Some Horses Starving as Hay Prices Soar
The thing is it isn't just about owners not being able to afford hay. There simply isn't any hay to purchase. Period.
Almost every day when I am outside working someone stops and asks if I have any hay they can purchase or know of anyone who does. You can't buy it no matter how much money you have if it isn't there to buy and if you don't have enough pasturage to run the animals what are you going to do?
And seriously it isn't there.
We have been cutting and baling fields that we have never bothered with before due to poor quality just to feed my mother's retired herd of nags through the Winter. Not a soul around here has any hay to buy and most herd are on minimum rations. Cattle looking for better forage was the reason I got the 1AM surprise visit from the Highway Patrolman a few weeks back.
I have already heard a report or two of abandoned stock that wouldn't sell and we have not even made it halfway through November yet.
For some creatures the long, cold, hungry Winter has already struck and when it begins to effect the valuable livestock we humans are closer to that cliff than most even want to know about.
Stock up my friends.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Once the flood of cheap meat ends due to the culling of herds and flocks, the American diet will look a lot like a third world country.
ReplyDeleteK - Yes it will lol. Even the price of sheep on the hoof is down big time right now. Everyone is dumping what stock they can.
DeleteRecently while HK and I were driving across country, we met a couple in Montana that were heading south with a load of hay. They were from Canada, and heading down to Colorado. The man told me a year or so ago he couldn't get rid of his hay, and this year buyers are making it worth his while to drive from Canada. I was pretty darned surprised that the profit margin existed - in a load of hay pulled by a Dooley - sufficient to drive all that way, cover expenses, and be worth the drive.
ReplyDeleteKerodin
III
Kerodin - Not but a few years ago they were having that drought down in Texas (as always) and we had a bumper year up here for hay. I had an entire extra barn stuffed to the gills with round bales to the point I even pushed some boards out so it was actually bulging. Anyway a guy came by with a flat bed and would buy all I would sell him and he was taking down there and making a huge profit.
DeleteOn the other hand we have had to buy some from up North ourselves a few times over the years due to my mother old nag rescue efforts. So yes they can make some profit off of it.
SW Arizona has hay stockpiled with for sale signs. Hay is gold this year. We are paying an extra $100 a month for the hay where we board. Lots of people are not going to be able to pay the price to get it. I have to look at it as a sign of the times and what is ahead of us. Many write about what will have value in the days to come. At this time, due to the drought, and most likely in the future, due to most horses being an expensive hobby, the cost of keeping them will continue to go up. Hay is one of the tangible items whose value is based on it's availability. Hay ground has disappeared dramatically with the use of corn for ethanol. It really was only a matter of time before this happened.
ReplyDeleteHorse owners have some tough choices to make. The market for horses has been extremely soft, I can't believe people kept breeding. Now we have a soft market and no hay. I still see people that are hanging on with pastures full of poorly conformed, bad tempered and unbroke horses. What a shame for the horses. Around here, a good working ranch horse has not gone down in value but the breeders have made some adjustments to their programs.
Yes, I'm hard on horse owners. So is the Spanish School of Riding, where the trainers eat the ones they screw up on.
I don't see my previous post, and I hope this isn't a repeat. But suffice it to say, I'm of the opinion that it is far better for the horse to be put out of it's misery if the owner can't feed it or find a new home for it. In Europe they eat horse and my own horse eating, raised as a Brat in Germany says it's the best meat he's ever had. I love my horse as much as anyone, and she gets the royal treatment, but I'd shoot her and eat her, before I let her starve. Putting on in the landfill costs money that many don't have. I have the money AT THIS TIME, but nothing says those pixels on the screen (due to forced automatic deposit--we get it out as fast we we can, it's called paying bills) will always be there. What does one do in that situation? I don't own a backhoe.
Let the flames begin.
sidetracksusie
Old eyes, sorry--
Deletethat Brat in Germany was my "nephew" and I'm not putting on in the landfill, I'm putting "one" in the landfill.
apologies tendered, dear reader
sidetracksusie
Sidetracksusie - I agree with you as well. I am hard on horse owners but in my own defense I have had to live with the wasted effort and money of keeping horses first hand since i was born. MY mother has turned me off of horses so bad over the years. she now has six useless ancient horses she takes care of and that number is down from what she had along with her sheep that she breeds and gives away as long as people promise not to butcher them.
DeleteIf things get really tough, well I got some news for her I won't hesitate. Until then well her hobby takes up all my hay and pasturage and most of my barn space but I don't think that arrangement is going to viable for her much longer.
There's hay here, but the price is dear. I don't run large animals, and I'm thinking next year of offering the neighbor who does, all the hay she can get from my pasture, in exchange for the use of her larger tractor on some other projects around here. I don't have the time or the equipment, but she's retired and has both. I believe we'll be seeing more bartering/trading going on as the economy continues its downward spiral.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I love horses, I'm not averse to eating them if I can't feed them, either.
Xa Lynn - Me either lol. I have tried it before when I was living in El Paso but I was over in Juarez when I did it of course.
DeletePart of the deal when we paid this place off was that my mother retained control of the pasturage and hay fields and barn (the was actually divided up) so I don't really have control over what is done with it right now and I don't plan on going back on my word unless it is a pure survival situation. Of course I did put a survival clause in the agreement lol.
Oh ya. And there is hay here as well but no one selling it at all for the most part. Many are waiting to see because if we have a mild Winter like last year we will continue to get some fodder growth all year. So far the hardy grasses are still growing around here.
ReplyDeleteThe hay farmers in my neighborhood look to be having a great growing year. Maybe California does have something to offer after all.
ReplyDeleteStuck in CA. - LOL maybe. Actually California has a lot to offer as long as the LIbs will let you offer it :)
DeleteMy guess is they won;t allow hay to be baled before it is inspected for quality :)
northeast mississippi, chickasaw county (horse nation) has had a bountiful year in everything but jobs. plenty of hay...more than enough hay, and not overpriced at this time..and the ones growing, cutting and baling it need the money. meat on the other hand is very expensive here and prices increasing fast. no one is buying animals.
ReplyDeleteAnon - Yes Ol Miss seemed to miss out on the drought from what I read from (I assume) your comments here. You lucky stiffs :)
DeleteSeen allot of semis loaded down with hay on the interstate this year. More than usual. I haven't heard anyone needing hay here in southern Illinois yet.
ReplyDeleteCorey - Well it is early yet. Like I mentioned no one has been telling me their animals are starving here yet just that no one will sell and what is being sold is going for top dollar. The west will get hit harder than we will first I suspect.
DeletePP:
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about your comment and wrote this to you over at the AEC website:
There is absolutely NO NEED to engage in violence or insurrection.
I know your heart is in the right place and I know that you agree with me that there is only ONE country with ONE Constitution.
We must protect it. That cannot be done by harming it.
If people of our sort, and there are millions of us, people that love our country and our heritage and that work hard and are personally responsible for ourselves AND demand the personal freedoms that go along with personal responsibility... if such people cooperated we could bring down the dead beats, criminals, socialists, and other domestic enemies of the Constitution quite easily and without resorting to insurrection and violence:
A general strike of the PRODUCTIVE class - and not one that goosed the economy by preparing for it by bringing spending and demand forward. A REAL strike... say 1 week. Don't move your car. Do not buy ANYTHING. Do not go to work. Eat the left overs in the fridge, and the cans at the back of the pantry, turned the lights and heat off... I am talking a production AND consumption strike... do NOTHING that helps the slave trade - read the great works on liberty, work around the house with the tools and supplies you have, clean out the attack or basement, but do NOT buy anything during the strike, do not produce during the strike, do not eat out, do not go to a movie, do not turn on your TV. Turn off the heat, the electric, don't run the water - hell, don't take a freaking bath. SIT in the dark with your winter clothes on and giggle to yourself...
Because a SINGLE WEEK of that would bring the government to its knees. 2 weeks and the enemies of the Constitution would be dead.
i so agree with you about a week or two of pure striking in consuming and producing...big corporations do this all the time to keep their customers begging for more and to keep their employees on their knees begging for a decent wage etc...only problem is actually getting enough folks inclined to do this at the same time and same geographic area so that it made a bump instead of blip. i have conversed these very ideas with others in my community and so far i have found no one willing to make the sacrifice-even for such a short time... several years ago my neighbor hood (county rd) wanted to get paved..we were getting sick from the dust and our vehicles were being damaged badly..finall after a good rainy spell, we all took one day off from everything and drove our vehicles to town. we all parked in and around the courthouse square/business section of town with signs on our car windows that said "if you like the look of our cars then come live at county rd 29. we left our cars there for two days, removing them only at night. within two weeks of that we got a paved road! this was after three years of petitions, complaints, log journals, meetings with supervisors and polititians etc.. to think, all it really took was getting the attention of some very important people and hitting them where it hurt...pockets.
DeleteGreg - Thanks for stopping by!!! I understand your point I just don't think enough people will do it to make any difference at this point. I am not telling anyone to go out and start shooting but I believe the shooting will start and be the final solution no matter what we do to try and stop it.
DeleteI saw way too many people celebrating the "End of the WHite Male" this last election. I have come to the conclusion that they really want to see the end of us and everything associated with us which includes family, property, the Constitution and everything else.
Your solution is the only one that might work to stop the cleansing I see in their words and eyes so I would be willing to give it a try none-the-less.
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ReplyDelete