Hay Now: Bad Weather Drives Up Costs for Farms...

From Hurricane Irene’s impact on the East Coast to Texas’s worst-ever drought, drastic weather conditions this year have presented unique challenges to farms across the country. Many operations are feeling the pinch in the form of rising hay prices.

 “Our hay prices have at least doubled,” said Danny Shifflett, manager of Lane’s End Texas in Hempstead, about an hour away from Houston in the southeast corner of the state. “I can tell you an $8 bale of alfalfa last year is now costing us $16 to $23. And that’s if you can find it. We’re fortunate that we’ve been dealing with the same supplier for 20 years, so we’re first on his list when it comes to availability.”

   Farms in the Southwest have been affected on two fronts. Hay supply is down, and with demand steady, prices are up. Meanwhile, the hot, dry weather has turned typically fecund pastures to arid grassland, reducing the amount of forage horses can take from their paddocks.   “We’ve been feeding hay since the end of May,” said Shifflett. “In prior years, we never fed hay during the summer. We used to have to cut down on grain feeding because our pastures were in such good shape and the horses would pack on so much weight. Now we’re feeding hay and grain just to maintain them. We’re feeding roughly 60 resident mares--which is down about 50% from a few years ago--and, with our pastures depleted the way they are, we’re feeding anywhere from $600 to $800 a day in hay alone.” In Kentucky, an exceptionally wet spring delayed the first hay cutting, while some areas in the upper mid-western portion of the country that supply hay for local farms suffered record flooding.

 “It’s a problem--and it’s always a problem finding good quality hay,” said Jim Robinson, who with his wife Pam owns and operates Brandywine Farm in Paris, Kentucky. “In the past four months, prices have gone up about 30-40%, and they’re saying they might go up a lot more.” He added, “We’ve always fed 100% alfalfa, and I don’t know if we’d do this or not, but we might have to go to a different type of hay and increase the protein in our feed. And feed prices have got up a bit, too, because corn prices have risen some.”  

In the Northeast, from New York and into Ontario, bouts of extreme rain in the spring and summer--including a deluge from Hurricane Irene in August--have affected the harvest.   

 “We’re anticipating prices rising through the winter,” said Dan Hayden, general manger of Vinery New York. “It’s not too bad right now, we’re probably about $20 a ton more expensive than last year.” That’s still about an 8% jump, and Hayden said even modest increases like that can wreak havoc on a farm’s budget.    "The bottom line on a farm is hay, straw, feed and payroll, so any time any of them go up, it's going to affect the farm in a negative way,” said Hayden. “People think that when you're charging $30-$35 a day that you're making money, but you're not. You're just paying the bills.”  

The men agree that the hardest part of the rising hay prices is trying to avoid passing on the increased costs to horse owners, who are already struggling in tough financial times.   

“It’s a dilemma, believe me,” said Shifflett, who added that Lane’s End has chosen to not raise the day rate for its 60 or so resident mares. “But we’re going to have to deal with those decisions. When we get from 200 to 250 mares to breed in the winter, you have to try to absorb the loss or transfer for the costs. You obviously have to do right by the horses and keep them in the best shape as possible.”  

The extreme weather has been especially hard on equine sanctuaries, which rely not on customers paying a day rate, but on donations from supporters. The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) provides funding for and helps run a number of equine retirement facilities, and is in the unique position of having satellite farms across the eastern half of the U.S.--from Vermont to Oklahoma. Because of its scope, the TRF is perhaps feeling the impact more acutely than others. In a typical year, TRF farms in one region might struggle with weather-related issues while those in another region fare better.  

 “But this year, there really hasn’t been one place in the country that hasn’t been affected in some way,” said TRF Executive Director of External Affairs Diana Pikulski. “For us, it’s a big-budget increase going into the winter.”   

An increase of some 40%, Pikulski reckoned. “A large square bale of timothy alfalfa went from $7 a bale to close to $10,” she said.  

The TRF, whose fund-raising efforts have already been hampered in recent years by the economy, has been asking donors for help, but with mixed results.    

“Out in Oklahoma, especially, where the majority of our permanent retirees are, we’ve launched a special campaign,” said TRF Annual Fund Director Lisa Craig. “There’s been a little help that’s come in, but one thing that we’re hearing from a lot of foundations that typically support us is that their money for the year is already committed. That’s one of the big challenges this late in the year. The money’s just not there to donate. So we’re between a rock and hard place now.”  

It’s a place that many farms are finding themself in. -Lucas Marquardt