with Sanne from Paardinclusief, who focuses on pasture management and advises people on how to get their pasture management in order. In the lead-up to winter, we held a webinar together on how to prepare the pasture "well" for winter and which roughages you can use for your animal in winter.

A new trailer for Hay to You

Back in 2022, we ordered a new trailer for delivery in the autumn of 2023. The new truck was purchased shortly before that. However, in October of last year, it turned out that we had ordered the trailer from a company that was on the brink of bankruptcy. They sold us a trailer that they could not actually make and then left us in the cold. Fortunately, at the beginning of this year, we ordered a new trailer from JUMBO in Helmond. We have had a good collaboration with this supplier for several years, and they were ultimately able to deliver a very nice new trailer.

November 4 was finally the day; the first day our trailer was also on the road delivering all animal feeds. The big advantage of this new trailer is that we can deliver faster and offer you as a consumer even more delivery dates.

Masterclass "Toxic weeds in hay" Ezellogica

For several years, we have been collaborating with the magazine Ezellogica as Hay to You.
The professional donkey and mule owners of Ezellogica are very focused on the nutrition of their animals and enhance their knowledge in various areas through masterclasses.

On November 12, Robin was a guest speaker. Robin talked about toxic weeds in hay and in the pasture. The presentation covered ragwort and autumn crocus. Many participants were familiar with ragwort, but only a few with autumn crocus, while this weed is many times more toxic. It is great that we can share our knowledge like this with other animal lovers!

New product line

This year, we have again added beautiful new products to our assortment. For example, the lick stones from IMIMA are now available in our webshop. These lick stones contain Mediterranean sea salt as a base, to which various minerals and vitamins have been added per product. There are 12 flavors, and they are offered as a buffet. The idea is that your horse licks the stones that contain the substances it is lacking. Take a look at our site to see the different flavors.

Upcoming VAT increase

As much as we would like to avoid this, we will really have to face it starting next year; the Dutch government no longer sees roughage and stable bedding as basic necessities and is raising the VAT rate from 9% to 21%. We obviously do not agree with this decision but will have to bear the consequences. Keeping animals in the Netherlands will simply become more expensive starting January 1. This is a turning point in animal keeping in the Netherlands. In our blog, we have already provided tips and tricks on how to save and that you might consider stocking up just before the new year. Unfortunately, in this case, "the best advice is to stock up."

2025 and beyond!

Hay to You wants to build on the growth of previous years in the coming year. We rely on our loyal customers and notice that many new customers come through existing customers. There is no better advertising than word of mouth. In terms of transport capacity, we are fully ready for 2025. Our next step now is to realize a larger storage silo. With a larger storage shed, we can offer different batches, hold batches longer for customers, and expand our products so that we can better provide you with roughages, bedding, and supplements in the future.

Grateful

Finally, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge everyone who makes Hay to You possible. We have grown tremendously in recent years and have become the benchmark for quality and service. 'Out of love for animals' is now used throughout the industry. We are grateful for all the new customers we have welcomed in 2024, which has allowed us to achieve significant growth. But we are also immensely grateful for the customers who have been ordering faithfully for several years and have always trusted us. It pleases us that you all place your roughage needs in our hands.

Without good people, we are nowhere, and we realize that like no other. Our drivers Hennie and Bjorn leave in the dead of night with a full truck and often return home late at night. If a customer is not home and changes the delivery time last minute? Our drivers gladly take an extra trip so that all your furry friends have food on time.

And what about Odin, this friendly guy helps out with our pick-up and shovel when our transport capacities reach their max, and he prepares all orders so that loading is a breeze. If he has time left over, he helps with the administration, just like a jack-of-all-trades!

And of course, we must not forget Emma and Laura; they manage the planning and administration from the office and are the heart of customer service. They prepare samples for analyses and manage the inventory. If there is an incoming truck that needs to be unloaded and there are no men available to unload it? Emma jumps on the forklift and empties it!

And what about that beautiful website? Those newsletters, social media posts, and so on. Online marketing is extremely important in 2024; without Marieke, Ilse, and Martijn, we would be nowhere. They support us, provide creative input, give feedback both requested and unsolicited, and together we can shape and expand our vision.

On to next year!

We are so happy with the Hay to You team; with this team, we can handle anything, thank you for your dedication!

We wish you a wonderful New Year's Eve, with much health, and countless enjoyable moments with your animal(s)! Of course, we will also be here for you in 2025, with advice and action!

Best regards, Robin & Dave Sanders