Effects of Drought

[kaykay]

Luckily the area i live in Illinois has not been hit quite as hard as other Illinois areas with the drought. I am still able to get hay and my pastures are still nice and green.

Looking at the saleboard here and newspapers ad though i see a ton of horses big and small being practically given away due to the drought. I talked iwth a few ppl at congress and they said people with big horses are desperate to get rid of them due to the hay shortage.

Im so worried that we are going to see a huge flood of mini and big horse rescues this fall when hay becomes really short and people cant afford the prices. Or that people will try to hang on to them but not be able to feed them thru the cold winter

I know i worry too much but it is bothering me.

Kay

 

[CountryHaven]

It's a reasonable worry though. Our hay guy called the other day and said he had a shipment if we wanted it. I asked Bob and he was like, tell him YES. You just don't know if there will be another cutting, if there will be any available mid-winter in a crunch. The drought is horrible. I talked to Bob on the phone today when he called from work and he said he'd just listened to the radio about the corn yield in some areas being as low as 10% of the normal crop expectation, and that hay has more than tripled in price in many areas. Our bale price went up a little, but VERY little compared to what commerical growers seem to be raising theirs to.

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

I think i tis a legitimate worry. I just now found a hay souce and am paying a good price for it but they have it year round not easy to find!

 

[js1arab]

I sure wish those guys at the Chicago Board of Trade would come visit the area. They keep dropping the grain prices so we here in the middle part of IL are getting a double whammy. It has been really dry here and even as bad as it is for us, we can go 25 minutes east and it's worse. My husband had to sell some cattle the other day as we weren't sure how we'd feed everything. Luckily, we found a guy who had some CRP ground that was released and he told us we could buy the bales off that so that will help, but my husband has already fed 14 round bales and it isn't even fall yet!!!!!! Luckily, we had quite a bit of our own hay last year and square baled a bunch for my horses so I think I will be ok, but I hope next year isn't too wet or too dry as I will be in a pickle too. It isn't even a matter of whether you can afford the hay, you just simply can't find any from the reputable dealers as they are sold out.

 

[CyndiM]

We only got one cutting from our field and have already ordered some from a neighbor. The hubby said we might get a second cutting late I'm crossing my fingers. And I'm still praying for rain.

 

[chandab]

While it's not quite as wet here this year, as it was last year, we have not hit dought conditions yet. Although, we are running about 25% fewer bales of hay than last year. Hopefully, pasture will hold out, so we don't have to start feeding hay to the cattle too soon. We have 4 horses out on pasture 24/7 (full-size), one on daily pasture (up at night - senior full-size) and 4 dry-lot (2 full-size, 2 minis). So far, so good on the hay situation for the minis (I have 65 bales of good grass). I have 35 bales of alfalfa that will probably be fed to the full-size horses as I don't want to feed that rich of hay to the horses. My husband is currently baling grass CRP hay, it's starting to turn, but will still probably be very good for the horses.

 

[ChrystalPaths]

You are right to be concerned. We thought of this the other day. I have prepaid for my 300 bales to be sure they are reserved as I can only fit about 70 at a time.

 

[OhHorsePee]

I am so glad my sis bales hay!!! I get mine from her. It is so dry here that I now have my first dry lot even with watering several times a day. We got rain yesterday but the ground absorbed it as soon as it hit.

Sad!!

Fran

 

[Erica]

It has been awful here in North Central, AR. We have only had 1/2" of rain since the beginning April till August the 5th...........and I am so glad to say that yesterday we got 3" and today I think about 2", am very thankful for it - not sure how much it will help the hay fields due to being this late after NO rain in forever, but I bet it will green things up. It was so dry people were hitting rocks mowing and starting fires........

We only got one cutting on our two fields and only made 65 square and 20 round bales (not NEAR what we usually make) Called around forever and couldn't find hay anywhere close as they had already all promised to "clients" (and since we normally don't buy.....) Luckily last week I just happened to be taking my gooseneck to Wrangler to have them detail it out and someone was cutting hay on the way, on the way back I just stopped on the side of the road and asked if any was for sale and it was...........run home got two trailers, loaded up 100 round and 23 round bales so I am pretty sure we are good on hay. This is the FIRST year ever I have had to buy hay. We usually get 3 cuttings and have Hay for sale.

 

[Marty]

There's hay here. Lots of hay, but I can't go with the cheapo stuff. It's just junk for cows. It does not fill up the horses, bloats them up real bad and that is if they can chew it. It's very stemmy.

My regular hay man has two cuttings now. The first is nasty, very long strands enough to choke a horse and has stickers and sticks or weeds in it.

I got the second cutting to try. Orchard grass with a little volunteer timothy. It's very nice. He has gone up to $4.00 a bail though. Not good news.

I am willing to take a trip around the state and load up my big trailer if I can find some that is just as good for cheaper.

 

[Ashley]

Well my mom takes care of gettting the hay as she dont like to pay any more then she has to. Needless to say she has yet to find any and we are bring the rest of the horses home in a few weeks. Dont know what she plans to feed them..........I have been trying to feed alfalfa cubs, and beat pulp to them to help cut down on the amount of hay feeding now, but she wont take the time to feed that.

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

Its horrible up here in northern Wisconsin. We didnt get rain for weeks, and whenwe finally did, it was to late for alot of the farmers. Our corn fields look Ok, but alot of it around us grew to about 2 feet and started to husk out. The hay fields up here are nothing compared to what we got off of them last year. We do our own hay and Bob puts up about 3,000-4,000 bales of the square bales for me each year, well, this year he did about 2,500 but we still have a mow left from last year so I will be Ok, plus we do the big round bales so I will be in Ok. Its going to be a tough year for alot of farmers who have the big dairy heard! I know so many people that are just about giving there horses away because they are so afraid of the "winter" hay prices. Cindy (dunpainted) just told me in Florida they are paying $30.00 for a square bale (the 60 to 75# ones!!!) can that be possible????? WOW--sure glad I dont live down there! Corinne

 

[Ginny]

The drought is so scary in the midwest. But here in Florida we have had record rainfalls and have flooded pastures, etc. And square bales of alfalfa are running $10-14 dollars per bale which is what they have been for the last 5-6 years here. But with gas prices going up and the drought in the midwest we are expecting an increase in hay prices here too.

Ginny Long