Drought Slams Horse Owners, Rescuers As Hay Costs Soar

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-23/drought-slams-horse-owners-rescuers-as-hay-costs-soar.html

Although his 80-acre Indiana Horse Rescue in the state’s southwestern region is in the grip of drought, Tony Caldwell doesn’t have it too bad. He’s close enough to the Ohio River to partly offset the brutally dry summer of 2012.

I spoke with Caldwell and a number of other horse-rescue organizations around the country by telephone this week. The relentlessly hot dry weather, amplified in many areas by wildfire, has been devastating to farmers, ranchers and other horse owners.

“Everybody is using their winter hay now. The pastures are destroyed and they probably won’t recover before winter,” said Caldwell. “The price of hay has doubled, and the availability is down by 75 percent.”

“Our alfalfa hay is really good,” he said, before acknowledging that this year’s harvest still could be only half its usual yield.