Horse Hay – What Shortage ?
In a summer of pouring rain and flooding, UK farmers and feed suppliers expressed concerns about the availability of hay in the coming winter.
However, it seems UK hay is in reasonably plentiful supply with no significant increase in local prices and nothing in the equestrian press relating to rip-off suppliers.
No... it seems that heat is far more dangerous than excess rain, when it comes to feed supplies with USA horse owners suffering over the top price hikes due to drought conditions in the Southern States.
A horse rescue agency that operates in North Carolina and two other states has taken in almost double the number of abused and neglected horses it usually accepts each year, and more than half came from North Carolina.
Workers with the U.S. Equine Rescue League largely blame the dramatic price increase for hay, which is in short supply across the drought-parched Southeast. The record dry conditions in North Carolina have wiped out hay crops and affected pasture land that horses would normally graze through November. The nonprofit organization normally takes in about 100 horses each year, but the agency now has 170 horses, including 90 from North Carolina, said Jennifer Malpass, director of the league's Triangle chapter. She said hay prices have doubled in some areas.
The problems aren't confined to North Carolina.
Kathy Grant, an equine cruelty investigator in Tennessee, said a round bale of hay that cost $12 this summer have soared in price, some to $100. The rural roads in her eastern Tennessee community are lined with pastures dotted with emaciated horses, she said.
"A lot of the farmers around here have hay, but they're holding on to it," Grant said. "When they're releasing it, they're charging exorbitant rates. A normal person can't afford it."
In Virginia, the U.S. Equine Rescue League has taken in horses that are dramatically under their ideal weight.
Perhaps in the New Year some Christian spirited farmers will put the animal that America was built on before short term profit.
The cowboy and the horse are symbols of American history and surely Americans will put hay for horses before buns for burgers !!
Local Riding Tack & Togs
December 30th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
What county do you live in !!! my usuale supplier let me down saying there wouldnt be enough. I phoned around and found most people were wanting around £4 a bail, one was asking £5.
I then found a local farmer whos hay was priced as normal at £2.50 his words were that he’d been able to cut as much hay as usuale and was digusted at some of the prices others were chargeing.
His hay is lovely and he will now continue to have my custom.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
So, it appears that I am wrong in my assumption that UK farmers are less profiteering than our American cousins.
Is there a real shortage in the UK ?
Or are producers profiteering as always ?
December 30th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I dont think there was a real shortage, may be they didnt produce quite as much as usuale, everyone i talk to have there winter hay. ” But at what cost i dont know ”
Some farmers have taken advantage of the floods to line there pockets i paid £4 a bail for my hay, until i found a genuine farmer who was selling his for £2.75 a bail.