With drought, fires, and reduced acreage devoted to growing hay in some areas, many horse owners and rescue groups are already cutting into their winter supply of hay to feed their horses. In some areas, availability is down as much as 75 percent and the cost has doubled.
Feeding horses as hay supply dwindles
Many horse owners and rescue groups are already cutting into their winter supply of hay to feed their horses.
Strong demand by buyers fearing that hay won’t be available later in the season due to this year’s drought partly explains the situation. People who ordinarily have their own pastures or farms where they can grow much of their feed, often don't need to purchase hay until much later in the year. But this year is different and many horse owners and rescue groups are concerned about having enough feed for their animals this winter.
In many areas, hay producers haven't been able to harvest their usual crop of alfalfa this year. Unusual weather patterns have alternatley flooded or scorched first plantings and pushed back harvesting the first cutting. Texas wildfires burned hundred of acres of pastureland, forcing livestock owners to purchase forage. A lot of that alfalfa will come from Colorado, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada.
According to reports, because of fuel costs it is cheaper to ship a ton of alfalfa to China than to truck hay from Texas to central California.The reason for that lies in the amount of shipping containers that are here in the U.S. waiting to be shipped back. Alfalfa is the only U.S. Hay product allowed to be shipped to China and last year, 95,000 tons of hay were shipped to China.
Other countries also import hay from the U.S.for various reasons. The Middle East because of their lack of water resources and Japan because of their lack of space. All of this adds up to one thing for hay buyers- throughout the USA.
In some cases, the Humane Society has stepped in to save horses caught in dire straits because of fires. In July, the Ash Creek fire in southeast Montana, consumed almost 200,000 acres, left 200 horses without access to food. The HSUS immediately went to the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation with 35,100 pounds of hay to feed horses. Since the fire struck, tribal members do not have adequate grazing land.
In addition to the hay donation, HSUS staff has provided food and water to many companion animals left behind during fire evacuations. Fourteen tons of hay was also delivered to a horse owner in Fairview, Utah, whose grazing lands were burned by the Wood Hollow fire in Sanpete County.
In many states, hay growers sold any hay left over from previous years very early in the season and have not been able to resupply their stocks of various varieties of hay.
In addition, in cases where horse owners are turning to out-of-state sources to purchase hay, they are being warned to make sure they are not importing noxious or invasive weeds, or potentially injurious herbicide residues when hauling in hay from other areas this year, according to Mike Moechnig and Roger Gates, South Dakota State University Extension weed and rangeland specialist.