Weather causing hay shortage

All of this rain is taking a toll on southern Ontario hay farmers. It’s so wet they can’t bale the hay in their fields. And the large horse farms are worried the price of hay will spike as the supply dwindles.

Beamsville hay farmer Fred Oosterhoff has been watching the forecast closely. And scrambles with the help of his neighbours when there’s a dry window to get his crop off the field: “The showers we’ve been getting are so close together. You can’t get anything done. Now we have showers every 3, 4 or 5 days and it makes it a lot tougher.”

Oosterhoff got his first crop off, but his second is green and fermented. It’s good for his dairy cows, but horses just can’t digest this.

There’s so much rain that farmers in the south end of Niagara have been complaining they have half the hay crop this year compared to last summer.

And that concerns Sharron Allen. She has the “Last Chance Horse and Pony Rescue.” She has 35 horses on her Rebstock Road farm in Crystal Beach. Each horse eats at
least a square of hay a day: “A shortage for me would be a huge problem because if they can’t get enough hay from other hay farmers — I fear the price going up.”

It already costs about 400 dollars a month to feed one horse. She relies entirely on donations to care for these animals: “For an average person with one or two horses, it’s not too bad. But for me being a rescue with 35, I have to look donw the road, like what’s going to happen.”

If the rain keeps falling, Sharron fears the price will start rising. And if it doubles, she doesn’t know how she will pay for it.

“That’s my biggest concern — and you can see it’s raining again today.”

Last Chance Horse and Pony Rescue major supplier lost a lot of hay because of all this rain this summer. And that’s why they fear the price will spike by the winter. If you want to help, you can make a donation through the Last Chance Horse and Pony Rescue website.