‘Keeps me up at night’: N.S. horse owners, farmers face hay shortage due to drought

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.”

'Nothing grew back'

On the supply side, Courtney Copeland says in a normal year, she would get two cuts of hay and three of silage, which is enough to supply her regular clients.

“We had no second cut at all. Just, nothing grew back,” said Copeland about this year’s yield.

Though her business usually sells hay year-round, she sold out of her small supply in the summer and has been receiving desperate calls and texts from people in her community asking if she has any hay for their animals.

“It's not a good feeling having to say no, especially to the people that are your friends,” she said.

To make sure some of her friends and clients got the hay they need, she started working the phone to see if she could get an order from elsewhere.

As the co-owner of Bridgetown-based T&C Agriculture, she has contacts in the industry and was able to find a grower from New Brunswick who had some surplus hay.

Copeland says she hopes the 672 square bales arrive before the new year to supply about 15 people and their animals. But she knows this is not enough for everyone in the province who needs it.

Preparing for future droughts

Watters says she recently went to Texas and saw that there, farmers have solid networks in case of droughts to make sure people still have hay.

One thing she noted was massive hay warehouses and more infrastructure to transport the feed.

She thinks a similar approach could help farmers here, especially during extreme weather events like this year’s drought or floodings.

“The logistics of it would probably be a little complicated, but it would be nice if there was some kind of support or, you know, just a better hay network,” she said.

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