‘Keeps me up at night’: N.S. horse owners, farmers face hay shortage due to drought
CBC
A horse owner near Stewiacke, N.S., says the current shortage of hay in the province is putting pressure on her financially.
Like other farmers and horse owners in the province, Kaila Watters usually gets hay locally.
But due to this year's drought, she has ordered hay from Alberta and Quebec, and paying for transportation is making it more costly to feed her animals, which include more than 30 horses, 12 alpacas and two sheep.
Watters knows people who are thinking of selling their animals to get by, and while she does not have to do so yet, the idea alone is adding stress.
“It is a concern and it's something that keeps me up at night,” Watters said. “It's definitely something that's on my mind all the time — if we're going to have enough.”
She says she is paying between $11.50 and $12.70 per compressed hay bale now, whereas before she could get small hay squares locally for $6 or $8 for top quality. And those prices don’t include the cost of fuel and the off-loading fees, which she now has to pay.
Watters, who owns Meadow Brook Stables, adds that to feed all her animals, she usually gets more than 350 large squares of hay, along with more than 50 round bales and 500 small squares, which means it quickly adds up.
Talking to neighbours who also have this issue, Watters has learned that, like her, many farmers had to start feeding their hay early, adding to the demand.
“Our pastures didn't grow like they normally would. So we had to start supplementing and feeding hay much earlier than we normally planned,” she said. “We actually had to start feeding hay two months prior to what we normally would have. So of course you're going through your hay faster.”
Another farmer, Crystal Joyce Manning, had to go a different route.
Her business has been struggling since the fall, and knowing how hay prices work, she says she was forced to downsize before the winter came, or she would have been stuck with animals she could not feed.
"It's unreal. I heard somebody paying $18 for a square bale," she said. "I'm not that old. I'm 54. I remember paying, you know, 75 cents in the field for a bale of hay," she said.
The co-owner of Evangeline Trail Rides in Stanley sold many of her horses and had to put one down due to old age, bringing her stable from 40 saddle horses in October to 27. She also went from 100 beef cattle to around 75.
Manning says this was extremely hard for her because she loves her animals.
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